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.

Recipients of PRS Funding Announced

The recipients of PRS for Music funding in the Open fund and the Women Make Music strands have been announced this week and jazz is represented in each category.

There are 9 musicians in the Women Make Music category, including LCoM tutor Lauren Kinsella and LUME founder and saxophonist Dee Byrne. This funding is described as a way to support the development of outstanding women songwriters and composers of all genres and backgrounds at different stages of their career. The fund can support projects by women songwriters, composers, artists, bands and performers who are writing their own music.

Jazz in the North is well represented in the Open Fund for music creators with the inclusion of Beats & Pieces' Ben Cottrell. Byron Wallen and Yazz Ahmed are also featured in this list, receiving funding to create new original music.

A number of organisations received funding from PRS, too including the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, an annual festival that features a lot of improvised music. Swanage Jazz Festival also received funding.

To find out more about the funds and to read the full list of recipients, visit the PRS website.

MJF Announces first round of artist featured in 2016 programe

Manchester Jazz Festival has announced details of some of the acts scheduled to perform at their 2016 festival.

Beats & Pieces leader Ben Cottrell has been announced as the recipient of the Irwin Mitchell Comission this year and his new piece will be premiered at the festival on July 27th .The work is called New Seeing and features trumpet, rhythm section and 12 piece string section.

Giving their only UK performance, Thomas de Pourquery & Supersonic play the music of Sun Ra on July 23rd. Following that, everyone's favourite Anglo-American jazz supergroup The Impossible Gentlemen give their headlining performance on July 26th.

In collaboration with HOME, MJF will show films during the festival that give a snapshot of the connection between jazz and film. Louis Malle's Ascenseur pour l'échafaud and the Tubby Haye's film Man in a Hurry are highlights this year.

For full information and to book tickets (these events are sure to sell out so be quick!), visit the Manchester Jazz Festival 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 ****

 

APPJAG Jazz Award Winners Announced

                                                Phil Meadows, Newcomer of the Year winner


The winners of the 2014 APPJAG Parliamentary Jazz Awards were announced last night at a ceremony in London and the North was well represented with winners in three catergories.

Phil Meadows (pictured above), graduate of Chethams School of Music and LCoM picked up Newcomer of the Year, while clarinettist and composer Arun Ghosh went home with Instrumentalist f the Year. Ben Cottrell was there to accept the Large Ensemble of the Year award on behalf of his group, Beats + Pieces.

Congratulations to all the winners from all at NJN.

NYJC's Issie Barratt, who received Educator of the Year Award from Lord David Steel and Jon Newey, Jazzwise, made this request to musicians present to consider making it easier for young people to attend jazz gigs.