Monday 8 August 2022, 8pm
Its kind of like this;
Like minimal but loads more notes like video-games but with more song like jazz but much more gay like old music but more current like yummy sweet but more stick like paint but more scratch like tapestry but filthily like prayer but more loud like loud groove and more rude like fingers and faces too but somehow more smelly like smelly things cooking with more chew and change like louder prayers that groove with like stinking-hot-pink in poo-brown but even more desperate-like than that like drums and Dream Musics…
Alex Paxton / composer, trombone
Charlotte Keeffe / trumpet / flugal
David Ingamells / drums
David Zucchi / saxophones
Mike De Souza / e guitar
For amplified ensemble and loud speakers.
“In a darkish, time this music will make you smile...manic contrast-heavy... This is the most joyous sound I’ve heard in ages!” (Music for Bosch People) New York Times (U.S.A)
"A riotous overabundance of love and rage" The Wire
"Turbulent and Joyful spirit...Surfing on the crest of this exuberance is an extraordinary experience" The Wire (Music for Bosch People)
"Colourful wonder bag...glam rock - and dubstep-soaked thoroughly refreshing eclecticism...an impression of exuberant joy, real community, excessive partying and over-scumping champagne. So this Album might just be the best time imaginable!” (Music for Bosch People) Musik Texte (DE)
"Operatic game boy music played by a virtuosic motley crew that's inexplicably been hired to provide live jingles for a primetime TV show sometime in the recent past that never quite was" (Music for Bosch People) Point of Departure (U.S.A)
"Call an ambulance just in case...the naughtiest CD...it's like being tied down and tickled by a gang of nerds." (Music for Bosch People) Amazon
"Incipient saviour of difficult listening...Formidable virtuosity." (Music for Bosch People) Positionen (DE)
"Feels like an evacuation of something fundamental and urgent...bleeding chunks of something greater than sum of their parts; a compositional outpouring that started its inexorable flow sometime ago and will surely continue on over after the neat boundaries of a mere CD's runtime have been met” (Music for Bosch People) TEMPO magazine
"Really rich, varied, dense, maximalist, fun, joyful and unafraid." (Music for Bosch People) Gaudeamus Festival Composition Prize
"Paxton is a system-crasher of genre, who merges jamming video game soundtracks, musical overtures, virtuoso chamber music and jazz improv into an unmistakable style...highly complex, sophisticated and extremely entertaining, virtuoso ad absurdum" (Music for Bosch People) Neue Zeitschrift fur Musik
“cutting-edge neo-classical with more than a touch of downtown New York-style jazz improvisation and, what’s more, it’s tremendous fun" LondonJazzNews
“music of surprising energy complexity and wildness- its wild energy cannot but move - imagination never wavers - quite amazing!” Planet Hugill
Alex Paxton is a composer & improvising-trombonist based in the UK."A riotous overabundance of love and rage..an extraordinary experience” The Wire .He was elected to the 9thInternational Composition SeminarwithEnsemble Modern, won anIvor Novello Award(multiple other nominations),RPS Composition Prize,Dankworth Jazz Prize,Leverhume Art Prize, HarrietCohen Award, as well as represented in the Orchestral section of theISCM and Gaudiamus Prize 2022."This is what an orchestra can be like in the 21st century: an ensemble that speaks with one voice yet also gives voice to each of its members" The Times. He is a commissioned contributor to John Zorn’s Arcana X 2021.His albums to date: MUSIC for BOSCH PEOPLE released to critical acclaim in 2021 upcoming realises include HAPPY MUSIC for ORCHESTRA & ILOLLI-POP. On labels including Birmingham Record Company, NMC, Delphian, Non-classical, Listen Pony, Everest records.“This is the most joyous sound I’ve heard in ages!”New York Times
He has performed his music as a soloist with leading orchestras: Ensemble Modern, London Sinfonietta, Philharmonia Orchestra , Royal National Scottish Orchestra & Ensemble x.y. Further works include pieces for, London Symphony Orchestra AskSchöenberg, Ensemble Klang, Riot Ensemble, Nouvel Ensemble Contemporain, Wigmore Hall, Explore ensemble, London London Philharmonic Orchestra, Kammer Klang, BSO, Psappa, BBCproms, NYO and NYJO. “Paxton is a system-crasher of genre, stylish wit and sophistication and extremely entertaining…virtuouso ad absurdum.” Musikderzeit Schott. Music theatre works include 6 operas hosted by English National Opera, Helios Colective, Tête à Tête Festival."highly innovative...of exceptional creative imagination and musical energy, packed with life force unlike anything else” Ivor Novello Composer Awards Winner.
Keeffe’s debut album ‘Right Here, Right Now’ is where you’ll find her exhibiting a passion for vibrant soundscapes rendered in live spaces. Released in 2021, also on Discus Music, she earned critical acclaim carving out a niche on the imprint. She also composes and performs for a number of the roster’s artists, including; Hi Res Heart, Carla Diratz and Julie Tippetts. She also co-leads Anthropology Band with the head of Discus Music, Martin Archer.
To date, her music has been featured significantly on BBC Radio 3, Jazz FM and BBC Radio 6, where she's been described as a 'prolific', 'dynamic' and 'excellent improviser!', by the likes of Corey Mwamba, Stuart Maconie and Jez Nelson. Keeffe is a Serious Artist and part of Serious’ Take Five 2022 cohort. She performed a duet with the mighty City of London as part of world-renowned trumpeter Dave Douglas' Festival of New Trumpet Music 2022.
