Northern Jazz well represented on Live at LUME vol. 3

Cath Roberts and Dee Byrne, with their seemingly infinite amount of energy, have released volume 3 of their Live at LUME series, a selection of recordings taken from live LUME gigs. This one contains many names familiar to jazz audiences in the North. These recordings come from the series of gigs entitled LUME labs, which saw three musicians commissioned to bring together groups of musicians and develop new work.

The album can be bought on the LUME bandcamp page.

The album, at £5 for a physical copy and £3 for digital, is used to fundraise for future LUME activities.

The three ensembles featured are:

Julie Kjaer (flute/bass clarinet)
Olie Brice, Seth Bennett, tim Fairhall & Thordoris Ziarkis (double bass)


Anton Hunter's Labrats

Anton Hunter (guitar)
Kim Macari (trumpet)
Cath Roberts (baritone sax)
Dee Byrne (alto sax)
Rachel Musson (tenor sax)
Tullis Rennie (trombone)
Andrew Lisle (drums)
Tim Fairhall (double bass)

Craig Scott's Gastric Band

Craig Scott (guitar)
Oliver Dover (saxes/clarinet)
Johnny Richards (keyboards)
Michael Bardon (double bass)
Joost Hendrickx (drums)

Acts Announced for LUME Festival & Kickstarter Launched

Earlier in the year, we reported on the plans for LUME festival, a day of music run by Dee Byrne and Cath Roberts in London. Committed to supporting original and improvised music, the musicians have worked tirelessly to promote live music in London in recent years. The festival marks their next step and after an open call for submissions, today they launched a Kickstarter to support the running of the event.

The North will be strongly represented with three out of the six groups hailing from Manchester and Leeds. Ant Traditions is a duo featuring pianist Adam Fairhall and David Birchall (Manchester), Hot Beef Three are from Leeds and feature Ollie Dover, Craig Scott and Andrew Lisle and guitarist Anton Hunter brings his large ensemble work Article XI, a previous recipient of the Manchester Jazz Festival commission.

These three Northern groups are joined by Birmingham's Little Church, Kjær/Musson/Marshall from London and Blueblut from Austria.

LUME has received some core funding from Arts Council England to support their work but their newly launched Kickstarter will raise funds to help with travel costs and artist fees to ensure they feature as much music as they can. Donors will receive a number of rewards depending on the amount they donate including Live at LUME cds, tickets to the festival, a special trip to London Aquarium with Cath and Dee and a special piece written for you and performed by Word of Moth.

For full information on the Kickstarter which runs until May 12th, visit the website.

Three Northern artists selected for Take Five scheme

The participants of this year's Take Five career development scheme have been announced this week and the list features three Northern musicians.

8 musicians were selected by Serious to take part in the scheme which aims to support emerging jazz talent and provide mentorship in the music industry.

Guitarists Craig Scott and Anton Hunter made the cut, as did North East vocalist Zoe Gilby.

From Help Musicians UK

Take Five Edition XI will run until the summer of 2016 and provides participants with one-to-one mentoring sessions to address their particular areas of need, as well a residential period exploring areas such as composition, performance, communications, business infrastructure and strategic direction. 

Help Musicians UK Talent Programme Manager Tim Foxon says: “The impact of Take Five: UK on this country’s jazz scene over the last decade has been incredible. It supports some of the most exciting creative musicians at a crucial point in their careers, with truly tangible results. We are thrilled to be a partner for this vital scheme and to see another impressive group of artists selected for Edition XI”.

Congratulations to Craig, Anton and Zoe as well as all the other musicians selected! Look out for their names appearing at venues near you...

Take Five XI

• Moses Boyd (drums, London)
• Elliot Galvin (piano, London)
• Zoe Gilby (vocals, Gateshead)
• Anton Hunter (guitar, Manchester)
• Hyelim Kim (taegŭm, London)
• Zara McFarlane (vocals, London)
• Cath Roberts (saxophone, London)
• Craig Scott (guitar, Leeds)