Polar Bear

Seb Rochford, Pete Wareham, Mark Lockheart, Tom Herbert, and Leafcutter John make up the band Polar Bear. They are a popular jazz band and their instruments include classic jazz ones like a tenor saxophone and a mandolin. In 2004, they won the Best Band Award at the BBC Jazz Awards, Rochford was also nominated for the Rising Star Award. Soon after, they released their first album titled Dim Lit.

They added some funk, electronica, and dance music to their second album, Held on the Tips of Fingers. This album, unlike the first, was really successful and won the group a nomination for the 2005 Mercury Music Prize. They were once again nominated for a Best Jazz Award in 2006, and their album was on Jazzwise Magazine’s “100 Jazz Albums That Shook The World.” Their recent albums include Peepers and Common Ground, and they won Best Jazz Act at the 2015 MOBO Awards.