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‘Not For Now’ follows an acclaimed series of DIY self-releases and videos, released over the course of a year from May 2019. The highlights were collated on a sold-out vinyl EP on Worm Discs and received support across Radio 6 Music, BBC Radio 2 and BBC Radio Scotland. In this short but productive space of time, corto.alto were awarded for Best Band and Album at the Scottish Jazz Awards 2020, and received a personal invitation by Gilles Peterson to perform at We Out Here 2021.

Originally conceived as a self-imposed challenge for Liam to release new music every three weeks for a year, corto.alto’s incredible success has postponed any plans to end the project. As Liam puts it, “so I called this E.P “Not for Now”, in reply to “Is That It?”, the last track from “Live at 435”, featuring a hero of mine, Soweto Kinch”. Lockdown gave Liam plenty of time “to better gauge a sense of perspective of where I fit as an artist in the world of music” and find the right balance between “over intellectualised” or “over commercialised” ‘jazz’.

Limitation can be a creative force in a world where anything is possible, and for a young Liam Shortall, that pool of influence & opportunity was as diverse as any. Born in Glasgow and surrounded by music from a young age, he gravitated initially towards instrumental music, picking up the trombone, learning his jazz chops, and listening to the big band, blues, and ska sounds of his family home.

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