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  • HOME
  • Jun ALLISON NEALE/COLIN OXLEY
  • Jul GEORGIA MANCIO
  • Aug KAREN STREET/ANDY TWEED
  • Sep ANÖNA TRIO
  • Oct EL CHAMUYO Tango
  • Nov BISCOE plays WESTBROOK
  • Dec BIG HOUSE
  • PAST GIGS
    • PAST GIGS 2013 >
      • Sep MARK NIGHTINGALE
      • Oct STEVE WATERMAN
      • Nov COLIN OXLEY
      • Dec TONY WOODS
    • PAST GIGS 2014 >
      • Jan TRUDY KERR
      • Feb JIMMY HASTINGS
      • Mar FRANK GRIFFITH
      • Apr NIGEL PRICE
      • May ANITA WARDELL
      • Jun ALLISON NEALE
      • Jul GEOFF SIMKINS
      • Aug VASILIS XENOPOULOS
      • Sep NAT STEELE
      • 3 Oct GEOFF MASON
      • 31 Oct MARTIN SHAW
      • Dec SUE RICHARDSON
    • PAST GIGS 2015 >
      • Jan GABRIEL GARRICK
      • Feb SIMON SPILLETT
      • Mar KELVIN CHRISTIANE
      • Apr MARK BASSEY
      • May TIM WHITEHEAD
      • Jun MALCOLM EARLE-SMITH
      • Jul LULUK PURWANTO
      • Aug JO FOOKS
      • Sep BRIGITTE BERAHA
      • Oct VASILIS XENOPOULOS
      • Nov DOMINIC ASHWORTH
      • Dec GARETH LOCKRANE
    • PAST GIGS 2016 >
      • Jan STEVE FISHWICK
      • Feb MARK RIDOUT
      • Mar SIMON ALLEN
      • Apr LEE GOODALL
      • May JIMMY HASTINGS
      • Jun ALAN BARNES
      • Jul LULUK PURWANTO
      • Aug MARTIN SPEAKE
      • Sep ART THEMEN
      • Oct GORDON CAMPBELL
      • Nov TONY WOODS
      • Dec ROGER BEAUJOLAIS
    • PAST GIGS 2017 >
      • Jan BYRON WALLEN
      • Jan Tom Barford
      • Feb SARA DOWLING & NIGEL PRICE
      • Feb Alex Hitchcock
      • Mar STEVE WATERMAN
      • Mar Joe Bristow
      • Apr GEOFF SIMKINS
      • Apr James Akers
      • May Olli Martin
      • May IAIN BALLAMY
      • May: Purcell Jazz Octet / SIMON ALLEN / QUENTIN COLLINS
      • Jun Tom Smith
      • Jun NEALE meets STEELE
      • Jul WHITEHEAD & WOODS
      • Aug MARK BASSEY
      • Sep DAMON BROWN
      • Sep Chris & Jonny Ford
      • Oct KELVIN CHRISTIANE
      • Oct Helena Kay
      • Nov ART THEMEN
      • Nov Will Barry
      • Dec LAURA ZAKIAN
    • PAST GIGS 2018 >
      • Jan BYRON WALLEN & TONY KOFI
      • Jan Tom Ollendorff
      • Feb THE RIDOUTS
      • Feb Sean Payne
      • Feb SIMON ALLEN & PURCELL JAZZ
      • Apr KATIE BROWN, ALEX HITCHCOCK & TOM SMITH
      • Apr Jim Gold
      • May NAT STEELE - Portrait of the MJQ
      • May Dan Newberry
      • Jun SPEAKE, MAGUIRE & PYNE
      • Jun Higham & Mindlin
      • Jul WHITEHEAD & WOODS
      • Aug JIMMY HASTINGS
      • Sep NIKKI ILES Trio
      • Sep Olli Martin
      • Oct THREE WAY STRETCH
      • Nov Tom Barford
      • Nov FOOKS & WATERMAN
      • Dec NIGEL PRICE ORGAN TRIO
    • PAST GIGS 2019 >
      • Jan SHARP & GAVITA
      • Jan - Tom Ridout
      • Feb FOSTER & ASHWORTH
      • Feb SIMON ALLEN & PURCELL JAZZ
      • Feb HONK!
      • Mar LULUK & BYRON WALLEN
      • Mar DOM INGHAM
      • Apr Mrs BROWN'S BOYS & ALEX HITCHCOCK
      • May GABRIEL LATCHIN Trio
      • May - Daniel Garel
      • Jun TONY WOODS Project
      • Jul CAWLEY & SPEAKE
      • Jul CLARK TRACEY 5tet
      • Aug SHAW & O'HIGGINS
      • Sep GARY WILLCOX 4tet
      • Sep Jonny Ford
      • Sep MARK LOCKHEART . . . Days on Earth
      • Oct ALISON RAYNER 5tet
      • Nov TIM WHITEHEAD & GIOVANNI MIRABASSI
      • Nov OWEN DAWSON
      • Dec STUART HENDERSON & KELVIN CHRISTIANE
    • PAST GIGS 2020 >
      • Jan GEOFF SIMKINS & MALCOLM EARLE-SMITH
      • Jan LAURA ZAKIAN
      • Feb MARTIN SPEAKE 4tet with ETHAN IVERSON
      • Oct SHIRLEY SMART Quartet
    • PAST GIGS 2021 >
      • Jun SARA DOWLING 4tet
      • Jul IMOGEN RYALL & JULIAN NICHOLAS
      • Sep MARK NIGHTINGALE & SIMON ALLEN
      • Oct NEALE meets STEELE
      • Nov FIVE-WAY SPLIT
      • Dec BLUE TOWN
    • PAST GIGS 2022 >
      • Jan JIMMY HASTINGS
      • Jan BRAZILIAN NIGHT
      • Feb TOM SMITH "Gecko"
      • Mar MARK BASSEY
      • Apr TRISH CLOWES "My Iris"
      • May SAM BRAYSHER
      • May CHRIS BATCHELOR "Zoetic"
      • July KAREN STREET'S "L'Esprit du Jazz"
      • Aug JO FOOKS
      • Sep DOMINIC ASHWORTH
      • Oct TONY WOODS Project
      • Nov MALCOLM EARLE-SMITH
      • Dec ESTHER BENNETT's "Duncan Lamont Songbook"
    • PAST GIGS 2023 >
      • Jan DANIEL ALLAIN "Samba em 3"
      • Feb MARTIN SHAW
      • Mar MARTIN PYNE QUARTET
      • Apr NIGEL PRICE
      • May BLUE TOWN
      • June KAIYO
      • July PIGFOOT
      • Aug UNDER MILK WOOD
      • Sep DUNSDON & LEWIS
      • Oct FIVE-WAY SPLIT
      • Nov ENTENTE CORDIALE
      • Dec LITTLE BIG BAND
    • PAST GIGS 2024 >
      • Jan GEOFF MASON
      • Feb STEVE WATERMAN
      • 1 Mar SIMKINS & NOBLE
      • 29 March NAT STEELE & JONNY FORD
      • May ESPIAL
      • June ADAM DYER QUARTET
      • July EL CHAMUYO Tango
      • Aug ART THEMEN
      • Sep JAZZ SAMBA!
      • Oct JOHN LAW
      • Nov WHITEHEAD & WOODS
      • Dec THREEWAY
    • PAST GIGS 2025 >
      • Jan SARAH JANE EVELEIGH
      • Feb KAREN SHARP/NIKKI ILES
      • Mar JO FOOKS/STEVE WATERMAN
      • Apr SMALL BLUE
      • May SATORI
  • CONTACT
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MARTIN SPEAKE's
International Quartet


MARTIN SPEAKE
alto sax
​ETHAN IVERSON
piano
​CALUM GOURLAY
bass
JEFF WILLIAMS
drums


7:30 p.m. Saturday 29 February

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ETHAN IVERSON and MARTIN SPEAKE
Alto saxophonist Martin Speake’s International Quartet features US pianist Ethan Iverson (Billy Hart, Charlie Haden, Mark Turner, Lee Konitz, The Bad Plus), legendary drummer Jeff Williams and bassist Calum Gourlay. Endlessly inventive and eclectic as an improviser, Ethan Iverson is renowned as a writer and thinker on jazz through his blog ‘Do The Math’.
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ETHAN IVERSON piano & MARTIN SPEAKE alto sax
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CALUM GOURLAY bass
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JEFF WILLIAMS
Martin Speake International Quartet featuring Ethan Iverson piano with Calum Gourlay bass Jeff Williams drums
Coming to Bracknell Jazz Fri 29 Feb
Alto saxophonist Martin Speake continues his collaboration on this anniversary tour with US pianist Ethan Iverson since first meeting 30 years ago in Banff Canada. They toured and recorded as a duo featured on My Ideal playing standard ballads just before Ethan toured the world with The Bad Plus. 17 years later after Ethan left The Bad Plus they performed and recorded again in 2018 as a quartet with Fred Thomas and James Maddren. The album Intention featured Martin’s compositions and arrangements of Dancing In The Dark and Charlie’s Wig.
For part of this 2020 tour they are joined by the legendary drummer Jeff Williams. Bassist Calum Gourlay completes the quartet. He leads his own quartet and big band featuring his compositions and stunning arrangements of others music. Martin and Calum have collaborated for 15 years in various playing situations and most recently in the group Thelonious with Hans Koller.
“The rapport between Speake and Iverson itself is a thing of exquisite beauty.” Downbeat Magazine
Martin Speake is one of the UK’s most prominent alto sax players. An Award-winning musician Martin has been at the forefront of the UK jazz scene since the mid 80’s. His projects are many and diverse and include personal interpretations of the music of Charlie Parker, free improvising, playing standards with his quartet and Indian music with Dharambir Singh and Sarvar Sabri. He has recorded 23 CDs under his own name, including the internationally acclaimed ECM release Change Of Heart with Paul Motian, Bobo Stenson and Mick Hutton and includes work with the likes of Loose Tubes, Bhavani Shankar, Stan Tracey, Bob Wilber, Don Weller, Jim Mullen, Ronan Guilfoyle, Jim Rattigan, Phelan Burgoyne, Alex Maguire, Sam Rivers, and Airto Moreira on a massive cv. He is lead alto saxophonist in the London Jazz Orchestra conducted by Scott Stroman and has formed THELONIOUS to study and learn all the compositions of Thelonious Monk with valve trombonist/pianist Hans Koller, bassist Calum Gourlay and James Maddren. His main creative outlets are a trio with guitarist Mike Outram and US drummer Jeff Williams performing original music and Charukesi with tenor saxophonist Alyson Cawley, guitarist Mike De Souza and drummer Will Glaser playing Indian/Arabic/Turkish inspired groove music.
Martin is a committed jazz educator and in addition to Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance he teaches at the Royal Academy of Music, Guildhall School of Music and Drama and the National Youth Jazz Collective Summer School. He was external examiner at Birmingham Conservatoire for several years and also taught at Middlesex University.
He is involved in a British Jazz Oral History project of his own and has interviewed a number of important musicians such as Kenny Wheeler, Geoff Simkins, Dave Cliff, Pete Saberton and many others. These interviews can be read on his website at www.martinspeake.com
He has a BSc in Nutritional Medicine and has his own practice for clients who want to improve their health through diet and lifestyle changes.
“Speake is a strikingly talented improviser with a seemingly bottomless well of inspiration.” - Encyclopedia of Popular Music
“Speake is one of the most interesting and rewarding alto saxophonists now playing jazz on any continent”…Jazz Times
US-born pianist and composer Ethan Iverson is probably best known as a founding member of the iconic New York based band The Bad Plus, a game-changing collective who the New York Times described as “…better than anyone at melding the sensibilities of post-60’s jazz and indie rock.” During his 17-year tenure TBP performed in venues as diverse as the Village Vanguard and Carnegie Hall and collaborated with the likes of Joshua Redman, Bill Frisell and the Mark Morris Dance Group. A powerful yet thoughtful and lyrical player, Ethan has also appeared with International jazz artists of the calibre of Billy Hart, Ron Carter Tom Harrell, Victor Lewis, Chris Potter and Ravi Coltrane. As a composer, in 2017 he scored “Pepperland” for the Mark Morris Dance Group and in spring 2018 premiered Concerto to Scale with the American Composers Orchestra.
“pianist Ethan Iverson….letting [his] distinctive attributes shine while also interacting at the highest levels of listening and invention”… Downbeat
“Ethan Iverson is….endlessly resourceful….there’s never a moment when he isn’t either launching a new idea or expanding on one”… The Guardian
London-based double bassist and composer Calum Gourlay is known for his deep warm tone, controlled execution as both a supporter and improviser, and rock solid time and pulse. Born in Glasgow, Scotland in 1986, he began his musical journey playing the cello in primary school and by the age of fourteen started the double bass, having developed a serious interest in jazz and improvised music. Gourlay’s talents were noticed by many of Scotland’s premier artists, and as a result he became the first bassist selected for the then ‘brand new’ Tommy Smith Youth Jazz Orchestra as well as other ensembles.
In 2004 he started at the Royal Academy of Music in London and graduated with first class honours with a B.Mus. (jazz) degree in 2008. Since then he has become a mainstay on the London scene while performing with the Kit Downes Trio, The Tommy Smith Group, Will Vinson, The Scottish National Jazz Orchestra featuring Joe Lovano, John Scofield, and Kurt Elling, Martin Speake, Martin Kershaw and Sheila Jordan. He also writes for his own big band, which has a monthly residency at the Vortex in London.
“Gourlay’s note accuracy, unshakeable rhythmic sense and ability to follow a melodic line whenever possible make this a thoroughly enjoyable experience.”thejazzbreakfast.com
“Gourlay filled the space with a combination of spinning bass beats and a virtuosic exploration of harmony..” theartsdesk.com
Born in Mount Vernon, Ohio, Jeff Williams began his professional jazz drumming career in New York in 1971. By '72 he was playing with Stan Getz, followed by Dave Liebman and Lookout Farm through 1976. His other associations include Joe Lovano, Lee Konitz, Paul Bley, Bill McHenry, Ethan Iverson, Tony Malaby, Leo Genovese and a host of others. Since making a second home in London some years ago Jeff has performed with Kenny Wheeler, Norma Winstone, Martin Speake, Nikki Illes, Olie Brice and more, in addition to leading his own bands, whose members have included Phil Robson, Kit Downes, Finn Peters, Josh Arcoleo, Sam Lasserson, John O'Gallagher, Duane Eubanks and John Hébert. Jeff has recorded five albums for the Whirlwind Recordings label showcasing his original compositions. The latest, _Bloom_ , features Carmen Staaf-piano and Michael Formanek-bassband is available in both CD and 180 gram LP formats. Having benefitted from much experience, and extensive study with the great Alan Dawson. Jeff has given jazz drumming instruction at a number of universities and currently teaches at the Royal Academy of Music in London.
"Jeff Williams is the kind of drummer whose solo statements are so structurally clear and meticulous you can hear the melody in them. Driving a band, some jazz drummers lay back and swing on the ride cymbal. Jeff Williams gets that same swinging relaxation while darting all over the drum set, pushing and prodding. " Kevin Whitehead Fresh Air (National Public Radio USA)
"...full of stellar drumming techniques that astound, Jeff Williams, in other words, is a drummer’s drummer. His skill as a drummer is augmented by ideas that are completely his own." Marc Phillips, The Vinyl Anachronist
https://www.martinspeake.com/
https://ethaniverson.com/
https://www.calumgourlay.net/
https://www.willfulmusic.com/
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