Band on the Wall is a not-for-profit venue run by registered charity Inner City Music. The venue exists to present the best music from around the world and support our main stage events with a dynamic education programme, which operates throughout the year – both in the venue and in the community and at local schools.
The Jazz FM Awards 2013: Meet the Nominees: Café Oto – Best UK Jazz Venue
Cafe OTO opened in April 2008 with the aim of providing a home for creative new music that exists outside of the mainstream. Cafe OTO is comprised of one large cafe/performance space open during the day as a cafe and hosting an evening programme of adventurous live music almost seven nights a week. In addition to managing and delivering the programme of live events at Cafe Oto most evenings, OTOProjects is also developing new strands including workshops, film screenings and salons that will run alongside the core programme.
The Jazz FM Awards 2013: Meet the Nominees: Ronnie Scott’s – Best UK Jazz Venue
Ever since his trips in the late 40s and early 50s to the jazz clubs of New York’s 52nd Street, Ronnie Scott had dreamed of opening his own London club. In 1959, the dream came true. Together with Pete King (a fellow tenor saxophonist and personal friend) Ronnie Scott’s club opened in Gerrard Street, in London’s Soho. Since the opening, the venue has featured most of the legendary and popular names in modern jazz and jazz fusion. Ronnie’s plan was simply to provide a place where British jazz musicians could jam. Pete and Ronnie quickly developed a reputation of bringing the best of British modern jazz musicians to the club. Soon, they would persuade the American federation of musicians to lift the blanket ban on American performers in the U.K., paving the way for many legendary performances. In 1965, Ronnie Scott’s moved to its current location in Frith Street, only a short walk from the ‘old place’. Ronnie Scott’s is now one of the oldest jazz clubs in the world. The club officially reopened on Monday 26th June 2006, after 3 months of refurbishment. We look forward to welcoming you to the new Ronnie Scott’s!
The Jazz FM Awards 2013: Meet the Nominees: Phronesis – Live UK Shows of the YearScandinavian/British jazz trio (Jasper Høiby (Denmark) – double bass/ Ivo Neame (UK) – piano/ Anton Eger (Sweden) – drums) Phronesis have the ability to excite, inspire and move people in a way that few bands are able to do. Led by London-based Danish double-bass player Jasper Høiby, their charismatic live performances have captured the hearts and minds of audiences worldwide and prompted Jon Newey (Editor of Jazzwise Magazine) to describe them as “the most exciting and imaginative piano trio since EST”. In 2010 Phronesis developed a fierce reputation as one of the most formidable trios in the UK. They were nominated for ‘Best Jazz Ensemble’ in the Parliamentary Jazz Awards, featured on the front cover of Jazzwise Magazine and nominated for ‘Best Jazz Act’ at the prestigious 2010 MOBO Awards. The trio’s third album, Alive (Edition) was released in July 2010 to great critical acclaim and chosen as ‘Jazz Album of the Year’ by Jazzwise and MOJO Magazines. In 2012 the trio rose to the peak of their creative power with fourth album, Walking Dark (Edition). Earlier in the year, Jasper Høiby was awarded the Copenhagen Jazz Festival’s ‘Young Spirit Award’ and in June the trio won the ‘London Jazz Award’ at the London Awards for Art and Performance. With their “rare combination of solid jazz credentials and zeitgeist” (jazz journal), Phronesis have recently been chosen by the International Jazz Festivals Organisation, (as one of only six groups worldwide), for the IJFO new talent support programme, which includes performances for the trio at the 17 IJFO festivals over the coming two years.
The Jazz FM Awards 2013: Meet the Nominees: Gregory Porter – Live UK Shows of the YearBorn in Los Angeles, raised in Bakersfield, and now living in the Bedford-Stuyvesant area of Brooklyn, Gregory Porter has made the world his musical home. A frequent guest performer with the Jazz at Lincoln Centre Jazz Orchestra, Porter also maintains a residency at Smoke Jazz in New York. He appears on 2 tracks on the new Nicola Conte album, appeared on the Joules Holland BBC show in mid April. This year among the many festivals and events he will be on include the ElbJazz Festival in Hamburg, the North Sea Jazz Festival in Holland and the National Black Arts Festival in Atlanta. With a voice that can caress or confront, embrace or exhort, Grammy nominee, Gregory Porter exhibits such an incredible degree of vocal mastery that no less a jazz luminary than Wynton Marsalis had gone on record to call him: a fantastic young singer, which makes the face that Water is his recording debut more impressive.
