Hilary Jeffery

Hilary Jeffery is a composer, arranger, teacher, and multi-instrumentalist, born in suburban England in 1971, though he is currently based in Berlin. The material on Green Prism consists of arrangements of music written by Keith Tippett in the latter part of his career, mostly drawn from a suite titled “Winter’s Welcome” in 2018, originally performed by the brass ensemble Zinc and Copper in Berlin in February 2019, although Tippett was unable to attend the performance due to poor health, even a year and a half before his untimely passing in July of 2020. Jeffery decided at that point to record everything over again, starting with multi-tracked brass recordings he had made beginning in 2021; by 2024 he had enlisted Paul Dunmall (tenor and soprano saxes), Julie Tippetts (Keith’s widow, contributing vocals and lyrics), and Eleni Poulou (synthesizer and electronics, whom Jeffery had been working with in Berlin), and the recordings began to take shape, adding additional contributions by Tobias Delius (tenor sax and clarinet) and Poulou in 2025, before the final mix and mastering later that year. The eight pieces that comprise Green Prism are at once powerful and gentle, beautiful and sublime. Having both Tippetts and Dunmall involved, both from Keith Tippett’s inner circle, only underscores the reality that Jeffery’s arrangements are true to what the composer would have wanted for his work. Julie’s voice adds an element of grace and beaty to the arrangements that complement Jeffery’s massed choirs of brass (trumpets, trombones, euphonium, tuba), with the saxophones and clarinet (as well as Julie’s wordless vocalizations) providing a dreamlike quality to the arrangements. Every track is essential, and should be listened to as a complete suite; I wouldn’t want to pick and choose any favorites, although “Green Prism Parthers” is a piece with a most interesting trajectory that brings the overarching jazz idiom of the suite very close to classical territory. All taken, Green Prism is a most engaging and immersive suite of music that should be experienced by all. – Peter Thelen, EXPOSÉ http://expose.org/index.php/articles/display/hilary-jeffery-green-prism-music-by-keith-tippett-3.html

It’s a measure of how esteemed Keith Tippett is (and was) that since his death in 2020, tributes to the man and his music continue the be released on an almost monthly basis.

British-born, Berlin-resident trombonist Hilary Jeffery’s new recording is the latest of these, and is rather different. Rather than focusing on Tippett’s primary means of composition and expression – the piano – it centres around brass (Jeffrey) and reeds (Paul Dunmall on soprano and tenor sax and Tobias Delius on clarinet and tenor), as well as the synth textures and electronics of Eleni Poulou; heft and authenticity is provided by Julie Tippetts’ singing – she also wrote the lyrics.

Green Prism draws on compositions and commissions from the later part of Tippett’s career; the fact that the late pianist and his wife were friends and mentors to the young Jeffery means that the trombonist has a deep love for, and understanding of, Tippett’s music; and interestingly, one doesn’t necessarily need to be familiar with that music to enjoy this record – it works on its own terms.

Beautifully recorded, there’s a huge, cinematic quality to Green Prism, and a brilliant use space, silence and texture. Sometimes ominous and mournful (‘Green Prism Parthers’, ‘The Sigh’), sometimes celebratory (‘Dancing’), occasionally discombobulating (‘Thoughts’), this album is both absorbing, revealing new layers with each listen; but also a powerful argument – as if any were needed – for Tippett to join those other celebrated and recently-passed giants, Mike Westbrook and Carla Bley. An outstanding tribute to a great musician. The legacy lives on! – Kevin Whitlock, UK JAZZ NEWS https://ukjazznews.com/hilary-jeffery-green-prism/

Like thick fog in a country graveyard, an almost unbearable sadness hangs over this elegiac tribute to the improvising pianist and composer Keith Tippett, who died in 2020 aged 72. Its origins lie in Tippett’s final commissioned work Winter’s Welcome, which he wrote in 2018 at the invitation of former student Hilary Jeffrey for the Berlin based brass ensemble Zinc & Copper and which premiered the following year.

