Thought I’d share this photo of Anthony and Simon in our ‘tour bus’ on our journey down – we’ll be trying to post as many pictures, videos and other interesting things as we can. Keep an eye on our tumblr page which is where we’ll upload most stuff, or follow @beatspiecesband on twitter where all the tumblr posts will be automatically tweeted – for a more personal touch follow me (Ben) @beatsnpieces

See you at the next gig in Manchester on Feb 16th!

Delighted and very excited to finally be able to reveal full details of our brand new album! Here’s the low down: its called Big Ideas and will be released on 12th March 2012 on Efpi Records. It features 8 tracks, recorded with producer Tony Platt in London late last year – some of the tracks you may recognise from our live shows, some you won’t!

It’ll be available for pre-order on the Efpi shop and other retailers very soon (join our mailing list to be alerted when its available), but until then we’ve put up a track that you can listen to and download for free – just click here… Its called jazzwalk and is a new track named after the Street of Fame in Burghausen, where we won the European Young Artists’ Jazz Award last year, and features storming solos from Sam Healey on alto saxophone and Anton Hunter on guitar.

If the track whets your appetite to hear more, we’re kicking off a UK tour produced by Serious in a couple of weeks in Southampton, followed by album launch gigs in Manchester and London in February – its our first album, we’re allowed to have two launch parties! In the unlikely event you needed any extra encouragement to come along to any of those dates, the album will be on sale at those gigs in advance of the official March release date. Full details below…

28th January – Turner Sims, Southampton (details/tickets)

16th February – RNCM, Manchester (details/tickets)

20th February – Ronnie Scott’s, London (details/tickets)

24th March – The Sage, Gateshead (Gateshead International Jazz Festival) (details/tickets)

28th March – Queen’s Theatre, Barnstaple (details/tickets)

Full list of 2012 dates (so far…) as follows:

28th January – Turner Sims, Southampton (details/tickets)

16th February – RNCM, Manchester (details/tickets)

20th February – Ronnie Scott’s, London (details/tickets)

24th March – The Sage, Gateshead (Gateshead International Jazz Festival) (details/tickets)

28th March – Queen’s Theatre, Barnstaple (details/tickets)

More dates to be announced so keep an eye on our gigs page, and full details on the album release to follow very very soon…

Don’t forget that the EP launch is Thursday 20th October back at Band on the Wall (where else!) and it’ll be an amazing night – get your tickets in now, they’re cheaper in advance. Also if you’re coming down, say hello on our facebook event!

You’ll also have seen that we’re releasing an extremely limited edition DVD alongside the download which will initially be available exclusively at gigs – you’ve seen pictures of the box, now its time for a preview of the video! Check out queen spark below…

See you on Thursday! We start at 8pm sharp, don’t be late…

Very excited to announce details of the release of a live EP next month, which was recorded in June at Band on the Wall in Manchester. You’ll be able to download it from our online shop on Monday 17th October, and there will be an extremely limited edition physical release available alongside the download – more details to follow soon!

We’ll be launching this EP with a big old knees up back at Band on the Wall on Thursday 20th October – tickets available NOW… If you were there in June for the recording, you’ll know that it was a really special night and this promises to be another amazing evening. This will also be our last Manchester date of 2011 which has been an incredible year for us (European Young Artists’ Jazz Award, Ronnie Scott’s twice, live recording etc etc!) so there’ll definitely be a party atmosphere!

See you there…

Also keep an ear to the ground for news about the recording from the night, which you’ll be able to hear very very soon…!

Picture above by Sam Healey

There were a few really nice reviews that I thought I’d share too – I’ve taken out some quotes below and there’s a link to the full article as well:

Beats & Pieces reminded us that jazz can be pleasingly vulgar… few bands play work of this complexity with such passionate conviction. Movers and shakers such as [Colin] Towns, Matthew Herbert, Darcy James Argue and [Ben] Cottrell demonstrate that large ensembles remain a vital force in contemporary jazz.

John L Walters, The Guardian

Beats & Pieces dazzled with a glorious, full-bloodied set demonstrating all that’s good about big band jazz. The big band tradition is alive and well and living in Manchester.

Selwyn Harris, Jazzwise

Anton Hunter’s overdrive-guitar gave the rhythm section grunge and the soloists, notably altoist Sam Healey, trumpeter Nick Walters and adventurous pianist Patrick Hurley, brimmed with the fearlessness of youth

Jack Massarik, London Evening Standard

Thanks again to everyone at Ronnie’s for having us and to everyone in the audience (many travelling a fair few miles!) for being amazing… If you missed out this time, we’re back in town in November at Kings Place during the London Jazz Festival, tickets available NOW! See you then…

Also congratulations to Julian Siegel who received the London Jazz Award at the awards ceremony in London last week – very much deserved! We had a great night anyway, and once again thanks very much to you all for your sterling work on facebook and twitter to get us on the shortlist… We had the highest number of votes by a considerable margin all thanks to you, you’re all legends!

So hopefully see some of you at Ronnie’s tomorrow – if you missed out, get your tickets NOW for our next London gig at Kings Place during the London Jazz Festival in November so you won’t miss out again!

Firstly on Thursday 28th, a few of us will be down to attend the London Awards for Art and Performance 2011, for which we’ve been shortlisted for the Jazz Award. You may remember me asking for you all to support us in the first stage of this process on twitter and facebook, and you responded amazingly – thanks so much! We had the highest number of votes by a considerable margin, you’re all legends… Now its down to the panel of esteemed judges, and of course we’ll let you know what happens on Thursday via all the usual channels so keep those eyes peeled.

Then on Wednesday August 3rd we’ll be back at Ronnie Scott‘s in a double bill with the fantastic Kairos 4tet during the annual Brit Jazz Fest that celebrates the best jazz the country has to offer – and we can’t wait… Remember that our gig in January with Get the Blessing sold out and we wouldn’t want anybody to miss out again, so get your tickets in now from here and we’ll see you there!

Looking a bit further ahead, we’re really pleased and honoured to have been included in a series of events at Kings Place during the London Jazz Festival in November. The festival website describes the series as ‘five massively talented groups and leaders – a meeting place for artists from the USA and Europe whose music stretches and probes the boundaries of jazz’ and there’s some stellar names involved… We’ll be playing on Saturday 19th November following gigs over the preceding few days by Nik Bartsch’s Ronin, Robert Glasper, Gretchen Parlato and Rory Simmons’ Fringe Magnetic and we can’t wait! Tickets are already on sale, so again get em while they’re hot…

Also I have a few posters left over so if you’d like one, just make a donation of £3 or more to cover postage using the yellow ‘Donate’ button on the right (include your address) and I’ll send you one – first come first served!