The Jazz FM Awards 2013: Meet the Nominees: PB Underground – Live UK Shows of the Year
The PB Underground, led by star drummer Pete Ray Biggin, is the UK’s hottest funk sensation. Since forming in 2008 the band has been taking the UK funk scene by storm, building its loyal fan base and sweeping reviewers off their feet in a blitz of energy, showmanship and ferocious musical talent. The PBUG musicians are a who’s who of the hottest session players on the London scene. Regular singers include Daniel Pearce, Brendan Reilly, Imaani, Vanessa Haynes and Patrick Alan. The core rhythm section features Matt Cooper (keyboards), Ben Jones (guitar) and Alexei Elfenbein (bass), while Dan Carpenter (trumpet) heads up a stellar horn section together with Sean Freeman & Richard Beesley (saxes), and Alistair White (trombone). Pete Ray Biggin is the band’s MD and predominant songwriter – a drummer of cult status as a member of thedrummerworld.com elite, and a regular performer with bands including Level 42, Incognito, Amy Winehouse, Chaka Khan and Mark Ronson. Prior to sell-out 2012 shows across the major London jazz venues, the PBUG headlined at the Jazz Café in November 2011 as part of the London Jazz Festival, popping up en route at venues including Kensington Roof Gardens, the Pigalle Club, Cargo and Maya. Track back further and you’ll see the birth of the PB Underground in a couple of spontaneous late-night sessions at Abbey Road, establishing its reputation as a fireball of energy from the first beat… and they haven’t let up since!
The Jazz FM Awards 2013: Meet the Nominees: Phil Robson – UK Vocalist of the YearPhil Robson is internationally regarded as a highly versatile and creative player who appears in all kinds of diverse settings, as well as being a renowned bandleader & composer. It is hard to categorise his style of playing & writing, as so many influences & experiences have gone into the melting pot. Earlier, prevailing influences such as Hendrix & Miles, Parker, Kessell etc. blend with many elements from the wider jazz world such as Ornette Coleman, Dave Holland, McCoy Tyner etc. as well as with dimensions from African & Brazilian music, 20th century composers & contemporary musicians of all kinds as well as maintaining a respect for the entire jazz tradition. Winner of ‘Best Jazz Musician Of The Year’ in the 2009 Parliamentary Jazz Awards, he has been commissioned several times to write music & put projects together by both Derby Jazz & Birmingham jazz.
The Jazz FM Awards 2013: Meet the Nominees: Ivo Neame – UK Instrumentalist of the Year
Ivo Neame (pianist with Phronesis)
Ivo Neame is a distinctive jazz musician in that he is equally at home on saxophone and piano. This double life has seen him make notable contributions to some of the finest jazz groups in the vanguard of the dynamic UK jazz scene. Ivo studied at the Royal Academy of Music, where he grappled with the hothouse music environment with varying degrees of success. Since leaving the Academy in 2003 he has reconnected more deeply with music, and has gone on to perform and record with highly esteemed musicians at home and abroad such as David Binney, Seamus Blake and Hermeto Pascoal. As a bandleader he has recorded two critically acclaimed albums and has toured in the UK and abroad with the Ivo Neame Quintet. His Edition Records release ‘Caught in the Light of Day’ was rated the 4th best jazz album of 2010 by MOJO magazine and received 4 star reviews from the Guardian and the Irish Times among others. Recently he has been lucky enough to receive various awards including a MOBO for best jazz act (Kairos Quartet), Album of the year 2010 in both Jazzwise and MOJO magazines (Phronesis) and winner of the Jazz category for the London Awards for Art and Performance 2012.
The Jazz FM Awards 2013: Meet the Nominees: Nathaniel Facey – UK Instrumentalist of the Year
Nathaniel Facey (saxophonist with Empirical)
Alto saxophonist Nathaniel Facey is best known for his work with the award-winning band Empirical, a group of brilliant young jazz musicians who combine a thoroughly contemporary approach with a deep seated love of the jazz tradition. Born in London in 1983 of Jamaican parents Facey is a graduate of the Royal Academy of Music and has played with an impressive array of musicians including Courtney Pine, Billy Jenkins and The Jazz Jamaica All Stars. A couple of nights before his appearance at Abergavenny he was seen on TV as a member of ex Specials leader Jerry Dammers’ Spatial AKA Orchestra on BBC 2’s “Later With Jools Holland” programme. Facey is an assured and confident performer who speaks well between tunes and plays with an effortless grace that makes complex musical ideas sound easy.
