Lucid Dreamers

Brigitte Beraha (Voice / Electronics / Toys / Compositions) George Crowley (Tenor / Clarinet / Electronics)
Alcyona Mick (Piano / Synth)
Tim Giles (Drums / Percussion / Electronics)

Nominee for The Ivors Composer Awards 2021, Brigitte Beraha’s early incarnation of ‘Lucid Dreamers’ premiered at London’s Queen Elizabeth Hall as a trio with George Crowley (Melt Yourself Down, Yazz Ahmed) and Tim Giles (Nostalgia 77, Iain Ballamy) in November 2019 as part of the London Jazz Festival, with music written by Brigitte (Kenny Wheeler, London Jazz Orchestra), inspired by the industrial world that we live in.

Now extended to a quartet with Alcyona Mick (Natacha Atlas, Robin Finker) on piano, they released their debut album ‘Lucid Dreamers’ on Let Me Out Records in July 2020. This concert is part of an ACE funded 14-date tour, celebrating the release of their two albums to date, with 'Blink' due for release on 13th May 2022. The original music - with or without lyrics - is both melodic and abstract. It draws from the jazz, folk, contemporary classical, free improv and electronic worlds, with atmospheric and open improvisations, exciting grooves and impactful stillness.

‘Exceptional recording” - Jazzwise * * * *
‘Entrancing and very beautiful’ - London Jazz News

www.brigitteberaha.com

Sloth Racket

Cath Roberts (baritone saxophone / compositions) Sam Andreae (alto saxophone)
Anton Hunter (guitar)
Seth Bennett (double bass)
Johnny Hunter (drums)

Sloth Racket is a band of improvisers led by baritone saxophone player Cath Roberts. Formed for a Jazz North East commission in 2015, they have since toured annually, released four studio albums and two sets of live recordings, and appeared at numerous UK festivals. In 2022 the band are working on their fifth album for the Luminous label.

‘Watching Sloth Racket perform is a thrilling experience, conveying a palpable sense that the musicians are navigating the scores by the seat of their pants, making real-time group decisions that sculpt the compositions into unique shapes each time they’re played.’
– Daniel Spicer, The Wire, December 2021

www.slothracket.co.uk

James Mainwaring Mycorrhiza

James Mainwaring (Composition / Saxophones / Vocals / Keyboards / Flutes) Aby Vulliamy - (Viola / Vocals)
Mick Bardon - (Cello)
Fergus Quill (Double Bass)
Steve Hanley (Drums)

Mycorrhiza is the term describing the symbiotic relationship between mycorrhizal fungi and a plants root system. The fungi forms networks between the trees, allowing them to communicate. Often nicknamed the ‘wood wide web’, the network allows trees to send each other nutrients and warn each other about predators such as bugs, deer, or harmful pathogens. The debut album from James Wainwarins ‘Mycorrhiza’ is inspired by natural systems like this and is concerned about the human impact and the corruption surrounding it.

James Mainwaring is a saxophonist, composer and singer-songwriter based in Leeds, UK. While his background is in jazz and rock music, his music aims to be genre-fluid, and as a saxophonist, he is interested in augmenting his sound with extended techniques and electronics. Since moving to Leeds to study at Leeds Conservatoire where he is now a tutor; he has released three albums with the Mercury Prize, Jazz FM and MOBO nominated Roller Trio and toured extensively throughout the UK, Ireland, Europe, as well as British Council funded performances in South Korea and North Sudan. He has also led Tipping Point, who released The Earthworm’s Eye View in 2015, the Guardian described the album as ‘playful, dark, skilful and spontaneous... a sure- footed trip across many persuasions in contemporary music’. As well as a bandleader/ collaborator, he has toured/recorded as a sideman with artists such as Nduduzo Makathini, (Ikhambi), Django Django, John Law (Configuration), Dave Kane, Morten Schantz, Sean Foran, Martin Archer, and Space Fight.

https://discusmusic.bandcamp.com/album/mycorrhiza-111cd-2021 www.jamesmainwaring.com

