Author Archives: cath

Manchester Jazz Festival 2015

Next week I’m heading up to Manchester for two very nice gigs, both on the same day as part of the Manchester Jazz Festival. On Wednesday 5th August, Madwort Sax Quartet are playing a sold-out set (!) at 3pm in the Portico Library. That evening, I’m heading to Soup Kitchen to play in the UK leg of the Efpi/Onze Heures Onze collaboration. The French leg happened in May, when I travelled to Paris with a whole bunch of Efpi-affiliated musicians.

Dee Byrne will be standing in for Chris Williams in MSQ, as Chris has broken a bone in his hand. We’re all gutted that Chris won’t be on the gig, but it should be a lot of fun playing with Dee.

I had a great time at MJF last year, so I’m looking forward to this trip very much!

Saxoctopus album

In exciting news, the Saxoctopus album is coming out on July 20th! It’s a recording from our gig at the Vortex last December, and will be released by Colin Webster’s label Raw Tonk Records. Featuring compositions by the majority of the members, lots of group improvisation and some *ahem* experimental recorder playing…

Live At LUME album and LUME is 2 birthday gig…

Quick post about an exciting week coming up. Firstly, we’re releasing a compilation album called ‘Live At LUME’ to raise money for future LUME activities. All the tracks are recordings made at LUME gigs and donated by the artists. Alex Bonney also donated his time to tidy up and master the album – so although they’re bootlegs, they sound really great! Have a listen below and grab your copy from the Bandcamp page. It was another great excuse for me to do some linocut printmaking too – so there’s a handmade CD edition…

Also happening this week is LUME’s 2nd birthday party/gig! We’re decamping to Hundred Years Gallery on Thursday 9th July for a night of improvised music with a difference. See the (also handmade and involving linocut printmaking) flyer below…

LUME-is-2-e-flyer

LUME On Tour: photos!

I realised I hadn’t really said anything on here about how LUME On Tour with Quadraceratops and Entropi went. It was brilliant! All the gigs were lovely, the logistics went smoothly without any disasters and we all had a lot of fun. After so many months working on the project, it feels a bit mad that it’s all over, but it couldn’t have gone better really, all things considered. Here are a selection of photos, with more to be found on the #LUMEOnTour hashtag.

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Freedom Festival: 27th/28th June

Quick post to shout about a cool gig coming up this weekend at the Freedom: The Art Of Improvisation Festival, organised by Warriors International. I’m playing on Saturday afternoon as part of a large group called the Xenicibis Freeform Ensemble. Put together by the festival, the ensemble features lots of amazing musicians, most of whom I haven’t played with before! We’re doing a totally free set and it should be a lot of fun. More info about the festival, plus the full lineup, can be found on its website…see you at the Vortex!

freedom main poster

Paris with Efpi and Ripsaw Catfish

I just got back from a great trip to Paris, as part of a collaboration between artists from Efpi Records and Onze Heures Onze Collective. It was organised by Jazz North, and this was the first leg of the exchange. Anton Hunter Trio, Ben Cottrell from Efpi and I travelled down to meet Julien Pontvianne and Alexandre Herer from OHO and play together. We had a nice session playing a combination of improvised music and some composed material that we’d all brought along, and then the following evening Anton’s trio played a set as part of Festival Onze Heures Onze.

It was a really interesting and inspiring few days, and I look forward to the second leg of the trip! This will be in August, when the OHO musicians will travel to the UK to perform with us at the Manchester Jazz Festival (where I will also be playing with Madwort Sax Quartet on the same day).

Onze Heure Onze Efpi photo (Stephanie K)Comedy group shot…(photo by Stephanie Knibbe)

OHOfest flyerThe festival flyer!

While we were in Paris, Anton and I managed to squeeze in a Ripsaw Catfish gig at Plateforme, a fantastic arts space run by another collective. This was made possible by Anton Mobin, who we met earlier this year when we shared the bill with him and Benedict Taylor at a Raw Tonk Records night. We had a great time: the gig was absolutely packed with an enthusiastic listening audience, and we were part of an eclectic programme with Crash Duo (Anton Mobin and Ayato) and Mariachi (aka the solo guitar project of Nina Garcia). Massive thanks to Anton M for making this happen: it was brilliant to be able to take advantage of our time in Paris with an extra date!

crash duo at plateformeCrash Duo…

mariachi at plateformeMariachi…

catfish at plateformeRipsaw Catfish!

This was possibly my first proper gig outside the UK and it was ace. Here’s to more music further afield in the future!

LUME On Tour!

Exciting news…Quadraceratops is going on tour! We’ll be on the road with Dee Byrne’s band Entropi, under the banner of ‘LUME On Tour’. Dee is releasing the debut Entropi album too. We’re playing nine dates around the UK; check out the poster below and see if you can make one of the gigs…

LUME On Tour eflyer

Sloth outings!

We had a great time this week playing the first two Sloth Racket gigs. The Gateshead gig went really well and it was fantastic to play at the Sage. What a brilliant venue! Huge thanks to Jazz North East for putting us on as part of their excellent ‘Women Make Music’ series. Rachel Musson, Hannah Marshall and Julie Kjaer played an inspirational set on the other side of the bill too, plus earlier in the day I co-ran a free improvisation workshop with Rachel, which was good fun and something I’d definitely like to do more of in the future.

Tom Ward took this shot of our set…

Sloths at GatesheadLast night we played the London ‘leg’ at LUME. It was a lovely night! Very nice crowd and great to play the music out again. Another Ward’s-eye view of the gig (Seth is almost totally hidden though!):

Sloths at LUMEI’m extremely pleased with how both gigs went, and we’re all keen to do more with the band, so watch this space…

Gateshead here we come…

Quick post about my next upcoming project. On Sunday 12th April I’ll be taking Sloth Racket, a brand new band featuring some of my favourite musicians (and favourite people!) to Gateshead International Jazz Festival. Anton Hunter, Sam Andreae, Seth Bennett and Johnny Hunter will be joining me to play some new music that I’ve put together especially for the gig; with a heavy emphasis on improvisation, of course.

We’re sharing the bill with the excellent trio of Rachel Musson, Julie Kjaer and Hannah Marshall, so it promises to be a great evening all round. Tickets are available from the festival website. Our gig is part of Jazz North East’s ‘Women Make Music’ series, supported by PRSF.

It wouldn’t be a new band without a gig at LUME, so we’ll be heading to Long White Cloud on Thursday 16th April for the London leg. Hope to see you there or at Gateshead!

In lieu of a band photo, here’s my sketch of a sloth making a racket.

sloth