Kit Downes/Dorian Ford

2 April 2014

Part of St. James Studio PRSF Jazz Services Key Composers Series

Kit Downes/Lucy Railton

Diving into the space between the organised and the disorganised, Kit Downes (Mercury Music Award Nominee 2010, BBC Jazz Award Winner 2009, Troyka, Julian Arguelles’ Quartet, Thomas Stronen) pulls together the lyricism and big-beat of his favourite minimalists, the imagination and intensity of his favourite modern jazz composers, ballads from nearby circling ice-cream vans and his own light-footed approach to improvisation in this - his own regular ensemble.

Kit (piano, organ and compositions) is joined by cellist Lucy Railton (curator and creator of London Contemporary Music Festival and Klammer Klang, performer with dancer Akram Kahn and composer Pauline Oliveros), forming a pairing that is at once both dark and detailed, colourful and contemplative.
Having studied together at the Royal Academy of Music, their paths continued to cross in London’s improvised/new-music scenes until Kit finally started writing for cello (vicariously living out his dream as a frustrated cellist), at which point this ensemble was formed. Performing music from their previous EP and forthcoming album ‘Tricko-Tareco’, the music is expansive in scope, sonically rich - and enjoys simple things put in unusual ways.

“Stunning new jazz group from the UK” Olaf Maikopf, Jazzthetik ****
“One of the finest pianists of his generation” Timeout Magazine *****
“Kit Downes is the most impressive jazz pianist from England since John Taylor” Hamburger Abendblatt
“Everyone’s favourite new pianist” Dave Gelly, The Observer

Dorian Ford/Jonny Phillips

Igniting the confluence of two world traditions: Spanish diaspora and the guitar, and the Western European and American harmonic and timbral approach of the piano. Long time collaborators Phillips and Ford’s duo project appears regularly at the Vortex, the London Jazz Festival and the St James. Jonny (Oriole, F-Ire collective) and Dorian (Dorian Ford Quartet, Carol Grimes, curator of Jazz at St James) are both band leaders in their own right, whose paths have crossed many times throughout their careers, touching upon collaborations with Idris Rahman, Adriano Adewale, Seb Rochford, Kit Downes, Tom Herbert and Ben Davis. Playing original compositions and pieces by Debussy, Cuban folk songs, and contemporary South American composers, this melodic pairing are delighted to return to the St James alongside Kit Downes.

“…The wide ranging, imaginative and melodic playing of Dorian Ford.” Ollie Weindling, The Vortex

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