Due to his declining health, Tippett was never able to hear the suite performed live so, in an act of closure, Jeffrey has now arranged the work for multitracked quintet, calling on collaborators with strong links to the composer. Tippett’s widow Julie Tippetts provides vocals and Paul Dunmall, who worked with Tippett in the volcanic improvising quartet Mujician from 1988-2010, plays reeds. Further reeds are supplied by Tobias Delius, Jeffrey plays brass and Eleni Poulou adds synth.

Many of Tippett’s melodic motifs from across his long career surface throughout, acting as springboards to radically reimagined new creations. “Thoughts” turns Tippett’s early jazz rock classic “Thoughts To Geoff” into a puttering brass band with woozy, drunken sax weeping over the top. “A Song About Gloves” begins as a sombre rendition of Tippett’s “A Song”, with mournful horns like the softly lowing accompaniment to a village church service, joined by Dunmall – always a heartbreakingly sincere player – weaving through the gloom on tenor saxophone, and Julie Tippetts segueing into a song that’s ostensibly about clothing, communicating a sighing sense of loss through lines such as “My old coat wears thin”.

Elsewhere, that grief is startlingly explicit. “One Year On” has Tippetts singing “My eyes are full of tears, one year on” over funereal horns. Fittingly, the suite closes with “The Sigh”, said to be the last piece Tippett composed before his death. Not an easy listen, but one imbued with overwhelmingly real human emotion. – Daniel Spicer, WIRE

 

KEITH TIPPETT // HILARY JEFFERY / JULIE TIPPETTS / PAUL DUNMALL / TOBIAS DELIUS / ELENI POULPOU – Green Prism (Discus 197CD; UK) Featuring Julie Tippetts on vocals & lyrics, Paul Dunmall & Tobias Delius on tenor saxes & assorted reeds, Hilary Jeffrey on brass & arrangements and Eleni Poulou on synth. Many of you know that Keith Tippett was the favorite pianist of my former partner Manny, myself and many other serious listeners that read the DMG newsletter. After recording his first three albums (1969-1971), Mr. Tippett went onto to become one of the finest improvising pianists alive. Mr. Tippett composed all or most of the songs from those first three albums as well as the one Mujician large ensemble release from 2000 (called ‘The Bristol Concert’) and two other large ensemble discs: ‘Frames’ (Ogun – 1978) and ‘First Weaving’ (2007). Otherwise his vast catalogue of recordings are mostly freely improvised. Mainly a trombonist, Hilary Jeffery, played in Tippett’s Tapestry Orchestra (at Victo in 2002) and collaborated with Mr. Tippett to perform his piece, “Winter’s Welcome” which premiered in Berlin in 2019. Sadly, Keith Tippett passed away in 2020. Mr. Jeffery decided to do a tribute to Mr. Tippett by rearranging his music and giving the great Julie Tippetts a chance to sing and write lyrics from six of the eight tracks here. He chose a small stellar line-up with longtime Mujician sax colossus Paul Dunmall plus ICP saxist Tobias Delius and a keyboardist/synth player named Eleni Poulou. Ms. Poulou was a longtime member of The Fall and was married to the Fall’s lead singer Mark E. Smith.

A good deal of time and preparation went into making this disc. The personnel and instrumentation changes on each piece. Things begin with “A Song About Gloves”, which features a wave of solemn, expanding brass, Paul Dunmall’s tenor and Ms. Tippett’s haunting voice, together in rich harmonies. Mr. Jeffery has a way of layering several different brass instruments in a rich tapestry with Mr. Dunmall soloing righteously on top. After the release of two solo albums in the early 1070 & a Brian Auger & the Trinity reunion, Ms. Tippetts pretty much gave up singing lyrics for several decades. Since she started collaborating with Martin Archer in 2009, Ms. Tippetts is back to writing lyrics and singing in her older style (late 1960′), when she was in the original Trinity band with Mr. Auger. She has long had an extraordinary, singular and enticing voice, whether singing lyrics or improvising. “Dancing” features tenor & soprano saxes, several trombones and Julie’s enchanting voice. “Green Prism Parthers” features Mr. Delius on clarinet, Mr. Jeffery on assorted brass and Ms. Poulou on synth. The music is hushed and quite haunting. Although Ms. Tippetts doesn’t sing in this piece, the dense harmonies of the other three musicians is like an older style chorus only style. Ms. Poulou adds some music box sounds to the end of this piece. Ms. Tippett’s soulful, charming voice is featured on “In Breath”, with several layers of lush brass as a cushion for her voice. “Thoughts” is a superb rendition of a song from the ‘Dedicated to you But…” album called “Thoughts to Geoff”. The melody is rich and anyone who has heard that Tippett album from 1970 must admit that once you hear that song, you will never forget it. Mr/ Delius tenor sax is featured here with layers of brass, two melodicas, clarinet & tenor sax, supporting Julie’s delightful voice. The lyrics to most of these pieces reflect the sadness that Ms. Tippetts feels for the loss of her lifelong husband and soulmate. A superb disc, through and through. – Bruce Lee Gallanter, DOWNTOWN MUSIC GALLERY NYC

