The Musicians
Billy Jenkins' Songs Of Praise
Billy Jenkins - guitar, shouting and singing
Oren Marshall - tuba
Gail Brand - trombone
Nathaniel Facey - alto saxophone
Dylan Bates - violin
Charles Hayward - drums
BILLY JENKINS - guitar, shouting and singing
"American readers will be baffled by him; but he is, along with the Princess Royal and Walthamstow dog stadium, one of our national treasures." Penguin Guide To Jazz On CD See full biography
LISTEN: myspace.com/billyjenkinssongsofpraise
OREN MARSHALL - tuba
Oren took up the tuba at the age of fourteen after several years of studying the oboe and recorder. By the time he was twenty he had played with every major orchestra in London as well as with the Bolshoi Soloists, the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Canadian Ballet.
During the 80's Oren played regularly with Loose Tubes, London Brass, the Jazz Warriors, Microgroove and Mervyn Africa. Oren has also travelled extensively, especially in Africa, collaborating with the Pan African Orchestra, the Ghana Dance Ensemble, Kakatsitsi, Rasha, Abdelkadur Saadoun as well as with Chandru from India and Afro-shock from Italy.
In March 2001, Oren was part of Chris Batchelor and Steve Buckley's quintet 'Big Air' along with drummer Jim Black and pianist Myra Melford and has collaborated with such free improv alumni as Derek Bailey, Steve Noble and Keith Tippet as well as Paul Dunmall, Davey Williams, Dave Wickens, Franz Hautzinger, Mark Sanders, Paul Rutherford and Adam Brett. Oren has been twice nominated for a BBC innovation in Jazz award (2002, 2003) as well as being asked to take part in 'unlikely duets' with Steve Buckley.
Oren first performed with Billy Jenkins in an improvising trio led by drummer Steve Noble in 1990, and was part of a Jenkins written and directed 13 piece Austro/London project in Vienna '95.
"The Jimi Hendrix of the tuba." (John Fordham)
"Oren Marshall....a virtuoso and no doubt about it." (The Guardian)
"A solo of such ingenuity that the audience laughed for joy....he plays his instrument with the agility of a piccolo player." (London Evening Standard)
TOP
GAIL BRAND - trombone
Trombonist for 25 years. Active on international improvised music scene for 10 years. Current projects include a free quartet 'Lunge ' with Mark Sanders, Pat Thomas & Phil Durrant (2 critically successful CDs); with US vocal improviser Morgan Guberman (current release of acclaimed CD 'Ballgames & Crazy'); appears solo (solo CD in pipeline) & performs with many international improvisers. Commissioned composer and numerous radio broadcasts.
Former EC member of Musicians Union and current MU activist. As well as trombonist, Gail works as a qualified Music Therapist. Gail has run workshops on improvisation for the London Musicians; Collective and assisted at the Jazz Summer School at Trefforest. She is the improvisation tutor at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, London on the Music Therapy course.
Gail was first directed by Billy Jenkins with the Middlesex University Jazz Course Big Band in 1996 and toured and broadcast on BBC R3 with the guitarist's 'Suburbia' ensemble in 2002.
TOP
NATHANIEL FACEY - alto saxophone
Born in London in 1983 to Jamaican parents, Nathaniel began his music studies at the age of 14. He had always wanted to play the alto saxophone because it was the 'coolest instrument' at school but, at first, had to content himself with the clarinet. At 15, his mother gave him a handful of Charlie Parker CDs, together with a copy of sax supremo, Courtney Pine's album, Modern Day Jazz Stories and a copy of a magazine feature on the saxophonist. From then on he was hooked.
He and childhood friend, Shaney Forbes (current drummer for Tomorrow's Warriors) shared a passion for music - reggae, funk, gospel and, more recently, hip-hop - and while their contemporaries cruised the nightclubs, these young musicians would take the opportunity to practise and jam together at home.
