Category Archives: News

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

 

‘For The Benefit Of The Tape’ available from Raw Tonk!

The Ripsaw Catfish album ‘For The Benefit Of The Tape’ is now available to stream and pre-order from Raw Tonk Records! Have a listen:

Anton and I are now looking forward to getting stuck into our next Catfish project, a collaborative tour called ‘Shoaling’. We’ll be playing with lots of musicians around the UK starting November 18th….more info (and flyer!) on this to come soon.

Ripsaw Catfish on Raw Tonk

Quick post to say that a Ripsaw Catfish release is on its way! ‘For The Benefit Of The Tape’ will be out on Colin Webster’s excellent Raw Tonk Records on November 3rd. I’ve done some seriously lo-fi artwork for the sleeve (see below) and Angela Guyton has designed a fantastic band logo which I’ll post soon (it only exists as a stamp at the moment, ready to be applied to the sleeves I’m about to make!). More on this to follow…

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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:

coverssleeves standing up stacks 1 stacks 2I think my living room will be looking like this for a while…

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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:

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:

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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…

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