STEVE NOBLE RESIDENCY (LOCALS): MATINEE - Steve Noble / Alex Ward / Alex Bonney / Oren Marshall (quartet)

No Longer Available

Delighted to host a three-day resdiency with one of the all-time great improvising drummers, Steve Noble! A fearless and constantly inventive improviser, Steve's super-precise, ultra-propulsive and hyper-detailed playing has galvanized encounters with Derek Bailey, Matthew Shipp, Ishmael Wadada Leo Smith, Stephen O'Malley, Joe McPhee, Alex Ward, Rhodri Davies and many, many more.

"Originally planned for June 2020 I am very pleased that this is happening-and am delighted to be able to play with such great musicians First time duets with NiNo/MiNo and TiNo and a chance to present two new groups of mine-SOS and 4tet. And to start-a solo and the duo ' the both'(I first met Pat T back in 78 in Oxford).
Roll on!"
- Steve Noble

Steve Noble

Steve Noble is London's leading drummer, a fearless and constantly inventive improviser whose super-precise, ultra-propulsive and hyper-detailed playing has galvanized encounters with Derek Bailey, Matthew Shipp, Ishmael Wadada Leo Smith, Stephen O'Malley, Joe McPhee, Alex Ward, Rhodri Davies and many, many more.

In the early eighties, Noble played with the Nigerian master drummer Elkan Ogunde, Rip Rig and Panic, Brion Gysin and the Bow Gamelan Ensemble, before going on to work with the pianist Alex Maguire and with Derek Bailey (including Company Weeks 1987, 89 and 90). He was featured in the Bailey's excellent TV series on Improvisation for Channel 4 based on his book ‘Improvisation; its nature and practise’. He has toured and performed throughout Europe, Africa and America and currently leads the groups N.E.W (with John Edwards and Alex Ward) and DECOY (with John Edwards and Alexander Hawkins).

Alex Ward

Alex Ward is a composer, improviser, and performing musician, working primarily with clarinet and guitar. His involvement in freely improvised music dates back to 1986, when he met the guitarist Derek Bailey. He subsequently took part regularly in Bailey's Company events, and has gone on to become a major figure in British improvised music.

His current work includes the avant-rock duo Dead Days Beyond Help in which he plays guitar, sings and co-writes the material; various groups which perform his compositions-for-improvisers including Forebrace, the Alex Ward Quintet/Sextet, and the Item series of ensembles (the first of which, Item 10, debuted at Cafe Oto in September 2017); and improvising collaborations both regular and ad-hoc with musicians including Steve Noble, Dominic Lash, Kay Grant, Joe Morris and Weasel Walter. Besides his own groups and improvisational work, he also performs in ensembles including the Duck Baker Trio/Quartet, Thurston Moore’s recent multi-guitar projects Galaxies and New Noise Guitar Explorations, and Charles Bullen and Charles Hayward’s This Is Not This Heat. He brings a unique energy and inventiveness to all these projects, elevating them far above the ordinary and injecting them with a thrilling sense of danger and possibility. Much of his work is documented on the label Copepod, which he co-runs with Luke Barlow.

"...guitarist Alex Ward [is] a compulsively creative polymath... a reliably unpredictable axe-hero for collaborators of all backgrounds." Stewart Lee, The Sunday Times Review

Alex Bonney

Alex Bonney is a trumpeter, electronic musician and recording/mix engineer and producer based in London.

He leads the Alex Bonney Quartet, is a member of Leverton Fox, light.box, BABs, Golden Age of Steam, The Olie Brice Quintet, and performs solo with electronics and in a variety of other improvising ensembles. When not performing Alex works with a variety of artists producing and engineering music for leading jazz, improvised and contemporary music record labels including ECM.

Oren Marshell

Oren Marshall is a pioneering player of acoustic tuba and electric tuba who, crossing between classical, jazz, improvised and world music, has collaborated with the likes of Derek Bailey, Charlie Haden, Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, Moondog, Radiohead, Hermeto Pascoal, The Pan-African Orchestra and the London Philharmonic.

He has played with every major orchestra in London as well as with the Bolshoi Theatre Soloists, the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Canadian Ballet. As a member of London Brass (whom he joined in 1987) he has made numerous recordings, toured worldwide several times, played 6 Proms concerts and performed for The Queen, Prince Charles, the German Chancellor, the President of China and The Pope.
Amongst the many Duos Oren has played are performances with Jazz pianist John Taylor, New York Beatboxer Adam Matta, UK Beatboxers Shlomo and Hobbit, Prepared-Piano player Hauschka, Percussionist Evelyn Glennie and multi award-winning vocalist, Bobby Mcferrin.
As a solo artist, Oren has played all over the world and his ground-breaking solo work lead to multiple nominations for the BBC Innovation in Jazz Award.

He has also shared the stage with artists such as Gil Scott Heron, Roy Ayers, Moby, Vinicio Caposella, Murcoff, Tomasz Stanko and Sleepytime Gorilla Museum. He leads and writes for the Charming Transport Band, bringing together master musicians from Ghana and Nigeria and innovators from London’s jazz and improvised music scenes. Oren is currently Head of Brass Studies at Trinity Laban Conservatoire, London and teaches on the Leadership course at the Guildhall School of Music and on the Jazz course at the Royal Academy of Music.