Betty Accorsi Presents: Nature Prints

Released 18th July 2025

“Simply elegant, superbly crafted, sumptuously melodic jazz” All About Jazz

Award-winning Italian-born saxophonist, multi-instrumentalist and composer Betty Accorsi is proud to present Nature Prints, her new album set to be released in July 2025. Blending elegant and melodic soprano sax lines with an intensely dynamic rhythm section, Betty Accorsi’s compositions take inspiration from European and ECM jazz from John Surman to Pat Metheny, with echoes of Dvorak, Bartok, Debussy and Western European folk music. Joined by pianist Dan Hewson (Incognito, Groove Armada), bassist Andy Hamill (Van Morrison, Martin Taylor, Ibrahim Maalouf) and young virtuoso drummer Joe Edwards, Nature Prints is dedicated to Betty’s consistent discoveries of art in nature.

Betty explains further: “Who is The Queen? is inspired by the Queen of the Lewis chess set. She looks bored, looking for something to entertain her. Something that I, with my album, hope to provide. The queen inspiring my music is Mary Oliver, the American poetess homaged in Mary. She believed that nature spoke to her, and rocks could be alive. Life beyond what we see is the theme for Illusions, like those that stained-glass windows project in English churches. Is there shame or danger in believing in God, if it helps us to overcome difficulties? The nature of human feelings is the subject of Song for A, a love song dedicated both to my husband Andrea and Wayne Shorter, one of the first jazz musicians to be thoroughly inspired by nature, fairytales, and poetry.”

“Garden Trip is about the art of gardening. My friend Giulia, a passionate gardener, says that even if flowers are different from each other, it is important to put them together so that they can live in harmony. And that harmony gets transmitted back to the people who are willing to listen, as I show in Carillion, a song about the healing power of nature. While travelling, I was reminded of the traditional song Molly Malone, another Queen of my album; you can hear a jazz arrangement of that beautiful, tragic song. Another trip brought me to Venice two years ago, and in particular to the island of Burano; I saw the making of ornaments with glass. Glass Horse is inspired by a little horse made with glass by a talented Italian artisan. One can also travel by reading books: Into The Forest is inspired by “A midsummer’s night dream” by Shakespeare. Here, the forest has again a healing power for the characters of the play, as it changes their perspectives of things. I hope that this album will have the same effect on you.”

Having studied classical saxophone, piano and composition at the Giuseppe Verdi Conservatoire in Milan, later gaining a MMus in Jazz Saxophone at Trinity Laban Conservatoire and subsequently a Master's degree in Performance at Goldsmiths, Betty Accorsi burst on to the scene in December 2020 with “The Cutty Sark Suite”: an album of compositions blending Wayne Shorter, folk and punk, premiered live at The Brighton Fringe Festival in 2021. Frequently inspired by geographical locations and a sense of place, Betty’s critically acclaimed 2022 album “Growing Roots” is influenced by her move to Brighton, a city which Betty has learned to love. While her previous work is excellent in its own right, Betty’s Accorsi’s development as an artist is undoubtedly evident on Nature Prints – a body of work that showcases the young saxophonist and composer’s flourishing talent like spring in bloom or a sunny summer’s day!

Betty Accorsi - soprano sax, vocals, composition/arrangement
Dan Hewson - piano, trombone
Andy Hamill - electric bass, double bass
Joe Edwards - drums

All compositions by Betty Accorsi, except Molly Malone (Irish traditional, arr. Betty Accorsi).

Recorded 8-10 December 2024 at Perry Vale Studios, London
Engineer: Jessica Corcoran
Produced by Betty Accorsi and Andrea Martelloni
Mix and master: Chris Lewis
Cover art: Gabriella Szucz
Photography: Justyna Neryng

Betty Accorsi website here

Purchase here

Album launch event on July 24th at Toulouse Lautrec. Tickets here