jhbrighton

I’m Richard Vahrman, a Brighton-based musician, inventor and lifelong enthusiast for ideas that take us somewhere unexpected.

I sing and play keyboards and digital accordion in Psychospherix, a jazz-folk-blues trio -also known as the Tardy Dolphins. I also work on more experimental performances, bringing together music, electronics, projected imagery and, most recently, a rather improbable choir of eight singing robot heads.

Before all this, I worked as a robotics scientist with the European Space Agency. I’ve always enjoyed exploring the territory where science, technology and art meet.

Music has been a constant throughout my life, particularly jazz and its extraordinary capacity for invention and improvisation.

But however much music we listen to, there is always something wonderful that we haven’t heard.

That’s what interests me about The Jazz Prince.

I’m not setting out to be a definitive jazz critic, or to tell people what they ought to like. I want to discover musicians making interesting music, introduce them to people who might enjoy it, and see what happens.

Artificial intelligence helps with the research, but the human element is essential: listening, responding, discussing and sharing.

And if we can introduce just a few remarkable musicians to people who would otherwise never have encountered them, the experiment will have been worthwhile.

Who will wake the Sleeping Beauties?

On 9 November 2026, David Byrne gave a talk in Brighton about Sleeping Beauties: ideas, discoveries and works that may remain unrecognised for years before finding an audience. It prompted an interesting question.

What if the problem isn’t that good ideas are being neglected, but that there are simply too many competing for our attention?

Music is a particularly good example. Every day, an extraordinary quantity of music is released. Some of it is undoubtedly wonderful. Much of it may never reach the people who would most appreciate it. Occasionally an influential musician, broadcaster or critic discovers something and brings it to a wider audience. But why should we have to wait for that to happen?

Enter The Jazz Prince

The Jazz Prince wakes the Sleeping Beauty. This is a small experiment in using artificial intelligence and human curiosity to find remarkable, relatively unheard music. AI can investigate independent recordings, small record labels, specialist publications and musicians from around the world. But identifying interesting music is only half the problem.

The other half is helping it find an audience.

Every Tuesday, The Jazz Prince introduces three discoveries. Each musician has an individual article with listening links and a space for comments.

The invitation is simple:

If you enjoy something, introduce it to two people who might appreciate it.

Invite them to do the same if they wish.

It’s a little like the chain-letter postcards of the past, but without the threats, promises or obligations. We’re simply passing music between people.

Can we make a difference?

We’ll invite readers to suggest musicians, contribute to the discussions and tell us what happened when they shared a discovery. Eventually we hope to involve musicians themselves, jazz broadcasters, publications and venues. Success won’t necessarily mean selling records or attracting thousands of followers. It might mean somebody discovering a new favourite, a broadcaster playing an unfamiliar track, or two musicians finding a reason to collaborate.

The role of AI

AI is our researcher and talent scout. It helps us investigate possibilities that would otherwise take much longer to find. But it doesn’t get the final say about what is good. That’s a matter for human ears, judgement and conversation. We’ll also make mistakes. Some recommendations won’t appeal to everyone. That’s part of the experiment.

The Jazz Prince isn’t affiliated with David Byrne. His Sleeping Beauties theme simply helped inspire the project.

Now, let’s find some music.