“Electrifying” – Jazz Journal

“This is very, very special” – Jazz FM

If there is another way – for this inspiringly unique mix of musical voices – then it lies beyond easy categorisation. While elements of jazz, folk and soul coalesce here, The Other Way have a chemistry that’s more than the sum of its parts.

The band is led by trumpet player and composer Rowan Porteous, who has combined music with a career in nature conservation. An established voice on the south west music scene,  when not saving creatures from extinction, Porteous has been seen performing with Highlife Jazz fusion band Baraka and in Gifford’s Circus, among many others.

The Other Way knits these interests together, creating a cocktail of lyrical song writing and improvisation, where sounds of birds and animals wail against a deep, paired back groove.  Sampled sounds of birds and other animals are part of the instrumentation, wailing against a deep, paired back groove, provided by Emma Holbrook on drums and Guillaume Ottaviani on bass.

After receiving Arts Council development funding, the band released their debut album ‘Learning to Be’ in 2024, and have performed to rapt Audiences around the South West, including Cheltenham Jazz Festival, as well as being playlisted on Jazz FM and receiving great reviews in Jazzwise and Jazz Journal among others.