Starting with “Winter’s Welcome,” Keith Tippett’s last suite, premiered by Zinc and Copper in 2019, Hilary Jeffery arranged Green Prism (DISCUS 197) using multi-tracked brass and computer. As ‘Keith Music,’ it is multifaceted in songs with his widow, Julie Tippetts: ‘A Song About Gloves’ and ‘In Breath,’ performed as a trio with Paul Dunmall on tenor sax. ‘Green Prism Parthers’ is a poignantly melancholic instrumental trio with Tobias Delius on clarinet and Eleni Poulou on synth and music box. ‘Dancing’ is performed as a quartet with Dunmall on soprano sax and Delius again on tenor sax. Dunmall is a longtime collaborator not only in Mujician and their respective octets. And conversely, the Tippetts and Dunmall represent pivotal experiences for Jeffery, who here must be understood as a brass ensemble. This brass band music is underpinned by a cornucopia of emotions, with elegiac shadows and funeral horn calls right from the start. When Julie T. intones her poetry, don’t even ask. The fact that her voice can also dance so vibrantly to the staccato of the brass instruments infuses the solemn tone with what Heidegger called ‘existential joy’. In ‘Thought’, they are a quintet, contrasting the oppressive memories and deep feelings with these catchy ‘thoughts’, mixed with a pulsating 1-2-3-4 rhythm, three melodicas, and playful vocals. ‘Green Prism – The Rock’ follows as a quartet, but with Poulou, as an extraordinary art song, almost an orchestral piece. In ‘One Year On’, Tippetts stands alone before Jeffery’s dark wall of brass after the year of mourning has passed. And ‘The Sigh’, Keith’s last ballad, a wordless rendition of “I love you Julie,” is played by Jeffery alone on trombones. – Rigobert Dittmann, BAD ALCHEMY

God knows, 2020 was a year of sorrow for so many people. If only we really knew. How can any of us know, have knowledge of the godhead, articulate the truth of it? Too many pretenders like to come forward and tell us their secrets.

Like most of his friends, for me, Keith Tippett’s death wasn’t easy, still isn’t. As for Julie, then, now and ever more, that huge passing was truth laid bare in all it’s hard, hard uncompromising detail; a stark living to die with finality. Of course, what any Unlonely Raindancer has to endure is basically the way of things. Martin Phillip’s sleeve notes to Green Prism quotes ‘the calm resignation’ of the poet Edward Thomas: The unfathomable deep/Forest where all must lose/Their way. For today, maybe that’s as close as any secret insight gets; the losing of the Tao.

These days I refuse to write for anyone other than myself. I don’t assume I know the minds of other men and women. What I can say is Paul Dunmall’s new Discus album is titled Afraid To Speak, that maybe so. Yet Hilary Jeffery’s take on Keith’s Green Prism, allows Paul’s saxophones to provide a strong grip on reality. His playing folds out of the score with such resilience and beauty it can only come from one who has braved the unfathomable.

