Theo Jackson & Nathaniel Facey at Dean Clough, May 30th

 

THEO JACKSON & NATHANIEL FACEY

Thursday, May 30th 2013 at 8.00pm

Dean Clough, Halifax HX3 5AX

Tickets £14.00

Booking and directions on: www.deanclough.com

Season ticket and phone bookings: 01422 255266

 

"One of Britain’s finest jazz musicians and singers"  (Jazz FM)

 

Theo Jackson - piano and vocals • Nathaniel Facey - saxophone

 

This new combination of piano, vocals and sax sees two young jazz musicians relying on their ears and a mutual trust. Each firmly established in their own field, this duo project from Theo Jackson and Nathaniel Facey allows them to improvise freely. The skeleton structure of the songs can move and occasionally completely disappears. Their performance at the 2012 Oxford Jazz Festival held the audience captive as they introduced their interpretation of standards, together with with their own original compositions.

 

Theo Jackson regularly performs in London at the Pizza Express and The 606 Jazz Clubs, and has also appeared at the Elgar Room of the Royal Albert Hall. Further afield he appears both as a solo artist and with his own band. His writing is varied and is influenced by the likes of Thelonious Monk, Stevie Wonder, John Coltrane, Esbjšrn Svensson, Billy Strayhorn and Brian Blade. Equally comfortable when deliberating over the delicate lines of an emotional ballad or improvising fluent bop vocal solos, Theo's style is very much his own. “Soulful, earthy vocal-led jazz from this impressive young singer with a powerful yet subtle voice, Jackson also has a knack of penning Stevie Wonder-esque originals that avoid the usual crooner cliches. Helping maintain these lofty standards is superb Empirical altoist Facey . . . Jackson's one to watch out for." Time Out

 

Nathaniel Facey has gained extensive performance experience playing with various groups around the world at festivals including Newport Jazz, North Sea Jazz, Sous les Pommiers and Montreal. He has worked and collaborated with some of the finest musicians both from the UK and abroad including Jason Moran, jazz legend Jack Dejohnette, Hugh Masekela, Courtney Pine, Julian Joseph, Jerry Dammers, Tim Garland, Julian Siegel and Denys Baptiste. Nathaniel is a founding member and co-leader of the British jazz group Empirical whose albums have received 4 star ratings in the Guardian and Jazzwise. In 2010 Empirical added the jazz MOBO award to their collection, alongside their earlier Peter Whittingham and Parliamentary Jazz Awards. Also in 2010 Nathaniel was the winner of the Worshipful Company of Musicians annual young jazz musician competition.

 

Album: The debut album from Theo Jackson – Jericho – was released in early 2012 and features Nathaniel Facey. The tracks Fairytale and Excuse Me are both from the album, which was reviewed for All About Jazz. http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=42061