Chichester Jazz Club

Summary of new CJC Programme September 2019 to June 2020

Alan Barnes and Bruce Adams Sextet What a great offering for the Chichester Festival and finale to the CJC 2018-19 season. Alan Barnes brought along his Sextet with Bruce Adams, Robert Fowler, Robin Aspland, Simon Thorpe and Clarke Tracey and played a fine selection 70 year old Modern Jazz. Starting off with tunes by Harry Edison, Cannonball Adderley [No.13] and Duke Ellington’s The Mooch. We even had Bruce playing the trumpet and flugelhorn at the same time! The second set c...ontinued with Alan’s composition ‘Mr TC’ which was followed up with a rapid ‘Hollywood Stampede’, which we were told, was based on ‘Sweet Georgia Brown’. A couple of beautiful slow numbers, Hoagy Carmichael’s Skylark and Neil Hefti’s Lil Darlin’ provided good balance and we finished with ‘Spontaneous Combustion’. With the distribution of the new CJC programme for next season, it was good to see Alan and Bruce will be with us again same time next year.
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Alan Barnes and Bruce Adams Sextet

Alan Barnes and Bruce Adams Sextet Friday, June 28, 2019 A fitting finale to our 2018-19 Season. The always popular Alan Barnes brings his swinging sextet to the CJC. The repertoire is wide ranging and varied with classics, originals and standards. Ellington and Johnny Hodge are always included along with some Basie classics, Mingus and Monk. The three horn front line allows for interesting arranging and writing which will emphasise the bands conviction that jazz is a branch ...of the entertainment industry and audiences are drawn in by presentation and anecdotes. Alan Barnes – alto and baritone saxophones, and clarinet Bruce Adams – trumpet and flugelhorn Robert Fowler – tenor saxophone and clarinet Robin Aspland – piano Simon Thorpe – bass Clarke Tracey – drums
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The Roella Oloro Quartet An exquisite evening of real quality inventive music. Pianist Roella Oloro and her Quartet of Sylvan Biscoe on tenor saxophone, Ezekiel Ajie on bass and Wilf Cameron Marples on drums treated us to an evening of contemporary jazz that certainly grabbed our attention. In the first set we were eased into this very special musical experience with unique interpretations of tunes by Sonny Rollins, Herbie Hancock and Duke Ellington. With the second set we he...ard about Roella’s journey so far, through her own compositions brought about diverse events like the loss of her telephone, an encounter with the music of Sibelius and Vanguardia to her liking for the playing of Japanese pianist Hiromi and finishing with her beautifully percussive tune Sunburst.
Having spent last summer at Berklee College of Music under the mentorship of renowned drummer Terri Lyne-Carrington, she was one of only seven individuals worldwide to be offered a full scholarship to study there.
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The Roella Oloro Quartet

Friday June 7th Gary Crosby's Tomorrow’s Warriors present The Roella Oloro Quartet
Roella Oloro is an exciting young British composer and multi-instrumentalist of Nigerian and Jamaican descent who has captured the attention of leading jazz bassist, Gary Crosby. Her early musical home was in the Pentecostal Church playing piano in regional gospel choirs around south west England, where she learned to play piano by ear alongside her classical training in piano, clarinet, alto ...saxophone and bass guitar. She became inspired by jazz in her early teens after hearing the virtuosic brilliance of Oscar Peterson. She is a member of Tomorrow’s Warriors Female Frontline, which has seen her perform throughout the London jazz scene, and she never fails to make a big impression at the Ronnie Scott’s and Steam Down jam sessions. Having spent the summer at Berklee College of Music under the mentorship of renowned drummer Terri Lyne-Carrington, she was one of only seven individuals worldwide to be offered a full scholarship to study there. As a composer, she has written for a variety of different ensembles, including a piece for big band that was played at the Royal Albert Hall. Roella officially formed her current quintet soon after returning to the UK from the Berklee Summer School. Their first gig was the London Jazz Festival in November playing all of Roella's original music. Since then the quintet has continued to gig their set at popular jazz nights in London including Mau Mau’s for Jazzrefreshed, The Royal Albert for Good Evening Arts, and PizzaExpress’ Heads Up series. She also features in Tomorrow’s Warriors Nu Jazz Moves series. Tonight she appears at Chichester Jazz Club in Quartet format with her wonderful young band. I’m really excited about Roella. She’s an extraordinary pianist with a massive musical gift and truly creative ideas. Definitely one of the most promising of her generation, she has rightly earned the respect of her peers and I, and many of us on the London scene, have great expectations of her. Given the opportunity to deepen her learning and experience of jazz, this exceptional, determined young woman has the potential to go the whole way, to become a great star and be a unique voice in UK jazz. Roella Oloro piano Sylvan Biscoe tenor saxophone Ezekiel Ajie bass Wilf Cameron Marples drums Gary Crosby OBE – Bassist and Co-Founder & Artistic Director, Tomorrow’s Warriors
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The Matt Ridley Quintet with special guest Alex Hitchcock
The wonderful Mat Ridley Quintet augmented to a Sextet with the addition of Alex Hitchcock on tenor sax. The evening began, perhaps not inappropriately, with tunes called Mental Cases and Strange Meeting providing a great introduction to what was ahead. Next a standard from Monk with ‘I Mean You’, followed by hip-hop based ‘Gangsta Gangsta’ . The first set finishing with a hard driving ‘Moanin’. The second set just got... better with 'Yardeville’s Canon' by Jason and even some Soft Rock from Mat and a finale with a truly memorable drum solo from George. An exciting and exhilarating evening of contemporary jazz for the connoisseur, to be savoured for some time to come. Mat Ridley on bass, Jason Yarde on soprano and baritone sax, John Turville on piano, Ant Law on guitar and George Hart drums.
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The Matt Ridley Quintet with special guest Alex Hitchcock

