Chris Biscoe / saxophones
Roger Turner / drums, percussion
John Edwards / double bass

Liam Noble / piano (solo)

Chris Biscoe and Roger Turner played their first duo gig in 1967 and have played together many times since then, but rarely played in public. Their appearance at Cafe OTO forms part of a tour that sees them working with local musicians in cities around England: John Pope in Newcastle, Corey Mwamba in Derby, Mick Beck in Sheffield, Pat Thomas in Oxford, John Edwards and Liam Noble in London.

Each performance will be a unique event with a diverse range of instrumentations. While the backgrounds of all the musicians ensures that jazz will never be far from the mix, the aim is to approach each gig with minds open to the spirit of pure improvisation.

CHRIS BISCOE / alto and soprano sax, alto clarinet

Chris Biscoe’s career has included work with many leading composers such as George Russell, Mike Westbrook, Hermeto Pascoal, Chris McGregor, collaborations as diverse as those with Alan Barnes and Evan Parker, bebop, freebop, hardbop, fusion, contemporary, improv and some jazz. Currently leading the Profiles Quartet with Tony Kofi, Disorder at the Border with Ben Davis and members of Chaos collective, and several other projects.

"Biscoe must be one of the most underrated figures in UK jazz, his unassuming, learned demeanour belying a soloist of passionate (and unfailingly inventive) intensity, whether he’s playing alto or alto clarinet" - London Jazz News

www.chrisbiscoe.co.uk/

ROGER TURNER / drums, percussion

Roger Turner is applauded for his precision and speed since he entered the London improvising scene in the 1970s. His restricted drum kit is extended by found objects to create a sound comparable to no other. He’s played with Evan Parker, Cecil Taylor, Otomo Yoshihide, Shelley Hirsch, Joëlle Léandre, Keith Rowe...

“Turner [used] brushes to create a wild spattering and scattering of sound from cymbal and snare, with sudden explosions from tom and kick drums. At times in this early passage he sounded like rain on a caravan roof, at others like a tool box in the back of a moving van” - Molloy Woodcraft, The Guardian

JOHN EDWARDS / bass

John Edwards' staggering range of techniques and boundless musical imagination have redefined the possibility of the double bass and dramatically expanded its role, whether playing solo or with others. Equally at home with fragile acoustic improvisation or driving free jazz, Edwards is quite deservedly one of the most in demand players of today, and has propelled encounters with Evan Parker, Roscoe Mitchell, Matthew Shipp, Wadada Leo Smith and many more.

"There are those round these parts who posit that free improvisation is a cerebral, sexless art, arguments that are annihilated by the rough structural and timbral shag of this music." - Philip Clark, The Wire

LIAM NOBLE

Liam Noble is one of Britain's most open-minded and imaginative jazz performers and composers, a consummate pianist whose work ranges from reinterpretations of Dave Brubeck to electronic song-cycles based on Japanese death poetry and inspired by Arto Lindsay and Aphex Twin to the free improvisation of Sleepthief (with Ingrid Laubrock and Tom Rainey).




This event has been supported by The Jazz Services National Touring Support Scheme.