POWERHOUSE DOUBLE TENOR QUARTET

Joe Wright
Josh Arcoleo
Nick Jurd
Jonathan Silk

“A wild, muscular delight.”

 - London Jazz News

FORJ is an exciting quartet led by drummer Jonathan Silk, featuring the critically acclaimed and long time friend and collaborator, Nick Jurd on double bass alongside the incredible musicianship of two of London’s finest improvisers, Joe Wright and Josh Arcoleo on tenor saxophones. This band promises high octane grooves and expansive improvisation across a whole series of original compositions. 

Alex Merritt is a jazz saxophonist, composer, educator and producer from Cambridge who lives in Bristol. Alex studied with Mike Williams, Julian Siegel, Hans Koller and Mike Gibbs at the Birmingham Conservatoire, where he graduated with 1st class hons in 2009. He found the experience very formative, and it sparked his interest in composition and the integration of techniques, and harmonic devices, from contemporary classical music into jazz.

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Since this time Alex has released two well received albums for the Spanish label Fresh Sound New Talent- Common Threads (2022), Mind-Ear Ladder (2022) as well as his debut recording, ‘Anatta’, on F-ire Records (2015). This album, featuring Jeff Williams, Sam Lasserson and John Turville was critically- praised as “a promising debut, of striking quality” by the Guardian’s John Fordham on its release and was followed by a successful UK tour in 2016. Alex has also been successfully awarded ACE funding for tours with leading UK and European musicians such as the German pianist Pablo Held (2019) and Steve Fishwick, with whom Alex toured Mind-Ear-Ladder’ on a 9 date UK tour in 2022. These tours saw Alex performing at venues such as Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club, Pizza Express Jazz Club and The Vortex amongst others.

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Further collaborations have seen Alex performing with veteran American guitarist John Stowell (in 2023/2024), Italian drummer Antonio Fusco (2024) as well as top UK musicians Jason Rebello, Iain Ballamy, Dave Smith, Elliot Galvin, Jeremy Stacey, Nick Malcolm and Rebecca Nash, with whom Alex is presently working on a new duo album to be released in 2026.

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Interested in building networks of like minded musicians internationally, Alex had a unique honor to produce and curate a 30th Anniversary album for Fresh Sound New Talent in 2022. This commission from the labels founder Jordi Pujol resulted in ‘Common Threads’; an album that required Alex to build on his abilities to choreograph a large-scale international that featured many leading young voices in European jazz, including Tom Ollendorff, Alex Hitchcock and Adele Sauros. Alex hopes to build on the skills he learnt from this project to seek opportunities to amplify a diverse range of musical personalities from within the UK scene and more widely.

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Alex enjoys a great balance between his performing/ composing work, his educational work at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, family life, his private teaching practice and gig co-curation for the Fringe In The Round in Clifton, Bristol.

FEATURED IN

Mind-Ear-Ladder, The Jazz Man 4* Review

Eddie Myer, Jazz Views M-E-L Review

Fresh Sound Website

Mind-Ear-Ladder feature in London Jazz News

Anatta 3* review, The Guardian

Anatta 5* review, Adrian Pallant, AP reviews

Alex Merritt review of Matsabumi Kikuchi ‘Hanamichi: The Final Studio Recording’, for London Jazz News

**** Ian Mann

“The writing is consistently intelligent, sophisticated and varied, very much within the jazz tradition but subtly pushing at its boundaries”.

Brian Payne, Jazz Journal

“The group played a superb set of straight-ahead and contemporary originals inspired by Strayhorn, Stanley Cowell, Pablo Held and others”.

*** John Fordham, the Guardian

“A promising jazz debut of striking quality”.

**** Stephen Graham, Marlbank News

“It’s one of the best UK jazz recordings I’ve heard this year”.

***** Adrian Pallant, AP reviews

“Merritt’s warm, dry, Getzian fluency is a joy, whether intertwining with Turville’s mysterious, unpredictable chordal shifts or bubbling with controlled fervour....This feels like just the beginning… and what a beginning”.

Double bill from Brum’s new rising stars - final year students at Royal Birmingham Conservatoire Macy Wright (bass) and Ben Shankland (piano) bring their ensembles to Digbeth Jazz.

Improvised electronic Drum and Bass. Not featuring Blueman Nelson.

This gig marks the launch of ‘In Those Remote Stars’, the latest album by pianist/composer Olly Chalk. Assembling five of the most unique emerging voices in improvised music, this bold and cinematic album combines intricate song-writing with deeply imaginative improvising. Releasing on Resonant Postcards, ‘In Those Remote Stars’ is innovative, other-worldly and warmly heartfelt.

