EASTSIDE JAZZ CLUB
WHAT’S ON A PR IL - JULY ’18
0121 331 5909 | BCU.AC.UK/CONCERTS /BirmCons
@BirmConsJazz
EDDIE HENDERSON MON 30 APR © ANTONIO PORCAR
Birmingham City University
W
elcome to the What’s On Jazz summer season leaflet. Regular followers will notice we’ve loosened our routine to accommodate summer projects and excursions – but we still have an exciting array of guest artists, just not necessarily on Thursdays!
We round off the season with Fizzle@Eastside Jazz Club, embracing the much loved and admired free jazz scene in Birmingham, before our Afro-Cuban band host the jazz department end of term party. There is much to enjoy and celebrate, and we hope to see you there.
It’s the finale of our Exit Velocity sessions with performances corralled into mini festivals, Ellington Orchestra take to Lincoln Jazz Festival for our selection of Sacred Concerts in Lincoln Cathedral, and later in the month we host a three-day Ellington Conference featuring concerts, break-out jam sessions and more.
Jeremy Price
Head of Jazz, Royal Birmingham Conservatoire 200 Jennens Road, B4 7XR @JazzTromboneUK
WED 11 APR
Jeff Williams
EXIT VELOCITY 6.30pm Joe Steels 7.45pm Paco Torregrosa £8 (£6)
THU 12 APR
JEFF WILLIAMS: LIFELIKE 6.30pm support Tommy Fuller 7.45pm main show £10 (£8)
© Lester Barnes
Jeff Williams drums John O’Gallagher saxophone Josh Arcoleo saxophone Sam Lasserson bass Kit Downes piano Veteran drummer Jeff Williams returns to Eastside Jazz Club to present tunes from his Lifelike album, exhibiting his characteristic beauty and grit. Support comes from Tommy Fuller who brings his new compositions and arrangements into a quartet format with three of Birmingham’s finest musicians. Together they blend world music, modern and traditional Jazz through an energetic ensemble connection.
Tommy Fuller
FURTHER PROGRAMME DETAILS AVAILABLE AT WWW.BCU.AC.UK/CONCERTS
APRIL Jim Bashford’s Construction
WED 18 APR
FRI 20 APR
EXIT VELOCITY 6.30pm Charlie Johnson Equinox 7.45pm Charlie Johnson Equinox
JIM BASHFORD’S CONSTRUCTION EMERGING DIRECTORS
6.30pm Steve Saunders 7.45pm main show
£8 (£6)
£13 Tickets available from www.thsh.co.uk
Equinox is a new funk/jazz-fusion band comprised of eight current students and graduates of Royal Birmingham Conservatoire. Each with their own individual skillset, the band play a mixture of tunes designed to incorporate groove alongside a high level of musicality.
Jim Bashford drums Trish Clowes alto saxophone Tim Harries bass Hilmar Jenson guitar Drummer Jim Bashford leads his impressive quartet, Construction, performing music from their debut album Centreline Theory. Compositional elements are woven together with the spontaneous aspect of group improvisation, to release a taut and evocative musical interplay within the ensemble. Presented in association with
FURTHER PROGRAMME DETAILS AVAILABLE AT WWW.BCU.AC.UK/CONCERTS
FRI 27 APR
AFRO-CUBAN JAZZ ORCHESTRA 6.30pm support Nick Adams’s Funk Brothers 7.45pm main show £15 (£12) A night of salsa music for dancing!
SAT 28 APR
THE NOTEBENDERS Julian Siegel
6.30pm FREE ADMISSION
WED 25 APR
This debut outreach performance at Eastside Jazz Club sees local community band The Notebenders play a set of bespoke music alongside our BMus3 Jazz Pedagogy students, followed by music dedicated to the Andy Hamilton Centenary with arrangements by band director and alumnus Andy Bunting.
EXIT VELOCITY 6.30pm Ruggero Caruso 7.45pm Shivraj Singh £8 (£6)
THU 26 APR
JULIAN SIEGEL 6.30pm support Shivraj Singh 7.45pm main show
Andy Hamilton
£13 Tickets available from www.thsh.co.uk
MON 30 APR
Julian Siegel saxophone Liam Noble piano Gene Calderazzo drums Oli Hayhurst bass
EDDIE HENDERSON, ARNIE SOMOGYI, BRUCE BARTH, STEPHEN KEOGH
Award-winning saxophonist and composer Julian Siegel leads what is unquestionably one of the UK’s most exciting and powerful quartets. An acoustic set of music moves freely through varied sound worlds and colours, from undercurrents of bop to searching ballads and joyful melodies.
