Category Archives: gigging

Shoaling, Saxoctopus and trio gig

Right then. After a flurry of Quadraceratops activity for LJF, it’s time to put the alto sax back in its case and get the baritone out for the rest of the year! Here’s what the end of 2014 looks like for me…

Ripsaw Catfish: Shoaling tour

Anton and I kicked off our collaborative tour last week, in the form of a totally off-the-hook encounter with Corey Mwamba, Dave Kane and Joshua Blackmore at LUME. We had a great time playing with them and it was a combination of people I’d love to get together again. We have high hopes for the rest of the Shoaling tour now. The dates and the shoals are:

29th November – Open Circuit, Parish Rooms, Ulverston. With Shaun Blezard.

30th November – Blank Canvas, Liverpool. With Mark Hanslip and Johnny Hunter.

13th December – Cafe Bar Marzano’s, Norwich. With Chris Dowding’s brass ensemble ‘Brass Monkeys’.

17th December – The Scope, Brighton. With The Static Memories.

Saxoctopus returns…

In between Shoaling dates, the eight-saxophone monster Saxoctopus is rearing its head for two gigs. We’re playing at the last ‘LUME Presents’ gig of the year at the Vortex, on Sunday 7th December in a double bill with the excellent Alphabets (Hannah Marshall, Nick Malcolm and Lauren Kinsella). Then on Tuesday 9th December we head to Derby to play at Corey Mwamba’s new series ‘The Family Album’. This will be fun….

Trio with Olie Brice and Corey Mwamba

With the octopus safely back in its tank (?), I’ll head directly to Daniel Thompson’s Foley Street concert series for the second meeting of the trio with Corey and Olie. The first one was very enjoyable indeed, so it will be really nice to do it again!

Hope to see you out there somewhere…

The London Jazz Festival is upon us!

It’s that time of year again, and I’ve got a few things coming up in the London Jazz Festival. They are:

18th, 19th and 20th November: a three night LUME festival special! I’m playing on the 18th (with Ripsaw Catfish) and the 20th (with Quadraceratops) plus referee-ing the Deemer/duck-rabbit double bill on the 19th. More info on the LUME blog post, and there are advance tickets on sale for all three gigs too.

23rd November: Quadraceratops are playing at the BBC Jazz On 3 festival edition of ‘Jazz In The Round’, at the Clore Ballroom, Southbank Centre. We’re kicking off the four-band bill at 2pm. This will be fun! It’s also being recorded for Radio 3, and will be broadcast at 11pm on Monday 8 December.

In between all that I’ll be trying to catch everyone else’s amazing gigs. See you out there!

NB: The Ripsaw Catfish gig is also the first night of our ‘Shoaling’ tour. We’re heading off around the UK in November and December, collaborating with lots of different improvisers. There’s some more info on the Sound And Music project page, and here’s a handy flyer.

shoaling flyer

 

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:

article xi rehearsalThe rehearsal shot…(by Peter Fay)

article xi by peter fayThe group shot…(by Peter Fay)

article xi mancThe Manchester gig… (by Peter Fay in challenging lighting!).

article xi vortex cara courageThe 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:

LUME-Presents-A6-flyer-with-text1

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…

Anton-Hunter-492x304

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)