Quick post to link to this preview of an exciting project I’m looking forward to playing for: Anton Hunter’s Article XI. Anton has been commissioned by Manchester Jazz Festival to write a new suite of music and perform it at the festival this July. He has put together an eleven-piece ensemble especially for it, and we’re also involved in the composition process. I will be playing baritone sax. It was great to be invited to play, and the whole thing promises to be a lot of fun…
Author Archives: cath
Another poster…
I’ve attempted another gig poster. Maybe I’ll do one for all the Ripsaw Catfish gigs. Anyway, this one is for our 27th March set at LUME…
Catfish Riot
A brilliant poster has appeared on Facebook for the Trio Riot/Ripsaw Catfish gig in Manchester on 26th March. Check it out. The gig is on 26th March at Dulcimer Bar in Chorlton. It’s going to be amazing to share the bill with such a great band!
Servant Jazz Quarters gig: April 22nd
On April 22nd I’ll be playing in a three duos gig at Servant Jazz Quarters, Dalston. There will be sets from Colin Webster (saxophones) and Graham Dunning (turntable, mixer and dubplates), Ti/om (Tom Ward on woodwinds and Tim Fairhall on bass), and then Anton and I will do one as Ripsaw Catfish. I’ve made a poster with a leafy kaleidoscope, in case you need a bit more persuasion to attend:
A lovely night at LUME!
Last Thursday (6th Feb) we started up LUME for 2014 at our new venue Long White Cloud. It promised to be quite a full-on night for me as not only were we trying out the venue for the first time, but I had also been invited to play with Corey Mwamba and Martin Pyne as part of the gig! In addition to this, we were a bit concerned about turnout due to the combination of relentless rain and a tube strike.
Happily, it all worked out. Dee and I turned up early with our elaborate collection of stuff including curtains, fixings, new LUME banner, etc. After a coffee-fuelled DIY session (with drill work by bassist Jeff Spencer, who had arrived as an audience member but ended up as crew), the stage was set and it looked pretty good….especially with Corey and Martin’s vibes/electronics setup ready to rock as well. (NB: To get to the gig Corey did end up walking across London with his vibraphone for the first time since 2005, apparently, for which we are eternally grateful…especially considering the weather.)
We got a nice enthusiastic crowd down (who were loving the food and drink at LWC) and I really enjoyed the gig. It was so great to be asked to play with Corey and Martin: I was transported with my bari into another world of vibraphone soundscapes for two sets. Awesome. If you ever hear of them playing a duo set, make sure you catch it. The gig looked like this (although without my austere expression most of the time hopefully):
All in all, a successful and enjoyable evening. Long White Cloud were fantastic hosts and everyone had a good time. We look forward to many more! We’re there every Thursday, so do drop in when you’re free and check out the gigs (listings on the LUME website). A door-eye view to finish off the post:
LUME starts up again for 2014 and Ripsaw Catfish Spring gigs
After a quiet January (playing-wise at least…I wasn’t short on admin), things are about to kick off in a flurry of Spring activity, so I thought it was time for an update.
LUME re-starts on February 6th, and will be running weekly at our new venue Long White Cloud in Hoxton. The full programme for Feb/March is over on our website for your perusal, but I will say here that the first gig is a real treat. We’ve got our good friends Corey Mwamba and Martin Pyne pitching up with their vibraphones, electronics and assorted bits and bobs for a duo gig. I’ll be joining them on bari sax in the second set, but don’t let that put you off. It should be a lovely evening of improvising and settling into our new home.
Next up is a bunch of gigs with Ripsaw Catfish, my new duo with the ace guitarist Anton Hunter. The music is mostly improvised, but with some elements that we’ve composed too, and we’ve been making our way around the rehearsal rooms of the London and Manchester areas working on it. Much tea has been consumed, the world set to rights, so now we’re going to embark upon what could be called a mini-tour. Hear the results at these places:
11th February: Fizzle, The Lamp Tavern, Birmingham (with Bruce Coates & Trevor Lines)
26th March: Freedom Principle, Manchester (with Trio Riot)
27th March: LUME, Long White Cloud, London (with Steve Beresford and Julie Kjaer)
6th April: One Note Sunday, ArtsmithLIVE, Derby (early gig: 6.30pm)
Hope to see you out there somewhere!
Quadraceratops @ The Salisbury
I’ve just booked in a gig for Quadraceratops at Jazz At The Salisbury on Sunday 2nd February. It’s always nice to play there, and this will be a week before we go into the studio so a good chance to blow through the tunes ready for the session. Come along if you’re free!
Quadraceratops recording booked…
After a lot of diary checking, we’ve booked in the Quad album sessions for April. Very exciting! There is still much admin to be done, but it now feels like a real thing. And a deadline. Time to knuckle down for a winter of editing and shuffling the music around…
Resurrecting Paul Francis‘ Quad for the occasion.
Things are happening in 2014
The last Quad gig of the year has happened, and the last LUME of the year is tonight, so now it’s *really* time to start sorting out what’s going on next year. Lots of things are up in the air, and some things are half-organised or very nearly organised, but I recently put the first actually-confirmed thing in my diary: Ripsaw Catfish will be playing at Corey Mwamba’s gig One Note Sunday in Derby, in April.
I really like One Note Sunday and I wrote about it before when we played there with the sax quartet. If you are in the Midlands and free on April 6th, come and check us out doing a bari sax/guitar duo thing. The night is also on FB and Twitter. How’s that for advance notice?
More on everything else soon once I have something to say!
Quadraceratops and LUME in the LJF, and a general update…
Well, after neglecting this site for a few months I thought it was probably time to write a new post! I’ve also given things a bit of a spring clean around here and changed the colours, so it’s kind of masquerading as a new website.
In a couple of weeks it will be that time of year once again: London Jazz Festival week. Last year Quadraceratops got a last-minute gig supporting Get The Blessing at the Jazz Cafe, so I was keen to get something in the diary for 2013 too. As a lot of my time so far this year has been spent working on LUME and Collisions, it seemed fitting for that something to happen at a gig I’m involved in running myself, and happily Dee and I managed to get LUME into the festival programme! We are putting on a double bill of our own bands, and although it’s not quite the last gig of the year, it feels like a nice way to celebrate getting the gig off the ground. Do come and join us on Thursday 21st November for what promises to be a lovely gig. Dee is bringing her excellent band Entropi, and I’ll be bringing the Quad. I’ll also have special guests Henry Spencer, Jason Simpson and ‘Dave O’Keys’ (aka Dave O’Bass!) joining us for the Quad set, which will be fun! The gig is listed on the LJF site, and of course you can also check our LUME website for details.
I’m hoping that 2014 will be the year of a Quadraceratops studio album, so there’s a lot of organising to be done. Much more to come on that topic soon: at the moment it’s mainly just me sending emails! We did manage to attempt an impromptu photo shoot at our Union Chapel Bar gig, of which this is probably the best shot…some good pouts going on at least;)
Finally, I’m also working on a new project which I’ll be posting more about later: a duo with Anton Hunter on guitar and me on bari called ‘Ripsaw Catfish’. It’s a lot of fun and quite noisy. So far we’re touring the rehearsal rooms of London and Manchester, with some actual gigs coming up soon…
That’s probably about it for now. See you at Hundred Crows Rising for the Quad gig, if you can make it!