Beats & Pieces Big Band » gigs

Ronnie Scott’s + Germany

Ben — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 16:12:32 +0000

I’ve put up details of our first few gigs in 2011, both of which are really exciting! Our first appearance of the year will be at the legendary Ronnie Scott’s club in London on Wednesday 19th January, in a double bill with the amazing Get The Blessing. Tickets are £10-£21.50 and can be obtained here. If you’re planning on coming, say hello on the facebook event and we’ll see you there…

I’m also really pleased to announce that we’ve been selected as one of five finalists in the European Young Artists’ Jazz Award, the final of which will be held in Burghausen in Germany at the end of March. The winner will perform at the B-jazz festival, which has a great lineup already including Chick Corea & Gary Burton, Joe Lovano and Helge Sunde. Although we’ve got some small financial support from the competition to get there, with 14 people to get across the continent its still going to cost us a fair bit so please consider downloading or buying our music or making a donation via the button on the right to support our travels!

november 2010 tour

Ben — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 16:32:29 +0000

I’m very excited to officially announce that we’ll be touring England in November 2010, playing in Leicester, Liverpool, Leeds, London, Sheffield and ending in Manchester. If you’ve been paying close attention to the gigs page on the website or myspace, you’ll know the details already but if not, the dates and venues are as follows:

Sunday 7th November – Y Theatre, Leicester

Monday 15th November – Studio 2, Parr St Studios, Liverpool

Tuesday 16th November – The Wardrobe, Leeds

Sunday 21st November – Spice of Life, Soho (London Jazz Festival)

Wednesday 24th November – Lescar, Sheffield

Saturday 27th November – Matt & Phreds, Manchester

For full details including venue addresses, ticket prices and times, check the gigs page. See you down the front!

(jazz) bums

Ben — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 12:47:38 +0000

In one of my pontificating moods the other day I came across this article (via A Blog Supreme) by an American saxophonist called Greg Osby, talking about suitable attire for jazz musicians on a gig. It got me thinking a little bit about what we wear for Beats & Pieces gigs – I normally just tell the band to wear something comfortable and similar to what they normally wear, which is exactly what Osby doesn’t like… Obviously I can only comment on myself, but some of the things he particularly doesn’t like to see are:

prominent holes in jeans
wrinkled t-shirts
dirty trainers
visible underwear

…all of which I have been known to exhibit. I take issue with the unwashed hair though – messy and unkempt it may be but its always washed!

All joking aside, I’d be genuinely interested in your comments regarding this issue and Beats & Pieces specifically. Does our less formal dress detract from our performance? Is the sight of my arse appearing over the top of my jeans personally offensive? Personally I’m of the impression that the music we play isn’t ‘just’ jazz influenced, and contains strong influences from rock and pop music where casual dress for gigs seems to be the norm. Osby says that people see you before they hear you and gain an impression from that, but I feel that if we were to arrive for a gig dressed in 1950s suits then the impression that would be given off wouldn’t be representative of the music we play and are influenced by. But like I say I do really want to know what you think, and maybe the next time you see us we’ll all put our glad rags on…

Below are some pictures for comparison of Greg Osby looking razor sharp (and quite pleased about it actually) and me looking arguably less so…