Olly Chalk is an improvising pianist and composer based in South-East London. A distinctive and forward-thinking voice in contemporary British improvised music, he combines bold imagination with a deeply expressive approach to the piano. His debut album Scathed Citizens (2019), featuring New York saxophonist John O’Gallagher, received critical acclaim and toured widely across the UK, including performances at Symphony Hall, Birmingham and Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool. Since then, Chalk has developed a range of projects that explore new sonic territory, releasing self-produced albums that blend ethereal textures, voice, brass and synths. 

He co-leads the trio Dornbusch/Chalk/Glaser, collaborates with guitarist Daniel Kemshell, and performs regularly with artists such as Olivia Murphy and Sam Eastmond. His forthcoming release In Those Remote Stars (Resonant Postcards, 2026) presents cinematic, emotionally charged compositions, while his quartet Houndsbleat continues to explore the extremes of free improvisation. Chalk also teaches Jazz Piano at Trinity Laban and the Centre for Young Musicians, London.

“Versatile and disciplined” – Jazzwise

“Ferocious and original” – London Jazz News
“A virtuoso pianist with a compelling and unique musical vision” – John O’Gallagher

“Super creative and different” – John Escreet

“Channeling the spirit of Cecil Taylor” – The Jazz Mann

Olly Chalk - piano/compositions

Ruta Sipola - flute 

Daniel Kemshell - guitar

Hugo Piper - bass

Corrie Dick - drums

IDEASTHESIA is a quintet project bringing together rising star improvisers led by saxophonist / composer George Garford.

George Garford - Alto Saxophone / Composer / Bandleader

Daniel Kemshell - Guitar

Olly Chalk - Piano

Huw V Williams - Double Bass

Josh Walker-Martin - Drums

Exploring the intersections between contemporary jazz and free improvisation, the quintet has built a reputation for high-energy performances and an imaginative band sound.

Garford's writing seeks to balance the ensemble’s collective freedom with a detailed personal aesthetic; navigating tightly woven structures, expansive textural landscapes and unfolding narratives with a sense of urgency.

Red Kite is a pan-European Danish / English / Italian quintet that sits at the intersection of jazz, classical, and electronic music. The quintet is led by Danish pianist Esben Tjalve and features bassist Jasper Høiby, guitarist Hannes Riepler, trumpeter Fulvio Sigurta, and drummer Marc Michel.

Red Kite plays acoustic modern jazz with some electronic elements that help create a cinematic undertone in the music.

The quintet creates colorful instrumentation with trumpet, guitar, piano, and keys. The strong rhythm section consisting of Jasper Høiby (Phronesis, Planet B) and Marc Michel (Planet B, John Hollenbeck) provides a strong underlying groove that creates a solid base for both composition and improvisation.

The moods vary from cinematic noir ballads to groovy car chase scenarios, creating a cinematic universe reminiscent of Miles Davis and Arve Henriksen.

Red Kite has previously released the album Theory of Colours, which was recognized with an invitation to play the European showcase at Jazzahead in Bremen in 2021. The quintet has a new album coming out on the German label Berthold Records this fall. 

"Pleasingly melodic but also deeply rhythmic, easily digestible yet subtly challenging, and just full of good ideas allied to exemplary playing." The Jazz Mann

"... every track contains an abundance of beauty and originality, with serene melodies and subtle arrangements which give plenty of scope for improvisation." Peter Jones, London Jazz News.

LIAM BRENNAN RETURNS, BRINGING HIS 4 HORN FRONTLINE ENSEMBLE

ABACUS is a chord-less sextet, featuring musicians from London and Birmingham. The idea for the group was formed back in 2018 after listening to Omer Avital’s Asking No Permission which featured a 4-horn frontline. The music aims to combine music from the small group and Big Band tradition. They have recently recorded in August last year and will be on in the UK in autumn this year.

Liam Brennan is a Saxophonist and Composer currently based in Norway. He performs primarily on Alto Saxophone, but also on Soprano, Tenor, Flute and Clarinet. Liam has been fortunate to be mentored by composers Mike Gibbs and Ed Puddick, as well as being taught by Mike Williams and world-renowned New York Saxophonist John ‘O’ Gallagher. He has performed at outstanding performance spaces, such as at the Siena Jazz Festival, The Thailand International Jazz Conference, and Cheltenham Jazz Festival. Other recent performing highlights include Pizza Express, Soho, London, the Karamel Club, Symphony Hall and Birmingham Jazz Festival.

