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Corrie Dick
At the rhythmic epicentre of a new era of innovative British jazz is Corrie Dick, a musician and composer specialising in euphoric, sonically-inventive drumming. He is lauded for his dynamism, his melodic slant and for his playfully subversive take on style and genre. An artist of prolific and varied output, Corrie; has long been an essential component of Laura Jurd’s music including Mercury Prize shortlisted Dinosaur; is a crucial co-pilot in Elliot Galvin Trio and Rob Luft Group; and co-writes music with an abundance of artists including alternative Indie band Ink Line. His 2015 release Impossible Things which skilfully fused Celtic folk and contemporary jazz with new takes on African rhythms culminated in sold out touring and concerts across the UK. Now Corrie resets for an album which further embraces the eclectic whims of a child of the iPod shuffle generation - finding cohesion among disparate elements. As a multi-instrumentalist who has recorded on piano, vocals, synth, guitar and trumpet, Corrie’s writing is uniquely colourful and his playing shaped by many perspectives. The new album Sun Swells showcases all of this. Anchored by a rock guitar trio but with layers of fruity surprises, surging vocal melodies are counterpointed by mercurial horn playing. There is captivating prose written by guest vocalists Dave Malkin of the English folk tradition and Greek-Norwegian Marianna Sangita. Now an active participant in South East London’s evergreen arts scene, Deptford, the young master of contemporary drumming has studied traditional music in Ghana and Morocco where the grooves are rich and layered, and in his home land, Scotland, where rhythm and melody have melded for centuries. Alongside his ensemble work, Corrie has been exploring solo drum and percussion, most recently performing at King’s Place and Newcastle Festival of Improvised Music. Here he demonstrates fresh perspectives of an instrument that glows with possibility, embracing the full gamut of dynamics and textures with slanted nods to music traditions of the world. He has been mentored by the likes of Mark Guiliana and Kendrick Scott, as well as kpanlogo master Saddiq Addy, nephew of the legendary Mustapha Tettey Addy. He has studied the traditional and modern music of Zimbabwe, Madagascar, Benin and DR Congo alongside his prodigious creative companion, guitarist Rob Luft. Corrie is an original, open-minded, questing talent who is expanding the parameters of what it means to be a drummer.
Awards
Winner of BBC Radio Scotland Young Jazz Musician of the Year 2013
Mercury Prize Shortlist
Tags
Corrie Dick: Sun Swells
by Geannine Reid
Corrie Dick is a multi-instrumentalist who has recorded on drums, piano, vocals, synth, guitar, and trumpet. As a composer, Dick is known for his dynamism, his melodic slant, and his playfully subversive melding of genres. Presenting his sonically inventive drumming, which has a rhythmic epicenter of a new era of innovative British jazz, is Dick's release Sun Swells . The album's theme is to create a folk-rock-jazz with rock instrumentation and color by Rob Luft on guitar and Tom McCredie ...
read moreRob Luft: Dahab Days
by Geno Thackara
The beauty of holiday snapshots is that they can capture the good times (interesting places, pleasant sights) without necessarily reminding you of the possible downsides (weather issues, travel hassles, deadly pandemic, etc). Rob Luft's stay in Egypt might not have been a true vacation, considering that it came during a rampant period of Covid-19. Still, if his memories of the time included any lingering worry or uncertainty because of the circumstances, Dahab Days shows few discernible hints of it. He ...
read moreRob Luft: Dahab Days
by Chris May
In an interview with AAJ in 2020, Rob Luft was asked to name six all-time favourite albums. Number one on his list was Norwegian guitarist Eivind Aarset's Dream Logic (ECM, 2012), a duo project with electronicist Jan Bang. Said Luft: It's an album that really sounds like dreams, it's wonderful how it floats for forty-five, fifty minutes and teleports you to another place. The production is impeccable and the sound is so glistening." Luft could have been ...
read moreLaura Jurd: The Big Friendly Album
by Chris May
The Big Friendly Album is what it is called and that is exactly what it is. London-based trumpeter/cornetist and composer Laura Jurd's fourth album under her own name is a big hearted, gorgeously lyrical, feel-good romp, which does not preclude cerebral engagement but which wears its complexities so lightly that one barely notices them. Jurd last came to the attention of All About Jazz during The Great Pause, with the release of the perfect little masterpiece To ...
read moreDinosaur: To The Earth
by Ian Patterson
One of the flag bearers of contemporary British jazz, Dinosaur's rise to more international renown accelerated with its signing to Edition Records, and the subsequent release of Together, As One (2016) and Wondertrail. (2018). Formerly known as the Laura Jurd Quartet, the band had already been going since 2010, releasing one album, Landing Ground (Chaos Collective, 2012) to general critical approval. Each album displays significant personality--the embrace of strings, or analogue keyboards--and Jurd's refusal to tread the same stylistic water. ...
read moreDinosaur: To The Earth
by Chris May
Britain's Edition label has remained independent of London's post-2015 alternative jazz scene, whose aesthetic is formed in part by the emphases of identity politics and which now, in 2020, has gone overground with the signing of three bands led by movement auteur Shabaka Hutchings to Impulse! in the US. Edition, which was founded in 2008 by pianist Dave Stapleton and photographer Tim Dickeson, has preferred to pursue its own path. It has done so with magnificent style. (The label made ...
read moreRob Luft: Life Is The Dancer
by Chris May
British guitarist Rob Luft's debut album, Riser (Edition, 2017), was greeted with huge acclaim. Some observers likened his arrival to the emergence of Wes Montgomery or Pat Metheny. The music world is used to hyperbole, but for once the praise is justified. For anyone yet to hear Luft, a useful yardstick is the pianist Bill Evans: Luft conjures up degrees of seraphic beauty akin to those created by Evans during his purple period with bassist Scott LaFaro and drummer Paul ...
read more“With such vibrance and flair there is no doubt in my mind that Corrie will soon assert himself as one of the finest contemporary percussionists on the UK scene.” - Will Vinson (Jonathan Kreisberg, Ari Hoenig) "Dick is a thoughtful, responsive drummer who doesn’t hog the leader’s limelight, preferring to support the musicians in front of him and let the music breathe, and there’s a strong sense of melody as well as a growing individuality in his compositions." - Rob Adams, The Herald
Primary Instrument
Drums
Location
London
Willing to teach
Beginner to advanced
Credentials/Background
Multi-award winning drummer Corrie Dick is a musician renowned for his fluency, touch and euphoric abandon at the drum kit. His teaching of drums and rhythm is driven by the ethos that music is here for our joy and pleasure. Corrie has toured extensively around the world and played on, and composed for, dozens of albums, notably being shortlisted for a Mercury Prize with his trumpet-led jazz-rock band Dinosaur. He has studied jazz and rhythm at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance and studied traditional music in Ghana, Morocco and the Congo with leading legends of local styles