ARTISTS
Friday 18th Nov.
7:00pm- 9:30pm
Tickets in advance: £15 full / £12 concessions / £10 students and under 18s
Kate Williams Four + Three
Unitarian Church
Kate Williams - piano
Oli Hayhurst - double bass
Dave Ingamells - drums
John Garner - violin
Marie Schreer - violin
Miguel Angel Rodriguez - viola
Sergio Serra - cello
"Kate Williams has a quality rare among jazz composers: a musical vocabulary that's all her own."
Dave Gelly, The Observer
" A superbly lucid and inventive pianist and composer."
BBC Radio 2.
"..crisp, incisive and totally at one with the rhythmic ebb and flow." The Observer ★★★★
"…An album full of delights." Peter Bacon
Kate Williams' Four Plus Three is a new collaboration between acclaimed jazz pianist/composer Kate Williams and the Guastalla String Quartet.
Kate first met violinists John Garner and Marie Schreer, the co-leaders of the quartet, whilst working on Bill Evans And The Impressionists at the 2014 Guildhall Jazz Festival. The programme featured works by piano legend Bill Evans which Williams arranged for her jazz trio and full orchestra.
The repertoire for this new project includes material by Bill Evans, Cole Porter and A.C. Jobim as well as originals by Williams. The style of writing and arranging exploits the varied sound pallet of both string quartet and jazz trio, creating contrasts between the improvised and the notated, and between sustained textures and strong grooves. As with her previous arranging ventures, Kate is seeking a fully integrated approach (this is definitely not a jazz trio with string accompaniment!), as this line-up provides a wealth of interesting instrumental sonorities.
The band began a short UK tour in May 2016 with support from Arts Council England (see artist website for details). Both the CD and the live performances have received glowing reviews:
"The four is the Guastalla string quartet and the three, the jazz trio led by pianist and composer Kate Williams. As the daughter of the great classical guitarist, John Williams, she was brought up in a world where boundaries between musical genres were always fluid, and that is certainly the case here. There is nothing forced or stilted in the combination. The trio plays with genuine swing; the quartet freely deploys its own natural dynamics. Of all the jazz-classical blends I have heard recently this is certainly the most convincing and enjoyable. And Kate Williams is a very good jazz pianist anyway – crisp, incisive and totally at one with the rhythmic ebb and flow."
Dave Gelly, The Observer, 12 June 2016 ★★★★
"Her arrangements – of mainly her own compositions but also of jazz standards – intertwine the Three and Four in creative and often innovatively different ways, not only from track to track but even within individual pieces. And there’s not a cliché to be heard…An album full of delights."
Peter Bacon, The Jazz Breakfast, 17th May 2016
"…Saturday’s performance was truly compelling. In the intimate setting of the Red Lion, the glorious richness of the strings enveloped the listener, blending superbly with the warmth of Kate’s Bill Evans-inspired piano and the subtle drive of Hayhurst and Ingamells. It was one of those rare concerts you wished would not end.
The influence of Bill Evans ran like a thread through the performance, including his compositions B minor Waltz and Walking Up, but Kate’s own creations Eleven Tonal, with its unusual harmonic twists, and Storm Before Calm, featuring stabbing staccato strings and swirling piano arpeggios, were enormously impressive. There was a beautiful cello solo from Sergio Serra on Antonio Carlos Jobim’s Portrait In Black And White, and perfect pizzicato melody work from violinists John Garner and Marie Schreer plus viola player Miguel Angel Rodriguez Olivera on Walking Up, and expressive solo bass from Hayhurst on B minor Waltz. Glorious music."
John Watson, The Jazz Breakfast, 22nd May 2016