QOW TRIO is a unique multi-generational jazz band featuring award-winning young firebrand saxophonist Riley Stone-Lonergan, storied British Jazz legend Spike Wells on drums, and multi-genre bassist and bandleader Eddie Myer. The band arose out of a chance meeting at the Verdict Jazz Club in Brighton and, despite the three musicians’ differences in age, it soon became clear that they had much in common - a love of the lineage of big-toned tenor players matched with an appreciation for the wide-open possibilities of the chordless trio, a deep appreciation of the tradition alongside a fearless appetite for exploration, a commitment to the timeless values of melody and swing mixed with a willingness to take risks - all underpinned with a mission to make the music communicate directly to the listener. Spike's time as house drummer at Ronnie Scott's backing many American stars, his tours with Stan Getz and Roland Kirk, together with his years in the seminal British bands of Tubby Hayes, Ronnie Scott, Peter King and Bobby Wellins, give the band deep roots. His fearlessly forward-looking commitment to freedom and swing meet Riley’s contemporary chops and devotion to melody and soul, while Eddie’s bass acts as anchor, providing the centre around which the musical conversation is free to dance at will. Their debut album QOW TRIO was released on Ubuntu Music in 2020. It gained excellent reviews in national press, and extensive radio play and Spotify playlisting, and they’ve spent the intervening time with tours, festival appearances and club dates. The band have grown and developed as a unit: the levels of interplay and empathy are stronger than ever: their second album The Hold Up was released in 2023 and described by BBC Music Magazine as ‘a stunning achievement’. The new release ‘The Rule Of Three’ is due out on Whirlwind Records in January 2026 - also the occasion of Spike’s 80th birthday and a remarkable 60 year career at the forefront of jazz. It marks another leap forward for the band, incorporating fresh original compositions and expanding further out into freedom.

FIERY INTERNATIONAL COLLABORATION

Experimental Scottish Folk Duo

Norman Willmore and Corrie Dick

Birmingham Jazz Orchestra play the music of critically acclaimed composer Olivia Murphy.

"outstanding … fresh, original contemporary music that certainly deserves to be given a much wider audience"

Jazzwise

Olivia Murphy has quickly established herself as an innovative, creative and colourful artist working in large ensemble composition and has developed her own distinct and personal voice. Her music fuses contemporary composition and song-writing with elements of free improvisation, while always keeping story-telling at its core, hailed as “some of the most exciting large ensemble jazz emerging from the London scene today” (UK Jazz News).

Since being awarded the prestigious Peter Whittingham Jazz Development Award in 2021, Murphy has established and performed with her Jazz Orchestra across the UK, from Birmingham Symphony Hall, to Vortex Jazz Club (London) to Cheltenham Jazz Festival. The Orchestra recorded their debut studio album with support from the Help Musicians’ Next Level Award in 2024. The album (expected release in early 2026) features Murphy’s 4-piece Sister Suite and her Eddie Harvey Award-winning arrangement of You Are There.

In March 2025, Murphy premiered Open World Suite, a fifty-minute, eight-movement jazz orchestra saga inspired by world-building in video games, performed by her jazz orchestra at a sold-out Pizza Express Jazz Club (London). Murphy swiftly followed this in May 2025 with Siren Cycle, a sixty-minute, ten-movement suite, inspired by folklore and Greek myth. The work followed an original long form poem also penned by Murphy, which featured four vocalists, strings, woodwinds, brass and rhythm section. Siren Cycle was commissioned by Tony Dudley-Evans for the Cheltenham Jazz Festival, and was celebrated as “an undoubted triumph” (The Jazz Mann) and “A wildly ambitious odyssey… no more impressive event over the whole weekend” (UK Jazz News). Murphy hopes to record both of these ambitious large ensemble works with her Orchestra over the next year.

In 2024, Olivia became a Resident Musical Director for the National Youth Jazz Orchestra, following a successful period as composer-in-residence in 2020-22. As resident MD, she leads weekly rehearsals, mentors young musicians and conducts national performances with the flagship Emerging Professional Band.

Olivia is regularly commissioned and in 2022 was honoured to be invited by the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire to re-arrange the Mike Gibbs' piece The Time Has Come to celebrate the legendary and influential composer's 85th birthday. She has also been commissioned by the ABRSM (2024), Sonorite Saxophone Quartet (2023), University of Birmingham (2021), and Around The Houses Festival (2021).

Olivia loves to be collaborative and diverse in her compositional work, from her 2024 piece Europa, written for GOKUMI large ensemble and improvising vocal chorus, to her commissioned solo vibraphone work (for percussionist Gloria Yehilevsky), to lyrical song-writing for her award-winning Moonrise Trio (clarinet, voice and piano).