Two duos :
First set : Daniel Thompson (guitar) and Steve Noble (percussion)
Second set : Alex Ward (clarinet) and Steve Noble (percussion)
doors 3:30 | music 4pm | £8 cash
Steve Noble is London’s leading drummer, a fearless and constantly inventive improviser whose super-precise, ultra-propulsive and hyper-detailed playing has galvanized encounters with Derek Bailey, Matthew Shipp, Ishmael Wadada Leo Smith, Stephen O’Malley, Joe McPhee, Alex Ward, Rhodri Davies and many, many more. In the early eighties, Noble played with the Nigerian master drummer Elkan Ogunde, Rip Rig and Panic, Brion Gysin and the Bow Gamelan Ensemble, before going on to work with the pianist Alex Maguire and with Derek Bailey (including Company Weeks 1987, 89 and 90).
Daniel Thompson was born in Norfolk, England. Largely self-taught, he moved to London in 2005 and studied with the guitarist John Russell for two years. Since then, he has performed at many venues and festivals across the UK and Europe. In addition, he has also been organising concerts including the ‘The Shoreditch Church Concert Series’ with Benedict Taylor. Currently you can hear and see Daniel performing solo, with other musicians in many ad-hoc improvising situations and in long-term collaborations or ‘working groups’. Recent collaborations include performances and/or recordings with Neil Metcalfe, Steve Noble, Caroline Kraabel, Max Reed, John Edwards, Benedict Taylor, Tom Jackson, Vid Drasler, Evan Parker, Adam Bohman, Sue Lynch, Alex Ward, Kay Grant, Roland Ramanan, Adrian Northover, Marcello Magliocchi, Alan Wilkinson, Colin Webster amongst others.
Daniel is the founder and artistic director of ‘Empty Birdcage Records’, a label dedicated to releasing documents of free improvisation
Alex Ward is a composer, improviser and performing musician living in London. His work over the last 30-plus years has encompassed free improvisation with the likes of Derek Bailey, Lol Coxhill, John Edwards and Steve Noble; leading his own ensembles such as the Alex Ward Quintet, Item 4, Predicate and Forebrace; collaborative projects Camp Blackfoot, Dead Days Beyond Help (with Jem Doulton), Noonward (with Sean Noonan) and his duo with Dominic Lash; and diverse sideman work including tenure with This Is Not This Heat, The Flying Luttenbachers, the Duck Baker Trio/Quartet and Eugene Chadbourne’s Hellington Country. His primary instruments throughout this activity have been clarinet and guitar; but he has also performed on a variety of other instruments, and his multi-instrumental leanings were employed to their fullest capacity on his 2021 solo album “Gated”, his most ambitious and wide-ranging work to date.
