Tuesday 17 January 2017, 7.30pm
Keith Tippett was unable to perform at OTO recently due to ill health. He felt a strong commitment to the project and it is with great pleasure that Confront Recordings present this rescheduled concert. Jackson / Long / Taylor / Tippett make their premiere performance tonight. Their recently released debut CD ‘Four Quartets’ is available from Confront Recordings.
Also making their premiere performance and exclusively conceived for this presentation - a very special duet from Julie Tippetts and Mark Wastell.
Tom Jackson / clarinet
Ashley-John Long / double bass
Benedict Taylor / viola
Keith Tippett / piano
Tom Jackson and Keith Tippett met at Tippett’s educational sessions on free improvisation in 2001. When Ashley-John Long joined those classes in 2004 he and Tom immediately formed a duo, performing at OTO in 2009. After moving to London later that year Tom and Benedict Taylor began playing together regularly and together they organise CRAM records and CRAM festival. The formation of this quartet thus serves to unite several histories. Their release on Confront Recordings was recorded in July 2014 and this concert is the groups World Premiere. This concert is a welcome return to Cafe Oto for Keith Tippett who played a stunning solo evening to a packed audience in 2013.
Mark Wastell is a versatile improvising musician who has played a central role in the British improvised music scene for over a quarter of a century. He has performed and recorded extensively and his varied resume includes projects with Derek Bailey, Phil Durrant, John Butcher, Lasse Marhaug, Rhodri Davies, Simon H. Fell, Burkhard Beins, John Tilbury, Mattin, Mark Sanders, Tony Conrad, Evan Parker, Tim Barnes, Bernhard Günter, Keith Rowe, John Zorn, Peter Kowald, Joachim Nordwall, Otomo Yoshihide, Paul Dunmall, David Toop, Alan Wilkinson, Max Eastley, Hugh Davies, Julie Tippetts, Alan Skidmore, Mike Cooper, Chris Abrahams, Stewart Lee, Clive Bell, Arild Andersen, Jan Bang, Maggie Nicols, Thurston Moore and David Sylvian.
Julie Tippetts is one of the foremost European vocalists in the field of contemporary jazz and improvised music. Her recording and performing career has taken her from the early years of soul/jazz/R&B with Brian Auger in the 1960s to working with some of the world’s leading improvising musicians today. Julie’s extended use of the voice as an instrument has led her to develop a vocal technique beyond the boundaries of a conventional singer. Her career highs are endless; she has explored the range of vocal possibilities in groups such as the Spontaneous Music Ensemble, Centipede, Ovary Lodge, Voice and the Ark, Mujician and The Georgian Ensemble, The Dedication Orchestra, Keith Tippett’s Tapestry and Couple in Spirit.
