The main features of 2007 so far have been the exciting tour with Andy Scott's band Sax Assault as part of the launch of his new album 'Sax of Gold' which featured, along with others, Bob Mintzer. More gigs are in the pipeline for November.

On May 1 I staged a concert in the Studio Theatre. This featured my group Crystal for the first half and then selection of arrangements for string orchestra and jazz trio with yours truly as soloist. (and composer/arranger of several pieces)

The orchestra, lead by Jo Dickens, was conducted by Clark Rundell who did a superb job of making everything happen! The highlights have to be two pieces composed especially for the gig by Andy Scott and Issie Barratt. Issie and Andy are both important British composers and I enormously grateful for their pieces. I do hope there will be further opportunities to play all of this music.

2006

2006 certainly got off to a cracking start! In the first week of the year I travelled from Huddersfield to Falmouth via Shaftsbury to give INSET training on beginning to teach improvisation. I kept it all really simple and hands on and it seemed to go down well.

James Gourlay was the soloist in Barbara Thompson’s Tuba Concerto with yours truly conducting. Then in February Matthew Herbert came to play with the RNCM big band. It was a potentially risky night… very experimental and dependant on a lot of technology working. But it did work and the Guardian gave us 4 stars!

Concerts with John Wilson and the Halle Orchestra continue but I have now got onto the extras list with the Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra.

The climax has to be playing six nights at Ronnie Scott’s club with Pete Long’s Echoes of Ellington. This is a fabulous band led by the most supportive, humorous yet knowledgeable band leader ever! My features were Diminuendo and Crescendo in Blue (someone counted 35 choruses) and a version of ‘A train’ which visited ballad tempo and then breakneck speed.





Playing for six nights with Steve Chadwick’s quintet featuring Andrea Marcelli was great fun. Steve Berry and Dan Whieldon are also in the band and it’s great to be playing with such good musicians.

I was soloist with the UK Conservatoires Big Band as part of the LCM Jazz Education Conference in April.


I spent three very sweaty days with eight other sax players and a rhythm section (aka Andy Scott's Sax Assault!) trying to record a new CD. This was the middle of the July heat wave! We then flew out to Slovenia to play support to Bob Mintzer and the Yellowjackets (with the Slovenian Radio Big Band). What a gig!! But it was also an eye opener, in that I first spoke to Jimmy Haslip (YJ bassist) in the lost property queue at the airport... I had no suitcase and he had no bass! These guys live with the perils of air travel for 4/5 months of the year!!!

This years summer schools were just magic; especially France and Canford. At Canford, Gareth Huw Davies, Mark Lloyd and I were again accompanied by the string orchestra with our own arrangement including an original piece of mine called 'Nightwalks'.

August Bank Holiday saw Robin Joiner, Dave Turner, Danny Ward and me entertaining Lady Chomondley in her grounds. We had the added bonus of being painted by talented artist Lynne Morgan. Have a look!

String Projects

Last summer I had the good fortune to be involved in a couple of projects playing with string orchestra and rhythm section.
The whole thing started when Julian Arguelles gave me a copy of his CD 'As above, so below' which includes a beautiful track called 'Since Then' for strings and tenor.
I played this to Malcolm Binney, the Director of Canford Summer School and, this year the conductor of the string orchestra.
Malcolm liked it and we based the Jazz Tutor Concert around the string orchestra with arrangements by myself and Gareth Huw Davies.

In September I was involved with the Manchester Schools String Orchestra under the splendid leadership of Richard Howarth when we also played Julians piece and three of my other arrangements.

I am busy writing more arrangements for next year.

Crystal

Crystal is a project which aims at a more delicate sound than the standard jazz quartet setting. I guess it also reflects my passion and respect for classical music and musicians.

It featured

Mike Hall (soprano saxophone)
(photo: Daniel Parker)

The music is a mixture of my own pieces and arrangements of a few unusual tunes. Our first gig, in the Bridgewater Hall Foyer during the Manchester Jazz Festival, was enthusiastically received as was the next at RNCM. I am currently working on some new material.

'Click for clip'

gigs













Other on going projects include: