Fiona Ross at 100 Songs: Who Moments in My Notebook Was Written For
5 min read
Fiona Ross at 100 Songs: Who Moments in My Notebook Was Written For
A 21-Track Album Marks Her 100th Song and Wins Female Album of the Year
One hundred original songs, eight albums and 21 tracks on the latest: that is the tally behind Fiona Ross and Moments in My Notebook, released on 30 May 2025. The London jazz vocalist and pianist composed, arranged and produced the record. It has since won Female Album of the Year from the International Singer Songwriters Association.
Fiona Ross has a track from Moments in My Notebook in the BestMusic.News playlist below, and her full run of coverage sits on her artist profile. The album came to this desk through PopHits.Co Music Charts, which verifies independent artists and places their releases across its network of music news sites. Hit play on the track, then read on for who the record was written for.
Who A 21-Track Album Of Late-Night Ballads And Latin Jazz Was Written For
Start with the size. Moments in My Notebook runs close to 80 minutes, and the Dutch site De Ochtendschijn treated it as a double album. It moves from the hush of a late-night ballad to the pulse of Latin jazz, and it includes two songs Ross wrote as a teenager. A record that wide does not aim at one listener. Instead, it speaks to four.
- Working musicians and creatives. I Don’t Want Money is the clearest address. Ross put it plainly: “But the reality is, we live in a world where money dominates everything. This song is for every creative who just wants to do what they love.”
- Listeners who follow jazz history. Voices Unheard closes by naming Melba Liston, James Baldwin, Countee Cullen, Mary Lou Williams and Ida B. Wells. It reads as a roll call of figures the history books often leave out.
- Fans of vocal jazz with a Latin and European pulse. Latin rhythms run through several tracks, and La Façon Dont Tu Bouges carries a French title.
- Anyone measuring a long career. The closer, 100 Songs, looks back on legacy and loss, and asks what her parents would say if they were here.
Fiona Ross Next to the Vocal Jazz Names Her Listeners Know
The comparison points follow from that list. Cécile McLorin Salvant has built her albums on original songs that sit next to deep cuts from jazz history. That is the same instinct behind Voices Unheard. Similarly, Stacey Kent has spent years bringing bossa nova colours and French-language songs into vocal jazz, the lane the album’s Latin and French moments share. Ross covers more ground in one record, because the length gives her room.
How Jazzwise, A Sold-Out Club Night And The J Steps Ensemble Answered Moments In My Notebook
The Early Response
Notably, the first reading came before release. On 7 May 2025, Darryl Sterdan premiered two previews, Let Your Soul Shine and I Don’t Want Money, on Tinnitist. The singles were already out from 25 April, and the album launch followed on 4 June at Soul Mama, a London jazz venue.
Then the reviews and the rooms filled in. De Ochtendschijn reviewed it on 15 June 2025, and Jazzwise also covered it. In addition, the International Singer Songwriters Association named it Female Album of the Year. By 5 December 2025, her acoustic set built around the album at Hampstead Jazz Club had sold out. For an independent jazz release, that is a strong first year.
The Community Around Fiona Ross and This Record
The credits show the community. For example, Ross and the players rehearsed and recorded China Told Me (Live) in a single day at Premises Studios in London, with the vocalist and broadcaster China Moses as its inspiration. Mary Sho wrote the top line of the second verse. J Steps, an award-winning ensemble for female and non-binary jazz musicians under 18, made its recording debut on the track. Hannah Horton founded the ensemble and still directs it. Meanwhile, Charlotte Keeffe and Migdalia Van Der Hoven also appear in the credits.
Elsewhere, trombonist Laura Impallomeni shares the credit on This Energy, and Migdalia Van Der Hoven returns on La Façon Dont Tu Bouges. The core band is Gibbi Bettini on guitar, Derek Daley on bass, Marley Drummond on drums, Loren Hignell on saxophones, clarinet and flutes, Simon Todd on percussion and Dave Boa on trumpets.
That community extends well beyond one album. Ross founded Women in Jazz Media and works as a senior writer for Jazz in Europe. She also runs an interview podcast that launched in 2023. In addition, the National Diversity Awards have nominated her for the Positive Role Model award four years in a row. Before all of this, she spent nearly nine years as head of the British Academy of New Music in London, where Ed Sheeran, Rita Ora and Jess Glynne trained.
From the BestMusic.News curator team: “The number to keep is not 100. It is one: one day at Premises Studios to rehearse and record China Told Me with a youth ensemble on its first session. That is the album’s case in miniature, a veteran using a landmark record to hand the next players their first credit.”
You can stream the album in the Spotify player above, on Apple Music or on Bandcamp. To follow her releases, Fiona Ross is on Spotify and Apple Music, and her videos are on the YouTube channel.
For updates, she posts on Instagram, Threads, Facebook and TikTok. Every link sits on her Linktree, and the official site collects the full catalogue.
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