Saturday, 23 February 2019 Time: 4pm
NB: This concert takes place at the Great Hall, Liverpool Hope University Creative Campus, 17 Shaw Street, Liverpool L6 1HP
Trevor Watts – saxophone
Stephen Grew – piano
Since the 1960's, saxophonist Trevor Watts has been at the forefront of many innovations within Jazz/World and Improvised Musical areas, both as a saxophone player, percussionist and composer. He is the only surviving founder member of the hugely influential Spontaneous Music Ensemble, and has through the years formed bands and collaborated with musicians as diverse as Don Cherry, Archie Shepp, Steve Lacy, Kent Carter, Rashied Ali, Steve Swallow, Bobby Bradford, Cyro Baptista and Stan Tracey. Currently his main artistic projects include a long-standing duo with pianist Veryan Weston, and work with the group Moire Music Drum Orchestra. He has performed internationally with both of these projects. Major Jazz Festival appearances include Womad, Glastonbury, San Francisco Jazz Festival, Monterey Jazz Festival, Freedom of the Plaza Festival July 4th in Washington DC, Singapore Arts Festival, Beijing & Shanghai Jazz Festivals, Berlin Jazz Fest, London Jazz Fest, Cervantino Festival, Mexico, New Zealand Festival of Arts, Wangaratta and Darling Harbour Festivals in Australia and many others. His latest solo saxophone CD Veracity was released to great acclaim in 2014.
Pianist Stephen Grew is one of Europe's most dedicated and imaginative pianists. His playing, free from the constraints of traditional harmonic, melodic and rhythmic structures, is a virtuosic tour -de -force of dynamic extremes, percussive effects and spontaneous atonal flourishes, by turn surprising, witty and breath-taking. In the mid-90s following a background in the visual and ceramic artists he decided to devote his full attention to music-making, producing tapes of solo piano music and promoting and supporting improvised music. In 1995 he formed his band Grew Trio which went on to tour Europe extensively. He has gone on to collaborate with some of the leading figures in free-improvised music including Pat Thomas, Paul Hession, Keith Tippett, Evan Parker and Clive Bell amongst many others.