Dinosaur Nominated for Mercury Prize

Huge congratulations to Dinosaur, the only jazz ensemble to be nominated in this year's Mercury Prize shortlist.


The Hyundai Mercury Prize ‘Albums of the Year’ celebrates and promotes the best of UK music, recognising artistic achievement across a range of contemporary music genres. The Shortlist was chosen by an independent judging panel and revealed at our Launch event, hosted by BBC Music’s Huw Stephens. 
 The judges said “This year’s Hyundai Mercury Prize shortlist celebrates the remarkable power of British music. What these artists have in common is an infectious pleasure in music making and an arresting sense of urgency about the music they make. They delight in exploring musical possibilities and refusing to be pinned down by genre conventions.”

The winner will be announced on September 14th at Hammersmith Apollo.

Find out more about Dinosaur by visiting Laura Jurd's website and see the full shortlist here.

New Year New Artists at The Sage, January 28th

To start 2017 with a bang, the Sage Gateshead is running a day of concerts on Saturday 28th January that feature emerging talents from a number of genres, inviting audiences to hear the future of music.

Representing jazz is the renowned pianist Elliot Galvin. He performs with his trio at 5pm.

From the Sage Gateshead website -

European Young Jazz Artist of the Year Award 2014 Elliot Galvin’s star continues to ascend.

A superbly gifted composer and pianist, his disparate world of influences has seen him compared to Django Bates.

From de-constructing standards to creating his own mirco-tonal melodica, Galvin’s music is both playful and deadly serious drawing on a wide range of influences from Keith Jarrett to Stravinsky, Ligetti, Deerhof and the Beatles as well as the films of David Lynch, the Dada movement and the literature of James Joyce.

Also performing on Saturday afternoon are winners of the 2015 BBC Radio Young Folk Award Talisk, portuguese clarinettist Horacio Ferreira, Sky Arts award winning sitarist Jasdeep Singh Degun and more.

Tickets to see all artists in the afternoon session, running 12 until 6, cost £21.50.

Full details on the entire programme, which runs through both Saturday and Sunday, can be found on the Sage Gateshead website here - http://www.sagegateshead.com/event/new-year-new-artists-afternoon-ticket/

Gig Preview: Elliot Galvin Trio in York

Wednesday 28th January
University of York
7.30pm
£14/12 or £3 for students

Award winning pianist Elliot Galvin brings his trio to York next week featuring drummer Simon Roth and Yorkshire-born Tom McCredie on bass.

The group released their debut album, Dreamland, on Chaos Label last year and have performed extensively across the UK. They were the deserving recipients of the European Young Jazz Artists Award in 2014 and were invited to open the Burghausen Jazz Festival to a crowd of over 1,000 people.

Audaciously accomplished... This set hops all over the musical landscape, but the awesome Galvin's intelligent musicality always reminds him, and us, of the plot. - John Fordham, The Guardian

European Young Artists' Jazz Award announced

Pianist Elliot Galvin has been announced as the winner of the European Young Artists' Jazz Award Burghausen 2014.

Elliot's trio, featuring Wakefield-born Tom McCredie on bass and Simon Roth on drums, wins a cash prize of 5,000 euros and a further financial boost for use in promotion of the group.

For more information on Elliot, see his website.