The Jazz FM Awards 2013: Meet the Nominees: Ian Shaw- UK Vocalist of the Year
Ian Shaw
Ian Shaw is a Welsh jazz singer, record producer, and stand up comedian. Born in St. Asaph, Wales, Shaw took his music degree at the University of London. His career in performance began in the 1980s on the Alternative Cabaret Circuit, alongside such performers as Julian Clary, Rory Bremner and Jo Brand. At the same time, he was playing in piano bars and at festivals in London and throughout Europe. In 1990, he toured Europe and recorded with fellow singer Carol Grimes. Since this time, Shaw has regularly worked in duo settings with other singers, including Claire Martin, Linda Lewis, Liane Carroll, and Sarah Jane Morris. By the mid-1990s, he was regularly performing at the Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club and in 1995 released two albums on the club’s Jazzhouse label – Ghosthouse and a tribute to Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart Taking It To Hart. In 1996, Shaw led his own ‘Very Big Band’ on a UK tour, and by the late 90s he was performing regularly in USA. In 1999 he released In A New York Minute the first of two albums on New York’s Milestone label. This and Soho Stories, released in 2001, featured many US musicians including Cedar Walton, Lew Soloff, and Eric Alexander. A World Still Turning from 2003 saw him working with Billy Childs and Peter Washington, and guest vocalist Mark Murphy. Shaw has continued to work regularly with singer Claire Martin, co-hosting the 2004 BBC Jazz Awards with her and appearing with her on the BBC Radio 2 show Big Band Special, a show that he has also presented. Shaw also presented a jazz show on BBC South with Charlie Crocker. He won in the Best Jazz Vocalist category at the BBC Jazz Awards in 2004 and 2007.
The Jazz FM Awards 2013: Meet the Nominees: Liane Carroll – UK Vocalist of the Year
Liane Carroll
Liane Carroll was born in London and raised in Hastings, where she currently lives with her husband, bassist Roger Carey. She started playing the piano at the age of three, but soon developed a deep passion for everything jazz, soul and beyond. Since 1993, Liane has appeared as a headline act at the legendary Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club, where she has also recorded two live CD’s for their Jazz House label. She continues to be a regular at the celebrated 606 Club, in Chelsea. In 2007, she continued a busy touring schedule with her trio as well as performing solo at the piano at many of the UK’s more intimate settings. In May, she picked up the award for ‘Best female jazz vocalist’ at the first ever Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Awards, and in June her trio make a head-line appearance at Glastonbury Festival, which went out live to over 300,000 listeners on BBC Radio 3. Her eagerly awaited second solo album, ‘Slow Down,’ was released in September the same year with Splashpoint Records, and launched to a sell-out audience at the 606 Club in London. It has since received superb reviews and was in December picked by the Sunday Times as one of their top five jazz albums of the year. A track from the album was also featured by Mojo Magazine in their ‘Mojo’s Top 10’ Playlist selection. In February 2008, Liane released her first DVD ‘Liane Carroll Trio LIVE,’ which featured a performance from the Brecon Jazz Festival originally broadcast as a documentary on BBC4. Liane went on to pick up the 2008 Parliamentary Jazz Award for ‘Musician Of The Year.’
The Jazz FM Awards 2013: Meet the Nominees: Carleen Anderson – UK Vocalist of the Year
Carleen Anderson arrived in the UK in the late 1980s and quickly rose to stardom with her band the ‘Young Disciples’. After the band dissolved, she continued a successful career as a solo artist. Still one of the most powerful vocalists today, Carleen Anderson has been a favorite of audiences and fellow artists alike for over two decades. She has been quoted by as a major influence by many vocalists, like Amy Winehouse: “For live performances, you absolutely have to see Carleen Anderson – at least 3 times in your life!”
Carleen routinely sells out Ronnie Scott’s in London and her all new CARLEEN ANDERSON SOUL TRIO is quickly becoming a hot tip in the Jazz Festival Circuit.
