Tuesday 11 February 2025, 7.30pm
To mark the year of his 70th birthday Cafe Oto presents two nights of music featuring and curated by the London based saxophone and clarinet improviser Alan Wilkinson. Largely known as a player of fiery intensity these two nights will highlight a range of styles with collaborators of many years and much more recent. Each night will begin with a brief solo segueing into the first group.
Set 1
ALAN WILKINSON/STEVE NOBLE
These 2 musicians have played in many combinations since the mid 1980s but the duo has been something they've returned to time and again, although the only available recording is on Noble's excellent 4 CD set HEMP.
Set 2
DARIN GRAY/PAK YAN LAU/STEVE NOBLE/ALAN WILKINSON
This group was born at Café Oto in May 2023 when Noble and Wilkinson were invited to join the Gray/Lau duo for the second set. The recording of this has recently been released on the Shrike Records label, titled The Worm Turns, and this will be the official launch gig. The group brings a plethora of sound colours to a music dense with potential. Gray and Lau in particular bring a huge array of sounds outside of their primary instruments with the use of other sounds and electronics, to which Noble and Wilkinson add their own well-honed contributions.
After leaving Art College in Leeds in the late 1970s Wilkinson became involved in the music scene in the City playing in a variety of bands, whilst pursuing his passion for improvisation, promoting and playing alongside some of the great and upcoming names at his club night 'The Termite Club'. It was during this period that he joined forces with the drummer Paul Hession and the tragically deceased bassist Simon Fell to form the trio Hession/Wilkinson/Fell, described in The Penguin Guide to Jazz on CD, LP and Cassette, as "a band that outdoes the old Brötzmann groups for sheer firepower". In the late 80s he was invited to tour with Company by Derek Bailey and subsequently featured in 2 London Companys one of which he co-curated. When he relocated to London in 1990 he was already a figure on the scene and has continued to play and promote the music through various club nights, especially flimflam at Ryans Bar N16, running since January 2001. Playing in innumerable ad hoc settings in the UK and beyond notable collaborators have included Derek Bailey, Peter Brötzmann, Akira Sakata, Thurston Moore, Chris Corsano, Eddie Prevost, Charles Hayward, Talibam! and Jason Spaceman. Long standing groups include a trio with John Edwards and Steve Noble, Norwegian group Akode, and a trio with Alex Ward and Jem Doulton.
"At its highest points, this session unleashes some of the most preposterously powerful energy jazz heard since Peter Brötzmann's Yatagarasu trio with Takeo Moriyama and Masahiko Satoh" - Daniel Spicer, The WIRE
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). He was featured in the Bailey's excellent TV series on Improvisation for Channel 4 based on his book ‘Improvisation; its nature and practise’. He has toured and performed throughout Europe, Africa and America and currently leads the groups N.E.W (with John Edwards and Alex Ward) and DECOY (with John Edwards and Alexander Hawkins).
Darin Gray is known as a solo artist, tireless collaborator, session bassist, improviser, composer, educator, Jim O’Rourke’s go-to bassist for over 25 years, as half of the long standing duo On Fillmore (with Glenn Kotche of Wilco), as the touring bassist for TWEEDY (2014-2019), as a member of Akira Sakata & Chikamorachi, and as the bassist for Grand Ulena, Dazzling Killmen, You Fantastic!, and Brise-Glace.
Darin’s discography includes over 150 releases. He has composed for film, theater, dance, radio, and podcasts, and toured extensively in the United States, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Brazil, Canada, Russia, and Europe.
Pak Yan Lau, born in Belgium, with roots from Hong Kong and now based in Brussels is a sound artist, improviser, musician and composer, who has developed over the years a rich, dense and captivating sound universe from prepared pianos, toy pianos, synths, electronics and various sound objects. Skilfully blending electro-acoustic approaches, she explores sound in a bewitching way, merging different sound sources with poetry, magic and finesse.
Her solo efforts were documented among others on the excellent recording “BOOKS” (2015), magnificent wooden object-trilogy released on the Silent Water label where it explores in 3 distinct parts the world of synthesizers-samplers-electronics, then the world of harmonics and metallic basses of various “toy pianos”, and finally the interior of a prepared grand piano, transforming its conventional sound into an enveloping tense sound weave...[more]
