Tuesday 18 July 2017, 7.30pm
Stagger Lee Wonders is a group fusing Black Radical Poetry and Prose by the likes of James Baldwin, Langston Hughes, Amiri Baraka with Free Jazz featuring Cleveland Watkiss, Debbie Sanders, Rowland Sutherland, Robert Mitchell, Neil Charles and Mark Sanders
Jazz Vocalist of the Year & Mobo Nominated: Cleveland Watkiss 2017
Internationally renowned vocalist won the London Jazz Award for Best Vocalist in 2010, and was voted Wire/Guardian Jazz Awards best vocalist for three consecutive years.
Watkiss was born in Hackney, East London, to Jamaican parents. Watkiss was one of the co-founders of the vastly influential Jazz Warriors big band. His vocals can be heard on their debut album, Out of Many People.
Watkiss has performed with a diverse range of artists from around the world, including: The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Carlinos Brown, Wynton Marsalis, Bob Dylan, Thurston Moore, Art Blakey, Abdullah Ibrahim, Stevie Wonder, Keith Richards, Bheki Mseleku, Fabio & Grooverider, William Parker, the James Taylor Quartet, Sly & Robbie, Nigel Kennedy, Robbie Williams, Joe Cocker, The Who, George Martin, Julian Joseph, Black Top, the London Chamber Orchestra, the BBC Orchestra, Cassandra Wilson, Louis Moholo, and the London Community Gospel Choir, Hamid Drake, & Project 23, Goldie. More recently, demonstrating great versatility, Cleveland was cast as the starring role in Julian Joseph’s, two groundbreaking jazz operas, Bridgetower and Shadowball, to considerable acclaim.
In June last year he performed with vibraphonist Orphy Robinson at Freedom: The Art of Improvisation Festival at The Vortex, performing their project Duke Joint. Also with a project London-Chicago Vibration in Nov’ at the London Jazz Festival, a 50th anniversary tribute to the Chicago-based Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) led by multi-percussionist Orphy Robinson and an all-star band of UK-based improvisers including legendary drummer Louis Moholo vibist Corey Mwamba and saxophonist Jason Yarde.
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
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
Rowland is widely regarded as one of the finest and most versatile flautists in Britain, he has played with many successful highly regarded musicians, groups and orchestras from around the world
Debbie Sanders as a singer has toured and recorded with a various bands such as Chapter & Verse and Skylab, as well as doing vocal work for ads and tv. She moved into storytelling, writing and performing songs for children, and has had the good fortune of working some great musicians such as Matty Skylab, Mark Sanders, Paul Rogers, Neil Metcalfe, Dean Broderick and Oren Marshall.
Robert Mitchell is an award winning pianist, composer, bandleader, teacher, and poet. He has released 13 albums, and has leads the bands Epiphany 3 and TRUE THINK. His latest release in 2024 is a solo piano improvisation ep - A Study (In The Key Of Now) on 577 Records (NYC). He has worked with (amongst many) - Billy Harper, Phil Ranelin, Steve Coleman, Courtney Pine, Julien Lourau, Dayme Arocena, Alicia Olatuja, Bournemouth Symphony Chorus, Ty, Shirley Smart, Orphy Robinson, Basement Jaxx, Matana Roberts, Jhelisa Anderson, Soweto Kinch, Empirical and Norma Winstone. He has won the Hamlyn Award for Composition, A Broadcast Award (as MD on Jazz 625 Live BBC4) and has composed commissions for the London Sinfonietta and Jazz South. His large scale work Invocation was performed at the QEH in 2014 with the BSC, Goldsmith Big String, Panacea and combined youth chorus. Robert is a Piano Professor at the Guildhall School Of Music & Drama, YMM and a mentor at Black Lives In Music. Robert is a Steinway Artist. His second collection of poems - City Of Sanctuary - was released in 2023 (on Common Tone Press - Seattle). He is an Artist-In-Residence at Morley College.
'There are two poems by Mr. Mitchell included in the liner notes, both of which show him to be a wonderfully thoughtful, articulate and probing poet of the highest order.' – Bruce Lee Gallanter, Downtown Music Gallery NYC
