Category Archives: clarinets

2nd July: Noel Taylor/Lawrence Casserley/Guillaume Viltard & Daniel Thompson

Our July gigs open with this double bill of improvised music: a fantastic trio put together by Noel Taylor, and a solo set from Daniel Thompson. As usual it’s doors at 8pm, with the music starting around 8.30pm. Entry is one Bank of England note of your choice.

Noel Taylor/Lawrence Casserley/Guillaume Viltard

Noel Taylor sent us this scene-setting paragraph on the trio…

“Electronics wizard Lawrence Casserley is something of a phantom, a ghost musician, a mute who can only speak through the voices of others. He has no sound of his own, but, like a parasite feeding on its host, uses the analogue input from the clarinet of Noel Taylor and the contrabass of Guillaume Viltard to function as triggers for his electronic re-shaping. Their sounds become bounced back to them mangled, distorted, re-imagined: producing weirdly spectral reflections of their playing. It is a musical circuit diagram, a feedback loop of potentially infinite regression. It presents to them conflicting impulses, in which the immediate past struggles with the immediacy of the present. The process creates a music of shifting hierarchies in which puppet and puppet master constantly swap places, but which can nevertheless discover a formal and crystalline coherence. ”

Noel Taylor clarinets

Lawrence Casserley electronics

Guillaume Viltard bass

Daniel Thompson

Daniel is a prolific improviser, extremely active on the London free scene, and organises the monthly Foley Street improvised music concert series at the King and Queen pub in the West End. Originally from Norfolk and largely self-taught on the guitar, Daniel moved to London in 2006 and studied with the guitarist and Mopomoso co-founder John Russell. He has performed/collaborated with numerous improvisers including Neil Metcalfe, Adam Bohman, Terry Day, Simon Rose, Ricardo Tejero, Steve Noble, Alex Ward, Phil Durrant, Kay Grant, Benedict Taylor, Roland Ramanan, Mark Sanders, Anton Mobin, Tom Jackson, Javier Carmona and Julie Kjaer amongst many others. We’re very much looking forward to hearing him play a solo guitar set for us this week.

This promises to be a fantastic evening: see you at Long White Cloud!

16th April: Sloth Racket & Alex Ward

A new project from half of LUME this week, as Cath brings a new ensemble she was invited to put together for Gateshead International Jazz Festival last weekend. They share the bill tonight with the excellent Alex Ward playing a solo set…

Alex Ward

Alex Ward is a highly-acclaimed composer, improviser, and performing musician. His involvement in freely improvised music dates back to 1986, when he met the guitarist Derek Bailey. As an improviser, he was initially principally a clarinettist (sometimes also playing alto sax), but since 2000 he has also been active as an improvising guitarist. On both instruments, his longest-standing collaborations in this field have been with the drummer Steve Noble. Much of his writing and performing has been done with Dead Days Beyond Help, a duo with drummer Jem Doulton. He also currently leads a number of bands including Predicate, Forebrace, The Alex Ward Quintet/Sextet, and Alex Ward & The Dead Ends.

Sloth Racket

For this new project, saxophonist/composer Cath Roberts assembles four of the most exciting improvisers on the UK scene. Tenor player Sam Andreae is known for his collaborations with Scandinavian musicians in the exceptional and critically-acclaimed Trio Riot and Silence Blossoms, as well as countless other projects including a recent sound art installation at Manchester’s Penthouse with David Birchall. Anton Hunter was recently commissioned by Manchester Jazz Festival to write a new suite of music ‘Article 11’, in addition to leading his own trio, playing in Beats And Pieces Big Band and co-running experimental/jazz/improv label Efpi Records. Seth Bennett is a prolific bassist, leading his own trio Nut Club as well as playing in Martin Archer’s Engine Room Favourites, Laura Cole’s Metamorphic, and the Grew Quartet among many others. Johnny Hunter has recently toured the UK with his quartet and appears regularly in all kinds of settings, from Nat Birchall’s spiritual jazz group to dub reggae band Skamel. The group will play a new set of music by Cath, using it as a jumping-off point for freely improvised group explorations.