I now live a stone’s throw from Dartington, where Hilary Jeffrey first encountered Keith Tippett’s summer school sessions. These days the place contains less febrile creativity, nevertheless it still holds something of a Green Prism quality. Like the gardens, these two ‘takes’ on the multifaceted music are an all-angular, pulsing of nature and nurturing. Julie Tippetts’ voicings double meaning in The Rock with a secure and solidifying maturity. This isn’t some ethereal chanteuse warbling spells; instead we’re fused into the dark soul of the bewitched, literally a Blueprint of experience at the rockface. It longs for nothing… Repeat, it longs for nothing… lists sleep, but longs for nothing, only to segue into One Year On, an incredibly painful song of absolutely nothing else but longing for past love.
Green Prism is a sharply drawn journey, albeit that the personnel is restricted to trios and duos, plus a quartet and a quintet (the superb Thoughts based on the theme of one of Keith’s greatest hits, Thoughts To Geoff.)

Hilary Jeffrey has resisted the temptation to put a piano in the mix. Personally, Keith Tippett avoided electricity. I can’t help thinking though, he would have approved of Eleni Poulou’s judicious use of synthesizer on three of these tracks. Wisely, Mr Jeffery has kept the arrangements sparsely spontaneous, almost hollow and very, very musical.

There never was any pretence about Keith Tippett’s intentions and Hilary Jeffrey’s curve on Green Prism is such a satisfying tribute to the sensitivity of these scorings. Ah Keith, love yer Danny Boy! – Steve Day, May 2026 

Green Prism (what a lovely name for an album – or anything else, fo that matter) is an album of music by the late, Bristol-based musician-composer, Keith Tippett, (re)arranged by Hilary Jeffery, and with lyrics / vocals by his wife, Julie Tippetts. Hilary met Keith at Dartington College of Arts when he was studying there and attended one of KT’s Jazz workshops. Keith became a friend and a mentor (as he did to many others – his life was as dedicated to encouraging and supporting young musicians as it was to making music; he was a great social leveller who believed in open, non-elitist access to all genres of music). Some of this album was recorded on (or around) 23rd August, 2024: I know this because I was in the very same Bristol studio recording with Hilary, Eleni and Tom Bugs the day after.

It blew my mind then (and still does) that these guys were recording with Julie Tippetts there the day before! Julie Tippetts, man! I flash back to Teenage Me, pulling a copy of Septober Energy by Centipede out of a record-store rack, recognising names like Roberts Wyatt and Fripp, Elton Dean, Gary Windo, etc on the sleeve, and thinking: What the Hell is that? A vinyl copy of The Keith Tippett Group’s Dedicated To You, But You Weren’t Listening is sat tantalisingly near me at the front of a pile of records that I can’t quite reach ‘cos it’s stuck behind another pile of… stuff. I can see it as I type this, about 6 feet away from me. Life’s strange little circles, huh?

Hilary and Eleni – like Keith and Julie – walk the same wondrous and magical creative path, forging multi-national links, building cross-discipline creative networks, encouraging people, sparking ideas and events; making wonderful things happen. I’m as grateful to them for their kindness and inspiration as Hilary is / was to Keith. The music on this album is (mostly) taken from the later part of Keith’s creative life: it’s gorgeous, touching, evocative, personal; solemn and soulful, yet also mischievous and playful.

Keith Tippett is no longer with us. But, yeah, he still is. – Kek W, TALES FROM THE HAUNTED CINEMA https://humane-debris-ed6dfb.beehiiv.com/p/023-tales-from-the-haunted-cinema 

The concept for ‘Green Prism’ originated from a commission Keith Tippett received to compose for the brass ensemble Zinc & Copper. It turned out to be his final work; he passed away before he could hear the finished result, and the piece nearly faded into obscurity. Hilary Jeffery, who had studied under him, picked up the project, created new arrangements, and—through several stages of development—crafted a layered final result.

The title alludes to Jeffery’s approach: he dissected the material and gave vocalist Julie Tippetts—alongside musicians Tobias Delius, Paul Dunmall, and Eleni Poulou—free rein to improvise. The recordings took place between 2021 and 2025. Respect for Keith Tippett’s original vision was paramount from the very beginning.

