NJN Jazz Advent Calendar - Nicola Farnon (Dec 10th)

We head to Sheffield through door number 10, with double bassist and vocalist Nicola Farnon. December is a busy month for Nicola as she prepares to release her seventh album, So Farnon - So Good! at a special launch gig on December 21st.

Check out a track from this upcoming album here - this one's called Sing - https://soundcloud.com/nicolahh-1/sing-a-song

Nicola’s latest album, 'So Farnon – So Good!' featuring Jim Mullen, David Newton and Steve Brown displays her remarkable range of talents as a singer with enormous vitality, a swinging double bassist and an emotive cellist. As with her previous two Cds (recorded with her other swinging trio with Piero Tucci on Keys and Phil Johnson on drums), the recording venue is the village hall of her birthplace in Wiltshire.  She is absolutely thrilled to have recorded her seventh Cd to date with three of her favourite UK jazz musicians and to use again the internationally acclaimed double bassist, Andrew Cleyndert as her mixer, masterer and mobile recording engineer.

The melodic, propulsive, joyously swinging and wonderfully intuitive style of these masterful musicians has produced a dazzling album packed with popular standards, lesser known tunes from female writers, inspired originals (penned by Nicola) and some equally stylish and innovative arrangements from David Newton and herself.

Nicola Farnon Bio

Wiltshire born and now long-term Sheffield resident, Nicola has a remarkable musical pedigree, both parents being professional classical musicians and her great uncle no less than the late Robert Farnon.  After an early start on piano and cello (grade 8 in both by the age of eleven!), she followed her dad's love of the 'standards' into jazz via the double bass and an enchanting voice which was developed during her Performing Arts studies at Middlesex University.  Her sparkling trio and quartet appears regularly on the jazz circuit and the band's arrangements are all done by her - with some melodic and extremely catchy originals thrown in for good measure!  She has played with  such Jazz luminaries as Dave Newton, Digby Fairweather, Jim Mullen, Bruce Adams, Roy Williams and Alan Barnes and has supported class jazz acts as diverse as Eliane Elias, Courtney Pine, Georgie Fame, Sir John Dankworth and Dame Cleo Laine, Humphrey Lyttleton and Acker Bilke.

www.nicolafarnonmusic.com

Orpheus Project presents: Ellery Eskelin Trio UK Tour, October 2016

Following on from the highly successful inaugural tour featuring Ingrid Jensen back in May, the Orpheus Project (a partnership between NORVOLJazz and Apollo Jazz Network) have announced the second featured artist in the series, New York tenor saxophonist Ellery Eskelin.

From press release...

The Orpheus Project is proud to present tenor heavyweight Ellery Eskelin as their second featured artist. Joined by Chris Sharkey and Matt Bourne, the trio is comprised of three strong and individual creative voices that come together to create something greater than the considerable sum of its parts. The group will tour between October 8^th and October 14^th, creating performances are sure to be as unique as they are exciting.

For the past thirty years Ellery Eskelin has been at the forefront of the global creative improvised music scene. Based in New York City, he has traveled widely performing, recording and amassing a very personal and iconoclastic body of work. And yet Ellery Eskelin has always remained deeply committed to the traditions of jazz and American music. Eskelin embodies this seeming contradiction with ease. He does not see jazz as a style or idiom but as a process. Further, a process of creative development that has great relevancy to our time. In this pursuit Eskelin consistently delivers to the listening public unadulterated, passionate music with no excuses and no apologies.

For more information about the tour dates, links to book tickets and more, visit the Orpheus Project website. 

October 8^th – Marsden Jazz Festival

October 10^th – Con Cellar Bar, London

October 11^th – Fizzle, Birmingham (Ellery Eskelin Solo)

October 12^th – The Lescar, Sheffield

October 13^th – Seven Arts, Leeds (joint promotion – Seven Jazz & Fusebox)

October 14^th – The Globe, Newcastle (joint promotion – Jazz Coop & Jazz North East)

The Orpheus Project is a partnership between Apollo Jazz Network and NORVOLJazz which seeks to establish a touring network for jazz in the North of England. The project is generously supported by Arts Council England through the Grants for the Arts programme.

 

Alex Munk's Flying Machines come to York & Sheffield

Guitarist Alex Munk will bring his new quartet to perform in York and Sheffield next week.

Munk graduated from LCoM in 2009 before moving to London to study a Masters at the Royal Academy of Music in London. Since then he has worked extensively as a sideman for a long list of internationally renowned musicians which includes Stan Sulzmann, Trish Clowes, Ivo Neame and Gwilym Simcock.

Flying Machines was formed in 2014 a vehicle for Munk's compositions. The band includes bassist Conor Chaplin, pianist Matt Robinson and drummer Dave Hamblett. The group have recently recorded their debut album (Alex's first as a leader) and it is set for release in 2016.

Audiences in the North will have the chance to hear the band at The Phoenix in York on October 20th and at the Lescar in Sheffield on October 21st.

For more information on Alex and to listen to Flying Machines, visit his website.