| October 2008
SEGUE presents Jazz at the Lakeside Jazz
at the Lakeside returns
to the Lakeside Theatre at the University of Essex this autumn with
another fantastic line-up featuring three of the most talked about new
acts on the UK jazz circuit. Presented
by the Wivenhoe based organisation SEGUE,
which last season presented 2008 Mercury Award nominees Portico
Quartet amongst others, Jazz at
the Lakeside is rapidly becoming a fixture in the North Essex
live-jazz calendar. The
season kicks off on Saturday
October 25th with Polar
Bear, the young London based avant-garde jazz quintet. Led from the
back, by the outstanding Seb Rochford, they are part of long great jazz
tradition of drummer led bands stretching
back through Art Blakey and Chick Webb. Well
known as drummer in the Hendrix inspired jazzers Acoustic Ladyland Seb has played and recorded with a remarkably diverse range of people
including Joanna McGregor, Adele, Brian Eno, David Byrne, Patti Smith and
Yoko Ono. He also drummed in an early incarnation of Pete Doherty's
Babyshambles playing on their first single. This
wide range of collaborators is matched by the breadth of his musical taste
that includes not only the jazz giants but also other artists such as
grime artists Skepta, Devlin, Durrty Goodz, dubstep geniuses Burial and
Kode 9 and awe inspiring singer Kaushiki Chakrabarty.
Their
sound appeals as much to jazz traditionalists as to those people who don't
normally do jazz. Polar Bear transcend genres creating a new form of
British jazz that is uniquely their own and reflects UK music and life in
the twenty first century. Featuring
Seb Rochford (drums); Pete
Wareham (tenor saxophone); Mark
Lockheart (tenor saxophone); Tom
Herbert (double bass) and Leafcutter
John (mandolin and electronics). This
is followed on Saturday
November 8th by Empirical.
Hailed by the likes of Courtney Pine and Jamie Cullum as one of the
hottest new acts in British Jazz and winners of the 2008 Parliamentary
Jazz Award for Best Jazz Ensemble, Empirical’s self-titled debut album
released last year won pretty much every jazz award going, including both
MOJO and Jazzwise Album of the Year. Their
eagerly-awaited debut album, produced by Courtney Pine, was a fine
showcase for this talented young collective of five future jazz stars: Jay
Phelps (trumpet/voice), Nathaniel
Facey (alto sax/voice), Kit
Downes (acoustic piano), Tom
Farmer (double bass), and Shane
Forbes (drums/percussion) perform with astonishing musical maturity,
confidence and cohesiveness derived from many years of playing together. A
great opportunity to see Empirical live in the east of England, a couple
of weeks before their London Jazz Festival date at the Barbican Theatre
debut supporting Courtney Pine. The
season comes to a close on Saturday
December 6th with the Arun
Ghosh Indo-Jazz Sextet playing original music of South Asian origin
with a contemporary jazz attitude, rocking urban beats and the passion of
punk. Sweet and timeless melodies give birth to soaring improvisations and
raag explorations, driven by a heady mix of dub-reggae bass, tabla
trickery and ferocious drum explosions. Arun's
critically acclaimed debut album "Northern Namaste" was released
in April 2008 and he is rapidly becoming one of the most talked about
young artists in British Jazz. Featuring
Arun Ghosh (clarinet): Idris
Rahman (saxophone): Nilesh
Gulhane (tabla): Liran Donin
(bass): Kishon Khan (piano) and
Pat Illingworth (drums).
Notes:
SEGUE, a music company which focuses on promoting, presenting and
developing world music and jazz, was founded in 2006 by Fiona Mason. SEGUE
presents a regular concert series JAZZ at the LAKESIDE at the Lakeside
Theatre at the University of Essex, as well as gigs at other regional
venues including the New Wolsey Theatre in Ipswich. SEGUE
was recently awarded a 2008-9 Jazz Promoters Award from PRS
Foundation/Jazz Services to support this season of concerts. SEGUE
has an Associate Artist, Adriano Adewale and in 2008 SEGUE launched a new
label SEGUE RECORDS with Adriano Adewale Group's debut album Sementes
as its first release. For more
information: Fiona
Mason on Tel. 01206 825600 or Mob: 07957 571332 E-mail: or visit: www.segue.org.uk
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