Elliot Galvin in Conversation | Improvisation, Imagination, and the Art of Listening
In this filmed interview for The Spin Jazz Club, pianist, improviser and composer Elliot Galvin reflects on the ideas, experiences and curiosities that continue to shape his music. Sitting down together away from the bandstand, our conversation moves less through biography and more through thought, touching on improvisation, collaboration, genre, and the wider cultural forces that inform creative work today.
Galvin describes his musical language as something constantly evolving: a response not only to musical influences, but to life itself. Rather than defining his work by a single style or genre, he speaks about listening widely and allowing ideas from different sound-worlds, cultures and experiences to filter naturally into his music. The result, as he puts it, is an eclectic practice that resists being pinned down, music that reflects curiosity rather than categorisation.
At the heart of this approach is improvisation. For Galvin, improvisation is not simply a technique but the starting point of everything he does. He describes it as a form of communication: the act of being present in a specific moment, with a specific audience, and saying something personal and honest in real time. It is this immediacy and the sense that something is unfolding now and could not exist in quite the same way again that continues to draw him to improvised music.
That openness has led him to some unexpected places. In one particularly memorable anecdote, Galvin recalls performing improvised music alongside recordings of the moon landing at a jazz nudist festival in Kent. An experience that neatly encapsulates the unpredictability and openness that characterise his creative life. It is a reminder that improvised music, at its best, often thrives outside conventional settings.
When discussing influences, Galvin points to Miles Davis, not simply for the sound of his music, but for the singularity of his vision and his presence on stage. He also addresses common misconceptions about jazz, particularly the idea that it is exclusive or only for certain audiences. Improvisation, he argues, is one of the most universal forms of musical expression across cultures, and far from being niche, it is deeply human.
Galvin is clear that improvised music truly comes alive in performance. Asked how he might introduce someone new to the music, he suggests not just recordings, but the experience of being in the room, perhaps at a free improvisation concert at Café OTO, listening to a solo performance by Evan Parker, where sound, space and attention become inseparable.
The conversation also turns inward. Galvin speaks candidly about practice, patience, and listening, even joking that if his instrument could speak, it might tell him to slow down and breathe. When composing, he describes focusing intensely on feeling, atmosphere and emotional space, allowing sounds to gather around an idea rather than forcing them into a predetermined structure.
Beyond music, Galvin draws inspiration from film, literature and visual art, referencing movements such as Dada and filmmakers like David Lynch. He talks about borrowing ideas from other mediums and structuring a piece of music like a novel, or translating the pacing and mood of a film scene into sound as a way of breaking free from habitual thinking and discovering new creative possibilities.
In a particularly timely reflection, Galvin considers the impact of streaming platforms and algorithms on contemporary music-making. Rather than resisting these forces head-on, he suggests that genre-fluid, uncategorisable music may be one of the most creative responses, work that deliberately slips through the cracks of systems designed to label and sort.
Filmed as part of The Spin Jazz Club’s ongoing documentation of the artists who pass through its doors, this interview offers a thoughtful insight into a musician for whom curiosity, collaboration and presence remain central. The conversation was conducted, filmed and edited by Ryan Quarterman of Future Human Design Co., photographer and videographer in residence for The Spin Jazz Club, continuing an ongoing body of work capturing the voices and ideas of artists at the heart of the club’s programme.