19th-21st November: SECollective London Jazz Festival 3-Day Marathon

The EFG London Jazz Festival is finally here and boy are we excited! Following on from the success of the SECollective’s three-day-Amersham-takeover last year we’re set for a repeat next week – with tantalizing double-bill’s on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday nights.

Featuring a roster of the SECollective’s finest bands, along with a few guests it is surely not to be missed! Tickets are just £5 on-the-door and we’ll be opening up the backroom at 8.30 each night; with a fine selection of beers to tuck into it should be a whole lot of fun!

But wait, there’s more: following the gig on Thursday the 21^st we’ll be decamping to the front bar to host a Late ‘n’ Live Jam Session from 11pm into the wee small hours! It’s free-entry so even if you can’t make the gig be sure to bring your horns and axes so you can come and join us for a play!

***** 3-day SECollective Jazz Festival Special: All 3 Gigs for £10 *****

You can’t say fairer than that, all you have to do is come and enjoy the music! Here’s what’s going on…

Tuesday 19^th November: People & Places + Wandering Stories

Sam Bullard's People & Places

 

Sam Bullard - Saxophones/Bass Clarinet

Dave Manington - Bass

John Blease - Drums

Mick Foster - Saxophones/Clarinet/Flute

George Hogg - Trumpet/Flugelhorn

Tom White - Trombone

Sam Bullard’s flexible ensemble morphs from classical quartet to improvising jazz trio and sextet with consummate ease. Chorales contrast with free improvisations, Latin grooves contrast with driving swing and brooding ballads.

Arthur Lea's Wandering Stories

Arthur Lea - Piano/Vocals

Alam Nathoo - Saxophone

Henrik Jensen - Bass

John Blease - Drums

Arthur Lea has been hammering honky tonks since his hands could first reach the keys. He sings a retro brand of rhythm n blues, irregular riffs, and southern soul. Think Professor Longhair with Blue Note oil - songs that travel from New Orleans to Nashville to New York to New Cross Gate.

http://www.arthurlea.co.uk

Wednesday 20^th November: Acrobat + Dice Factory

Acrobat

Kristian Borring - Guitar

Will Bartlett - Organ

Pat Davey - Drums

+ Tomas Challenger - Tenor Saxophone

Acrobat is a London-based Jazz organ trio, founded in 2008 by its three members. The warmth and presence of the classic organ/guitar groups are heard alongside new textures and stylish improvising. Compelling grooves and melodic clarity invite the listener inside one of the most exciting sounds in Jazz today. Collective effort is the key in Acrobat. All members contribute compositions, before spending time arranging and work-shopping the material together to create a sound that is original to Acrobat. This subtle, supportive interaction allows the music to grow from sparse colours and intimate dialgoues to rugged sounds with electrifying solos: an evolving and involving experience.

For this performance Acrobat are very excited to be joined on stage by guest artist Tomas Challenger on tenor saxophone.

http://acrobattrio.com

Dice Factory

Tomas Challenger - Saxophone

Dan Nicholls - Piano

Tom Farmer - Bass

Jon Scott - Drums

Musical decisions made by rolling dice to determine structural events, then lived through for periods of time. Digitally-inspired sparse grooves of prepared piano, staccato sax overtones, broken beats, and tricky meters create a charismatic shifting, polyrhythmic pulse.

http://babel-label.bandcamp.com/album/dice-factory

Thursday 21^st November: Draw By Four + Pickpocket + Late Jam Session

Draw By Four

Jon Shenoy - Saxophones

Kristian Borring - Guitar

Will Bartlett - Organ

Dave Hamblett - Drums

With a line-up steeped in tradition, Draw By Four take the classic 60s organ quartet into brand new territory where the compositions from leader Jon Shenoy (Ivo Neame Large Ensemble) mix contrapuntal bass lines and rhythmic hooks with thoughtful lyricism. Mixing stark ethereal voices with gritty Hammond boogaloo, organist Will Bartlett (Cliff Richard) draws on a wide palette of sounds that build the foundation for an infectious mix of groove-based original compositions, enchanting ballads and unique arrangements of avant-pop songs.

https://soundcloud.com/draw-by-four

Pickpocket

Ian Bumstead - Tenor Saxophone

Tom White - Trombone

Steve Pringle - Fender Rhodes

Spencer Brown - Double Bass

Jon Scott  - Drums

Surreptitiously pilfering through the musical baggage, the fast-fingered SE-London quintet Pickpocket combine edgy grooves and sinuous lines amid sonorous free-improv with an almost criminal abandon. More artful than the Artful Dodger, structured simplicity brushes against anarchic freedom, where dissonant vamps casually disappear into distant harmonious sequences. With a veiled nod in the directions of Dave Holland, Mark Turner and David Binney, dexterous misdirection is the name of the game, no matter how deep the pocket.

