Beats & Pieces, Engines Orchestra & Matt Bourne announced for EFG London Jazz Festival

It may be the hottest day of the year so far and we're only in May, but Serious have begun announcing some of their headline acts for this year's EFG London Jazz Festival, which takes place between 10-19th November.

This year's festival will be the 25th and there are some special events to celebrate this milestone birthday. The 25 for 25 programme sees a host of newly commissioned works premiered during the festival. Manchester's finest Beats and Pieces will perform a new work (Rich Mix, November 18th) and LCoM alumnus Phil Meadows brings his Engines Orchestra to perform their latest collaboration with Phronsesis and Dave Maric, Decade Zero (Milton Court, November 12th).

Yorkshire-based pianist Matt Bourne will join forces with Keith Tippett, too, on November 10th at King's Place.

To find out more about the festival, visit the EFG London Jazz Festival website.

Gogo Penguin and Beats & Pieces head to Rotterdam

North Sea Jazz Festival is one of the most well-known jazz festivals in the World. For three days in July, musicians from across the world perform to thousands of audience members. This year, there are three UK jazz musicians/ensembles taking part and two of these are from Manchester!

Beats & Pieces Big Band perform on July 10th on the Mississippi stage. The band have already had some European dates this year, touring in Poland, Germany, Czech Republic and Austria back in March.

Also on the 10th, Gogo Penguin perform on the Darling stage. The Manchester piano trio have had a great few years, recently being signed to Blue Note and embarking on an extensive tour across the world. As well as their performance, they will also take part in a Q & A session in the Jazz Cafe area.

Also flying the flag for jazz in the UK, multi-instrumentalist wunderkind Jacob Collier performs on Saturday 9th July.

For the full festival line-up, visit the North Sea Jazz Festival website.

Efpi Festival in London, June 25th

Manchester record label Efpi will run an evening of music at King's Place in London on June 25th, showcasing three of the ensembles they represent.

The evening will celebrate two of the latest releases on the label - Johnny Hunter Quartet's While We Still Can (which will be officially launched at the event) and Let Spin's Let Go. Joining these two ensembles, award-winning Beats & Pieces will round off the event.

From the King's Place website -

A big band for modern times’, Beats & Pieces regularly perform across the UK and Europe to consistent audience and critical acclaim. The release last year of their second album All In reaffirmed their reputation as one of the most original large ensembles around, and anyone who has experienced one of their gigs before will attest to their high-energy live show.

Let Spin brings together members of Beats & Pieces, Melt Yourself Down and Led Bib, and is a band brimming with confidence, effortlessly switching between thrashy punk, wistful reflection and complex yet engaging improvisation.

Drummer and composer Johnny Hunter’s quartet explores the freedoms and challenges presented by the absence of a harmony instrument, drawing on the piano-less groups of Sonny Rollins, Dave Douglas and Jim Black amongst others.

Tickets for the event cost £19.50 and can be bought from the King's Place website.

Fusebox Mini-Festival ft. Beats and Pieces, Metamorphic and Royst

The Wardrobe in Leeds is hosting a Fusebox mini-festival tonight and tickets are going fast so be quick if you want to attend!

Fusebox and Efpi are delighted to present a one night mini festival featuring Manchester’s Beats & Pieces Big Band and a collaboration between Metamorphic (led by Leeds pianist/composer Laura Cole) and Norwegian vocal trio Røyst.

With the release earlier this year of their second album All In, Beats & Pieces have firmly established themselves as one of the leading ensembles of its kind in Europe. Led by Ben Cottrell and bringing together 14 incredibly creative musicians, their energetic performances are influenced as much by Michael Jackson, Björk or Radiohead as by Duke Ellington, Gil Evans or Loose Tubes.

Metamorphic and Røyst Trio will debut brand new material developed especially for this collaborative tour, fusing elements from contemporary jazz, folk and world music in song-based compositions that challenge the traditional role of the singing voice. Both Metamorphic and Røyst will also present music from their own critically acclaimed albums alongside the joint material.

Tickets cost £12 on the door.


Click these links for more information about the bands perfoming and the organisations hosting the event -



www.beatsnpieces.net
www.metamorphic.org.uk
www.roystrio.com

www.fuseboxleeds.org.uk
www.efpirecords.com

Beats & Pieces All In album launch dates

Since it's release on June 8th, Beats & Pieces' new album All In has received four star reviews from the Guardian, The Times, Jazzwise and The Evening Standard.

The band have two album launch dates coming up; one at the Soup Kitchen in Manchester on July 7th and another at Ronnie Scott's in London on July 8th. Unfortunately (or fortunately, if you are in the band!) the Ronnie Scott's date has already sold out so you're advised to get in quick to ensure you get into their Manchester gig.

There are also a couple of Northern dates for the band coming up later in the year -

September 27th - Scarborough Jazz Festival
November 18th - The Wardrobe, Leeds
November 19th - Sheffield Uni Student Union

More information on those dates, getting tickets and where to buy the album can be found on the Beats & Pieces website.

They embrace old-school big-band bravura; backbeat-driven soul-jazz swelling to massive horn harmonies; Steve Reichian keyboard minimalism… The pumping, R&B guitar-powered Hendo also drops an exuberant hint as to how hard they rock on a live show… The young band’s collectively grooving energy – and the gifted Cottrell’s composing – have moved up a few notches further - John Fordham, The Guardian ****

 

New album and tour for Beats & Pieces

Beats & Pieces received huge amounts of praise for their first album, Big Ideas, including a JazzFM award and a APPJAG Award for best large ensemble. Now the band are ready to do it all again with the release of their second album All In on Efpi Records.

To spread the word about this new release and play music from the album, the band will be playing gigs across the UK starting with an appearance at the Gateshead International Jazz Festival on April 11th.

Check out the band's website for more information.

Gig Dates

April 11th - GIJF, Gateshead
July 8th - Ronnie Scotts, London
September 27th - Scarborough Jazz Festival
September 29th - Dempsey's, Cardiff
September 30th - Colston Hall, Bristol
November 19th - Sheffield Uni Student Union, Sheffield

Sam Healey wins International Jazz Competition

Beats & Pieces saxophonist Sam Healey has won first prize at the Johnny Raducanu International Jazz Competition in Romania.

Healey joined 13 other musicians to participate in the competition over two days and was selected by the panel of judges to receive the first prize of €5000.

From the Epfi press release...

“I'm feeling over the moon! It has been my first solo competition and so a real honour to not only win the grand prize but have the opportunity to meet like minded musicians  and  make connections all across Europe...it is very apparent how important music and sustaining performance are to the Romanian public.”   

As well as his work with Beats & Pieces, Sam has recently debuted a new quartet featuring Stuart McCallum, Richard Hammond and Luke Flowers. He plans to use the prize money to record his debut album with this group, his first as leader.

For more information, visit samhealey.com and epfirecords.com.