Carleen was raised by her paternal grandparents who ran a gospel church in Houston, Texas. She is the daughter of the original James Brown revue’s Vicki Anderson, her stepfather was Bobby Byrd, James Brown’s right hand man, and James Brown was Carleen’s Godfather. Her Aunt Bettye Anderson, who largely contributed to Carleen’s musical education, was a classically trained vocalist and sang at Martin Luther King’s sermons.
Contact: 7 Bridges Inc. Management & Consulting
Michael Kirsch – 7bridges@radmusic.com
Berkeley, California 94712
Josh Arcoleo
Born into a musical family in 1989, Josh was lucky enough to start saxophone lessons with the legendary Pee Wee Ellis when he was 13. At 18, he gained a place on the renowned jazz course at the Royal Academy of Music where he graduated with a 1st class degree in 2011, that year, also winning a Yamaha Parliamentary Jazz Scholarship and the Kenny Wheeler Jazz Prize. The latter being a recording contract with Edition Records. Josh’s debut album ‘Beginnings’ was released in February 2012 to widespread critical acclaim. He has also received awards from the EMI Music Sound Foundation and MBF Young Talent, and was nominated for a 2012 London Jazz Award.
The Jazz FM Awards 2013: Meet the Nominees: Roller Trio – Best UK Newcomer
Roller Trio’s music is a fresh, visceral stew of conventional and experimental sounds that features stonking riffs, thrashy noise, evocative songs and electronic soundscapes. Incubated in mammoth improvisation sessions and honed in local gigs, their music is delivered with a captivating swagger and greedy energy that is utterly beguiling and packs a hook-laden punch. Roller Trio are James Mainwairing tenor sax and electronics, Luke Wynter guitar and Luke Reddin-Williams on drums, still in their early ’20s they met whilst studying at Leeds College of Music. Influenced by a wide range of music from Tim Berne, Chris Potter and Anthony Braxton to Queens of the Stone Age, Soundgarden, Slum Village, J Dilla and Flying Lotus as well as the vibrant Leeds scene they also name check contemporary bands such as Heernt, Trio VD, Animals as Leaders and Siriusmo. But their invigorating mix of rock riffs, angular drums, electronic loops and James powerful tone and use of circular breathing and multiphonics mark them out as a powerful new band in their own right and their use of electronics gives their music a muscular sonic edge and febrile funkiness that makes this music for the heart, head and feet!
The Jazz FM Awards 2013: There’s Still Time to VoteIf you haven’t cast your votes for UK Jazz Artist of the Year yet, there’s still time.
You can vote for the Neil Cowley Trio, Jamie Cullum or Troyka on the right hand side of the home page. Voting closes at 23:59 31st December 2012.
The awards take place on January 31st 2013 at One Marylebone and you can follow the action here and @jazzfm
The Jazz FM Awards 2013: Meet the Nominees: BeatsnPieces – Best UK Newcomer
Recent winners of the Burghausen European Young Artists’ Jazz Award 2011, the BeatsnPieces Big Band are fast becoming one of the country’s most talked about jazz groups. Led by composer and conductor Ben Cottrell, its 14 members are drawn from some of the most exciting and in demand young musicians active in the UK today, all of whom met and began playing together whilst students in Manchester. Their debut album, Big Ideas, is released in March 2012 on Efpi Records. “BeatsnPieces dazzled with a glorious, full-bloodied set demonstrating all that’s good about big band jazz. The big band tradition is alive and well and living in Manchester.” Selwyn Harris, Jazzwise. The band’s founder and musical director, Ben Cottrell, was chosen as one of 8 young creative musicians from across the UK to participate in the 2010/11 edition of the prestigious Take Five professional development scheme, growing from an initial meeting in early 2008, the band were invited to open the Manchester Jazz Festival later that year on the strength of a two track demo recorded at that very first rehearsal. Since then, the band has performed across the UK to consistent audience and critical acclaim. The BeatsnPieces Big Band is grateful to the Musicians’ Benevolent Fund for its support for their recent trip to Germany through an Ensembles and Groups Award.
