Wednesday 1 April 2026, 7.30pm
Incredibly excited to welcome the great drummer / percussionist / composer, Mark Sanders to OTO for a three-day residency. Despite being responsible for a huge number of highlights at OTO over the years, this is the first time that we've devoted a residency to Mark's work and its long overdue! We're looking forward ot hosting him for three nights alongside a stacked line-up of incredible improvisers.
"I'm knocked out to be asked to present three days of music at Oto, its always a joy to play at the club, I've played concerts here with so many fantastic and legendary players since the club's inception.
It's truly a daunting prospect to choose who to play with as I'm very fortunate to have many colleagues here and from other countries, so it was very difficult to leave out so many friends.
So I decided to base this residency around new line ups that have only recently played once or twice, but not in London.
Many, many thanks to all the Oto staff and I look forward to presenting these line ups to the wonderful Oto audiences." – Mark Sanders
Mark has worked with many greats of the British, European and American free jazz improvised music scene including Roscoe Mitchell, Roswell Rudd, Evan Parker, John Butcher, Henry Grimes, Elaine Mitchener, Wadada Leo Smith, Myra Melford, Charles Gayle , Sirone and William Parker
He has also played with Jah Wobble, Harold Budd, Bill Laswell, Christian Marclay, International Contemporary Ensemble, Ilan Volkov and The BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra.
He is a member of many working groups including duos with Nicole Mitchell and Rhodri Davies, Neil Charles' 'Dark Days' with Cleveland Watkiss & Pat Thomas, 'Last Dream of the Morning' with John Butcher & John Edwards, 'Shifa' with Rachel Musson and Pat Thomas and 'Sarost' with Larry Stabbins & Paul Rogers.
As an educator he has taught improvisation at many universities around the country as a lecturer and guest tutor.
Mark has played concerts and festivals around the world and appears on over 220 CD and Vinyl releases.
Mark was a recipient of the Paul Hamlyn Award for Artists 2024
"Drop the needle on the first track — or any track for that matter — and the first thing one is bound to notice is the amazing percussion skills of Mark Sanders" – Peter Thelen... Exposé
"Mark is just incredible and immensely diverse, he is at the center of "Kwingyaw" and it is difficult to tell what he is doing to get some of these sounds." – Bruce L Gallenter, Downtown Music Gallery, NY
Adrian is most widely known for his work as a member of Portishead.
The past couple of years have found him producing Sorry for Domino and co-producing Ladan for Mute. He’s also working on a couple of solo albums.
Late summer 2022 he will be doing some live shows performing the “Arcadia” soundtrack composed with often collaborator Will Gregory in 2017 for the BFI film of the same name which was directed by Paul Wright.
Larry Stabbins is a contemporary of jazz pianist Keith Tippett and played in his legendary 50 piece orchestra Centipede as well as many other of Tippett’s projects over several decades in which he has worked with most of the giants of European free jazz and improvisation. He also played in the seminal pop group Weekend and was co-leader of Latin soul jazz band Working Week, writing what many consider the original acid jazz track, ‘Stella Marina’ with another legend, Jalal Nurridin of New York’s ‘The Last Poets’. - See more at: http://www.tru-thoughts.co.uk/artists/stonephace#sthash.3SMCAahi.dpuf
Neil Charles is one of the most in-demand musicians on the scene, with a huge array of credits to his name, including Jack DeJohnette, the Sun Ra Arkestra, Mingus Big Band, Jose James, Jerry Dammers, Courtney Pine, and Terence Blanchard. His own projects have included Zed U, with Shabaka Hutchings and Tom Skinner, and the more recent ensemble Dark Days, dealing with the work of James Baldwin. Most recently, he has been heard across the international scene with Gabriels. As well as being known as a bass player with a huge sound and immaculate sense of time, he is equally renowned as a producer, going by the alias Ben Marc.
"Bassist Neil Charles went flying, from the first moment filling the space with the sound of his mighty wings Henning Bolte," – Europe Jazz Media Chart
