Beats & Pieces Big Band » gig

mjf is coming…

Ben — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 08:51:05 +0000

Excited about the Manchester Jazz Festival next month! Check out the youtube video above for a preview of what the festival is about, and keep an eye on the website at manchesterjazz.com in the next few days as the full lineup will be revealed very soon. Pleased to officially announce that we’ll be playing on the closing night of the festival on Saturday 31st July at the festival pavilion in Albert Square – this will be a bit of a party for us too as it will officially end our tour, back at the scene of our first ever gig at the festival only two years ago… See you there!

pre-tour party!

Ben — Fri, 14 May 2010 11:04:24 +0000

You may have seen cryptic messages on myspace & facebook referring to a secret gig somewhere in Manchester on Thursday 20th May… Well its finally time to let the cat out of the bag!

We’ll be playing in a big band double bill with the wonderful Alice Zawadzki who’ll be showing off her brand new 18 piece Sky Project, a collaboration with the equally wonderful Jo McCallum. You’ll also get to hear the exciting Sam Rapley/Adam Chatterton quartet.

The evening will be held at the West Didsbury Conservative Club, Burton Road, M20 2LN (map) and will begin at 8pm. Entry will be free, but we will be accepting donations if you enjoy the music!

See you there…

2010 gigs

Ben — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 13:14:51 +0000

I’ve just put up a couple of gigs that have recently been confirmed for the coming months… There’s a few more in the pipeline too so keep checking the gigs page for the latest news!

4/02/10 The Spin Off, Bar Santiago, Leeds

21/05/10 The Forge Venue, Camden

We’ll also be playing at the Marlborough Jazz Festival over the weekend of the 9th July – exact day to be confirmed but should be a good one!

happy 2010! and bye 2009…

Ben — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 00:48:49 +0000

Let me be the last person to wish you a happy new year! Hope Christmas and everything was good, its perhaps a bit late for that but its always nice to say it anyway… And whilst we’re being late check out the Efpi Christmas message here if you haven’t already, it’ll put you right in the mood all over again.

Thought now would be an excellent time to recap all the stuff from the end of 2009 that I’ve been meaning to post, just to close everything off nicely. First of all, I’ve just uploaded a load of photos from the EP launch night on 2nd December to the gallery; the pictures were all taken by Martin Wilson and they’re really good so check them out now… I think that this one is my favourite.

Also it was my birthday just before Christmas, and wanted to share with you this picture of my amazing birthday cake – remind you of anything?? Thanks Lucy!

beats & pieces helsinki

Ben — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 21:01:58 +0000

I spent last week in Helsinki on an Efpi Records ‘business trip’, visiting Sam and doing a gig with ‘Beats & Pieces Finland’ – a big band made up of some of the cream of Helsinki’s young jazz talent. There’s a tour diary with pictures of our fun in the snow over at the Efpi site, and I’ve uploaded some photos from the Cafe Mascot (with Sagolik) gig below and to the Gallery.

Thanks to everyone who came to the gig and especially to those who gave up their time and effort to play in the band – it was great to meet and play with you all! Hopefully it won’t be the last gig for the ensemble…

The gig was recorded but unfortunately the sound engineer’s recorder ran out of memory a couple of songs into the set… If I can salvage anything I’ll upload it soon!

finland

Ben — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 23:32:45 +0000

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!

ep launch poster

Ben — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 14:38:40 +0000

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!

ep launch party!

Ben — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 12:02:47 +0000

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

Lescar tonight!

Ben — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 10:40:44 +0000

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!