Sean Noonan with The Ligeti Quartet
Sean Noonan (compositions / voice / drums and percussion) Mandhira De Saram (violin) Patrick Dawkins (violin) Richard Jones (viola)
Valeria Welbanks (cello)
Drummer and composer Sean Noonan has long preferred the term “Rhythmic Storyteller” to describe his audacious, genre-defiant artistry. As a modern-day sonic griot he combines the most ancient of traditions with forward-seeking experimentation; as a kind of post-modern wandering minstrel he gathers irreverent folk tales and offbeat inspirations from various cultures and translates them through his own singular worldview.
The Ligeti Quartet will join Noonan for one of his most ambitious projects to date, the multi-media piece ‘Isolation’. Commissioned by the Arts Council of England, PRS for Music, and Forestry England, Isolation addresses the issue of solitary confinement — a long-held concern for the composer that has only come into sharper focus during the pandemic era. In March 2022, Noonan will perform a 23-hour solo percussion piece at an in-progress dry stone wall maze in England’s Dalby Forest. The piece will be filmed and edited, with elements serving as inspiration for a new composition, ‘Bartalk', that Noonan will write for himself and the Ligeti Quartet to perform during a five-concert tour in April 2022.
https://seannoonanmusic.com/with-ligeti-quartet
https://ligetiquartet.com/about

Binker Golding / John Edwards / Steve Noble

Binker Golding (Tenor and Soprano Saxophones) John Edwards (Double Bass)
Steve Noble (Drums and Percussion)

A product of the Tomorrow’s Warriors organisation London born saxophonist Binker Golding is one of the leading figures on the capital’s contemporary jazz scene, part of the young crop of musicians behind the latest jazz ‘revival’ that has seen the music reaching out to appeal to a younger, more diverse demographic.

For this appearance in Newcastle, Golding is joined by John Edwards and Steve Noble, two heavyweight veterans of the London improvisational jazz scene, and regular performers at the infamous Cafe OTO.

As a trio, they recently released the debut album ‘Mood Day’, an album plays with the post truth zeitgeist, using the first major moon conspiracy of 1835 as a launch pad.

“Recorded during a gap between the various lockdowns of 2020, you can sense the release from the musicians as they combine after enforced isolation with a telepathic sense of where to push each other: Noble interjecting both chaos and order from the drums; Edwards the rocket fuel propelling the unit on; and Golding soaring and cutting through on sax. You will not find a better showcase of these musicians’ phenomenal abilities. This is free jazz at its most compelling and most engaging. ‘Moon Day’ is undoubtedly a future jazz classic”

https://binkergolding.bandcamp.com/album/moon-day

Arun Ghosh

Arun Ghosh (Clarinet)
Kapil Seshasayee (Guitar) Gavin Barras (Double Bass) Dave Walsh (Drums)

Award-winning clarinettist Arun Ghosh returns to Newcastle, performing music from brand new album Seclused in Light, and celebrating UNESCO International Jazz Day.

A leading light on the UK jazz scene, Arun and his band deliver a passionate sound driven by soaring melodies, hypnotic rhythms and transcendental textures. Tonight’s show takes this further, with a fresh collaboration with Glasgow-based cutting-edge guitarist, Kapil Seshasayee.

Twice awarded ‘Jazz Instrumentalist of the Year’ at the Parliamentary Jazz Awards, Arun’s musical style embodies a multi-era / multi-genre approach; where numerous strands of jazz join forces with a myriad of musical influences: from jungle to punk, blues to Bollywood...and beyond.

This open-eared aesthetic and musical philosophy, set alongside his bringing together of South- Asian raags (modes) and taals (rhythms) with jazz culture and instrumentation, has led him to be considered a ‘renowned innovator of modern IndoJazz’.

A charismatic and communicative performer, Arun Ghosh’s shows are always special, spontaneous and moving events; this is a gig not to be missed!

Trish Clowes - MY IRIS

Trish Clowes (Saxophone) Ross Stanley (Piano & Organ) Chris Montague (Guitar) James Maddren (Drums)

Trish Clowes and her band My Iris are promoting their new album ‘A View with a Room’, to be released 23 April 2022.

My Iris is an intense and thrilling band that represents the front rank of the contemporary UK jazz scene. Lauded for her imaginative approach to improvisation and composition, saxophonist Trish Clowes provides her bandmates Ross Stanley (piano/Hammond organ), Chris Montague (guitar) and James Maddren (drums) with a unique platform for individual expression, delivering driving grooves and lingering melodic lines, seamlessly morphing between earthy restlessness and futuristic dreamscapes.

