preamble
For the moment at least its sunny and warm and thats enough for me to declare that its officially summer! To celebrate it being really hot we’re all going to cram into cars with lots of gear and drive for a long time so that we can play some gigs for you – the grand tour starts this Friday (21st) at the Forge in Camden and we can’t wait! See you down the front…
In this exciting issue:
• tour dates
• pre-tour Manchester party
• other interesting things (promise)
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road trip
Volcano permitting, we’ll be at these places on these dates – we hope you’ll be there too:
Friday 21st May – The Forge (Camden)
Saturday 5th June – Groove on the Green Festival (Liverpool)
Tuesday 8th June – Dempseys (Cardiff)
Wednesday 9th June – Jazzland (Swansea)
Thursday 1st July – Bridgewater Hall (Manchester)
Saturday 10th July – Marlborough Jazz Festival (Marlborough)
Saturday 31st July – Manchester Jazz Festival (Manchester)
As ever you can find more details about these dates on the website. Please also note that the Bristol date advertised in the last e-mail has unfortunately had to be cancelled – apologies to anybody who was hoping to make that gig, but we’ll still be in Cardiff on the next evening if you fancy the hop over the bridge…
Thought I’d point out this article on Sebastian Scotney’s great LondonJazz blog about our Camden gig and looking ahead to the Manchester Jazz Festival in July. Sebastian runs a competition for subscribers to his mailing list every week on a Wednesday, and this week the prize is a pair of tickets to come see us at the Forge on Friday – make sure you check out the site (its not just about jazz in London, its a great read wherever you are), and be sure to sign up for the newsletter to be in with a shout of coming on Friday for free! If you don’t win though, advance tickets are available online here.
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we need YOU!
As you’d expect, even without factoring in a decent daily wage for the musicians, taking 14 people out around the UK is a bit of a financial nightmare… We’re facing a bit of a funding defecit so if you’d like to support us you could always consider making a donation towards the band via the Donate button on the Efpi site. We’d collectively love you lots, and if you donate £10 or more we’ll even send you a postcard from somewhere nice we visit – promise! See you at the gigs, come and say hello!
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the sky’s the limit
Apologies for the appalling pun but I’m using it as a way to draw your attention to a gig we’re playing this Thursday (20th) at the West Didsbury Conservative Club in Manchester in a big band double bill with Alice Zawadzki & The Sky Project, a brand new 18 piece ensemble combining Alice’s stunning vocals and violin with equally stunning arrangements of Jo McCallum. Also performing on the night will be the Sam Rapley/Adam Chatterton Quintet. Free entry (although donations will be gratefully accepted!), VERY cheap bar, and almost 30 of Manchester’s finest young musicians – what’s not to love??
Alice Zawadzki & The Sky Project + Beats & Pieces Big Band + Sam Rapley/Adam Chatterton Quintet
Thursday 20th May, 8pm
West Didsbury Conservative Club, 173 Burton Road, Manchester M20 2LN (next to the Co-op – map)
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other dates for your diary
I mentioned this in the last newsletter but its so good I’m going to say it twice – fellow Efpi artists HAQ (Sam Andreae, Anton Hunter, Eero Tikannen, Finlay Panter) are also hitting the road, dates as follows:
Tuesday 25th May – Matt and Phreds (Manchester)
Thursday 27th May – The Cellar Wine Vaults (Bath)
Saturday 29th May – Zeffirellis (Ambleside)
Sunday 30th May – Hillary Step (Manchester)
Tuesday 1st June – The Wardrobe (Leeds)
Wednesday 2nd June – The Others (London)
Thursday 3rd June – The Yardbird (Birmingham)
Efpi Records have also recently released an EP by Sam’s latest project called Aaargh! (a reference to Monty Python…). It’s an Anglo-Finnish-Swiss saxophone-bass-drums trio featuring Sam, Eero and drummer David Meier. The 4 track EP is available for download only at www.efpirecords.com on a pay-what-you-like basis.
I also wanted to draw you attention to another gig by Alice’s Sky Project. They’ll be heading over to Ulverston in the Lake District on June 11th – if its still summer by then, why not spend the day wandering around the countryside followed by an evening of top music? Thats what we’ll be doing!
And make sure you stick the dates in your diary for this year’s Manchester Jazz Festival – 23rd to 31st July. Steve Mead and his team do an amazing job promoting jazz in Manchester and the North West, and the lineup for this year’s event is looking top (particularly looking forward to Mike Walker with Gwilym Simcock, Steve Swallow and Adam Nussbaum on 27th and a new commission from Neil Yates). Don’t miss it…
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Finally, thought I’d mention that we’re down to our last 25 copies of the strictly limited edition handmade copies of our EP so if you still haven’t got one make sure you get your order in quick here before we head out on tour and they run out! And at the time of writing I have 97 followers on twitter, how exciting – can you help me make it to 3 figures?!
Thanks for reading, and as always remember to keep an eye on our website at www.beatsnpieces.net and get in touch with anything you’d like to say to us on any subject whatsoever by e-mailing info@beatsnpieces.net
One world cup down, one to go…
Cheers,
Ben
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