THE four CDs of HEMP are a drummer’s sonic autobiography, played through the brilliance of master-percussionist Steve Noble’s love for the four drummers who changed his life. “I came across them the day I bought my first drum kit aged 12, and they’ve been a constant source of inspiration ever since,” he told me.

Each of the discs is a homage to one of the four: Dutchman Han Bennink, New Orleans-born Ed Blackwell, New Yorker Milford Graves and Burton-on-Trent-born Phil Seamen. “I never heard Phil live, but I would go to hear the others whenever they were in England. Even now, my early morning practice is accompanied by listening to Jamaican Joe Harriott’s Free Form, with Mr Seamen’s utterly fantastic drumming.”

Noble was born in 1960 in Streatley, Berkshire. “It was a wonderful time and place. My dad was an NHS dentist and my mum did secretarial work. He was Scottish and we went to Edinburgh every year. I loved to hear the pipe bands march down Princes Street — definitely an early influence! I was into rock and pop and saw The Who in 1972 — I even met their drummer, Keith Moon, the same year as I got my first drum set. I was introduced to jazz and improvised music through the magazine Drums and Percussion, as well as Melody Maker weekly. I’m self-taught, but had a few lessons when I was 15.”