Gareth Lockrane Quartet

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Gareth and Kate have been performing and recording together for over 10 years in various ensembles of Kate's, including quartet, quintet and septet line-ups.

 

For Kate, this is the second collaboration with conductor William Goodchild and orchestra, having launched Interplay Series: Bill Evans and The Impressionists for jazz trio and orchestra at the 2014 Bristol Jazz Festival.

 

A stalwart of the Bristol jazz scene, acclaimed double bassist Will Harris has performed with Andy Sheppard, Nikki Iles and David Newton, as well as legendary New York saxophonist Chris Potter, with whom he toured as part of the Inner City Ensemble.

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Drummer Dave Smith is best known for his work with Robert Plant and the Sensation Space Shifters, Fofoulah and Afro-Blues group Juju. As co-founder of The Loop Collective, Dave is part of some of the most adventurous, and accessible, musical projects in the UK including Strobes, Cloudmakers Trio, Outhouse, MA and Splice.

 

The Music

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The programme will feature pieces arranged by Gareth and Kate especially for tonight's concert. Gareth has chosen three original compositions from his acclaimed big band album Fistfight at the Barndance.

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Gareth says:

 

Do It is inspired by a lifetime of watching 70s cop movies, written to the exact tempo that Dirty Harry strides through the streets of San Fransisco, with a trail of wreckage behind him!

 

We'll Never Meet Again is a ballad that has always been a tune of mine that I like to revisit in the big band and I’m looking forward to giving it the orchestral treatment.

 

One For Junia is greatly inspired by the South African pianist Bheki Mseleku, one of my biggest influences and collaborators before his death in 2008.

 

Kate has arranged one tune from the American Songbook, the lush and beautiful Spring Is Here by Rodgers and Hart, a Bill-Evans-inspired original, Soon Enough, and a hard-swinging original Strange but True (from her album Atlas and Vulcana) which will feature Lockrane with all his brilliance and invention.

 

Press comment

 

"...crisp, incisive and totally at one with the rhythmic ebb and flow"

 

"Williams has a quality rare among jazz composers: a musical vocabulary that's all her own"

The Observer

 

“...Lockrane's flute work is exceptional, combining a relaxed fluidity on the one hand with an acute adventurousness on the other...” Peter Quinn, Jazzwise

 

“the formidable Lockrane...a stunning display of sharp-accented runs, earthy whoops and constantly refreshed melodic ideas”

John Fordham, The Guardian