This duo of Louis Moholo-Moholo and Alexander Hawkins will take place at Brighton Unitarian Church on Saturday 2nd November. Tickets are available online here: http://www.wegottickets.com/event/242638

Louis Moholo-Moholo: drums

Louis Moholo-Moholo was born in Cape Town, South Africa, in 1940. After early success with his band The Chordettes, he went on to become the drummer for the now-legendary Blue Notes. This band arrived in England in 1965, and was to have a profound influence on the jazz and improvised music scenes not only in that country, but also in Europe more generally.

In the mid-1960s, Moholo-Moholo joined Chris McGregor’s newly formed Brotherhood of Breath, a big band which stunned audiences around Europe with their own highly individual sound. Moholo-Moholo also led one of the most exciting groups of the time – Spirits Rejoice, with Evan Parker, Kenny Wheeler and Keith Tippett among its great players.

During the eighties Louis toured America with Peter Brötzmann’s trio, and continued to work throughout Europe leading his own groups and developing many musical partnerships, including a duo with pianist Cecil Taylor in Berlin.

He returned to live in South Africa in September 2005, but still occasionally makes the trip to Europe to play… all the more reason to catch him on this night!

Alexander Hawkins: piano

Alexander Hawkins plays with vast array of jazz pioneers – names such as Evan Parker, Joe McPhee, Marshall Allen and Mulatu Astatke.

As a band leader and co-leader his main outfits are his Ensemble, The Convergence Quartet, and Decoy; in the latter he plays Hammond Organ in such as way as to “redefine the words ‘shock and awe’”, according to Jazzwise.

“Hawkins seems to get better every time I see him live; every solo he took tonight was a journey, or, if you prefer, a well-told short story. They would begin as jazz explorations, or even boogie-woogie-flavoured romps, before whipping themselves up to a frenzy of clanging clusters, rolling glissandi, and fast-paced, dissonant runs, like a dancer tripping over their feet as the speed of their performance spins out of control. “ David Grundy, Streams of Expression

Here are Moholo-Moholo and Hawkins playing at The Sage in Gateshead in April this year:

Plus

West Hill Blast Quartet

Ron Caines: tenor, alto and soprano sax
Gus Garside: double bass
Andy Pyne: drums
Dan Spicer: bamboo saxophone, shenai, trumpet

West Hill Blast Quartet formed a couple of years back, united by a love fiery free jazz.

Ron Caines was a founder member of Prog-psych group East of Eden and performs now with Broken Star. Gus Garside plays with string trio Arc and duo Static Memories, and is instrumental in running Safehouse. Andy Pyne plays in The Black Neck Band Of The Common Loon, Medicine & Duty and Kellar, and this year partook in a duo with Thurston Moore. Dan Spicer is a member of the improvising sextet Bolide and duo Mandarin Splashback, and performs solo spoken word/poetry.

Take a listen…

Will Miles: flute, guitar
Adam Bushell: vibraphone, percussion
Keisuke Matsui: guitar and amplified objects
Roshi Nasehi: vocals

Interleaving composition and improvisation, and generally confounding expectation, Baby have developed a unique sound and will play this show as a fourpiece. Check out www.babbby.com to listen to their oeuvre.

“Rather good” – Ed Pinsent, Resonance FM

Plus:

Wild Orchids: photography by Tim Dowling
Kevin Moore: electronics
Z*qhygoem: guitar, electronics
Al Strachan: cornet, electronics
Gregg McKella: electronics

Tim Dowling is fascinated by the wild orchids that can be found on the South Downs, and has been photographing them for a number of years. The flowers themselves are often tiny, but blown up on screen they reveal themselves to be truly exotic and distinctly alien-like lifeforms. Thus Tim thought them to be deserving of a soundtrack of their own, and has brought in improvisors from Safehouse and beyond to get serenading.

Plus:

The Wildcard Quartet
At the end of every Safehouse open session four members are picked at random to form a one-off quartet to play at the show at the end of the month. This is them.