Upcoming Appearances
Booth/Bain Quartet mini-tour 2023 with Paul Booth, Steve Hamilton & Andrew Robb
25 January 2023
Oxford | Time is of the Essence Band with Ross Stanley, Paul Booth & Chris Allard | The Spin | 8pm
4 February 2023
SoHo, London | Time is of the Essence Band with Ross Stanley, Paul Booth & Chris Allard | The Boulevard | 8pm
6 February 2023
Birmingham | Kevin Hays Trio with Mark Hodgson | Eastside Jazz Club | 6.30pm
23-25 February 2023
Vienna, Austria | International Network for Artistic Research in Jazz 3rd Conference | JAM MUSIC LAB, Vienna
27 February - 3 March 2023
Stavanger, Norway | Erasmus+ Artistic Exchange | University of Stavanger, Norway
18 March 2023
Lincoln | Paul Booth 44 with Flo Moore & Tom Cawley | The Blue Room | 8pm
23 March 2023
Birmingham | Jazz Gala with Royal Birmingham Conservatoire Afro-Cuban Jazz Orchestra, Director & guests from Chetham's School of Music | Eastside Jazz Club | 6.30pm
30 March - 1 April 2023
Copenhagen, Denmark | AEC European Platform for Artistic Research in Music 10th Conference | Royal Danish Academy of Music
NYOS Jazz Orchestra, with very special guest artist Paul Booth were filmed and recorded LIVE at BBC Scotland Studios, Pacific Quay in Glasgow. The first NYOS ensemble to perform, in person, in over two years. It was an emotional return capped by a superb performance.
First broadcast on Sunday, 12 December on BBC Radio Scotland’s Jazz Nights, the show - presented by Seonaid Aitken - features interviews with Director of Jazz at NYOS Andrew Bain, Guest Artist, Paul Booth, and members of the Jazz Orchestra. The film premiere of the performance was streamed "as live" on Monday 13 December.
or watch on YouTube
Stuff you've missed
28 July 2022
Birmingham | Royal Birmingham Conservatoire Afro-Cuban Jazz Orchestra (Director) at the Commonwealth Games Opening Ceremony | Venue and time TBC
2 August 2022
Birmingham | Vittorio Mura Trio with Arnie Somogyi | The Spotted Dog, Digbeth | 7.30pm
8 August 2022
Birmingham | Royal Birmingham Conservatoire Afro-Cuban Jazz Orchestra (Director) at the Commonwealth Games Closing Ceremony | Venue and time TBC
9 September 2022
Norwich | Ryan Quigley Quintet | Hall Farm, East Winch | Time TBA
28 October 2022
Birmingham | Cheshire Youth MFL Jazz Orchestra Stevie Wonder Project and Royal Birmingham Conservatoire Afro-Cuban Jazz Orchestra, Director | Eastside Jazz Club | Music from 6.30pm
TBC
National Youth Jazz Orchestra of Scotland 30th Anniversary Gala featuring Julian Joseph, Piano & Composition & Guests | Dates and Venues TBC
18 November 2022
Sheffield | Andre Canniere Ghost Days | Crookes Social Club | 8pm
25 November 2022
Birmingham | Royal Birmingham Conservatoire Afro-Cuban Jazz Orchestra, Director | Eastside Jazz Club | Music from 6.30pm
25 November 2022
Birmingham | Royal Birmingham Conservatoire Afro-Cuban Jazz Orchestra, Director with guests from Chetham's School of Music | Eastside Jazz Club | Music from 6.30pm
19 January 2022
www.ronniescotts.co.ukLondon | Time is of the Essence with Ross Stanley, Paul Booth and Chris Allard | Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club | 6pm & 9.15pm
28 January 2022
www.bcu.ac.ukBirmingham | Royal Birmingham Conservatoire Afro-Cuban Jazz Orchestra, Director | Eastside Jazz Club | Sets at 7.45pm & 9pm
25 March 2022
Birmingham | Royal Birmingham Conservatoire Afro-Cuban Jazz Orchestra, Director | Eastside Jazz Club | Sets at 7.45pm & 9pm
26 March 2022
