Super excited to be involved in a bunch of really cool gigs this month!

First up, this Friday 9th November I’m playing at the legendary Con Cellar Bar in Camden with my quintet Entropi. Over the years I’ve enjoyed attending the Con to hear exciting cutting-edge music! We’ll be sharing the bill with excellent Birmingham-based drummer/composer Jonathan Silk and his group Forj.

My quintet has had a bunch of really nice gigs in October, we played at Brighton Alternative Jazz Festival on the 4th, Vortex on the 5th and Marsden Jazz Festival on the 13th. The performance at Marsden was recorded by BBC Radio 3 and will be broadcast on Jazz Now on Christmas Eve – something to enjoy while sipping on your mulled wine (or maybe you’ll need something stronger!)

On 13th November I’m playing an improvised duo set with my long time collaborator Cath Roberts at Noizemaschin, Amersham Arms, New Cross. This monthly noise and experimental music night is run by Sam Gillies and Daniel James Ross. It’s a cool concept where eight 10 minute solo/duo sets overlap with each other, making space for some great spontaneous meetings. I’ve performed at this night before and really enjoyed not only playing, but listening to the flow between the musicians. My last duo gig with Cath was at Linear Obsessional Live, an event put on by Richard Sanderson. He described our duo as: ‘a near telepathic unit’ – I think I might have to agree!! 

I can not wait for 16th November when I’ll be performing at the opening night of the EFG London Jazz Festival in Ethan Iverson London residency (part 1): Raising Hell with Henry Purcell at Kings Place. Joined by a ridiculous line-up of Brigitte Beraha, Kim Macari, Cath Roberts, Mandhira De Saram and Olie Brice. Ethan talks about his upcoming three-day residency in his blog Do The Math. This is going to be an absolute riot! 

On 20th November I’ll be playing at Huw V Williams’ night Shelf Life at Aces and Eights, Tufnell Park. This third edition of Shelf Life falls during the London Jazz Festival week and will feature an improvised set with musicians who’ve been interviewed on Improvised Music Agenda, Huw’s podcast. He’s done 16 interviews to date – I am on the first ever episode : )

The legendary Jazzcotech dancers present Focus On Jazz at The Bear Club, Luton on 23rd November, where they are featuring Brit Funk outfit Atmosfear. Coming from a groove based and funk background myself, I absolutely love playing with this HEAVY crew of top musicians, including vibes man Orphy Robinson. Check out bandleader Lester Bachelor’s interview with Gilles Peterson on BBC Radio 6 Music in October.

Plus…. in December:

On 6th December: Now It Can Be Told, a new quartet with myself Johnny Hunter, Chris Sharkey and Mick Bardon performs at Wharf Chambers, Leeds. The ensemble navigates its way through Johnny’s post rock inspired compositions adding a large dose of improvisation (and effects!) This will be our third gig. Plans for recording are in the pipeline, and we may even venture south for a gig or two in 2019!

Cath Roberts’ 10 piece ensemble Favourite Animals plays at London City University on Monday 10th December. The project started life when Cath was artist in residence at Lancaster Jazz Festival in 2016. Last year we recorded an album in August, which is out on Luminous (LUME’s tiny label) and toured in December. It will be great to play in this ensemble again. The event is free to attend, but you need to book a place!

I am extremely happy to have been recently awarded funding from the second round of Arts Council’s brand new Developing Your Creative Practice grant. ‘Exploring writing for different line-ups’ will be a 12 month project composing and developing new music for four ensembles. Watch this space!