Sam Andreae – tenor sax
Cath Roberts – baritone sax
Anton Hunter – guitar
Seth Bennett – bass
Johnny Hunter – drums

12th March: Alex Bonney Quartet

This week we welcome back Alex Bonney to LUME, with his excellent quartet. The group plays Alex’s original compositions, influenced by 60s and 70s American and European free jazz and 20th century classical composition, with lots of space for melodic and textural improvisation and interaction. Featuring an exciting lineup of in-demand London and New York based musicians.

Alex Bonney – cornet, trumpet

James Allsopp – bass clarinet, clarinet

Olie Brice – double bass

Jeff Williams – drums

Double LUME week: small group improv at Long White Cloud and large jazz ensembles at the Vortex…

The two sides of LUME are combined in one double-gig week! Small groups of free improvisers will take the stage at Long White Cloud on Thursday 26th February, and we’ll be hosting some medium/large sized jazz ensembles at ‘LUME Presents…’ on 1st March.

26th February @ Long White Cloud: Alec Harper/Tom Wheatley/Andrew Lisle & Ti/om

An evening of improvisation from some of London’s top creative musicians…

Alec Harper/Tom Wheatley/Andrew Lisle

Harper, Wheatley and Lisle have been improvising together and also on the circuit for a few years in London, over the UK and throughout Europe and the U.S. This newly formed trio met through mutual friends on the London scene. The group play lengthy sweeping improvisations exploring sound worlds with abstract forms and textures. Strong rhythmic interactions are a key part of the trio’s identity.

Alec Harper tenor saxophone
Tom Wheatley bass
Andrew Lisle drums

Ti/om

Tom Ward and Tim Fairhall first met in about 2007 while studying at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and soon began meeting for duo sessions, exploring the dynamic and rapport between woodwinds and bass through free improvisation. There followed a hiatus of several years whilst they both pursued other musics, but the duo have recently reunited for a variety of musical activities including their infamous ‘Tour of North London’ in 2014.

Tom Ward bass clarinet, flute
Tim Fairhall double bass

with special guest the Swedish percussionist Matilda Rolfsson (bass drum, bells, gongs, bows, fingers, hands and brushes), who is spending a few months in the UK as part of her Masters course.

1st March @ ‘LUME Presents…’, Vortex Jazz Club: JJ Wheeler’s ‘Come Back Stronger’ & Ralph Wyld’s Mosaic

Two exciting medium/large sized jazz groups playing original music…

JJ Wheeler’s ‘Come Back Stronger’

JJ Wheeler’s Come Back Stronger is a 10-piece band formed to play the highly emotive suite, A Question of Hope. Written about the bandleader’s life-threatening battle with Cancer, the suite explores themes of desperation, anger, frustration and the search for hope through engaging, sometimes dark, sometimes light-hearted yet always sophisticated music. Weaving together influences from composers such as John Hollenbeck, Maria Schneider and Kenny Wheeler to Radiohead, The Invisible and Peter Gabriel, the group’s sound ebbs and flows seamlessly between driving grooves, epic soundscapes, delicate melodies and intricate rhythmic constructs.

Jess Berry vocals
Tom Dennis trumpet, flugelhorn
Tom Green trombone
Matthew Herd alto and soprano saxophones
Sam Rapley tenor saxophone
Rob Cope baritone saxophone, flute
Ralph Wyld vibraphone
Sam James keyboards
Misha Mullov-Abbado bass
JJ Wheeler drums

Ralph Wyld’s Mosaic

Featuring an array of young talent and a diversity of influences, Mosaic was created as a means of bringing together people, ideas and genres. The lineup provides vibes player/composer Wyld with a spectacular textural and timbral palette, from glistening, transparent treble to powerful, earth-shuddering bass. The unique character of each player is also highly valued, with improvisation taking a central role. Inspiration for the music includes Shostakovich, Copland and Piazzolla as well as Gil Evans, Vince Mendoza, Kenny Wheeler and Bill Frisell.