Ethan Iverson is one third of The Bad Plus and the proprietor of Do the Math. After moving to New York, he became music director of Mark Morris Dance Group in 1998 and was part of late ’90s indie jazz scene along with Bill McHenry, Jeff Williams, Reid Anderson and others, mainly documented on Fresh Sound New Talent, thanks to Jorge Rossy. The Bad Plus with Anderson and Dave King formed in 2001, the Billy Hart Quartet with Turner and Ben Street formed in 2003, Do the Math debuted in 2005, and in recent years Iverson has collaborated with Charlie Haden, Paul Motian, Bill Frisell, Tim Berne, Hank Roberts, Albert “Tootie” Heath, Larry Grenadier, Jorge Rossy, Lee Konitz, and Sam Newsome.
The Jazz FM Awards 2013: Meet the Nominees: Jazzwise – Jazz Media
Jazzwise, launched in 1997, is the UK’s biggest selling jazz monthly magazine. Jazzwise has a broad coverage, from the cutting edge of jazz, improv, bebop, spiritual jazz and jazz-rock to world music, soul jazz, jazz funk, M-BASE, acid jazz and prog jazz. It features news coverage, a national gig guide, gossip column, a jazz-on-film page, opinion column, in-depth features and a review section covering new CD releases, reissues, DVDs, books and live reviews. Breaking news stories feature on the Jazzwise magazine website. Jazzwise also mentors new jazz writers through its on-going intern scheme and the Write Stuff workshops held each November during the London Jazz Festival. In 2006 Jazzwise editor Jon Newey won journalist of the year at the Parliamentary Jazz Awards. In 2007 Jazzwise won two awards, best jazz publication at the Parliamentary Jazz Awards and best jazz publication at the Ronnie Scott’s awards. In 2009,Jazzwise writer Kevin Le Gendre won journalist of the year at the Parliamentary Jazz Awards, while in 2010 Jazzwise won best jazz publication at the Parliamentary Jazz Awards for the second time and gig guide editor Mike Flynn won journalist of the year, while CD reissues reviewer Alyn Shipton won broadcaster of the year.
The Jazz FM Awards 2013: Meet the Nominees: AllAboutJazz.com – Jazz Media
Founded by Michael Ricci in 1995, All About Jazz is a website maintained by a volunteer staff of writers, editors, and musicians, and provides coverage of all genres of jazz from independent to major record label releases. As an advocacy site, All About Jazz aims to raise the awareness of jazz music, its history and its players. It has been awarded “The Best Web-Site Concentrating On Jazz” eight times by the Jazz Journalists Association All About Jazz is a jazz music website for enthusiasts and industry professionals based in Philadelphia in the United States.
The Jazz FM Awards 2013: Meet the Nominees: Ryan Truesdell – Album of the Year
Ryan Truesdell apprenticed with arranger and composer Maria Schneider, who apprenticed with Gil Evans. That makes him, in effect, Gil Evans’ musical and spiritual grandson. He does his heritage proud, taking 10 previously unrecorded Evans arrangements from manuscript—or, in some cases, expanding Evans sketches—to performance by a superb collection of musicians. The scores go back as far as Evans’ Claude Thornhill period of the 1940s and up to 1971. This music is a reminder that 100 years after his birth and 24 following his death, Evans still shows the way. The sparkling cast of soloists includes Steve Wilson, Scott Robinson, Joe Locke and Luciana Souza. This new album, which is best described as the new old works of Gil Evans—as presented, preserved, completed and polished up by Ryan Truesdell. Centennial is part 100th birthday present/tribute to a sadly departed giant of jazz, but it’s also a gift to the world. It is also part archaeological unveiling and part career-spanning pastiche, with all three ideals adding up to a brilliant album. It doesn’t get any better than this.
The Jazz FM Awards 2013: Meet the Nominees: John Surman – Album of the Year
Born in Tavistock, Devon in 1944, composer/multi-instrumentalist John Surman is one of the key figures in a generation of European musicians who have crucially expanded the international horizons of jazz during the past thirty years or so. Long acknowledged as an improviser of world class, Surman has also composed a body of work, which extends far beyond the normal range of the jazz repertoire. Already, by the late 60s, it was clear that Surman was a phenomenon. He started out as a teenager playing the music of fellow Devonian Mike Westbrook, and then amazed the London establishment with displays of extravagant instrumental proficiency combined with a passionate, rumbustious imagination. John Surman is a perennial poll winner, and in 1989 received the Bird Award at the North Sea Jazz Festival and a Wire Award for services to jazz in Britain. He was awarded an Honorary Doctorate in Music by Plymouth University in 1997 and the BBC voted him ‘Instrumentalist of the Year’ in 2002.