Cheshire | Cheshire Youth MFL Jazz Orchestra Stevie Wonder Project | Venue TBA | Time TBA
9 April 2022
London | AEC European Platform for Artistic Research in Music 2022 | Royal Academy of Music | Paper Presentation | 11.15am
23 April 2022
Birmingham | Richard Foote Quintet | Surge in Spring @ The Mac | 7.30pm
29 April 2022
Birmingham | Cheshire Youth MFL Jazz Orchestra Stevie Wonder Project and Royal Birmingham Conservatoire Afro-Cuban Jazz Orchestra, Director | Eastside Jazz Club | Music from 6pm
4-11 July 2022
Skye | NYoS Jazz Summer School and 30th Anniversary Tour featuring Julian Joseph, Piano & Compositions
8 July 2022 | Sabhal Mòr Ostaig, Isle of Skye | 8pm
9 July 2022 | Nairn Community & Arts Centre | 8pm
10 July 2022 | Lemon Tree, Aberdeen | 8pm
11 July 2022 | Tolbooth, Stirling | 8pm
12 December 2021
Glasgow | NYOS Jazz Orchestra, with very special guest artist Paul Booth | BBC Scotland Studios, Pacific Quay | 9pm
Listen again at BBC Scotlandor watch on YouTube
15 October 2021
London | Time is of the Essence with Ross Stanley, Paul Booth and Chris Allard | The Crypt, Camberwell | 8pm
22-24 October 2021
Glasgow | NYoS Jazz Orchestra featuring Paul Booth | BBC, Glasgow | Broadcast date TBC
7 November 2021
Manchester | Iain Dixon Quartet | Royal Northern College of Music | Time TBA
11 November 2021
Online | International Association of Schools of Jazz Reseach Conference | Artistic Research Roundtable | Time 3pm
23 September 2021
Birmingham | Double Bill: Richard Foote Quintet & Ripshaw Catfish | The MAC | 8pm
29 July 2021
London | Paul Booth Quartet with Ross Stanley, Dave Whitford and special guest Alexandra Ridout | 606 Jazz Club | 8pm
6 August 2021
Bristol | Greg Cordez: Apollo Sessions | St. George's | Two shows: 6pm & 8pm
23 August 2021
Manchester | Andre Canniere Ghost Days | NQ Jazz at The Yard, 11 Bent Street, Manchester, M8 8NF | 7.30pm
3 September 2021
Canterbury, Kent | Tribute to Stan Getz | International Study Centre, Cathedral Precincts | 8pm
23 September 2021
Birmingham | Double Bill: Richard Foote Quintet & Ripshaw Catfish | The MAC | 8pm
Sat 5 June 2021
Nottingham | Peggy’s Skylight | Ross Stanley's Time is of the Essence: A tribute to Michael Brecker - also Live Streamed | With Paul Booth and Chris Allard | Doors open 7.30pm
Wed 16 June 2021
Colchester | Colchester Arts Centre | Re-opening concert with Chris Allard, Ross Stanley and Oli Hayhurst | 8pm
10 June 2021 23 August 2021
Manchester | Andre Canniere's Ghost Days | with Brigitte Beraha (voice), Tori Freestone (tenor saxophone), Rick Simpson (piano) and Tom Farmer (bass) | 7pm live + LiveStream

22 March 2021
London | Time is of the Essence: Ronnie Scott’s Live Stream | With Ross Stanley (organ), Paul Booth (tenor saxophone) and Chris Allard (guitar) | 8pm
6-8 April 2021
Online | NYoS Jazz BopCamp | with Jules Jackson (bass) and Steve Hamilton (piano)
2nd INARJ Conference 18th & 19th January 2021
(All times UTC +1)
Conference weblink: https://meet.jit.si/INARJ2021
Monday 18th January
10:00 - Welcome
Session 1 - 10:15-12:00
Slime mould improvisers: Knowledge through analogy
Chris Mapp (Birmingham City University)
The question of method: transcription and auto-ethnography.
Lee Griffiths (Birmingham City University)
Transdisciplinary methodologies of Artistic research in music improvisation
Case study
Jasna Jovicevic (Singidunum University- Belgrade)
Session 2 - 16:00-17:30
Live panel - Researching Self - navel-gazing gibberish or profound knowledge?
