Latest News

CHRIS BISCOE PROFILES QUARTET
Chris Biscoe and Tony Kofi – reeds;
Larry Bartley - bass; Stu Butterfield – drums

Touring in early 2012 with support from Jazz Services and the Performing Rights Society, the Chris Biscoe Profiles Quartet is playing four gigs around the country and will be joined on a further two concerts by Henry Lowther and Kate Williams to complete the Mingus Profiles Sextet.

The Sextet was created especially for the 2011 Southbank Meltdown Festival curated by Ray Davies, and plays arrangements of Mingus classics such as Goodbye Pork Pie Hat, Fable of Faubus Pussy Cat Dues and Boogie Stop Shuffle as well as less familiar works like Duke’s Choice and The Man Who Never Sleeps. As you might guess from these titles and the band name we emphasise Mingus’s many portraits of friends, lovers, political enemies, fellow musicians and one potty-trained cat.
See Diary page for dates.

On January 18th (Way Out West) and 20th (Chichester) the Quartet will be joined by Henry Lowther (trumpet and flugelhorn) and Kate Williams (piano)

---

BIOGRAPHIES
Chris Biscoe – alto sax and alto clarinet: has been featured in the bands of many top jazz composers, including George Westbrook, Chris McGregor and Hermeto Pascoal. His quartet exploring the music of Eric Dolphy includes Larry Bartley and Stu Butterfield from Mingus Moves, and has made a highly regarded CD.

Tony Kofi – alto and tenor sax:  a member of the World Saxophone Quartet and the Jamaaladeen Tacuma group, and recently recorded with Ornette Coleman. He has appeared with Andrew Hill, David Murray and Sam Rivers, is a member of Byron Wallen's group Indigo, and has worked extensively with Chris Biscoe in Grand Union. In 2008 he was BBC Jazz Awards Instrumentalist of the Year, and his album All is Know was a double award winner in 2005 (BBC and Parliamentary Jazz Awards).

Larry Bartley – bass: Larry is a leading light of the contemporary UK jazz scene, featured with the bands of Byron Wallen, Ingrid Laubrock and Jason Yarde, and leads his own Septet.

Stu Butterfield – drums:  works with the Henry Lowther/Jim Mullen Quartet and The Strayhorn Project, and partners Chris, Larry and Tony Kofi in the Chris Biscoe Quartet, exploring the music of Eric Dolphy.

Henry Lowther – trumpet and flugelhorn: a UK jazz legend who has appeared with everyone from Kenny Wheeler, Mike Gibbs and Stan Tracey to Gil Evans and Alexis Korner, Henry leads Still Waters.

Kate Williams – piano: is a Young Jazz Musician of the Year prizewinner and leads her own Trio, Quartet and Quintet and Septet, as well as being much in demand by other bandleaders. Recently she has been performing in a duo with Bobby Wellins.

---

PROFILES OF MINGUS – Trio TR585.
more information about the CD

 

 

---

Tim Cumming, The Independent, June 12th 2010, Going Out: Jazz, world, blues and folk. Album of the week:
…flows with all the force of the originals, the ensemble broiling somewhere between whitewater
and wildfire…   

---

Kenny Mathieson,The Scotsman, June 8th 2010       ****
Biscoe's sparkling arrangements and splendid playing vividly capture Mingus's sprawling, rumbustious energy, while giving the music a fresh twist.

---

John Fordham, Guardian May 21st 2010                      ****
Saxophonist and clarinetist Chris Biscoe has been on the British scene for a long time, but he's made the territory between postbop and free-jazz entirely his own, and his sophisticated tributes to the jazz giants are always distinctive.

---

Mike Butler: Dyverse Music
This is classical music in the jazz idiom and similarly open to fresh interpretation and exploration. Sheer genius. 

---

Brian Morton Jazz Journal August 2010
It illustrates all the things that modern jazz could have been if Charles Mingus had been recognised as a father figure instead of marginalised as a bad uncle.

---

Chris Parker, The Times
‘Uplifting, exuberant, rousing yet consistently intelligent music: Mingus would undoubtedly have approved’.

---

Chris Biscoe is also on MySpace:
http://www.myspace.com/chrisbiscoe

"The Baritone Saxophone, Chris Biscoe" 1990. Painting by Kate Westbrook © www.westbrookjazz.co.uk 117 x 153cm oil on canvas. Click on image for larger view.

CHRIS BISCOE BIOGRAPHICAL REFERENCES.