Thursday 19 July 2018, 7.30pm, OTO Project Space
Hans Peter Hiby / tenor/alto saxophones
Michael Bardon / double bass
Paul Hession / drum set
Born 1962 in Gevelsberg, Germany. Has worked since 1986 as a performer and composer with several musicians and in different musical situations, both as a collaborator and leading his own groups including musicians like: Louis Moholo, Sirone, Paul Hession, Roberto Bellatalla,Willi Kellers, Luc Houtkamp, Martin Blume, Johannes Bauer, Werner Lüdi a.m.o. Concerts and Festivals in Germany, Holland, Belgium, Austria, Switzerland, Greece, Slovakia, and England
Paul Hession was born in Leeds in 1956. He took up drumming as a young teenager and since then has played and broadcast in many European & Scandinavian countries as well as Argentina, Mexico, Cuba, USA & Canada. He has played with many of the major figures on the free music scene, such as: Peter Brötzmann, Derek Bailey, Evan Parker, Lol Coxhill, Sunny Murray, Marshall Allen, Frode Gjerstad, Peter Kowald, Joe McPhee, Borah Bergman, Otomo Yoshihide & his old friends Alan Wilkinson, Simon Fell, Hans Peter Hiby and Mick Beck. Collaborators from a different scene are Squarepusher and dj/producer Paul Woolford. He is known to relish the interaction of collective music-making, but also responds to the challenge of solo performance.
Born 1986 in Ireland. He first came to Leeds in 2007 to study Jazz (BA Hons) at Leeds College of Music and graduated in June 2010. Since then he worked with a variety of musicians from different disciplines and backgrounds. Some of the bands Michael has played with include Shatner's Bassoon, Tipping Point, Sean Noonan’s Pavees Dance, Hiby-Bardon-Hession Trio, Hession/DeBezenac/Bardon, Craig Scott’s Lobotomy, Dave Kane's Rabbit Project Orchestra, Nat Birchall Quintet and Ben Cottrell’s New Seeing.
Michael has had the privilege of playing at some of the top venues and festivals throughout the UK and Europe including Sant'anna Arresi Jazz Festival (Sardinia), Haldern Pop Festival
(Germany), Experimenta Festival, (Bari, Italy) Locomotive Jazz Fest (Italy), Jazz Od Nowa Fest (Poland), Manchester Jazz Festival, The Vortex, Club Integral (London).
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
