#176 Older and Wiser: Music, Mortality & Life with Jeremy Sassoon

The singer pianist Jeremy Sassoon closed the Palliative Care Congress in Brighton this year. I listened, completely captivated by the stories  in the songs.  Driving home and playing  the entire album I heard messages of life, living, love and mortality in the music. In this episode, I’m honoured to be joined by Jeremy to learn about the background to the album and what it teaches us about the cycle of life; about living and dying.

This episode has been kindly supported by the Living Well Dying Well Trust. The creation, development and content of the episode remains the responsibility of Clare Fuller.

Key messages

• Jeremy’s path from classical pianist and doctor/psychiatrist to full‑time musician

• How audiences’ emotional reactions shaped the track list for Older and Wiser

• The album’s central theme -  emotional life stages and the full cycle of life, from before birth to after death

• “The Things We’ve Handed Down” as a portrait of expectant parents imagining who their child will become

• How that track became career‑defining via Desert Island Discs and public response

• “Stop This Train” as a metaphor for time, ageing parents, and the wish to pause life

• The crucial “it will be okay” resolution offered by the father figure in “Stop This Train”

• “Old and Wise” as an unambiguous song about dying, love, and a life well lived

• How Older and Wiser joined Jeremy’s medical and musical worlds

• Parallels between psychiatry and music in listening to stories 

• Core message from the songs: we can worry and reflect deeply, but in the end “everything’s going to be okay”

Resource

• Access all links for Jeremy Sassoon 

• Listen to Desert Island Discs  Professor Hugh Montgomery Desert Island Discs  Kirsty Young talks to intensive care specialist Prof Hugh Montgomery. 

• Hear Jeremy and Dr Kathryn Mannix discuss Older and Wiser in BBC Radio 4 interview: Jeremy Sassoon interview on BBC Radio 4 - "Older & Wiser"   

• Where to listen to Older and Wiser

  • Spotify – album available to stream.

  • Amazon Music – album available to stream.

  • Apple Music – album available to stream.

  • YouTube – tracks from the album can be heard here.

Bio

Jeremy Sassoon – Biography http://www.jeremysassoon.com 

Jeremy is one of the UK’s most in-demand singer pianists. Either solo, or accompanied by his band, he captivates audiences with his natural, soulful voice, his charismatic personality and hisarrangements of jazz, blues, soul and groove classics. Jeremy has headlined sell out shows at Ronnie Scotts Jazz Club, Pizza Express Live in Soho, the 606 Club and the Jazz Café in London. He has performed at the North Sea Jazz Festival, The Iridium Jazz Club in New York and headlines twice a year at Berlin’s premier jazz club The “A Trane”. Jeremy is the UK’s foremost artist paying tribute to the music of Ray Charles with his 17-piece big band “Ray Charles Project”. He played the Manchester, London, Wigan and Scarborough Jazzfestivals and graced the main stage at the renowned “Love Supreme Jazz Festival”, the largest outdoor jazz festival in Europe with this band, alongside Lauryn Hill & Jamie Cullum.

His recent MOJO show, pays tribute to 100 years of Jewish songwriters. It has been a smash hit at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2021, 2022 and 2025 is being performed regularly around the world on ocean cruises around the world.

Jeremy's recorded version of the beautiful Marc Cohn song “The Things We’ve Handed Down” was featured on the UK's top radio show BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs, hitting number 1 in the iTunes vocal download chart. His music has also been heard on BBC Radio 2, BBC Radio 6, Jazz FM, Radio Manchester, London and Scotland.

Jeremy has just released his third album in April 2026, entitled “Older and Wiser”, already gaining extensive radio airplay and rave reviews in the music press.

PRESS COMMENTS

“It’s a mark of true showmanship when a performer knows when to change the speed or the vibe, taking the audience on an emotional journey!” London Jazz Review

"A surefire success for any jazz club" Musician magazine

Wigan Jazz Festival - “every tune was superbly performed, thrilling the packed audience”

Jazz FM – ”Jeremy Sassoon smashed it at this years Love Supreme Festival”

Jazz Cafe “Jeremy had the venue rocking from beginning to end”

“Truly a most memorable show!”

London Jazz News “Exhilarating”

Love Supreme Jazz Festival “World class musicians playing a timeless catalogue of classics. It doesn't get much better than that”

Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club “The vitality and spirit of the ‘Genius of Soul’ was passionately captured by Jeremy Sassoon’s authentic revue”