Projects
Nishla Smith Quintet
Nishla is a singer driven by a desire to tell stories. Her unique musical sensibility, along with this preoccupation with narrative is recurrent throughout her various projects including this quintet.
Beats & Pieces Big Band
Beats & Pieces is not your average big band, rather a band that’s big. These 14 musicians have been playing together for over twelve years and are open to a huge diversity of music. The influence of artists such as Björk, Radiohead, David Bowie, The Beatles, The Beach Boys, Loose Tubes, and Gil Evans pop up in their performances and the compositions of bandleader and conductor Ben Cottrell.
Universal Time
Universal Time is a new collaboration between four musicians already well known to Northern audiences for their diverse work with groups such as Paradise Trio, Beats & Pieces, and Perpetual Motion Machine amongst others. Lyrical melodic themes and colourful harmonies combine with elements of jazz-rock and free improvisation, in this compelling original music.
Emma Johnson's Gravy Boat
Gravy Boat are a cinematic quintet led by Leeds based saxophonist and composer Emma Johnson.
Emma's writing displays a contemporary sound rooted by infectious melodies and the group have been described as playing 'a relaxed, melodic and distinctive style of contemporary jazz'.
Graham South Quartet
Graham's debut album includes arrangements of African American spirituals which show great respect to the melodic beauty and the depth of wisdom inherent in them. Ample space is given for individual and group improvisation, all profoundly influenced by the content of the original spirituals.