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.
Thanks so much to everybody who was at Ronnie Scott’s on Wednesday, we had a great time and can only hope that you enjoyed the set as much as we did! There’s some photos below and a copy of a review from today’s Times – you can also find it online here (behind the paywall though…)
UPDATE: Fran Hardcastle from the always excellent LondonJazz blog was also at the gig – check out her review here.
UPDATE 2: So was The Guardian’s John Fordham – his review is online here or see below…
Posted by on 21/01/2011 at 21:26 in gigs, news and tagged gig, guardian, london, londonjazz, review, ronnie scott's, ronnie's, times. Leave comments here.
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!
Posted by on 13/01/2011 at 16:12 in gigs, news and tagged 2011, burghausen, europe, germany, gigs, london, ronnie scott's. Leave comments here.
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