Julie Tippetts’ voice lies at the heart of the work. Other characteristic features include expansive soundscapes interwoven with interventions from saxophones and clarinet. Through his use of collage techniques, Jeffery occasionally makes the horn section sound like a full-fledged organ, yet the composition never feels overblown or chaotic. Instead, the listener enjoys a meditative experience, particularly when the vocals are enveloped in a velvety cocoon.

Ingenious, too, are the more playful flourishes—such as the staccato rhythm of the brass and Tippetts’ whimsical vocal touches in ‘Dancing’. At times, the mood shifts into darker territory, punctuated by deliberate silences (as in ‘Green Prism Partners’). Ultimately, however, the music remains true to Keith Tippett’s signature style, incorporating links to his past—including spiritual references and passages. – Georges Tonla Briquet, JAZZ’HALO https://www.jazzhalo.be/reviews/cdlpk7-reviews/h/hilary-jeffery-green-prism/

 

The initial impetus for Green Prism came from composer Hilary Jeffery asking the late Keith Tippett to compose some music for Berlin-based group Zinc & Copper. This was originally premiered in Berlin in 2019, but unfortunately Keith was too ill to attend and sadly died soon after.

In a form of tribute, Hilary took some of the pieces that Keith wrote and re-imagined them for a brass ensemble. Enlisting help from Paul Dunmall and Tobias Delius on saxophones and Eleni Poulou on synths and melodica, he prepared a selection that would take these original pieces on an unexpected journey and with Julie Tippetts adding voice and words as the finishing touch, Green Prism was born.

It is an impressive feat that Hilary has managed, tracking all the brass sections and the opening track sets a mournful tone, the slow, sad creep of the brass revisiting Keith’s “A Song” and allowing Paul’s sax to inject some contrasting energy into the gloaming. It skips through the brass motion, highlighting the possibilities and introducing Julie’s paean to a pair of gloves. It is amazing what she can do with the simplest of themes, her voice strong and full of character, mellowing as time goes on but still sounding like no-one else. The duet of sax and voice against the ranks of brass are part of this album’s charms, seeming unlikely but working so well.

There is something forceful and insistent about the brass, an immutability that gives a strong backdrop to Julie’s vocal freedom, but playfully; one may follow the other, breaking the spell a little and showing another side to the sternness of the instrumentation. A skitter of playful sax blasts across “Dancing”, whinnying like the horses mentioned in the poem, and you can see them wheeling and bucking in a frost covered field as the sun starts to rise. This is very much pastoral autumnal music which at times, as on “Green Prism Parthers” conveys a level of tension, a slow awakening that sees clarinet poking its head up carefully, its warm tone inhabiting the silent spaces that loom large and frame the recurring motifs.

Julie’s voice is really one in which to lose yourself, the words simple yet carrying such resonance. The backing, as on “In Breath”, is subtle yet gradually expanding, with the pace so slow that every nuance is magnified, while “Thoughts” is much more buoyant, the brass tempo strident and the sax more skittish and excitable. Hilary and Eleni both play melodica which, along with some fizzing electronics, bring a real change in atmosphere. This playful wash of sound is a real antithesis to what has come before, but also stands as break before the more sombre passages to follow.

Green Prism — The Rock” is another slow-moving piece, with scattered woodland echoes that react against the strength of the brass stabs and bass echoing trombone. Julie’s voice works the middle ground, the long considered passages and varying sounds reflected beautifully in the up-close recording that highlights every breath and movement in the quieter passages. Penultimate track “One Year On” is a powerful love letter from Julie to Keith, the mournful brass lending emotional support. Closer “The Sigh”, which was apparently the last piece Keith wrote as a love letter to Julie, is a perfect riposte, stripping everything else away leaving a brief brass passage that searches for light and finds it in the ascending notes.

If you are a fan of Keith Tippett then this is essential, but it is very much Hilary’s album. Recording the brass and tracking it has taken place over a number of years and is clearly a labour of love; but to turn it into something which is so different from the source material, for it to have its own presence is really impressive. Assistance from the guests was necessary and the whole is a work that gives more up with each listen.– Mr Olivetti, FREQ https://freq.org.uk/reviews/hilary-jeffery-green/