Harnessing the power of art for social change is a crucial part of Keeffe’s musical identity: she has served as Assistant Musical Director of the London Gay Big Band, champions gender and diversity equality, as part of the Parliamentary award-winning Women in Jazz Media team, and played in Marin Alsop's Taki Concordia Orchestra at the World Economic Forum 2019, in front of world leaders and celebrities including Sir David Attenborough.
From stepping on Glastonbury and Wilderness stages alongside Charlotte Church, Laura Mvula and Kate Nash, to broadcasting to an international audience live from her bathroom during the pandemic, Keeffe understands that embracing individuality and letting go of inhibitions is the surest way to grasp the transformative power of music.
“Keeffe shows notable strength of character as she runs the sonic and emotional gamut..." - Kevin Le Gendre, JAZZWISE
Based in London, David performs regularly at all the major jazz venues in the UK, and has performed abroad in Denmark, Ireland, and Spain. He is the drummer for Kate Williams’ Four Plus Three, Brandon Allen’s The Stanley Turrentine Project, and Helena Kay’s KIM Trio.
Recent highlights include UK tours with Brandon Allen (2022), Kate Williams’ Four Plus Three (2019), Helena Kay’s KIM Trio (2018), Tobie Carpenter Organ Trio (2017, 2018). His discography includes Finding Home (Kate Williams), Moon Palace (Helena Kay’s KIM Trio), and an original score for Liars & Cheats (2018; dir. Jacob Migicovsky).
Praised for his “urgently visceral” playing (TEMPO), London-based Canadian saxophonist David Zucchi enjoys a varied career as a performer of classical, contemporary, experimental, and improvised music, collaborating regularly across the UK, Europe, and Canada. Recent appearances as a soloist and chamber musician include the Wigmore Hall, Purcell Room, St. John’s Smith Square, Cadogan Hall, London Contemporary Music Festival, Sounds Like This! Festival (Leeds), Verbier Festival (Switzerland), Vale de Cambra Music Festival (Portugal), the Glenn Gould Studio, and the Canadian High Commission in London. In 2021, he was awarded the Lorna Viol Memorial Prize from the Royal Overseas League Competition for Most Outstanding Musician from Overseas.
David collaborates regularly with accordionist Iñigo Mikeleiz-Berrade (as the Mikeleiz-Zucchi Duo, winners of the 2021 ROSL Mixed Ensemble Prize), soprano Patricia Auchterlonie (as Honkus), Syzygy, Alex Paxton’s Dream Musics (“The most joyous sound I’ve heard in ages” – New York Times), Ian Wadley (as Yesterday Shelf), Wynton Guess, and Ross K. He has been featured by Nonclassical, the Composers Platform, Daylight Music (Union Chapel) and the Royal Overseas League, appears on recordings from NMC and Birmingham Record Company, and has been broadcast on BBC Radio 3 and Resonance FM’s The News Agents.
With a keen interest in the performance of contemporary and experimental music, David has premiered and been the dedicatee of many works by emerging and established composers, including Alex Paxton, Adam Sherkin, Brian Elias, Caroline Bordignon, Christopher Fox, Michael Hughes, Paolo Griffin, and Piyawat Louillarpprasert. He has appeared with leading UK contemporary music ensembles including Ensemble x.y, Explore Ensemble, and An assembly.
He has given workshops and masterclasses in the UK and Canada, most recently at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, where he lectured on the performance of contemporary music, and has delivered sessions on professional skills at the Royal College of Music.
Mike De Souza grew up in Hertfordshire (UK), where he first picked up the guitar at the age of 12, marking the start of a life-long obsession with music. His professional career began at the age of 20, and he has now completed 5 UK jazz tours, has performed festivals internationally in Krakow (Jazz Juniors 2021) and in Graz (Jazzwerkstatt 2017), and has performed at many prestigious jazz clubs including Ronnie Scott’s, and Pizza Express, to name a few.
Since moving to London in 2012, he has worked with internationally renowned musicians including Terence Blanchard (2016), Martin Speake, and Byron Wallen, and has featured on numerous recordings as a side-man: Times Leap (Simon Read Octet), Reflector (Twospeak), Beware of the Bear (Phil Meadows), and Music for Bosch People (Alex Paxton).
In 2017, he co-released the album Pond Life as part of the group Big Bad Wolf, which was ranked 3rd in Jazzwise Magazine’s top 10 albums of the year, and received many positive reviews: “The title track affirms how inventively the quartet juggle tone colour, constantly renewing sub-themes, and subtly shifting grooves” - John Fordham, The Guardian.
As a leader, Mike has released 2 recordings to date: an EP entitled ‘Road Fork’(2018), and his debut album ‘Slow Burn’(2019). “Slow Burn is an impressive show of musical innovation and displays the guitarist’s knack for experimentation as well as his roots in jazz tradition” - All About Jazz.
Currently, Mike leads his new project ‘Chrysalis’ performing original music composed during the pandemic. The band name hints at the emergence from a state of isolation, having changed in some positive way, just as a butterfly emerges transformed from it’s chrysalis state. The band features some of the most distinctive improvisers on the London Jazz scene including Alec Harper (Sax), Rupert Cox (Keys), Huw V Williams (Bass) and Jay Davis (Drums).
