Free improvisation / hidden composition from Tim Fairhall (double bass), Hannah Marshall (cello), Silvan Schmid (trumpet) and Adam Fairhall (accordeon).
Doors 3:30 | music from 4pm | entry £5
Tim Fairhall has performed on many of the most significant stages in Britain and internationally, including the Barbican, the Royal Festival Hall, the Royal Albert Hall, Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, Cologne Philharmonic, Gulbenkian Grande Auditorium Lisbon, and many others. In 2008 he graduated with distinction from the MMus in Jazz Performance at the Guildhall. Since then he has played widely on the UK jazz scene and worldwide, in a notable diversity of musical situations including (amongst many others); free jazz and improv with the London Improvisors’ Orchestra, Julie Kjaer, Ma/ti/om and The Markov Chain; songs in the Sephardic tradition with world music superstar Yasmin Levy; piano/laptop-led post-classical with Piano Interrupted; and contemporary jazz compositions with the John Martin Quartet and Madwort’s Menagerie.
Silvan Schmid is a trumpet player from Zurich, Switzerland. He plays live and has recorded with bands such as Silvan Schmid Quintett / Trio, This Difficult Tree, Gamut Kollektiv, Fluor, Hans Kennel, Schmid von Werra, Jonas Winterhalter Big Band, Andrew Lisle, The London Improvisers Orchestra, Eddie Prevost etc. He also acts as a composer for the Silvan Schmid Quintett and Trio and the Duo Schmid von Werra. He is Co-Founder of the Gamut Kollektiv, a collective consisting of eight musicians from Zurich, who organize a yearly festival and concert series for improvised music and jazz. He studied from 2008-2014 at Zürcher Hochschule der Künste and Hochschule für Musik Dresden bei Malte Burba, Till Brönner, Daniel Schenker and Matthieu Michel.
silvanschmid.ch
gamutkollektiv.com
Hannah Marshall studied music at The Guildhall School of Music and Drama (first study ‘cello) and John Stevens’ Community Music. She has been making music &
sound for theatre and dance productions, and performing in various bands and theatre companies since 1996, working as a performer, sound designer/composer and puppeteer with a broad spectrum of artists and companies. She is continuing to extract, invent, and exorcize as many sounds and emotional qualities from her instrument as she can. She has been a regular member of Alexander Hawkins’ Ensembles and has toured in Europe and
South America with Luc Ex and Veryan Weston’s ensembles – SOL 6 & 12. She plays with ‘String Terrorists’ – Barrel (a trio with violinist Alison Blunt & violist/poet Ivor kallin). And has been invited by Fred Frith and Suichi Chino in their residencies at café Oto. She also plays with Terry Day, Tim Hodgkinson, Roger Turner, Paul May, Kay Grant, and the London Improvisers Orchestra.
Adam Fairhall is a jazz pianist, composer, free improviser, accordionist and player of toy piano, harmonium and organ. Raised in Cornwall, Adam began, like many pianists, by practising boogie and blues with friends during school lunchtimes. He received piano lessons covering jazz harmony and repertoire in his teens, before moving north to study Contemporary Arts at MMU Cheshire, where he received a first class honours degree and an MA with distinction. Having decided towards the end of his undergraduate studies to devote his time to the study of jazz, Adam followed his studies at MMU with Master’s study at Leeds College of Music, receiving a MMus in Jazz Studies
(Performance) in 2005. While at Leeds he studied with pianist Mark Donlon and also took lessons with pianist Matthew Bourne. In 2005 he received the college’s Sam Hood Rosebowl for Outstanding Jazz Performance. Returning to MMU to teach and continue his practice and research, Adam received a PhD in 2008 and continues to hold a part-time post as Senior Lecturer in Popular Music in the Cheshire faculty’s Department of Contemporary Arts.
