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John Cervantes
John Cervantes is a pianist & composer based in London. He has led his own groups at Vortex Jazz Club, Manchester Jazz Festival, Derry Jazz Festival, N. Ireland, Pizza Express Jazz Club Soho, Charlie Wrights International, and Matt&Phreds Club, among many others. As a band member for other musicians he has performed at festivals and venues across Europe such as London Jazz Festival and Openair St Gallen Festival, Switzerland.
Recently he premiered "exciting new music" (Helen Mayhew, Jazz FM) that he composed for his ensemble, featuring special guest Stan Sulzmann, at The Forge in Camden. He has played live and been interviewed on BBC Radio Foyle, BBC Radio Ulster and Ocean FM as part of an "unmissable" (Belfast Telegraph) string of dates with his piano trio in Ireland. John is a jazz piano graduate of the Master of Arts in Performance programme at the Royal Academy of Music, where he had the opportunity to share the stage with eminent musicians including Mike Gibbs, Gerard Presencer, Lea Delaria, and Henry Lowther.
The Cervantes Ensemble is a variable-sized group that has at its core the "melodic piano playing" (Pizza Express Dean Street) of its leader John Cervantes. The Ensemble performs "exciting new music" (Helen Mayhew, Jazz FM) written by Cervantes, focussing on powerful and cinematic soundscapes. Influences include Billy Childs, Tim Garland (who has taught Cervantes composition at the Academy), Basquiat Strings and Gwilym Simcock: improvising musicians that work in innovative projects involving orchestral players. Other influences include Kenny Wheeler and Arvo Part.
Cervantes was awarded a Peter Whittingham Development Award in December 2009, where a nine-piece line-up of his ensemble was heard by a panel including jazz musicians Clark Tracey, Anita Wardell and club owner Steve Rubie. The Award was given to support the writing and recording of new material for the ensemble. The resulting music, for thirteen musicians, was first performed at The Forge on December 11th 2010, featuring Stan Sulzmann as a guest soloist. "I always like to try something new, exciting and different given the opportunity!" (Stan Sulzmann). The Ensemble was expanded into a very rare combination of jazz octet (trumpet, two saxophones, trombone, guitar, piano, bass, drums) with string quartet (two violins, viola, cello) and harp.
The Ensemble has previously performed at venues including Pizza Express Jazz Club Soho, City Arts & Music Project, and The North London Tavern, The Oxford, Charlie Wright's. Its line-up includes "the cream of London-based young jazz talent" (Helen Mayhew, JazzFM), such as Joe Wright, Alex Munk, Tom West, Dave Hamblett.
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