Family Band UK Tour kicks off at Wakefield Jazz, February 24th

Fiery quartet Family Band have announced a tour stretching from Newcastle to London which commences this Friday, 24th February.

2016 saw the band selected for the Jazz North Northern Line initiative, receive BBC radio play and record their first full length album. Now as 2017 gets started, they will perform a number of live performances showcasing material from their upcoming album as well as newly composed works.

This is a superb, freewheeling band composed of four long-time musical collaborators and friends.    Rooted in the music of Ornette Coleman and the 1960’s avant-garde, Family Band play powerful music – moments of fierce intensity, a tender spirituality and the blues combine to form an emotionally complex and cathartic whole that rarely fails to move.   They are currently preparing a second CD of music recorded live at the Manchester Jazz Festival at a terrific and well-received gig.
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“What a revelation – exciting group, gradually revealing more and more depth and thrilling the audience to the very end” – Blow The Fuse, The Vortex

Tour Dates

Friday 24th February - Wakefield Jazz
Monday 27th February - The Wonder Inn, Manchester
Wednesday 1st March - The Lescar, Sheffield
Friday 17th March - The Jazz Cafe, Newcastle
March 27th March - Jazz in the Round at The Cockpit, London
Friday 7th April - JATP, Bradford

NJN Jazz Advent Calendar - Family Band (Dec 13th)

With only 12 days to go until good old Santy Claus gets to work and besides the elves at the North Pole, behind door number 13 there are four little jazz elves working hard - Family Band.

Currently preparing to release an album on BUG Records in early 2017, check out this video of the band by Maria Alzamora of Tom Riviere's composition Mao 2 - https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=VkiSpgAr5uE

Rooted in the music of Ornette Coleman and the 1960’s avant-garde, Family Band play powerful and freewheeling music – moments of fierce intensity, a tender spirituality and the blues combine to form an emotionally complex and cathartic whole that rarely fails to move. Comprised of four long-time musical collaborators and friends, the group recently released their eponymous debut album and are in the process of preparing their second release, an album of live material recorded at Manchester Jazz Festival.

“What a revelation – exciting group, gradually revealing more and more depth and thrilling the audience to the very end” – Blow The Fuse, The Vortex

“A band who aren’t afraid of the jazz tradition” – Jez Nelson, Jazz On 3

Trumpet – Kim Macari
Tenor Saxophone – Riley Stone-Lonergan
Double Bass – Tom Rivière
Drums – Steve Hanley

Buy their first EP here - https://bringlulu.bandcamp.com/album/family-band?from=embed

New Roster of Jazz North Northern Line Artists Announced

Jazz North have announced the 10 newest Northern Line groups to take part in their flagship scheme to promote the best of jazz in the North.

Now in its third season, Northern Line selects groups to take part in the scheme for a period of just over a year, offering the groups to promoters at a subsidised rate to support both promoters and artists in furthering the art-form.

Artists are selected by a panel of musicians, industry professionals and promoters. Since 2013, the scheme has supported 37 artists and has seen them perform over 400 gigs with 130 promoters.

The groups selected to be this year's Northern Line Ambassador Artists are -

Firebird Quartet
HTrio
Inclusion Principle
Johnny Hunter Quartet
Maja Bugge solo
Portmanteau
Taupe
The Jamie Brownfield Quartet
Pat McCarthy Quartet ft Shannon Reilly
Tom Riviere's Family Band

You can find out more about the scheme and the artists by visiting the Jazz North website.

Family Band Album Launch in Leeds, November 1st

Family Band, a chord-less quartet led by bassist Tom Riviere and featuring Riley Stone-Lonergan, Kim Macari and Steve Hanley, will release their first album at a launch concert at Seven Jazz on Sunday November 1st.

The album features predominantly original material and will be available through Bandcamp on a Pay-What-You-Feel basis.

Tom says...

In short, I want to stop thinking when I improvise. Sometimes when I’m on stage I experience moments in which it is as if I’m an outside observer listening to myself and the band play. This is a very satisfying feeling – much more enjoyable than the analytical state of mind I often fall into whilst performing – and I’d like to experience it more often. To that end, it made sense to me to put together a project loosely inspired by the aforementioned groups (Ornette Coleman and Coltrane) as the more open structures that they often favour lend themselves to what it is that I seek: music that I can feel – rather than think – my way through.

The launch gig will be part of Seven's Unplugged series which allows audiences and musicians to connect by using the 'in the round' format. Family Band will also premiere a whole set of newly written music at the gig.

Follow this link to hear a track from the release, Bring Lulu.