Adam’s distinctive piano playing has been noted for the diversity of its stylistic reference points; idioms drawn from any period of jazz history may be blended, collided, subverted, hinted at or played completely ‘straight’ in his performances. Despite this playful and often witty approach, Adam’s playing is committed rather than ironic and detached, and reveals a love of piano jazz from ragtime to free. Adam’s projects as a leader include a duo with sonic artist Paul J Rogers, in which they mix piano performance with electronic processing, samples from early recordings and home-made instruments such as the diddley-bow. They released their debut album, Second-Handed Blues, on ASC Records in 2011 to excellent reviews and Radio 3 airplay, and have performed at notable venues including the Vortex and the Capstone Theatre, Liverpool.
Adam’s most ambitious project as a leader is The Imaginary Delta, which involves a seven piece ensemble. The Imaginary Delta was commissioned by Manchester Jazz Festival, and premiered at Band on the Wall, Manchester, in July 2011 to considerable acclaim; the premiere was voted the no. 1 gig of 2011 by journalist Chris Ackerley. The project includes a 3-horn front line and also features Paul J Rogers on laptop, turntable and diddley-bow. The music revisits early jazz forms in a surprising, passionate and at times highly deconstructive way. A live recording was released on SLAM in spring 2012 to 4 and 5 star reviews, and the band appeared as part of the Vortex’s programme for the London Jazz Festival 2012, and at the Forge, Camden in February 2013. In 2014 Adam was commissioned by Manchester Jazz Festival and Manchester Literature Festival to re-work The Imaginary Delta in collaboration with acclaimed poet Jackie Kay, using her poems about Bessie Smith in addition to new poetry. The resulting work was performed at the Royal Northern College of Music and as part of the Manchester Literature Festival in 2014. Adam and Jackie performed new material from the collaboration on Radio 3’s Women’s Hour in July 2014.
In addition to these projects, Adam also performs as a solo pianist and in a conventional piano trio format. Notable solo performances include recitals at the Leeds International Jazz Conference 2005, the Sage, Gateshead in 2011 and the Manchester Jazz Festival 2014. Adam’s solo work often incorporates unusual mechanical keyboards such as the harmonium, dulcitone and toy piano. His solo work was selected for the Northern Line scheme 2014-15. Adam’s trio performs frequently in the north, and were heard on Radio 3′s Jazz Line-Up in 2009. Adam’s new ‘free’ trio with Paul Hession on drums and Tim Fairhall on bass, The Markov Chain, released their eponymous debut album on the Bruce’s Fingers label in September 2014. Adam frequently performs as a free improviser with the north’s most acclaimed free players, often using his portable mechanical keyboards such as accordion and toy piano. He convenes a six-piece improvising group of top northern improvisers called The Spirit Farm, whose debut album was released on SLAM in 2015 to 4-star reviews in Jazzwise and Jazz Journal and excellent write-ups in The Wire and the New York City Jazz Record.
Adam has recorded eleven albums and numerous BBC sessions as a sideman, most notably with acclaimed saxophone player Nat Birchall. In addition to sideman work as a pianist, he performs on organ and accordion in a number of bands, including the new organ trio The Revival Room with saxophonist Mark Hanslip and drummer Johnny Hunter.
In 2009 Adam was selected for Take Five Five Edition VI, a prestigious professional development scheme designed to ”give some of the UK’s most talented young jazz musicians the unique opportunity to take time out to develop their craft”. Take Five is a Jerwood charitable Foundation/PRS Foundation initiative with additional support from Arts Council England and Musicians Benevolent Fund.
“A hugely accomplished instrumentalist” – The Wire
“A rising star of the piano” – BBC Radio 3, Jazz Line-Up
“There is no jazz code he hasn’t deciphered and mastered” – Manchester Evening News
“A real find” – Jazz UK
“Fairhall’s piano is a questing, quixotic voice with a comprehensive ‘inside and out’
vocabulary” – Jazzwise
“Adam Fairhall is a total star” – Independent on Sunday