Composer and percussionist Tom Skinner might be best known for co-founding The Smile alongside Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood of Radiohead, but he's also been a force in the U.K.'s jazz scene for decades.
In his early days, he discovered avant-garde jazz musicians like John Zorn and Ornette Coleman, and in the 2010s, he co-founded Sons of Kemet with Shabaka Hutchings.
On his new solo album, Kaleidoscopic Visions, Skinner turned inward.
"I just wanted to try and explore my own voice even more," he said. "Really dig into that and push myself, in terms of my writing and the compositions themselves."
In this session, Skinner talks about coming up as a jazz musician in London, plus how he forged a musical connection with Meshell Ndegeocello decades after seeing her perform at the Glastonbury Festival.
This episode of World Cafe was produced and edited by Miguel Perez. Our senior producer is Kimberly Junod and our engineer is Chris Williams. Our programming and booking coordinator is Chelsea Johnson and our line producer is Will Loftus.
Copyright 2025 XPN
