If you’re expecting another polite jazz combo, think again: corto.alto make music that is a genre-blurring, electronica-infused collision of intuitive improvisation, broken beat, dub, and electronic production. On stage and in the studio, they craft sets as likely to move bodies on the dance floor as they are to challenge the mind. Their Mercury Prize-shortlisted album Bad With Names exemplifies this approach: bold, inventive, and unafraid to pull in influences from hip hop to club music, yet always anchored by a deep respect for jazz’s improvisational core.

Hailing from Glasgow, they’ve put themselves on the radar of live music heads and festival line-ups all over Europe and beyond. But none of this was meticulously mapped out. “There are kinds of incentives, like writing something for a certain radio station or to be booked for a certain festival, that can creep into your artistry without you realising. I constantly remind myself to just write music for the sake of it, because I love making music.”

Catch Them If You Can

Last year alone, corto.alto played a staggering 92 shows. You’d expect a certain weariness, but Liam seems more energised by the chaos than worn down by it. “For me, the gig is one of the easiest parts of being on tour and playing festivals. But everything around it — driving there, checking into hotels, getting to the airport on time — these are the things I worry about more. But the music is always fine. And even if it’s not fine, it’s just music, you know? If something goes wrong, you just make it work.”

And make it work they did at their XJAZZ! set at Festsaal Kreuzberg. From the first note, the audience was locked in — a crowd primed for high-energy grooves and infectious interplay, topped off with the band’s signature playful banter. This time, corto.alto appeared as a lean four-piece: Liam juggling bass, trombone, and electronics, joined by Graham Costello on drums, Fergus McCreadie on keys, and Mateusz Sobieski on saxophone. There’s a special alchemy to festival gigs: While headline shows come with the pressure of living up to the expectations of an audience that has specifically come to see you, at festivals it’s all about grabbing the attention of those with a wandering eye — and creating a fun experience in the process. 

What’s immediately palpable is the band’s dynamic. It’s in the quick glances, the sly smiles, the inside jokes traded mid-solo. This isn’t just a band, it’s a friendship forged over a decade of shared history. “We’ve all been friends for at least 10 to 12 years. We all hang out outside of music, been on holiday together, party together.” Liam tells me how this off-stage closeness benefits their performance on stage:

“With improvised music in particular, you’re taking risks with other musicians on stage, so it’s quite vulnerable. Sharing intimate life experiences actually makes it a lot easier to make music together.”

This Is a Very Good Bad Idea

Similarly to what’s visible in their onstage chemistry, Liam’s approach to writing music is free of strategy or calculation. He just loves making music. “I think for me, it’s always just been about the music and making music.” He approaches music with a relaxed, playful attitude:

“Actually, a lot of the music I make is terrible, and it just never gets released. But I don’t mind sitting in a studio for eight hours and making something that’s bad. I’ve learned to not judge myself on the bad music because I think you just have to make music. If you love the process of doing it, the good stuff will come, you get lucky.”

That embrace of imperfection is what fuelled his ambitious 30/108 project in 2024. Faced with a hard drive full of unfinished ideas, Liam set himself the challenge of finishing 30 tracks in just four months, dropping a new single every day for a month. The result is a vibrant, deliberately unpolished collection, each track a snapshot of his evolving sound and collaborative spirit. For Liam, it was less about making a flawless album and more about staying in motion, letting go of overthinking, and sharing the creative process as it happens.

That same creative openness extends to the stage, and instrumental music serves as its ideal playground: “For me, the power of instrumental music has always been in not having this kind of implied meaning through lyrics. One track can mean a million different things to a million different people, and I think that’s really amazing. You have that ability, that freedom to express through melody and harmony, which are way more open-ended.” It’s this responsive, in-the-moment approach that keeps their performances so electrifying. “We don’t really write set lists beyond the first and last tune. For the rest, we just gauge the vibe. But even within the same tracks, we have the freedom to react to the crowd, play them upside down and inside out.”

If You Feel It, It’s Yours

Is that jazz? The question lingers, as it always does when a band gleefully smashes genre boundaries. “A lot of my influence is in funk and soul, and obviously I love jazz. But I also love drum and bass, house, UK dance music, funk, and hip hop. All these things have crept into my output.” At XJAZZ!, even the band’s cover of “Die Hard” by Kendrick Lamar felt like a natural extension of their musical DNA. I asked Liam about his approach to jazz, having studied it at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. “I think your responsibility as an artist or a musician is to connect people and to help them get some freedom in everyday life. Intellectualising music is the opposite of that.” 

Whether they’re weaving heady improvisations into club-ready grooves or turning a jazz festival into a dance party, their music pulses with joy, freedom, and fearless curiosity. For Liam, it all comes down to staying honest, staying playful, and staying open. And if that’s not jazz in 2025, maybe it should be.

Don’t Listen by corto.alto is out now via Ninja Tune. Stay up to date with corto.alto via Instagram and website.