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MY IRIS: MY IRIS Live!

Unable to undertake its scheduled April tour due to COVID 19, MY IRIS, the quartet led by saxophonist Trish Clowes, releases this live recording culled from gigs in Belfast and Galway in October 2019. Captured on Zoom recorder, Clewes has done an admirable job in producing a presentable sound on this digital-download, Bandcamp release. More importantly, in capturing for posterity one of the UK's leading jazz quartets in such fine form, MY IRIS Live! is an important document, and perhaps ...
read moreTrish Clowes: Sounding Colors, Playing With Gravity

If it hadn't been that day, twenty some years ago when the young Trish Clowes first felt the pull of the tenor saxophone, it would surely have been another. Barely in her teens at the time, Shropshire-born saxophonist and award-winning composer Clowes already played piano, clarinet and sang when she went to see her Dad, an amateur trumpeter, play with the local big band. When I heard a tenor saxophone feature on In a Sentimental Mood" I thought ...
read moreTrish Clowes: Ninety Degrees Gravity

Trish Clowes' stock has risen steadily since her debut, Tangent (Basho Records, 2010), which featured jazz quartet and, on several tracks, orchestra. That record announced a promising and ambitious voice, one equally at home with jazz and classical colors. Since then the saxophonist has continued to explore the meeting of jazz, voice and strings, attracting a growing chorus of admirers along the way. With the critically acclaimed My Iris (Basho Records, 2017), Clowes opted for a more stripped down, jazz ...
read moreTrish Clowes at Mermaid Arts Centre

Trish Clowes Mermaid Arts Centre Bray, Ireland February 9, 2018 Almost five years had passed since saxophonist/composer Trish Clowes' only previous gig in Ireland, at the Derry Jazz and Big Band Festival 2013. Since then, Clowes has released a couple of well-received albums and was selected as a BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist--a prestigious residency programme that recognizes talent deserving greater exposure. Clowes has also founded Emulsion, a collective-cum-annual festival dedicated to improvised ...
read moreTrish Clowes: My Iris

There's an energy and a focus about this, Clowes fourth album for UK indie Basho records, that suggests a creative breakthrough. My Iris has kept that restlessness and love of music irrespective of genre apparent in Clowes earlier work, but feels a better constructed programme where the stylistic shifts are organic developments that blend naturally into the set-up of the compositions. Jazz is the core, but the breadth that comes from listening widely lifts this above the herd.On ...
read moreTrish Clowes: My Iris

Firstly, each individual in the Trish Clowes Quartet, Trish Clowes on various saxophones, Ross Stanley on piano and Hammond, Chris Montague on guitar and James Maddren on drums, fits their corner perfectly, providing the extra dimension that makes their cohesive playing effortless. There are no shirkers or hang back components in this line up. My Iris is mistressful and masterful musical wizardry and it sounds fascinating. One Hour" starts with an uncommon horn-like guitar sustain, acting both other-earthly ...
read moreTrish Clowes: Pocket Compass

On her debut album, Tangent (Basho Records, 2010), saxophonist Trish Clowes gathered together a large group of musicians and included a full orchestra on two tracks. For her impressive second album, And In The Night-time She Is There (Basho Records, 2012), she streamlined the line-up, adding just half a dozen guests to the core quintet but ensuring that the string players had the talent and opportunity to improvise. Pocket Compass is built once again around Clowes and her core group, ...
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