The band has now recorded two albums for Basho Records (‘My Iris’ and ‘Ninety Degrees Gravity’), the latest of which has been described as a “high intensity, mercurial workout” by Giovanni Russonello for Downbeat Magazine, providing “further evidence that Clowes is an improviser to be reckoned with.”

“...a beguiling Clowes solo that Lester Young or Ben Webster would have been proud of ... Strong compositions brilliantly interpreted” - All About Jazz

www.trishclowes.com

Michael Moore / John Pope / Johnny Hunter

Originally from the USA, but long resident in Amsterdam, Michael Moore is one of the most in- demand reeds players around, with an approach that sits at the cusp of melodic composition and free improvisation. He has worked and recorded with a veritable who’s who of creative musicians from both sides of the Atlantic (names plucked almost at random from his CV include Marilyn Crispell, Bill Frisell, Mark Helias, Ab Baars and Han Bennink), and has been a member of the renowned Instant Composers Pool Orchestra for nearly four decades.

Yet, apart from visits with the ICP, he has rarely performed in the UK, so Jazz North East is really proud to welcome him to Newcastle for the final gig in a short UK tour, in a trio with Tyneside bassist John Pope and Manchester-based drummer Johnny Hunter - both of them deservedly firm favourites with the local jazz audience.

Although this is a brand new group, it will be much more than an ad hoc improv combination; all three musicians will be writing compositions specifically for the trio, and there will be a day of rehearsal before the first gig of the tour so that the band will be at ease with the material as a launchpad for imaginative improvisation. And then, on the day after this Globe gig, the trio will head to the studio to record an album for the 'New Jazz and Improvised Music Recordings' label.

So, a proper working band, with an international flavour, and an ongoing shelf life. This gig is a great opportunity for listeners to be in at the beginning of the journey.

Yaatri

Liam Narain DeTar (Compositions / Guitar)
Felix Bertulis-Webb (Keys)
Rosie Miles (Vocals)
Joe Wilkes (Bass)
Dom Kilsby (Drums)

Yaatri is an award winning five-piece art-rock/jazz crossover group formed in Leeds in 2018. Their blend of complex composition and ethereal soundscapes captivates the heart as well as the mind. Influenced by the momentum of the rhythms of India, immersive timbres of electronic music, and energy of rock and roll, their music has a strong sense of purpose and journey.

Led by Indian/American guitarist and composer Liam Narain DeTar, Yaatri is Felix Bertulis-Webb on keys, Rosie Miles on vocals, Joe Wilkes on bass and Dom Kilsby on drums.

Yaatri have rapidly gained a reputation for being among the most forward-thinking and unique creative forces in the North of England. Combining the multicultural sounds of DeTar’s upbringing with psychedelic soundscapes, intricate arrangements and musicianship beyond their years, their music has been described by fans as emotionally transportive and capable of taking listeners to a higher spiritual place. Driven by lyrical melodies and propulsive grooves, Yaatri is compelled by the desire to push the boundaries of modern songwriting.

Supported by organisations such as Leeds Conservatoire, Manchester Jazz Festival, and Jazz North, their self-released debut EP ‘Reach’ has accumulated over 125k streams, been featured internationally in publications including Rolling Stone Magazine India, championed by the likes of Jazz FM’s China Moses and purchased on vinyl by fans in England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales, Australia, Belgium, Germany, Norway, Japan, the United States and Canada.

Following in the footsteps of artists such as Siweto Kinch and Roller Trio, Yaatri received the esteemed Peter Whittingham Jazz Award in November 2020, enabling them to collaborate with revered producer Sam Hobbs (Kefaya, Keeley Forsyth) on their next body of work. The ensemble’s recent releases have been on Jazz FM’s Playlist, were among Music Is My Sanctuary’s most popular exclusive premieres of 2021, and were broadcast internationally on shows including BBC Radio 1, BBC6, Jamz Supernova’s Selector Radio, Bandcamp Weekly, Soho Radio, Totally Wired, and more.

https://yaatri.bandcamp.com www.yaatrimusic.co.uk