Late 'n' Live Jam Session (free entry)

Hosted by Arthur Lea, you're invited to come and join us for a play late into the night. Bring your horns and axes, or recline at the bar and let the good times roll!

Tuesday 12th November: Chris Allard Band

Chris Allard – Guitar

Brandon Allen – Tenor Saxophone

Ross Stanley – Piano

Oli Hayhurst – Bass

Nick Smalley – Drums

After another terrific night at The Amersham this week courtesy of the Jensen / Ehwald duo we are all rather looking forward to seeing The Chris Allard Band take the stage next Tuesday – with a line-up of familiar heavyweights from the London scene this is surely not one to miss!

The Chris Allard Band

“Great playing...beautiful...a real guitar player” – Pat Martino

Chris is regarded as one of the UK's finest contemporary jazz guitarists/composers, and is the first choice of many top artists. He has performed and recorded with Jacqui Dankworth, Steve Waterman, the BBC Big Band and Jamie Cullum, amongst others. The Chris Allard Band has performed all over the UK and in Europe, including the International Guitar Festival and Ronnie Scott’s, and had radio-play as far afield as Los Angeles and Portugal, with their last album received critical acclaim including four stars in Guitarist. Currently performing material from new album Jupiter Island expect sparks to fly!

“Full-blooded solos...right on the money” –  Jazzwise

“One of the great guitarists in this country” – Jamie Cullum, BBC Radio 2

For more information about Chris and the band check out his website:

www.chrisallard.co.uk

We’ll be opening the doors to the backroom at 8.30, with the band on-stage at 9pm, and booze served all the way until midnight! As ever, £5 on-the-door…see you there!

Tuesday 5th November: Jenson Ehwald Duo + guests

Henrik Jensen – Double Bass

Peter Ehwald – Tenor Saxophone

+

Patrick Davey – Drums

Alam Nathoo – Tenor Saxophone

Amidst the somewhat spooky surroundings of The Amersham Arms a welcoming crowd enjoyed a diverse double-bill of emerging and established talents this week, thank you to all who made it down! Next week we are very pleased to welcome back to our stage the Jensen Ehwald duo – those of you who saw them last year know to expect intimate and engaging music drawing from Northern Europe’s rich folk traditions.

Jensen Ehwald Duo

The Jensen Ehwald Duo consists of German saxophonist Peter Ehwald and Danish bassist Henrik Jensen.

The tenor saxophpone complements the double bass perfectly in a minimalist approach to some beautiful German and Danish folk and traditional songs. The music is treated very loose and free, but with an underlying understanding of what is needed from each performer and piece.

Intrigued? Why not check out the duo on this recording from their previous British tour:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gj0d0kKZJXg

For the second set next Tuesday, Henrik and Peter will be joined by the SECollective’s very own Patrick Davey (Drums) and Alam Nathoo (Tenor Saxophone).

As ever ticket’s are £5 on-the-door for what will undoubtedly be a cracking night, see you down at The Amersham from 8.30pm!

Tuesday 29th October: DOUBLE-BILL! Julian Costello Quartet + Matthew Read’s Quartal

Next up at the Amersham Arms we are pleased to be playing host to two wonderfully contrasting bands…and all for just £5! Come and feel the noise from 8.30 next Tuesday…

The Julian Costello Quartet

Julian Costello – Tenor and Soprano saxophones

Patrick Naylor – Guitar

Alex Keen - Double Bass

Milo Fell - Drums

The Julian Costello Quartet plays contemporary music that incorporates a range of different grooves, moods and colours, its textures both tuneful and melodic. Some of the tunes are really structured and scored while others are more free-flowing and left to chance. Playing tenor and soprano saxophones and composing all the music. Julian sees the group as his heritage to ‘jam’; improvise and see what happens. The rest of the quartet feature very much as equals rather than as accompanists, and Julian tries to think of his solos as conversations with the rest of the group rather than traditional solos with rhythmic and harmonic accompaniment.

To date the group has released a number of recordings, their most recent being Edge of Distinction and Cake and Consequences. For more info, check out Julian’s Website:

www.juliancostello.co.uk

Matthew Read’s ‘Quartal’

Laura Jurd – Trumpet

Helena Kay – Alto Saxophone

Elliot Galvin – Piano

Harry Pope – Drums

Matthew Read – Double Bass

Quartal is an exciting new Quintet of young London-based musicians playing original compositions by Matthew. Calling on influences as diverse as Ornette Coleman, Dave Holland, Brad Mehldau Trio, Charlie Haden, Kenny Wheeler and Eric Dolphy, Quartal creates an eclectic blend of open-formed improvised music. For a sneak-preview of Quartal click on the link below:

http://www.matthewreadbass.co.uk/#!untitled/c1t44