members

My experiences as a jazz performer began with swing jazz and adding a piano to a 'Hot Club de France' line-up.
The band was called 'Ain't Misbehavin’ and it was founded by now Nottingham - based guitarist Steve Pinnock We were a young band and all have gone their separate ways, but the enduring highlight of our ‘career’ was an appearance in the 1988 Montreux Jazz Festival.

Performing on the Casino Terrasse outside the main Hall in Montreux, Switzerland.

 

Performing on lake Geneva on a very hot day- I'm the one under the umbrella, which was needed to stop the keyboard melting!

Sharing the Day in illustrious company!

Entertaining in the Leysin 'Top Pub'. I found Swiss audiences to be wonderful where jazz is concerned.

 The MP3 file from the Platinum club in Montreux is a reminder of what we were about. My piano is a bit electric but excellent solos from Steve Pinnock (lead guitar) Joe Martin (violin) Samantha Thompson (clarinet) and great vocals from Pete Jack. 'Lady Be Good'(Gershwin) is followed by an excerpt from 'Minor Swing'.(Reinhardt).

My piano style these days owes a lot to my interest in some great jazz pianists in the context of the jazz piano trio: Nat King Cole, Bill Evans,Keith Jarratt, Brad Mehldau, David Newton and Chick Corea are a few. I'm not as good as they are, but I listen and hope something rubs off! I'm also fascinated by the Esbjorn Svensson Trio. They look at the jazz Trio in new ways and enrich the music with interesting studio processes. My study of jazz piano informs my approach to composition, and I am particularly interested in exploring  improvisation and fully notated music within the same composition.

As part of the York College Big Band....

From the mid 90's I have been actively promoting jazz as part of my employment at York College. In recent years this has been with York trombonist and conductor Andy Hillier.

I love playing piano for the band and I love their enthusiasm and energy.This picture was taken at the Joseph Rowntree Theatre in December 2005.

New Directions..

My latest venture is ‘JazzKompakt’ with Hull Bass Player Dave Ellis.We are interested in exploring many different styles just to see where it takes us. So far we have played everything from familiar jazz standards to Bebop compositions and pieces by Chick Corea and Carlos Jobim with a little exploration around ‘Bagpipe’ music by Bela Bartok! As far as I'm concerned there are no demaracations where improvised music is concerned if its good music and suitable it doesn't matter when it was written.

This was taken July 2006 at the Theatre Royal York to an appreciative audience before a Denys Baptiste concert. The relaxed calm ambiance and good acoustic of the Theatre Foyer suited the instruments well.