6.30pm support
Presented in association with
Producer Russell Finch £8 (£6) Born in New York City and the son of a Cotton Club dancer, Eddie Henderson grew up surrounded by some of the world’s greatest jazz musicians, including Louis Armstrong. He is joined by an all-star line up featuring Bruce Barth on piano, Arnie Somgyi on bass and drummer Stephen Keogh. This gig will be broadcast live on BBC Radio 3’s new ‘J to Z’ programme.
FURTHER PROGRAMME DETAILS AVAILABLE AT WWW.BCU.AC.UK/CONCERTS
WED 2 MAY
THU 10 MAY
EXIT VELOCITY: TRONDHEIM EXCHANGE
EXIT VELOCITY: MACH 2
6.30pm Birmingham 7.45pm Trondheim
5.15pm Mark Hodgson combo 6.30pm Percy Pursglove combo 7.45pm Clark Tracey combo
£8 (£6) We welcome our annual guests from Trondheim, Norway NTU who are here to form quartets with our jazz musicians. However in this opening concert to get the exchange started, they perform separately as Trondheim and Birmingham student representatives. The quartets will then go on to play this year’s Cheltenham Jazz Festival.
MAY
£10 (£8)
SAT 12 MAY
ELLINGTON ORCHESTRA – SACRED MUSIC Lincoln Cathedral 7.30pm
www.cheltenhamfestivals.com/jazz
Tickets available from www.lincolncathedral.com
WED 9 MAY
EXIT VELOCITY FESTIVAL: MACH 1 5.15pm Arnie Somogyi combo 6.30pm Jez Franks combo 7.45pm Mike Williams combo £10 (£8) Standards and originals from the new herd, under the mentoring guidance of our esteemed jazz faculty tutors.
We are very proud to have been invited by Lincoln Jazz Festival to perform Duke Ellington’s Sacred Music with Royal Birmingham Conservatoire Ellington Orchestra under musical director Jeremy Price, together with the Lincoln Cathedral Choir under musical director Aric Prentice. This performance also features our Gospel Choir, guest vocalist Vimala Rowe with two soloists from Royal Birmingham Conservatoire’s Opera Department, plus John Turville (piano) and jazz dancer Perry Louis. Ellington’s wonderful Sacred Music is both serious and swinging. It is a reverent and hip body of jazz composition, written late in his career.
Ellington Orchestra
Lincoln Cathedral
FURTHER PROGRAMME DETAILS AVAILABLE AT WWW.BCU.AC.UK/CONCERTS
TUE 15 MAY
EXIT VELOCITY FESTIVAL: MACH 3 12pm Shivraj Matwala 1.15pm Antonio Mura 2.30pm Joseph Steels 3.45pm Harry Weir 6.30pm Oliver Stanton 7.45pm Tom Goodger £8 (£6) A huge range of artistry within jazz, presented by the rising stars of our jazz department. Expect a myriad of personal interpretations reflecting the contemporary jazz scene as they see it.
ENEMY
WED 16 MAY
WED 23 MAY
EXIT VELOCITY FESTIVAL: MACH 3
ENEMY
12pm Francisco Paco Torregrosa Vera 1.15pm Michael Gee 2.30pm Aidan Pope 3.45pm Noah Stone 6.30pm Steven Saunders 7.45pm James Romaine
6.30pm support Franki Dodwell 7.45pm main show
£8 (£6)
THU 17 MAY
EXIT VELOCITY FESTIVAL: MACH 3 1pm Thomas Harris 2.15pm Thomas Fuller 3.30pm James Owston 6.30pm Olivia Murphy 7.45pm Lewis Sallows £8 (£6)
£10 (£8) Kit Downes piano Petter Eldh bass James Maddren drums Based in London and Berlin, ENEMY plays expressive and complex music - light-speed rhythmic patterns and dense harmonic clusters collide in a unique and formidable combination of voices that have been described as both “fiercely intense” and “beautifully intricate”.