In 2001 Nathaniel commenced a Bmus degree at London's Royal Academy of Music and, with Shaney, became a regular participant in the Tomorrow's Warriors jazz jam sessions at The Jazz Café, London. Nathaniel's influences range from Parker to Coltrane, Ornette Coleman to Sonny Rollins, and Wayne Shorter to Branford Marsalis, the latter of whom he considers "the most incredible improviser alive".
In 2002, he was invited to become a permanent member of the core band and, since then, has become a leading force in the musical direction of the band. He has found work with the likes of Afrobeat star, Dele Sosemi, gospel artist Ron Kenoli, and award-winning Jazz Jamaica All Stars.
Nathaniel worked under Billy whilst studying at the Royal Academy of Music in 2005 and performed professionally with him in London that year. He also co-leads (with pianist Arthur Lea) a quartet playing the music of Billy Jenkins who headlined a day of Jenkins music at The Vortex as part of the '05 London Jazz Festival.
REVIEW: "danger, danger, high-voltage." The Press, 10.10.06
TOP
DYLAN BATES - violin
Born in Lewisham in 1973, Dylan took up the violin at an early age, followed by the piano, and tapdancing.
At school, he played in various orchestras, one of which he led on a tour of the Baltic states, and sang madrigals and oratorios. Outside school, he played in various improv and free jazz groups, and composed reams of ridiculous music. After a tour of Italy with James Allen's Girls' School, he went to Nottingham to "study" music and visual art. While there he formed a quintet, The Supreme Pancake, and joined the A Band (on trumpet and bowed FIRE EXIT sign as well as the violin).
Dylan's association with Billy Jenkins dates back to the '80s, when he would listen to Sounds Like Bromley on his walkman while strolling through that borough. In '97 he auditioned for the Blues Collective and has been a member ever since.
In '98 he assembled a new band called Waiting On Dwarfs, playing his own compositions, and more recently he has formed a Morse code trio, Dot Dash Duck, and an improv quartet, Shelf Unit. He is currently writing for a bassoon quartet, Boco. Other bands with which he plays include Bitten By A Monkey, Builders Crack and the Flea-Pit Orchestra.
"Bates is one of the most exciting figures on the jazz scene." - Tom Barlow, Jazzwise.
"The Paganini of Penge." - John Fordham, The Guardian.
TOP
CHARLES HAYWARD - drumkit
Charles Hayward (born 1952) is a British drummer and was the leader of the experimental rock group This Heat. He was also a member of Mal Dean's Amazing Band, Radar Favourites, Dolphin Logic, and gigged with Phil Manzanera, appearing with Manzanera's Quiet Sun project and Gong.
In 1976, Hayward and fellow Radar Favourites and Dophin Logic member, Charles Bullen began practising with bassist Gareth Williams under the name This Heat. They began to experiment with tape loops, found sounds and keyboards on several sessions (recorded from 1976 to 1978, but not released until 1979). Finally, in 1979, This Heat released their self-titled debut album. Williams left just after its release, and 1981's Deceit marked the final new album from This Heat.
While Bullen began working as a studio engineer, Hayward did sessions for Lora Logic, the Raincoats and Everything But the Girl before forming Camberwell Now with bassist Trefor Goronwy and tape manipulator Stephen Rickard. The trio released several albums through the Swiss Recommended label, but Hayward began to pursue a solo career by the early 1990s.
Signed to Sub Rosa, he debuted with My Secret Alphabet in 1993. In 1998, he joined Massacre with Fred Frith and Bill Laswell.
NEW CD: Billy Jenkins' Songs Of Praise LIVE!
TOP
All photos copyright Tony Bartholomew.
Billy Jenkins' photo - LIVE at 'The Shed Comes To Town', 7 June 2003.
Gail Brand, Oren Marshall, Nathaniel Facey, Charles Hayward - LIVE at The Wardrobe, Leeds, 11 October 2006.
Copyright © The Shed 2007 | Homebuild Dynamic Website by Pi Internet