Gareth Lockrane Big Band Sunday
Pizza Express Live, Dean Street, London, W1D 3RW 
Sunday 29th April
Doors open at 12:00 noon - Music at 1.30pm

Mention Big Band Jazz and memories flood with the great American Sounds of Basie, Ellington, Dorsey, Evans, Jones & Marsalis. No longer! One of the worlds most outstanding bands comes from our side of the pond.

Arriving for their debut at Dean Street comes the sensational 19-piece British Big Band, led by the original writing and arranging of the brilliant jazz flautist Gareth Lockrane.

Playing the music from their recent album, “Fistfight At The Barndance” on Whirlwind Recordings, rated a top five jazz album of the year in the 2017 British Jazz Awards, the Gareth Lockrane Big Band (“Probably the best Jazz Big Band since Thad Jones & Mel Lewis” – The Hoste of Jazz) features a combination of established British jazz greats with Academy trained younger musicians, in multi layered arrangements scored for 4 trumpets, 4 trombones, 5 reeds, guitar, piano, bass, percussion and drums in addition to Gareth on the entire flute family.

Embracing influences of many, but especially Gil Evans and Thad Jones, the band blends heavy grooves and luscious orchestrations to spectacular effect playing exclusively Gareth's compositions and arrangements.

Gareth is heavily involved in the music educational world, as course director of the prestigious junior jazz course at the Royal Academy of Music in London, as well as regularly teaching at degree and post grad level at the Royal Academy of Music, Guildhall School of Music & Drama and Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music & Dance, and also as a regular tutor on the Loire Summer School in France and the National Youth Jazz Collective courses across the UK.

“The formidable Lockrane...a stunning display of sharp-accented runs, earthy whoops and constantly refreshed melodic ideas.”
John Fordham - The Guardian

“... Lockrane is the next best thing and the most exciting and inventive instrumentalist in the country.”
Jack Massarick" - London Evening Standard

“... Lockrane's flute work is exceptional, combining a relaxed fluidity on the one hand with an acute adventurousness on the other...” - Peter Quinn

Website

Tickets £25 Tel: 020 7439 4962 here.

Notes to Editors
Would you write a preview/feature on this show and consider an interview with Gareth ahead of this please?
Press tickets for the show are also available if these are of interest to you?