Presenters:
Vidar Schanche (UiS)
Corey Mwamba (BCU)
Chris Mapp (BCU)
Facilitators:
Per Zanussi (UiS)
Petter Frost Fadnes (UiS)
Tuesday 19th January
Session 3 - 10:00-12:00
Cueca, Tradition and Innovation
Danilo Rojas
Artistic Research in Jazz - Eight themes for undisciplinary practices
Chris Stover - Queensland Conservatorium. Griffith University
Artistic Research: An Evolving Methodology
Robert Burke - Monash University
Session 4 - 12:00-13:30
Live panel - Artistic Research in Jazz and Popular Music at the MA Level
Chair:
Michael Kahr
Contributors:
Lukas Aichinger
Aida Batista Böhm
Berthold Cvach
Ursula Erhart
Constanze Friedl
Gregor Fußenegger
Nikolaus Georgiades
Andreas Hackl
Alexandre Laloux
Aaron Steiner
Eva Maria Stöckler
Session 5 - 16:00-18:00
What the World Needs Now is Jazz
Monika Herzig - Indiana University
Lost Vocabulary Recovered: Applications for Practice and Pedagogy
Tom Williams (Academy of Contemporary Music) & Rich Perks (University of Kent)
Combining methods in improvisation research as a means of ensuring rigor
Una MacGlone - Royal Conservatoire of Scotland
Closing discussion and next steps - 18:00-18:30
Released 13th March, 2020, now available to buy
Read the review and interview on www.allaboutjazz.com
When a quartet of established, improvising musicians arrives on stage, there can be some expectation in our minds as to what might ensue. But in the case of live-recorded No Boundaries – with the combined acquired knowledge, intuition and invention of drummer/percussionist Andrew Bain, trumpeter/flugelhornist Peter Evans, alto saxophonist John O'Gallagher and electronics master Alex Bonney – we are prompted to explore spheres perhaps outside of our experience.
The final part in a trilogy of differentiated projects conceived by Andrew Bain (following 2015's 'Player Piano' concert in tribute to the late John Taylor, and then his 2017 Whirlwind release of original material, Embodied Hope), this immersive, continuous sequence of free improvisation was captured at the intimate listening venue of the MAC (Midlands Arts Centre) in Birmingham. "It evolved from a composition project I presented some time ago", explains Bain, Senior Lecturer in Jazz at Royal Birmingham Conservatoire. "That set, entitled 'Frontiers' – with Gavin Bryars, Percy Pursglove, Hans Koller and myself – became the catalyst for this new work, which is in stark contrast to the more controlled basis of my previous outputs. I've known and worked with Peter since the early noughties in New York; and John and Alex were also a perfect fit. Crucially, I'm challenging the idiomatic instrumental make-up of the jazz ensemble where conventional boundaries and comparisons are usually already set."
Also fundamental to the unfettered intent of this collaboration is the fact that the artists had never previously worked together as a quartet, nor was there any premeditated conversation or rehearsal. Among a traditional chordless environment of sax, trumpet and drums (minus piano and bass), Alex Bonney's real-time electronics sample, manipulate and restate live sounds from different sections of the performance, contributing to an arresting, reverberant arc of originality.
Bain's solid percussive set-up, with rock snare drum, informs shifting atmospheres which take us into galaxies beyond perceived jazz territory, firing our own imaginations. Here, asteroid whistles echo in hyperspace as haunting trumpet and sax evocations abound, accelerating frenetically across rolling, hollow drums. Fluttering valves and mouthpiece sputterings converse with three-dimensional electronic bleeps and agitated snare as O'Gallagher's chromatic alto continuously ascends and descends against the expansive maelstrom of Bain's kit. From a moment's repose, repeated solo horn riffs and searing electronics crescendo dramatically, swept along by profuse percussion until cavernous, cathedral-like spaces invite an intense rock-out.
As Andrew Bain reminds us, free improvisation is far from an alien concept, but possesses its own language, like bebop or other styles. "There's a lineage to free jazz, which didn't begin in the 1960s with Ornette Coleman and John Coltrane, but goes back at least as far as 1949 with Lennie Tristano's 'Intuition' recording. So we're talking some 70 years – a long time in jazz's centennial history, and in other musical forms, too. The scope of what we're doing can be vast, limitless, and is being created instantaneously, inspired by what has gone before. No Boundaries is liberating, exhilarating – and that challenge, for us all, is so important."
PERSONNEL
Andrew Bain - drums & percussion
Alex Bonney - electronics
Peter Evans - trumpet & flugel horn
John O'Gallagher - alto saxophone
ALBUM CREDITS
Recorded live at The Hexagon, Midlands Arts Centre, Birmingham with support from Birmingham City University (14/12/2017)
Recording engineer - Alex Killpartrick
Mixed by Alex Bonney, London
Mastered by Peter Beckmann at
Technologyworks, London
Produced by Andrew Bain
Executive Producer - Michael Janisch
Artwork by Dave Bush
Photo courtsy of NASA, ESA, J.Dalcanton (University of Washington, USA), B. E Williams (University of Washington, USA), L. C Johnson (University of Washington, USA), The PHAT Team and R. Gendler
Read the review and interview on www.allaboutjazz.com