Category Archives: gigging

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…

corey olie mashup

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…

saxoctorehearsalThe rehearsal: Sam goes through the music with us while Colin checks for urgent messages on his phone.

saxoctopusThe gig! (photo by @mike__sands)

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:

duos-sjq-poster

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.)

lume setupWe 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):

corey martin vibes trio lumeAll 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 door

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!

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!