gill
cook
Gill Cook
Born in Yorkshire Gill first started singing in school choirs. Through this she learnt the discipline of harmony and also discovered Bill Evans who she spent her teenage years listening to. By the age of 19 Gill was a vocalist with many bands in Scarborough taking up residencies in various Hotels. She worked with many local musicians including drummer Bob Scott who played in the film "Little Voice".
Since emerging on the London Jazz scene in 2001 Gill has worked with some of the UK's finest musicians at venues including Live on the Park, The Spice of Life, and the Ram Jam club in Kingston .
Gill recently made her debut at Ealing Jazz Festival in July 2007 and is guaranteed a return visit next year. She also performs regularly in restaurants and bars around the capital, as well as at numerous private functions. In 2003 Gill recorded her first CD "Sometime Ago" and her work over the years has featured Malcolm Edmonstone, Jeff Clyne, Barry Green, Winston Clifford, Steve Waterman , Nick Tomalin, Arnie Somogyi, Paul Cavaciuti, Tim Whitehead, Dave O'Higgins and many more.
Her new CD "Something Cool" is out now on Mainstem Records.
Steve Waterman
Steve Waterman is renowned as one of the top British jazz trumpet players both at home and on the international scene. Steve began his career while studying at the Trinity College of Music and since then has worked regularly on the British and European jazz scene.
Steve has a remarkable recording career, spanning the past 20 years, and has worked with a great variety of jazz artists worldwide.
"a delight to hear an accomplished technician & possessing a beautiful sound?" Crescendo magazine
steve@stevewaterman.co.uk
Tim Whitehead
"For my money, the finest tenor player in Britain today'' Andy Hamilton - Jazz Review
"Whitehead more than justified his growing reputation as one of Britain's most thoughtful composers and improvisers." Chris Parker - The Times
"Whitehead is one of the most creative, exciting and passionate saxophonists in Europe and also one of the finest small-group composers". Ian Carr - A Rough Guide
"Tim Whitehead is one of the finest contemporary British saxists, at least the equal of better-known players like Andy Sheppard and Courtney Pine." Andy Hamilton - Jazz on CD
"There are many fine tenor players on the current British scene but Tim Whitehead is undoubtedly one of the best we have." Peter Lund - Crescendo
"He is a prodigious tenor player whose graceful compositions always rise above the mere technicalities of the conservatoire... Amid the crowd of anonymous, garrulous and hard-edged tenor saxophonists, Tim Whitehead's music is marked by a sense of grace and economy." Clive Davis - The Times
www.timwhitehead.co.uk
Nick Tomalin
Nick is a graduate of Leeds College of Music and The Guildhall School of Music and Drama. He has worked in many of the most prestigious UK musical venues performing with his own ensembles and as part of other musicians projects. He is a long standing member of The John Bennet Big Band and has worked regularly with many leading jazz musicians including Jim Mullen, Don Weller and Stan Sulzman. He regularly leads jazz education workshops introducing children and young adults to the art of improvisation.
Paul Cavacuiti
Born in 1963 Paul Cavacuiti is an internationally renowned music educator and performer. A graduate of the Berklee College of Music in Boston, Paul has worked in a wide variety of educational contexts. He taught for many years at Westminster School in London, was Head of Percussion at the Musician's Institute (MI), London's leading contemporary music school, and was Head of Music at Dutchess Day School, an exclusive private school in New York. In addition, he is a highly successful private instructor in drum set, piano and voice. His teaching, both private and institutional, has covered all ages and levels, ranging from complete beginners to professionals.
As a drummer and pianist, he has played, toured and recorded with some of the top names in British and American jazz. His playing has been described as "inspired" (Jazz Journal International), "outstanding" and "virtuosic" (Musician Magazine), "formidable" (Chattanooga Free Press) and "one of the best jazz drummers in the UK" (Bath and West Times). He is also an accomplished composer whose music has been featured on radio and television. His most recent work, both as performer and composer, can be heard on David Gordon Trio's "Angel Feet", and with his own band, the Paul Cavaciuti Quartet's, "Francisco's Rhumba", which came out at the end of 2006.
Arnie Somogyi
Probably the UK's most unusually named bass player Arnie Somogyi has worked with a lot of famous musicians - Joey Calderazzo, Eddie Henderson, Claire Martin, Bobby Hutcherson, Steve Grossman, James Moody - to name drop but a few. Most recently he's featured on Richard Ashcroft's latest CD "Keys to the World" and as part of a stellar lineup on Chris Botti's "To Love Again".
He also has his own band "Ambulance' - "specialists in musical accidents and emergency". Before that he put together the eccentric, unwieldy and commercially challenging 10-piece band "Improvokation", which through its unique combination of jazz and European folk improvising traditions managed to alienate purist fans of both minority genres. However, it was probably the only band in the world to feature consecutive trombone and cimbalom solos - an accomplishment in itself.
He also teaches at Birmingham Conservatoire and on various jazz summer schools. He has made two BBC Radio 4 programmes - Cool Roots - a musical journey back to trace his ancestral roots - and the critically acclaimed
'Package Peculiar', a travelogue of visits to Draculaland in Transylvania and Stalinworld in Lithuania.
http://www.forgedrecords.com/