The debut 3 track EP from the Hunter/Andreae Quartet (of course featuring important Beats & Pieces members Anton Hunter, Sam Andreae and Fin Panter) is now available online from Efpi Records, the online label set up by myself, Sam and Anton. You can order a physical CD in unique handmade packaging (strictly limited edition of 100 copies) or download the EP as high quality MP3 files for free (donation requested if you enjoy the music!).
I’m also really excited because I’m taking the Beats & Pieces Big Band into the studio next week to record what hopefully will turn out to be Efpi’s second release, to be released around November 2009 just in time for the lucrative Christmas market… I’m trying to sort out a few gigs to support the release too so the end of this year is looking like its going to be really exciting!
Posted by on 31/07/2009 at 14:16 in b&p friends, beats & pieces, news. Leave comments here.
So if you’re in Manchester and you’ve more than a passing interest in jazz you’re probably aware that the 2009 Manchester Jazz Festival is up and running and there’s some great stuff to go and listen to all week..
It all kicked off last Friday with the official festival launch party at The Deaf Institute, once again organised by Sam Andreae at Freedom Principle. It doesn’t seem a year since it was us playing there on the festival opening night, but this year’s party promised to be exciting with some top local bands in the form of Southbound, the Laurence McNaughton Quintet and headliners the Moss Project. I won’t go into a review here as there’s other, better sites to go to for that but suffice to say it was a great evening!
I couldn’t make it down to the Mark Lockheart Group or Marley Chingus gigs last night as I ended up finishing work at midnight, 5 hours later than scheduled… But I did manage to make it to the Bridgewater Hall this afternoon to catch If Destroyed Still True from Leeds, who were also great, and I’m just off to the Green Room to see Matt Owens’ Ten project for jazz quintet and wind quintet featuring Souza Winds, an amazing wind quintet who were in my year at college. Its probably too late to recommend you get down there too, but check out the rest of the festival programme here and support your local jazz festival!
Have a fantastic week!
Posted by on 26/07/2009 at 18:57 in b&p friends, misc. Leave comments here.
There’s been a review of our gig at the Mint Lounge in May posted over at the Efpi Records site for a few weeks now, but its now been posted over at The Sound of Now, a new blog serving Manchester’s live music scene run by Chris Ackerley. Chris has worked for BBC Jazz on 3, Jazzwise and the Manchester International Festival amongst others, and this new site is sure to be a great read so add it to your bookmarks! Read our review here.
Posted by on 21/07/2009 at 13:26 in b&p friends, beats & pieces. Leave comments here.
Apologies for the shameless self-promotion but I thought I’d draw your attention to a brand new ep released on Manchester’s Concrete Moniker label, featuring me alongside Kate Findlay on cello and Anton Hunter (a Beats & Pieces mainstay of course…) Its got four tracks from the trio, all freely improvised at the recording session, as well as four remixes of tracks by other artists in the Moniker family – Tullis Rennie, Rodrigo Constanzo, alexis and The Red Box. Its available now to download for free, but donations to the artists and label are of course accepted and encouraged if you enjoy the music! I’m really pleased with how its all turned out so get over to the Concrete Moniker website and download it, and as always let me know what you think. Cheers!
Posted by on 12/07/2009 at 19:25 in misc, news. Leave comments here.
Just thought I’d apologise for the lack of updates on the site since May, I’ve been really busy with my final recitals at the RNCM and rehearsing for a tour to America with the college wind orchestra but now I’m back and graduated so posts will be becoming a bit more frequent! I’m also going to update the live recordings archive and add a few photos from the gigs in May in Manchester and Liverpool, so I hope you enjoy them… There’s also been some exciting new things happening by friends of Beats & Pieces which I’ll be posting about, so do check them out as well – and as always, get involved by leaving your thoughts and comments.
Beats & Pieces EP
Available now from Efpi Records
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