Ralph Wyld vibraphone
James Copus trumpet
Sam Rapley clarinets
Cecilia Bignall cello
Misha Mullov-Abbado bass
Scott Chapman drums/percussion

11th December: Andrew Oliver Quintet

This week, two sets from a new band featuring the compositions of new (ish) Londoner the pianist Andrew Oliver! We’ve checked out some of the music he made in the US, so we know we’re in store for a night of exciting original music. Come down and hear for yourself on Thursday…here’s the blurb:

American pianist and composer Andrew Oliver relocated to London from Portland, Oregon in 2013. Continuing his compositional explorations into groovy chamber-jazz for the 21st century, he presents a new London based quintet performing original music influenced by minimalism, Zimbabwean and west African traditions, trains, and the omnipresent shuffle of genres in the world today.

Andrew Oliver – piano
Dave Shulman – clarinet and bass clarinet
Ralph Wyld – vibes
Huw V Williams – bass
Pete Ibbetson – drums

4th December: Splatter & Martin Speake/Malcolm Earle-Smith

A double bill this week with a new duo of Martin Speake and Malcolm Earle-Smith, plus a set from improv quartet Splatter.

Splatter

Splatter play improvised music that is not quite many things. It isn’t quite jazz, it isn’t quite free jazz, it isn’t quite free improvisation, it isn’t quite avant rock or plain old rock, or folk music or contemporary music – it is all of these things, mixed together in the moment – sometimes in the same tune.

Time Out remarked that Splatter ‘feed shards of rock and black metal into their freeform jazz Soundscapes”. They have released three CD’s to date, the most recent being ‘Cloudseed’ which features a collaboration with Polish bass guitarist, Rafal Mazur.

Rachel Musson tenor sax

Noel Taylor clarinet

Pedro Velasco guitar

Ansuman Biswas drums

Martin Speake & Malcolm Earle-Smith

Citing Lee Konitz, Charlie Parker, Warne Marsh, Bill Evans, Keith Jarrett, Ornette Coleman, Steve Coleman, Rabi Abou Khalil, and Paul Motian as major influences, Martin has developed a personal musical voice that expresses a deep understanding of the history and language of Jazz with individuality as an improviser that is intelligent, melodic, cool, complex, direct, beautiful and profound. Martin will be performing an improvised duo set with acclaimed trombonist Malcolm Earle-Smith.

2nd October: Emma Jean Thackray Quintet

This week we look forward to welcoming Emma-Jean Thackray, an award winning composer, trumpeter and educator. She recently received the Musicians Benevolent Fund’s emerging excellence award, the Daryl Runswick Composition Prize and several scholarship awards. Ensembles have performed her work across the UK with several notable performances at the QEH South Bank Centre, the London Ear Festival, and recent commissions from art collectives Bastard Assignments and Filthy Lucre.

Having studied at several conservatoires around the UK specialising in jazz, receiving tuition from internationally acclaimed jazz musicians and composers at both undergraduate and postgraduate level, she still continues to play trumpet frequently, having led the brass sections of renowned ensembles across England and Wales, directed and performed in her own devised ensembles, and played in a variety of sessions.

This Thursday Emma-Jean will be bringing her quintet, which features members of London’s acclaimed Chaos Collective.

Emma-Jean Thackray – trumpet
Will Scott – alto sax/clarinet
James Kitchman – guitar
Louis Thomas – double bass
Liz Exell – drums/percussion

Doors 8pm, music starts at 8.30pm. £5 entry.

Long White Cloud,
151 Hackney Road,
E2 8JL.
Nearest station: Hoxton Overground (less than 5 mins’ walk)