Out Now: Moments in My Notebook by Fiona Ross, the Album That Took Her to 100 Songs
Out Now: Moments in My Notebook by Fiona Ross, the Album That Took Her to 100 Songs
The London Jazz Vocalist and Pianist Closes Her Eighth Album on Her Hundredth Original Song
Fiona Ross released Moments in My Notebook on 30 May 2025. The 21-track contemporary jazz album runs from fast Latin jazz to late-night piano ballads. It is her eighth album, and its closing track, 100 Songs, is her hundredth original song. In August 2026 the record won Female Album of the Year from the International Singer Songwriters Association.
Fiona Ross’s music sits in the playlist below, and her full run of coverage is collected on her artist profile. Moments in My Notebook came to this desk through PopHits.Co Music Charts, which verifies independent artists and places their releases across its network of music news desks. Press play on the album, then read on for the story behind it.
Before Moments in My Notebook, Fiona Ross Built a Career Across London Jazz Clubs, Classrooms and Seven Albums
Ross started early. She was on stage in London’s West End by the age of eight. At fourteen she talked her way into weekend gigs in the city’s jazz clubs. She was paid in cash at the end of the night, and the venues had no idea how young she was.
After training at the Arts Educational School, she worked across the industry. She was a musical director, session musician, composer and choreographer. Teaching then became a second track. For nearly nine years she was Head of the British Academy of New Music in London. Her students there included Ed Sheeran, Rita Ora and Jess Glynne. That is how many people first heard her name: as the teacher who gave Ed Sheeran his first push.
Seven Albums Before This One
The recorded catalogue built steadily from there. Red Flags and High Heels launched with a show at Pizza Express in Soho in 2021. Then Thoughts, Conversations and To Do Lists followed in 2023, and Music Arena GH was among the outlets that covered it. That title later named her podcast, which was nominated for Best Podcast at the World Entertainment Awards.
Recognition arrived along the way. Ross won Best Jazz Song at the World Songwriting Awards. She also took an Outstanding Achievement award from the Global Music Awards. In addition, the International Singer Songwriters Association named her International Female Songwriter of the Year, and Jazzwise is among the magazines that have featured her work. Meanwhile, she writes about jazz herself. She founded Women in Jazz Media and is a senior writer for Jazz in Europe.
Moments in My Notebook Pulls 21 Songs From Fiona Ross’s Notebooks and Takes Her to 100 Originals
Ross still writes in notebooks, and this album is built from those pages. Some songs began with a bass line, some with a lyric, and some with a line overheard in a café. Two of the 21 were written when she was a teenager and only now reach a record.
The album runs to nearly 80 minutes. It opens with Running Into Your Arms and closes on 100 Songs. Ross wrote, arranged and produced every track, and she sings and plays piano throughout. Her band features Gibbi Bettini on guitar, Derek Daley on bass and Marley Drummond on drums. Loren Hignell plays saxophones, clarinet and flutes, with Dave Boa on trumpets and Simon Todd on percussion. The sleeve notes are by Maxine Gordon.
Six guest artists also share credits on three tracks. Trombonist Laura Impallomeni plays on This Energy, and drummer Migdalia Van Der Hoven joins La Façon Dont Tu Bouges. China Told Me (Live) adds singer Mary Sho and saxophonist Hannah Horton. Trumpeter Charlotte Keeffe and the youth ensemble J Steps join them, with Van Der Hoven back on drums. The whole track was recorded in a single day at Premises Studios in London.
The songs show the range. For example, Let Your Soul Shine came from a sign she spotted on a market stall. She walked home, sat at the piano and had the song finished in ten minutes. By contrast, I Don’t Want Money is about the cost of making music at all. Voices Unheard then closes by naming Melba Liston, James Baldwin, Countee Cullen, Mary Lou Williams and Ida B. Wells.
Pirates in Paris, a Run of Reviews and a Female Album of the Year Award
Pirates in Paris turns her many trips to the French capital into a song about freedom. “Paris has always been my escape,” Ross says.
Coverage started before release day. First, Record World reported the 100-song milestone in early May 2025. Project Timbre then wrote up Let Your Soul Shine as a single. Reviews followed through June from The Indie Grid and IndieTapes. The Italian site Dolce Brano also reviewed it and singled out the hundredth original song.
The reviews came first. More than a year after release, the award followed.
After Moments in My Notebook, Fiona Ross Takes the Songs on Tour and Starts Writing Album Nine
The closing track points forward by looking back. 100 Songs asks what her parents would make of everything she has built, and it leaves that question open.
Since the release, the momentum has carried on. In 2026 Ross made her Paris debut at the Sunset Sunside club. She played Pirates in Paris there at an International Jazz Day show held in partnership with UNESCO. The same year, the Jazz Journalists Association gave her a Jazz Heroes award.
Next, she plays the Acorn Theatre in Penzance on 15 October and Hampstead Jazz Club in London on 11 December. After that comes an Irish date at Magy’s Farm in Dromara on 6 March 2027. She has also set aside time to write her next album.
Who It Is For
Moments in My Notebook suits listeners who like contemporary jazz built around songs rather than long solos. Fans of Jamie Cullum will recognise the pull between a piano-led band and pop songwriting. Cullum took that mix to a mainstream British audience on Twentysomething in 2003. Similarly, fans of Melody Gardot will find a shared ease with Latin rhythm. Gardot carried that through bossa nova on The Absence in 2012. So start with Let Your Soul Shine and Pirates in Paris, then play 100 Songs last, where Ross placed it.
From the MusicDrops.News Curator Team: “The credits list finger clicks, band banter and recorded rain alongside the horns. Those small details make a 21-track album feel lived in. So when the hundredth song arrives, it sounds like a diary entry rather than a trophy.”
Stream Moments in My Notebook on Spotify, Apple Music, Bandcamp, YouTube Music and Amazon Music.
Follow Fiona Ross across platforms: Spotify, Apple Music, SoundCloud, Deezer, YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, Threads, Facebook and Bluesky. For tour dates, visit her official site.
About The Author
