(Downloadable biography here – pdf)
The Beats & Pieces Big Band was formed at the beginning of 2008 as a 14-piece ensemble for the performance of distinctive contemporary jazz. The band have recently released their debut EP on Efpi Records, an independent label run by three of the band members.
The musicians featured are all Manchester-based players who have previously performed with each other in a variety of different contexts, and who share a need and a desire for such an ensemble in order to focus their large- ensemble playing in a way which embraces their broad musical influences. In addition to the jazz canon, these also include the music of groups such as Polar Bear, Led Bib and Troyka; of groundbreaking larger ensembles such as Colin Towns Mask Orchestra, the Maria Schneider Orchestra and the Matthew Herbert Big Band; and of revolutionary popular artists such as the Beatles, Radiohead and Björk.
The format of the band is an adaptation of the traditional big band line-up, consisting of 3 saxophones/reeds, 3 trombones, 3 trumpets, piano/Rhodes, guitar, bass and drums, as well as a laptop musician manipulating the sound of the band live in real time. All charts are originals by musical director Ben Cottrell, specially composed and arranged with the unique characteristics of each musician in the band in mind.
The band were invited to open the Manchester Jazz Festival in the summer of 2008, and later in that year were shortlisted for the Peter Whittingham Award for new and innovative work in jazz, a prize previously won by some of the brightest talents in UK jazz.
The band’s debut EP was released in December 2009 on Efpi Records, and
features 5 tracks that weigh in at over half an hour’s worth of music. It is available to purchase via the Efpi website as a strictly limited edition of 100 handmade copies, or as a high quality flexible price download. It has been played nationwide on Jazz FM, and was listed in Mike Chadwick’s Cutting Edge chart in the March 2010 edition of Jazzwise magazine.
“vivid, bristling with ideas: what might not Cottrell and co achieve in the future?”
Mike Butler, Manchester Evening News
“the cream of Manchester’s emerging jazz talent… nothing less than a bombardment of the senses”
Chris Ackerley, thesoundofnow.wordpress.com
“the Beats and Pieces Big Band do what Acoustic Ladyland set out to achieve in their early recordings, Hendrix-infused jazz that loses none of its edge”
Sean Gregson, tastyfanzine.org.uk
www.myspace.com/beatsnpiecesbigband
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