Anton and I are excited to be off on an Efpi Records ‘business trip’ to Finland on Sunday to visit Sam an do a few gigs, including an Efpi Showcase on Thursday 17th featuring the Hunter/Andreae Quartet and Beats & Pieces Finland – an ensemble featuring some of Helsinki’s finest jazz musicians performing the Beats & Pieces repertoire, including all tracks from the recent EP…
Just checked the weather though, here’s the BBC forecast for next Monday…
Good job I’ve been shopping today!
Posted by on 09/12/2009 at 23:32 in beats & pieces, gigs, news and tagged beats, beats & pieces, beatsandpieces, beatsnpieces, efpi, finland, gig, helsinki. Leave comments here.
I’m delighted to announce that the debut EP from the Beats & Pieces Big Band is now available to purchase and/or download via the Efpi Records website! You can buy a physical CD as one of a limited edition run of 100 unique handmade packages, or download the EP as high quality MP3s under the ‘honesty box’ model where you choose how much to pay (free if you feel like…). It contains 5 tracks weighing in at just over half an hour’s worth of music, and we’re really proud of it. Tracklisting is as follows:
1. bake
2. yafw (part iii)
3. toan
4. djimi
5. broken
The band features the cream of Manchester’s young improvising talent, many of whom have now moved away to pastures new and are making a mark on jazz scenes in major cities across the continent. The band is as follows:
Ben Cottrell : musical director
Sam Andreae, Kenji Fenton, Sam Healey, Jo McCallum : reeds
Tim Cox, Simon Lodge, Owain Roberts, Paul Strachan : trombones
Owen Bryce, Chris Snead, Graham South, Nick Walters : trumpets
Anton Hunter : guitar
Patrick Hurley : piano, Rhodes
Nick Blacka : bass
Finlay Panter : drums
Hope you enjoy listening to the EP as much as we enjoyed making it!
Posted by on 04/12/2009 at 12:55 in beats & pieces, news and tagged beats, beats & pieces, beatsandpieces, beatsnpieces, efpi, ep, pieces. Leave comments here.
Thanks a lot to everybody who managed to make it down to our EP launch held at Odder last night, we really enjoyed the gig and it was great to see so many friendly faces! It was also good to speak to lots of people about the band, some of whom had just stumbled across the gig and really enjoyed the music which was brilliant to hear. If you bought an EP then do get in touch and let me know what you think of it!
Photos from the night will be uploaded to the gallery soon…
Posted by on 03/12/2009 at 19:31 in beats & pieces, gigs and tagged beats, beats & pieces, beatsandpieces, beatsnpieces, ep, ep launch, odder, party, pieces. Leave comments here.
In case you haven’t heard, we’ve got an EP coming out soon (2 weeks today!!) and we’re going to be celebrating that with a launch party on Wednesday 2nd December in Odder Bar, Manchester. If you’re in Manchester, keep an eye out for this amazing poster that I’ve had done to promote the gig… (click for full-size image)
Its been designed by Angela Guyton who is a local artist, originally from the USA, and amongst other things regularly performs as one third of Takashi’s Shellfish Concern. Thanks a lot to her, as I say it looks amazing!
Posted by on 16/11/2009 at 14:38 in beats & pieces, gigs, news and tagged angela guyton, beats, beatsandpieces, efpi, ep launch, gig, manchester, odder, pieces, poster, takahashi's shellfish concern. Leave comments here.
It gives me great pleasure to announce that the Beats & Pieces Big Band’s debut EP will be released on Efpi Records on November 30th, and that this will be celebrated to great extent at the official launch party at Odder in Manchester on December 2nd – come one, come all! We’ll be playing two sets featuring all of the EP’s 5 tracks, some newer stuff thats not on the EP and some stuff thats so brand new they don’t have names yet… Its also FREE ENTRY so you can save all your cash to buy the CD!
Doors open 8.30pm, live set from 9.30pm sharp. Odder, Oxford Road, Manchester (opposite the BBC). Contact info@beatsnpieces.net for more information
Posted by on 26/10/2009 at 12:02 in beats & pieces, gigs, news and tagged efpi, ep, gig, manchester, odder, party. Leave comments here.
Just a quick reminder about our gig at the Lescar in Sheffield tonight! We’re really excited about it as its our first chance to try out a couple of new things we’ve been working on, so make sure you get down there early to get yourself a decent spot! Doors open 8.30pm, music starts at 9 sharp and its £5/£4 entry – bargain. Click here for directions if you don’t already know where you’re going…
See you down the front!
Posted by on 14/10/2009 at 11:40 in beats & pieces, gigs, news and tagged gig, lescar, sheffield. Leave comments here.
To support our upcoming gig at the Lescar in Sheffield, we were featured on the local radio the other day when Chris Walker (who runs the Jazz at the Lescar series) was invited in to Sheffield Live 93.2fm promote the autumn season. The whole show (which you can find here) is well worth a listen as there’s some great bands playing there before Christmas, including friends the Andy Schofield and Jo McCallum Jazz Orchestra, but for those short on time I’ve also edited out the Beats & Pieces section here. There’s some conversation about the Manchester scene and the financial and logistical difficulties of programming (and running!) big bands in today’s world, before Chris plays our arrangement of Radiohead’s 15 step – this version was recorded in the studio in the summer, and even though its still very much a work-in-progress mix its your first chance to hear what the upcoming EP will sound like!
Posted by on 30/09/2009 at 14:50 in beats & pieces, news and tagged 15step, lescar, radio, sheffield. Leave comments here.
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