By Graham South in
on January 27th, 2025 · 0 Comments
A few highlights of what I’ve been up to and what I’m getting involved in next (pub. Jan 2025)
Agbeko – I joined this band in 2022 and feel like both a newbie (not on any of the band’s released albums yet) and part of the family (they’re wonderful people). Look out for album coming out this year and various gigs around the UK festival scene this summer.
NQ Jazz Orchestra – led by Kyran Matthews, playing contemporary and late 20th century big band music. We’ve done two gigs at The Yard in Manchester and have thoroughly enjoyed playing music by band members Kyrana and Anna Chandler-King as well as music by Maria Schenider, Kenny Wheeler, Thad Jones and several other luminaries. Great to share a trumpet section with Owen Bryce, Aaron Wood, Steve Parry and Stan Lawrence.
Efpi All Star Orchestra – led by Ben Cottrell featuring a mouth-watering array of musicians that have been involved in Efpi records. All 15 members wrote pieces and we rehearsed, recorded (in Manchester) and performed them (at Sheffield Jazz) in November ’24.
Freelancing – as always, playing round and about the country with symphony orchestras and quite a bit with Manchester Camerata.
Duo – a very short and very quiet performance for Owain Roberts’s “Hush Sessions”. Lovely to play with my wife Gemma Bass.
Teaching – my regular trumpet teaching at University of Manchester, Junior RNCM, Xaverian College and Loreto college continues, with several private students too.
University of Manchester Composer’s Workshop – In Feb and May this year I’ll be teaming up with percussionist Harry Percy to play new music by postgraduate composers at the University of Manchester.
Baroque – getting more and more into playing the natural trumpet and its modern variation, the fingerhole trumpet and looking forward to more performances in March and April with Manchester Baroque and Baroque in the North.
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By and by is the debut album for the Graham South Quartet, featuring Richard Jones (piano), Seth Bennett (bass) and Johnny Hunter (drums). It is a suite of the five African American spirituals used by Michael Tippett in A Child of Our Time and these arrangements were commissioned by Southwell Music Festival to complement a 2018 performance of Tippett’s piece.
My arrangements of the songs are deliberately sparse, in a way that highlights and aims to 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.
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Beats and Pieces emerged in 2008 from Ben Cottrell’s clear vision of the sounds available to a traditional line up when influenced by more contemporary sounds from pop, rock and electronic music. Now with three albums, several European tours and 2018 debuts in the USA and Canada, the band have defied all expectations and are still looking ahead to future releases and gigs.
The line-up has changed over the years, but the trumpet section has remained stable since 2010 and I have been lucky to play alongside the incredibly versatile lead player Owen Bryce and one of the UK’s brightest and most recognisable trumpet solo voices, Nick Walters.
Beats and Pieces recordings are: Big Ideas (2012), All In (2015) and Ten (2018).
https://beatsnpieces.net/
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Johnny Hunter’s quartet formed in 2012 and has since toured extensively throughout the UK, recording two albums, Appropriations (2013) and While We Still Can (2014) on the Efpi label with the original line up featuring Ben Watte (tenor saxophone) and Stewart Wilson (Bass). The is soon to be releasing its third album, with the changed line-up including Mark Hanslip (tenor saxophone) and Seth Bennett (Bass).
https://www.johnnyhuntermusic.com/groups/jhq/
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Long-time friend and Beats & Pieces bandmate, Anton Hunter and I lived in the same halls as first year students at Manchester University, but didn’t meet until third year, when I set up Manchester University Big Band.
Anton was awarded the Manchester Jazz Festival Originals commission in 2014 and created Article XI, the name coming from Article 11 of the European Convention on Human Rights:
“Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and to freedom of association with others, including the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of their interests.”
Anton’s composition process involves the improvisational voices of his collaborators – he sends them fragments to record and, if they wish, elaborate on and uses these recordings to develop his material.
