Category Archives: gigging

Lancaster Jazz Festival Artist in Residence: photo blog

I had a fantastic time as Artist in Residence at Lancaster Jazz Festival this September. What a great festival – and what a brilliant opportunity to offer artists. The headline performance with my ten-piece band was recorded, and should be available to hear soon, but in the mean time here are a few photos from the project.

Anton’s panorama of the whole group in rehearsal (minus himself!). Click to enlarge.

Festival banners with my face on….quite a weird experience!

Soundchecking at the Dukes…
The audience awaits!

On stage: you can just about see the whole band in this shot…

Cutting loose after the gig with festival director Matt Robinson at the Lancaster edition of ‘The Hat Speaks’ late night improv session.

The residency was a perfect way to start a new project. Massive thanks to Matt, Dave and the team for making it happen! I’m now keen to do more with the group in 2017, so watch this space….

Sloth Racket at Brighton Alternative Jazz Festival

I had a great weekend hanging out at the inaugural edition of Daniel Spicer’s Brighton Alternative Jazz Festival last year – so I’m really looking forward to playing there with Sloth Racket this weekend! We’re opening the Saturday session at 5pm. See the flyer below for the awesome line-up…

Far Rainbow video

A video has appeared of Colin Webster and me guesting with Far Rainbow earlier this year at Zero Wave Club. Check it out….

Raw Tonk showcase at V22

Seth Bennett and I will be playing a duo set next week, at this great-looking gig put together by the mighty Raw Tonk Records!

This weekend…

Quick post about an upcoming gig this Saturday. I’ve been invited to be part of a new group called Ethereal World Ensemble, led by Rowland Sutherland and Jackie Walduck, and our first gig is on Saturday 23rd July at IKLECTIK. See the flyer below for more info…

Lancaster Jazz Festival Artist In Residence/Headline Artist

Some very exciting news for the Autumn: I’m going to be Artist In Residence at Lancaster Jazz Festival 2016! Their tireless artistic director and ace clarinettist Matt Robinson emailed me a few months ago to offer this fantastic (and terrifying) opportunity and obviously I had to say yes. The main focus of my Artist In Residence role will be to produce some new music, the performance of which will be the festival’s headline set on Saturday 17th September. So, not a very high pressure gig then…

I decided to assemble a large ensemble for the occasion, which is something I’ve wanted to do for a long time. It’s ended up as a ten-piece, and the line-up will be:

Julie Kjær flute & bass clarinet
Tom Ward flute & bass clarinet
Graham South trumpet
Tullis Rennie trombone
Dee Byrne alto sax
Sam Andreae tenor sax
Cath Roberts baritone sax
Anton Hunter guitar
Seth Bennett double bass
Johnny Hunter drums

The band is basically an expanded Sloth Racket, and I can’t wait to get started on putting the music together. More on this to follow….

The festival is happening over the weekend of the 16th-18th September, and the full programme will be announced soon (keep an eye on the festival website).

Solo baritone set at Arch 1…

I’m playing a solo set (!) at Arch 1 on the 14th June, on the bill with Deemer and a brand new combination of Martin Pyne, Ed Riches and Tom Ward…

Merijn from Deemer has made a cool flyer:

Fundraiser gig for Brighton Alternative Jazz Festival

I’m playing at this ace-looking benefit gig in July, raising money for the second edition of Daniel Spicer’s excellent Brighton Alternative Jazz Festival. Looking forward to collaborating with the guys from Woven Entity! Tom, Anton and Seth are also playing in a trio for the first time.

Article XI video

Anton Hunter has recently posted a video online from our Article XI gig at the Vortex in 2014! Check it out below. It will be great to play with this band again at LUME Festival in June….

Good times on the Sloth Racket tour!

The Sloth Racket May tour was a lovely run of gigs. It was great to have the chance to develop our existing music by playing it every night, as well as trying out some new compositions of mine (plus one by Sam Andreae!). Massive thanks to all the promoters who put us on: Andrew Woodhead at Fizzle (Birmingham); Jez Matthews and team from Jazz At The Lescar (Sheffield); Laura, Bill, Dave K and all at Fusebox (Leeds); Chris, Kerstin and all at Fuse Arts (Bradford); and Dee for being our host at LUME for the Vortex album launch gig in London. I’m also extremely grateful to Arts Council England for supporting our touring activities this year: roll on the October tour! I’ve collected together a few tour photos for the blog…