16th October 2017: Whirlwind Residency at Hull City of Culture’s Middleton Hall – November 16th
The City of Hull is currently enjoying it’s City of Culture Status with a packed 365 days of transformative cultural activity. For this Whirlwind Recordings showcase event curated by label founder Michael Janisch, Music at Hull presents three key artists from the label:
Tickets: Here
Simon Purcell’s ’Red Circle’ Quintet
“Purcell leads and plays with a benign wisdom.”
★★★★ MOJO Magazine
Simon Purcell – piano, compositions
Julian Siegel – saxophones
Chris Batchelor – trumpet
Steve Watts – double bass
Gene Calderazzo – drums
Simon Purcell is probably best known as Head of Jazz at Trinity-Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance and member of the Pop and Jazz Steering Group for the Association of European Conservatoires. Since the mid 1980s, Simon has performed both as leader and sideman, appearing with amongst others – Red Rodney, Kenny Wheeler, Eddie Henderson, Stan Sulzman, Jean Toussaint and Julian Arguelles. His current quintet features Julian Siegel, Chris Batchelor and Gene Calderazzo.
Purcell originally came to prominence during the UK jazz boom of the 1980s with his band ‘Jazz Train’ (with Martin Speake, Cleveland Watkiss, Dale Barlow et al), a quartet with Julian Arguelles (Loose Tubes), numerous appearances with or opposite visiting American artists at London’s Bass Clef Club and occasional weeks at Ronnie Scott’s.
His debut album Red Circle marked Simon’s return to a more active performing career. His quintet comprises some of the most important contributors to the UK’s creative music scene during the last two decades: double bassist Steve Watts (Printmakers, Loose Tubes, Iain Ballamy) Gene Calderazzo (Partisans, Pharoah Sanders, Joey Calderazzo, Zoe Rahman) Julian Siegel (Partisans, Joey Barron, Kenny Wheeler, Django Bates, John Taylor) and Chris Batchelor (Big Air, Loose Tubes, Brotherhood of Breath, Hermeto Pascoal) They’re also old friends with years of playing experienceare and present robust and individual musical personalities providing conceptual counterpoint that ensures the music-making is always more than the sum of the parts.
Robert Mitchell: Solo Left Hand Piano
“A very important influential musician”
Gilles Peterson
Robert Mitchell – piano
One of the most revered pianists performing in the UK today, Robert has long searched for a way to present music that celebrates left hand only piano playing and has spent much time researching its history. In classical music (Zichy, Wittgenstein, Godowsky) through to jazz (Phineas Newborn Jr, Borah Bergman, Kenny Drew Jr.) there have been a number of great pianists who have defined left hand only composition, teaching and performance. Bud Powell’s style of playing was famously economic with use of his left hand; he performed left hand only in response to criticism from Art Tatum. Fats Waller studied with Leopold Godowsky who famously created left hand only arrangements of Chopin’s classic piano etudes. Bill Evans performed with his trio with only his left hand during a week at the Village Vanguard in 1963 because his right was incapacitated. There are many more moments of left hand only piano playing in the history of jazz but they are not widely acknowledged as being important in the development of the genre. The aim of Mitchell’s debut Whirlwind release The Glimpse is to open up the discussion and bring light to this art from in general.
Over his nearly 20 years entrenched in the art of music, Robert Mitchell has recorded seven albums of his own projects, participated in over 100 projects as a sideman and has performed in more than 30 countries including The Glimpse on Whirlwind. Robert has won awards in the UK – BBC Jazz Awards (Innovation, as part of the F-ire Collective), Best Jazz Album (BBC DJ Gilles Peterson Worldwide Awards) and has been nominated for many more. Robert is proud to be a Steinway Artist.
Michael Janisch Band
“Awesomely virtuosic double bass.”
The Guardian
Jason Palmer – trumpet
Rez Abbasi – guitar
John O’Gallagher – alto sax
Michael Janisch – bass
Clarence Penn – drums
For this European tour Michael Janisch has assembled a stellar new quintet comprising some of the United States’ most exciting performers/improvisers: with the Pakistani/ American guitarist Rez Abbasi – rapidly emerging as one of today’s major new voices on his instrument – alongside Grammy-winning alto saxophonist John O’Gallagher (Joe Henderson, Maria Schneider), trumpeter Jason Palmer (Herbie Hancock, Kurt Rosenwinkel), and the brilliant drummer Clarence Penn (Michael Brecker, Stanley Clarke). This is a project not to be missed; artists of this calibre are usually only seen in the largest concert halls in the UK or at major festivals.
Michael Janisch (nominated in the UK for a MOBO Award for Best Jazz Act 2016 for his electro-acoustic project Paradigm Shift) has established himself as a tireless creative force across the developing international spheres of contemporary improvised and experimental music. Based in London (originally from the USA), he successfully traverses this creative topography as a virtuosic electric and double bassist, composer, bandleader, producer, session musician and record label owner.
As a bassist he is known for his versatility, full-toned sounds and passion for playing time and groove with authenticity and dedication, no matter the context. A keen improviser, he has been described as “virtuosic and emphatic” (The Guardian) and Bass Musician Magazine asserts “Janisch is one of the few bass players out there who plays both electric and upright with equal facility, passion and musicality.”
As a composer and bandleader he has released five critically acclaimed albums to date. In addition to performing Michael is an adjunct Professor of Double Bass at the Trinity Laban Conservatoire and the Royal Academy of Music in London, and regularly gives masterclasses and group workshops at universities and festivals around the world.