See you there? Advance tickets for October 5th are available from the Vortex website, and the Manchester Freedom Principle gig on October 7th is £5 on the door.
Author Archives: cath
Quadraceratops album available for pre-order!
Exciting news: the Quadraceratops album is now available for pre-order from Efpi Records! It will be released on October 6th, but you can place your order now for download and/or CD versions. I did the album artwork using linocut printmaking and I’m really pleased with how they came out:
I think my living room will be looking like this for a while…
Eb sax quartet for ‘new dark art’
Last week I spent a very enjoyable day playing through Corey Mwamba’s new work ‘new dark art’ as part of a special Eb sax quartet we put together. The lineup was a Madwort/Saxoctopus hybrid: Chris Williams and Tom Ward on altos, with Colin Webster and me on baritones. Corey was documenting the session as it forms part of his MRes in composition, so here’s a video:
We’re looking forward to more activity with this music and the quartet!
Great gigs with Article XI! And ‘LUME Presents…’
Just a quick post to say thanks for coming, if you were at either of the Anton Hunter ‘Article XI’ gigs. We had a fantastic time and both performances went really well! We just need to sit back and wait for Anton to organise the world tour now. Both gigs were recorded, so hopefully those will see the light of day fairly soon…in the mean time here are a few photos:
The rehearsal shot…(by Peter Fay)
The group shot…(by Peter Fay)
The Manchester gig… (by Peter Fay in challenging lighting!).
The London gig… (by Cara Courage – and there are lots of other great shots from the gig on her Flickr page)
Next on the horizon for me is the launch of ‘LUME Presents…’ at the Vortex this Sunday. Looking forward to that! See below for the full listings on a new lovely poster from Peter Beatty:
Article XI at Manchester Jazz Festival and the Vortex
After a really nice gig at Fusebox in Leeds with Ripsaw Catfish last week, I’m now looking ahead to the next project on the horizon: playing in Anton Hunter’s brand new band ‘Article XI’. We’re performing at the Manchester Jazz Festival on 24th July, and the Vortex in London on 27th July.
The lineup is:
Anton Hunter / guitar, electronics
Graham South, Nick Walters / trumpets
Mette Rasmussen / alto saxophone
Sam Andreae, Simon Prince / tenor saxophones
Cath Roberts / baritone saxophone
Seth Bennett, Richard Foote / trombones
Eero Tikkanen / bass
Johnny Hunter / drums
Anton has written a set of new music for the group, and at the first rehearsal a couple of weeks ago it was sounding great. Plus, it’s a lovely bunch of people. I’m very happy to be involved!
I’m also looking forward to checking out the rest of the festival while I’m up there. Should be an enjoyable week…
Ripsaw Catfish in Leeds
Quick post about an upcoming gig this Friday, 4th July. Ripsaw Catfish are heading to Leeds to play at Fusebox. It will be our first time at this long-running night – the programme is always fantastic so it was really nice to be asked. We will be in a double bill with Backyard Chassis, a trio of Adam Fairhall, Johnny Hunter and Corey Mwamba…very much looking forward to hearing them!
In other Catfish news, we did a recording last weekend in Sam’s Basement, Macclesfield, so hopefully that will see the light of day in the next few months. We’re also working on putting our ‘Shoaling’ tour together for late November/early December, and I’ll post about that once it’s all sorted. In the mean time, here’s a recording from our February gig at Fizzle (at the Lamp Tarvern) in Birmingham. See you in Leeds!
LUME receives Jazz Promoters Award
Just a quick post with a piece of exciting news: Dee and I heard last week that LUME is one of the recipients of the 2014 Jazz Services/PRSF Jazz Promoters Award! This is great for us as it will ease the financial pressure a bit, helping us keep the night going into 2015. We’re currently in the middle of booking our Autumn 2014 season of gigs, and it’s already looking pretty sweet. Massive thanks to both organisations for supporting original and improvised music at Long White Cloud and beyond…
…speaking of which, if you’re free this Thursday, I’m playing in a trio with Olie Brice and Corey Mwamba! See below post for details…
Trio gig with Corey Mwamba and Olie Brice
I just booked in what promises to be a nice gig with a brand new group. It will be a trio with Corey Mwamba (vibraphone, small instruments), Olie Brice (bass) and me on bari. This combination hasn’t played together before so it should be fun! One of the reasons for setting up LUME was to have a platform for trying out new things, and this is one. Come and hear the results on June 12th at Long White Cloud.
I made a photo mashup for the LUME promo…could be worse…
Three duos flyer
Colin Webster has made some lovely flyers using his new letterpress, for the three duos gig on 22nd April. Come along to Servant Jazz Quarters and check us out…
Saxoctopus emerges at The Vortex
Last night saw the debut appearance of a new ensemble I’m involved in: the Saxoctopus! An all-saxophone octet, the band started life as a joke (hard to believe I know) when eight sax players turned up at a LUME gig. After some banter on social networks, one thing led to another, and before we knew what was happening we had been offered a gig. We’ll be putting together the full set ready to play later this year, but last night at the Vortex Jazz Club we got the chance to try things out by guesting with Trio Riot on the first night of their UK tour.
Needless to say, it was a total blast! Our cameo was at the end of the night, after two fantastic sets from Wolf Suit and our hosts Trio Riot. The octopus comprises of Colin Webster, Rachel Musson, Tom Ward, Dee Byrne, Julie Kjaer, Sam Andreae, Mette Rasmussen and me. On drums was Trio Riot’s David Meier.
I look forward to doing more with this band! A couple of photos were salvaged from the sax onslaught by Tom…
The rehearsal: Sam goes through the music with us while Colin checks for urgent messages on his phone.
The gig! (photo by @mike__sands)