Tours: Graeme Stephen Septet
Thu 25th Feb 2010 - Sun 7th Mar 2010
Guitarist Graeme Stephen joins with some of the most creative and in-demand players on the UK folk and jazz scenes for this Tune Up tour.
Born in Aberdeen and based in Edinburgh, Stephen is a sensitive and inventive player, influenced by the pre-bop guitar style of Charlie Christian as well as contemporary masters like Bill Frisell. He has won a number of awards including the Jazz Services Promoters Choice Award. In 2008 he was chosen for the Serious/PRS Take 5 initiative. Stephen currently performs with his own Trio, as well the free-improvisation outfit Newt, and is a regular guest with the eclectic Fraser Fifield band. His Sextet was selected for the Jazz Services Promoters' Choice Award 2006 and played at the London Jazz Festival and the Manchester Jazz Festival. It has since expanded to a Septet with the addition of London based cellist Ben Davis of Mercury Music Prize nominees Basquiat Strings. They are joined by saxophonist Phil Bancroft, violinist Chris Stout, Brazillian bassist Mario Caribe and Scottish Jazz Drummer of the Year Stuart Ritchie. Alto saxophonist Martin Kershaw joins the group on the dates between 25th and 27th of March and Fraser Fifield takes over on soprano saxophone and Bulgarian kaval from 1st to the 7th of March.
Stephen's compositions for the Septet reflect the diversity of the musicians, drawing on jazz, Celtic and World music influences. On this tour, they will be performing, alongside shorter pieces, Stephen's new suite 'Vantage-Points', based on his impressions of different parts of Scotland. The suite takes you on a journey to places like Calanish and Ardnamurchan, concluding in a flight – by ostrich – over the Scottish landscape.
"Guitarist Graeme Stephen has emerged as one the Scottish jazz scene's most capable, exportable and distinctive talents. His sextet is a beacon of original, ambitious and brilliantly realised music."
Herald Review 2009
Stephens Music speaks loudly of ambition, imagination, nous and harmonic adventure yet teemed with the sort of tuneful realization that swells the heart"
Rob Adams- Jazzwise