Past and present members are Nick Walters, Richard Foote, Tullis Rennie, Kieran McCleod, Oliver Dover, Mette Rasmussen, Sam Andreae, Simon Prince, Cath Roberts, Seth Bennett, Eero Tikkanen and Johnny Hunter.
https://antonhuntermusic.bandcamp.com/album/article-xi
https://discus-music.co.uk/catalogue-mobile/dis89-250-detail
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MJC’s inspiration came from an evening of new music for large ensemble, presented by Efpi and written by Johnny Hunter and me in 2014. Saxophonist Kyran Matthews was a part of this evening and a few months later set up the ten-piece Manchester Jazz Collective.
MJC quickly found a monthly residency at The Wonder Inn, a short-lived but very important venue in central Manchester which for around three years was home to all manner of creative activity. Through these monthly sessions, a repertoire of some nine hours of music was built up, mostly written by composers Kyran Matthews, Paul Baxter, Johnny Hunter and Andrew Stamatakis-Brown. Guest composer/performers included Dee Byrne, Richard Iles, Abel Selaocoe, Rachel Maby and Misha Gray. Since the closure of The Wonder Inn, the group has performed across the North of England as a member of Jazz North’s Northern Line scheme.
https://www.manchesterjazzcollective.com/
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Vonnegut Collective was formed in 2014 by Gemma Bass and Gary Farr – their name and artistic vision inspired was by Kurt Vonnegut’s letter to Xavier High School in New York, encouraging them to practice art (https://lettersofnote.com/2013/10/28/make-your-soul-grow/).
The multifaceted group has since collaborated with composers, artists, dancers and actors, making art and music in both the community and the concert hall.
I have composed for various line-ups of the ensemble Out of the Hat, Re-Max and Meditations, as well as performing with them as an improviser.
https://vonnegutcollective.co.uk/
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Tullis Rennie and I have been making music together since we met at The University of Manchester in 2002. Muscle Memory was conceived while Tullis was living in Belfast and is a document of friendship, a long-standing musical connection and a shared love of the music of Miles Davis. The piece is based around conversations and improvisations from 2014 and was released on limited edition vinyl with another partner Muscle Memory piece featuring the incredible pianist & composer Matthew Bourne.
https://muscle-memory.co.uk/
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I met baritone and conductor Marcus Farnsworth in the registration queue at The University of Manchester in 2002 and we have been friends ever since. In August 2014 Marcus started Southwell Music Festival in his Nottinghamshire hometown, together with violinist Jamie Campbell. I have been a member of the festival sinfonia at every festival as well as making chamber music contributions and premiering my quartet with the material for By & By.
It is hard to put into words the importance that Southwell holds for performers and audience members alike. The first festival opened with a solo trombone piece by Elliot Carter (performed by Royal Philharmonic trombonist Matthew Gee) and has since delighted and challenged everyone in attendance, giving new life to great choral works and committing deeply to chamber music spanning the last 500 years. Festival musicians are hosted by residents of the town and most of the concerts are held in the beautiful Southwell Minster.
https://www.southwellmusicfestival.com/
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In 2016 Cath Roberts was artist in residence at the Lancaster Jazz Festival, which has become a musicians’ favourite for its bold and diverse programming and its faith in audiences to embrace new music. One of Cath’s projects during this time was to create an amazing set of compositions for large ensemble, augmenting her established group Sloth Racket to a 10-piece for a performance at The Dukes theatre.
Encouraged by enthusiasm from all sides to keep the project alive, Cath created even more music, the band became Favourite Animals and recorded the project for the Luminous label in 2017, followed up with a tour alongside Anton Hunter’s Article XI.
Members are Dee Byrne, Julia Kjaer, Tom Ward, Sam Andreae, Graham South, Tullis Rennie, Anton Hunter, Seth Bennett & Johnny Hunter.
https://cathrobertsmusic.co.uk/favourite-animals/