Friday May 17 2019 The Matt Ridley Quintet with special guest Alex Hitchcock
The Matt Ridley Quintet has established itself as "One of Britain's very finest contemporary quintets" (Jazzviews).
... The quintet’s music takes the listener on an absorbing journey, which effectively marries the exhilaration of jazz improvisation with intricately sculpted arrangements. While deeply rooted in the jazz tradition, Ridley eschews the traditional head/solos/head approach to composition, preferring instead to create a unique sound-world from each musical inspiration. At the heart of each composition is a strong, memorable, melodic theme, the realisation of which draws on any number of influences to bring fullest expression. Classical, groove-based styles and World music can all be distinguished, while the ferocious improvisational skills of each member make for an absorbing and entertaining listening experience. Matt Ridley – bass Jason Yarde – saxophone John Turville – piano Ant Law – guitar George Hart – drums
Special guest Alex Hitchcock Alex is an award-winning London-born saxophonist and composer. He leads his own quintet, whose increasingly burgeoning reputation on the international jazz stage was confirmed by first place in the Conad Jazz Contest at the 2018 Umbria Jazz Festival. Their debut album was released in 2019 on the Spanish label Fresh Sound New Talent. His electric saxophone quartet AuB, co-led with saxophonist Tom Barford, is due to release its first album on Edition Records in early 2020.
He has performed with, amongst others, Chris Cheek, Soweto Kinch, Stan Sulzmann, Mark Lockheart, Andrew McCormack, Maria Chiara Argirò, Thibaut François, the Blackbyrds, and Franco-Belgian duo André Charlier/Benoit Sourisse. He has appeared at North Sea Jazz Festival (Netherlands), Jazz à Vienne (France), Fano Jazz Festival (Italy), Festival Mas i Mas (Spain) and Glastonbury Festival (UK) as well as at the Barbican, Cadogan Hall, and Glyndebourne Opera House.
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Before the main event on May 3rd with the Zoe Francis quartet, students from Chichester University got things underway with a delightful selection of standards. Ewan Warren on tenor sax, Nicholas Twine on piano and Scott Bentley bass guitar.

ZOE FRANCIS with Jim Mullen Zoe presented a varied selection of nostalgic music associated with Blossom Dearie, providing along the way detailed information of the various composers and lyricists. Completing the quartet was Jim Mullen on guitar, Barry Green on piano and Mick Hutton on bass. Jim demonstrated his swinging dexterity throughout, allowing us to identify clusters of quotes along the way. A beautiful evening of times remembered.

Zoe Francis at CJC 2019 montage

Friday 3rd May ZOE FRANCIS with Jim Mullen London born Zoe Francis started singing while living in New York for a few years, attending the workshops of Barry Harris and jam sessions in Harlem, Brooklyn and Manhattan, before singing on her own gigs with musicians including Harry Allen, Howard Alden and Warren Vaché.
Returning to the UK, and living in the Bristol area, Zoe began working with award-winning pianist Dave Newton, with whom she recorded her first album, Looking For... A Boy.
Now on a return visit to Chichester Jazz Club, Zoe will be singing songs from her latest release, Remembering Blossom Dearie.
"I love her ability to put the lyric and story of a well crafted song first; her diction, intimacy and underlying humour gave her a unique voice and approach to repertoire". Blossom moved to New York at the beginning of Birth of the Cool and was part of the Left Bank scene in Paris.
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CJC is currently on the Cote D'Azur but will be back for Zoe Francis with Jim Mullen on Friday May 3rd.

Gabriel and Christian Garrick Quintet Enabled by some creative programming the CJC brought together the Garrick brothers Gabriel and Christian for a truly memorable session. They had not played together in public for some 20 years yet produced wonderful relaxed improvised music across a broad spectrum of jazz. With Gabriel on trumpet, flugelhorn and vocals while Christian explored some fascinating swinging sounds from his violin. They were ably supported by Jason Henson on guitar, Terry Pack on bass, on their first visit to CJC and Pete Cater drums. The tunes ranged from ‘Basin Street Blues’, Hoagy Carmichael’s ‘Skylark’, ‘All Blues’ by Miles to Monk’s ‘Bemsha Swing’, then Ellington’s ‘In a Mellotone’ and finishing with the Sonny Rollins composition ‘Pent-Up House’. I hope we can hear them playing together again before another 20 years.

Gabriel and Christian Garrick at Chichester Jazz Club

Gabriel and Christian Garrick Quintet Friday, April 05, 2019 Two highly talented brothers who rarely get to play together, now with an exciting new project of swinging creative jazz. Gabriel Garrick took up the trumpet aged seven and started gigging at an early age with his father and older brother. Since his early childhood he has had exposure to a wealth of different musicians representing a variety of genres. Gabriel leads various groups of his own and is the Director of t...he Michael Garrick founded Jazz Academy. Christian Garrick began playing violin aged five. At seven he met Stephane Grappelli at The Stables in Wavendon, an encounter that would influence him and his playing enormously. Christian is an improvising violinist, a composer and a bandleader and is active on the international concert circuit and on the London studio session scene. He is Professor of jazz and non-classical violin at three of London’s major music conservatoires.
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