5 months
1 week ago
From Tony Dudley-Evans
Jazz Festival Artistic Director
At Cheltenham we have always taken pride in commissioning a new piece from a bandleader/composer. In previous years we have had, for example, Denys Baptiste’s Let Freedom Ring and Abram Wilson’s Ride! with Ferris Wheel To The Modern Day Delta. This year we present the premiere of Nikki Yeoh’s newly commissioned piece written especially for saxophonist John Surman and Nikki’s Infinitum Trio; this was, in fact, written for last year’s festival, but it could not be performed because of the power cut in the Everyman Theatre. We heard one piece the day after and this tune written for just John on saxophone and Nikki on piano was a stunningly beautiful piece. I look forward to hearing the whole commission, which will be performed in Cheltenham Town Hall at 1.30pm on Saturday 1 May.
“In much of the most exciting, happening jazz today there is constant movement between the written parts and the improvisation”
…continue reading →
We’ve tagged this post with Carla Bley, Dave Holland, Jamie Cullum, jazz, Nikki Yeoh, Rory Simmons, Seb Rochford, Stu Brown, Tony Dudley-Evans on Wednesday 24 March 2010.