“
RIP-ROARING GROOVE, MIND-BOGGLING P O LY R H Y T H M I C D R U M M I N G , SNAPPING PHYSICALITY AND SWEEPING PIANO RUNS FROM BRITTLE STREET GROOVES JOHN FORDHAM, THE GUARDIAN 2015
”
FURTHER PROGRAMME DETAILS AVAILABLE AT WWW.BCU.AC.UK/CONCERTS
TUE 29 MAY
EXIT VELOCITY FESTIVAL: MACH 4 1pm Charles Johnson 2.15pm Daniel Kemshell 3.30pm Nicholas Adams 6.30pm Christos Stylianides 7.45pm Charles Lancaster £8 (£6)
FRI 25 – SUN 27 MAY
25TH DUKE ELLINGTON INTERNATIONAL STUDY GROUP CONFERENCE
A huge range of artistry within jazz, presented by the rising stars of our jazz department. Expect a myriad of personal interpretations reflecting the contemporary jazz scene as they see it.
Royal Birmingham Conservatoire Fri 25 3pm-7pm Conference 7pm Jazz Orchestra
WED 30 MAY
Sat 26 10am-5.30pm Conference 6pm Jazz Orchestra
1pm Aram Bahmaie 2.15pm Martynas Baltutis 3.30pm Robert Harper-Charlro 6.30pm Joshua Taylor 7.45pm John Greenwood
Sun 27 10am-1pm Conference 1pm Ellington Orchestra send-off Three-day ticket £75 Fri £30, Sat £35, Sun £15 The 25th International Duke Ellington Study Group Conference is coming to Royal Birmingham Conservatoire in a fantastic three-day event. Alongside themed panels of speakers, including Harvey G. Cohen (King’s College London) and Katherine Williams (Plymouth University), the event will showcase four concerts by Ellington Orchestra, numerous break-out small group jam sessions, and will host the Duke Ellington Society UK Annual General Meeting.
EXIT VELOCITY FESTIVAL: MACH 4
£8 (£6)
THU 31 MAY
EXIT VELOCITY: MACH 4 DRUM FEST 4.30pm Ruggero Caruso 6.30pm Jonathan Silk 7.45pm Tony Levin Drum Prize £8 (£6) Jazz drum legend and much-loved Conservatoire tutor, Tony Levin passed away in February 2011. His legacy still very much lives on with us and one of the forms in which this happens is the continuation of the Tony Levin Drum Prize. Tony’s plan was that each student finalist would play a short set with fellow Jazz Department tutors, Arnie Somogyi and Jean Toussaint, to determine which student is most deserving of the accolade of ‘most swinging’. Witness a high-energy concert and a spotlight on future careers in jazz drumming: a ‘happening’ as Tony would say.
FURTHER PROGRAMME DETAILS AVAILABLE AT WWW.BCU.AC.UK/CONCERTS
EASTSIDE JAZZ CLUB THU 14 JUNE
NEW COMPOSITIONS IN JAZZ 7.45pm £8 (£6) Jazz department composers compete for this year’s composition arranging prize with Royal Birmingham Conservatoire Jazz Orchestra directed by this year’s Large Ensemble Directors from Bmus Jazz 3.
TUE 19 – THU 21 JUNE
FIZZLE@EJC 6.30pm Set one 7.45pm Set two Fizzle is a by-word for Birmingham’s highly creative free improvisation scene and we’re delighted to offer them a curating space at Eastside Jazz Club. Instigators Andrew Woodhead and Chris Mapp with Tony Dudley-Evans in the wings, are formulating this year’s “leavers’ send-off” 2018. Our best students will be working with Mark Sanders, Paul Dunmall, John O’Gallagher, Percy Pursglove and other stalwarts of the free scene in Birmingham. Full details to follow on bcu.ac.uk/concerts
FRI 29 JUN
AFRO-CUBAN JAZZ ORCHESTRA Director Andrew Bain 5.30pm - 6.30pm £15 (£12) Our incredibly popular Afro-Cuban band returns for a pre-concert set on our prize giving day and end of term celebrations. Dancers welcome!
Royal Birmingham Conservatoire presents 15 months of incredible concerts and events. Featuring artists such as Nigel Kennedy, Sir Lenny Henry, Peter Donohoe, Nitin Sawhney, Roderick Williams, Orkest de Ereprijs, Flatpack Film Festival, Julia Donaldson, Jacqueline Wilson, Laura van der Heijden and many more, the festival brings worldclass artists to Birmingham to celebrate the opening of the Conservatoire’s new state-ofthe-art home. www.bcu.ac.uk/opening-festival
Royal Birmingham Conservatoire 200 Jennens Road B4 7XR FOR UPDATES AND NEWS OF EASTSIDE JAZZ CLUB EXPERIENCES FOLLOW:
@BirmConsJazz
@JazzTromboneUK
Please Note: Listings correct at time of going to print.