Concert of acoustic Free Improvisation featuring a trio of Maggie Nicols/Phil Durrant/Emil Karlsen and a duo of Lara Jones/Charlotte Keeffe.
Maggie Nicols (vocals)
Phil Durrant (octave mandola)
Emil Karlsen (drums)
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Lara Jones (soprano saxophone)
Charlotte Keeffe (trumpet and flugelhorn)
Doors 19:30 | music 20:00 | entry £8
Maggie Nicols joined London’s legendary Spontaneous Music Ensemble in 1968 as a free improvisation vocalist. She then became active running voice workshops with an involvement in local experimental theatre. She later joined the group Centipede, led by Keith and Julie Tippets and in 1977, with musician/composer Lindsay Cooper, formed the remarkable Feminist Improvising Group.
She continues performing and recording challenging and beautiful work, in music and theatre, either in collaborations with a range of artists (Irene Schweitzer, Joelle Leandre, Ken Hyder, Caroline Kraabel) as well as solo.
Phil Durrant : Born near London in 1957, Phil Durrant is a multi-instrumentalist improviser/composer/sound artist who currently performs solo and group concerts.
As a violinist (and member of the Butcher/Russell/Durrant trio), he was one of the key exponents of the “group voice approach” style of improvised music. In the late 90s, his trio with Radu Malfatti and Thomas Lehn represented a shift to a more “reductionist” approach.
Recently, he has been performing solo and duo concerts with Bill Thompson, Mark Wastell, as well as his seven-piece group ‘If Herbie Went West Coast’, using a modular synthesizer system. As a mandolinist, he has been performing with guitarist Martin Vishnick, mandolinist Richard Scott and drummer Emil Karlsen.
Durrant still performs regularly with the acoustic/electronic group Trio Sowari (with Bertrand Denzler and Burkhard Beins) and Mark Wastell’s The SEEN.
Emil Karlsen, originally from Norway, is a young drummer/improviser currently based in Leeds, UK. He is active on the UK jazz and improvised music scene establishing himself as a new, original voice. In 2019 he released his solo record “Flux” followed by a UK tour.
He is seen across the UK with various large and small ensembles ranging from being a solo performer to percussionist in the London Improvisers Orchestra. He’s currently active in groups with improvisers such as Philipp Wachsmann, Matthew Bourne, Phil Durrant, Ed Jones, Mark Hanslip and the London Improvisers Orchestra.
Apart from being a busy performer, he also run the label noumenon – a label for improvised music with a Scandinavian presence.
Lara Jones : A member of award-winning trio J Frisco (Jazz North Introduces) and 4 piece Beyond Albedo (Northern Line), Lara Jones is a saxophonist, improviser, composer, educator and collaborator based between Leeds and London.
She creates immersive, meditative soundscapes with solo saxophone & electronics; using live processing and field recordings. As a soloist, Lara has recently graduated from Manchester Jazz Festival’s Hothouse Programme which commissioned her to write a new series of audio-visual based works for saxophone & electronics. She has received the Jerwood Jazz Encounters Fellowship to develop this work into an interactive installation in train stations and through Brighter Sound is receiving mentorship from Anna Meredith.
She has recently released her debut solo album ‘Ensō’ which has recently been featured on BBC Radio 3’s ‘Freeness’ and in London Jazz News.
Charlotte Keefe : Trumpeter/Flugelhorn player Charlotte Keeffe plays regularly in the London Improvisers Orchestra and and has shared Concert bills/performed alongside the likes of John Edwards, Henry Lowther, Steve Noble, John Butcher, Steve Beresford and Mark Sanders. Charlotte performs as a Soloist and as part of her Trio, Space Painters, with Guitarists – Joe Smith Sands and Diego Sampieri.
She has a Duo with Trumpeter Kim Macari Stone-Lonergan and is part of Discus Music’s Martin Archer’s Hi-Res Art Quintet and Anthropology Ensemble. eature Martin Archer on sax, Dave Kane on bass, Laura Cole on piano, Graham Clark on violin and Peter Fairclough on drums, Corey Mwamba on vibraphone, Chris Sharkey on guitar and Pat Thomas on keys and electronics. She has assisted Guitarist John Russell with establishing the Mopomoso Workshop Group/MoWo.
