The Dan Banks Quintet features Roberto Manzin (sax), Paul Higgs (trumpet), José Canha (double bass), Josh Law (drums), and Dan Banks (piano/bandleader). The ensemble is remindful of the classic Blue Note sound of Horace Silver, Lee Morgan, Hank Mobley, while also containing a flavour of Post-bop reminiscent of the Kyle Eastwood Quintet and Christian McBride's 'Inside Straight'.
The group released their first album, Two In a Box, in 2017 and their second, Simulated Cities, in 2018.
Sonifications is a new project featuring Trevor Taylor (drums & percussion) and José Canha (double bass) and explores the nexus between free-jazz and sonification (that is the process of re-perceptualising data as sound). In this project, we use a selection of sonifications as non-normative moderators (that is, in place of a score or conductor) to provide a nominal constraint to our freely improvised performances. If that wasn't elaborate enough, the data used to generate the sonifications is drawn from various compelling lines of evidence for anthropogenic climate change, such as sea-level rises, atmospheric carbon dioxide levels, ocean acidification, and many others. As artists and musicians, this project is an opportunity for us to mediate and express our solicitude and anger at the profound inaction from governments across the world to tackle, and oftentimes simply acknowledge the existence of anthropogenic climate change.
Excitingly, this project has a release scheduled for 2019, Sonifications: The Anthropocene Epoch, on FMR records of a CD and DVD containing two hours worth of performance and documentation.
The Luminos Quartet is a new project for 2019 and features Josh Ison (sax), José Canha (double bass), Dan Banks (piano), and Trevor Taylor (drums). The quartet explores the intersection between freely improvised music and free-jazz, utilising the full range of sonic possibilities, and in so doing producing a kaleidoscope of moods and soundscapes, with moments of gentle delicacy and sublimity to flashes of sheer luminosity and incendiary energy. The resultant music is organic, experiential, and highly interactive, providing the listener with a highly expansive and profoundly moving musical experience.
Excitingly, the ensemble has recorded an album which will be released on FMR in July 2019.
But for now, you can hear a little snippet below!
Solar and Changing States are the debut album and EP of Essex based jazz-funk group Solar, and feature some of the finest jazz musicians Essex has to offer: Alex Hearn (guitar), Ben Hearn (bass), and Joshua Law (drums).
The group transverse original compositions from Dan, Alex Hearn and Ben Hearn, alongside classic jazz-funk repertoire. Their soundscape evokes jazz-funk masters such as Mike Stern, The Yellowjackets, The Brecker Brothers, and many others.