Results for "Manchester"

Stewart Wilson

Graham South

Ben Cottrell

I'm a saxophonist, composer and producer based in Manchester, UK. I direct the Beats & Pieces Big Band and co-run Efpi Records, an independent label and umbrella organisation promoting the activities of an emerging generation of musicians based across the UK and Scandinavia.

Jose Dias

Born: March 1, 1972

Based in Manchester, UK, and part of the emerging new generation in Portuguese contemporary improvised music, Dias has performed and recorded with numerous artists. As composer, he has scored music for theatre, contemporary dance and animation film. His music is strongly inspired by the visual arts and literature. His projects deviate from the traditional language of jazz, and explore the dialogue between various contemporary sound universes, where experimentation is assumed as a central element. José Dias's discography as leader include “Jose Dias Quartet - 360” (Sintoma Records, 2013) “Magenta” (Sintoma Records, 2013), “What Could Have Been: The Seven Deadly Sins”(9Sintoma Records, 2016), “After Silence, Vol 1” (Clean Feed, 2019), and “Jose Dias & Awareness - Live at SMUP” (Escanifobetico Records, 2019)

Anton Hunter

Anton Hunter is a composer and improviser living in Manchester. He leads the 11-piece Article XI band as well as his own trio, both with records on Efpi Records. Also ongoing is a duo with baritone saxophonist Cath Roberts called Ripsaw Catfish, Cath’s quintet Sloth Racket, the trio Beck Hunters and a myriad of other different ensembles, ad hoc and otherwise. He is perhaps still better known for his work as guitarist in the Beats & Pieces Big Band, a group he is a founder member of and who continue to defy the odds simply by gigging as a 14 piece jazz ensemble in the UK, Europe and, in 2018, Canada & the US

Nick Walters

Mike Hall

Lucy Ward

Born: April 5, 1983

Lucy hails from the small pie-eating, rugby-playing town of Wigan, firmly planted in the north-west of England. She was raised on the music of Frank Sinatra and Doris Day and skipped to school singing 'I Got Rhythm' rather than stomping along to the sounds of 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' like most kids her age. “This didn't really help my cool factor” says Lucy. “I remember my mother trying to teach me the words to Greenday songs in an attempt to help me fit in” needless to say, it didn't really work. But it wasn't long before Lucy realised she didn't really want to fit in. “I’ve always seen my life as a musical, I have a soundtrack that follows me around” Sitting in her bedroom as a child singing along to Doris Day and Judy Garland Lucy found a way to express herself through the music she loved. “I have always sung

Beats & Pieces Big Band

Active since: 2008

Beats & Pieces is not your average big band, rather a band that's big. These 14 musicians have been playing together for over ten years and have become a tight knit bunch, open to a huge diversity of music. The influence of artists such as Björk, Radiohead, David Bowie, The Beatles, The Beach Boys, Loose Tubes, Gil Evans and Kenny Wheeler pop up in their performances and the compositions of bandleader and conductor {{m: Ben Cottrell = 47568}}.. The band tours regularly across the UK, Europe and further afield, marking their 10th anniversary in 2018 with their debut North American tour and inclusion in the Downbeat Critics Poll in the category Rising Star Big Band. To date they have released 2 studio albums - 'Big Ideas' (2012) and 'All In' (2015) - and a 10th anniversary live CD/DVD entitled 'ten' (2018), all on Manchester independent label Efpi Records.

Alex Stewart

Just 21 years of age, singer Alex Stewart is already creating a buzz as one of the most precociously talented vocalists of the new generation.

With a voice rooted in Connick and Sinatra, and with a touch of the Kurt Elling rasp, Stewart avoids being a nostalgia act by a judiciously off-beat choice of material and a decidedly contemporary energy level.

As well as clever re-arrangements of great standards, he translates the occasional pop song into jazz and adds some originals, including songs by pianist Alex Webb.