We really enjoyed ourselves last weekend playing at the Canary Wharf Jazz Festival, thanks to all who were there! Apparently it was the hottest day of the year so far – a nice stroke of luck! – and there was a cool vibe in the park all day as everyone enjoyed both the weather and the music in an awesome setting, as you can tell by the picture below which was tweeted to us from the crowd by Rowan Richards (it looks a bit cloudy but I can assure you it was still pretty hot!).
Some more photos from our set are below, all taken by Richard Kaby – I’ve also put a selection on our photo gallery and you check out even more photos from our set and the rest of the festival on Richard’s flickr site.
Posted by on 24/08/2012 at 14:46 in gigs and tagged canary wharf, london, photos. Leave comments here.
Fingers crossed that this nice weather can hold on for a few more weeks, at least until after Sunday 19th August when we’ll be headlining the final day of the FREE three day outdoor Canary Wharf Jazz Festival in London. If its as nice as the photo below from 2010 then we’re in for an awesome day… The lineup for the rest of the festival looks really cool too (Courtney Pine, Josh Arcoleo amongst many others) so if you’re in London make sure you head down there – its free after all!
Posted by on 24/07/2012 at 15:30 in gigs, news and tagged canary wharf, festival, london. Leave comments here.
Really excited to announce our first set of dates in the UK in 2012 – in these first 5 dates we’ll be travelling the length of England from Southampton to Gateshead, with stops in Barnstaple, London and Manchester along the way. The Manchester and London gigs will also be launch events for our debut album (released in the same week as the gigs), both held at venues very close to our hearts…
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…
Posted by on 13/12/2011 at 13:35 in gigs, news and tagged 2012, barnstaple, gateshead, gateshead international jazz festival, london, manchester, queen's theatre, rncm, ronnie scott's, sage, southampton, turner sims. Leave comments here.
I know its been a couple of weeks since the gig so this is a massively delayed post (I’ve been moving house, its been a nightmare…) but still wanted to write something because it was such a great night! We had loads of fun playing, the Kairos 4tet were awesome too, and everyone we met was lovely – except the trigger happy Soho traffic wardens, but thats another story…
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…
Posted by on 19/08/2011 at 17:35 in gigs, news and tagged brit jazz fest, evening standard, guardian, jack massarik, jazzwise, john l walters, kairos 4tet, london, ronnie scott's, selwyn harris. Leave comments here.
Our gig at Ronnie Scott’s tomorrow with the fabulous Kairos 4tet is now sold out! Hope you managed to get tickets in time if you were planning on coming down…
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!
Posted by on 02/08/2011 at 13:04 in gigs, news and tagged julian siegel, kairos 4tet, kings place, london, london jazz awards, london jazz festival, ronnie scott's. Leave comments here.
We’re making a couple of trips to London over the next couple of weeks, and then again in November for a really exciting gig in the London Jazz Festival – read on for all the info!
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…
Posted by on 25/07/2011 at 11:40 in gigs, news and tagged brit jazz fest, gig, jazz awards, kairos 4tet, kings place, london, london jazz festival, ronnie scott's. Leave comments here.
We’re really pleased to have been nominated for the 2011 London Jazz Award as one of the outstanding gigs in the capital over the past year! There’s some stiff competition in the shortlist – Gwilym Simcock, Soweto Kinch, Jason Yarde & Peter King to name but four – so we need your help…
The next stage of the shortlisting process ranks audience appreciation by looking at facebook and twitter ‘likes’, and they’ll be looking at the Guardian review by John Fordham of our gig at Ronnie Scott’s in January for this. So we need YOU – please go to the review here, click on the facebook ‘share’ button and the tweet button, and then go about the rest your day in the knowledge that you’ve done us a massive favour and enjoying the warm fuzzy feeling that comes with that!
Also if reading the review of our January gig at Ronnie’s makes you want to see us there again in the near future, you’re very much in luck – we’re back there on 3rd August in a double bill with the amazing Kairos 4tet during Ronnie’s Brit Jazz Fest. See you there!
Posted by on 23/06/2011 at 18:01 in news and tagged guardian, john fordham, london, london jazz award, ronnie scott's. Leave comments here.
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