So – some exciting news coming soon with a release date for my first solo piano record, ‘Song Singular’, on the Babel Label; and indeed, fresh from the mixing studio, of the third Ensemble record. In the meantime, please do check out the Live page for some more dates – a lot more to come later in the year, including with Louis Moholo-Moholo and the Convergence Quartet. In other news – I was very flattered to be mentioned in a far-flung part, in this article!

Very pleased to bring the attention to a new release. Recorded live in London in 2011, the Convergence Quartet – Slow and Steady. It’s on the Lithuanian-based NoBusiness label. You can buy at that link, or alternatively, I will be armed with copies very soon, so please do come and pick one up in person at a gig. At any rate – I’m really pleased with this record…I hope you enjoy it too!

For a little preview of some of the music, do click here!

Just a quick ‘heads-up’: the Ensemble is at Kings Place this Saturday evening. Tickets are available here. We would really love to see you there. I think the band is in an exciting place – which is a relief, I suppose, since it’s really not too long now until we record our third album (more soon on this). But for now: it would be great to see you on Saturday evening – please do book up and come along!

It’s a real honour to be a part of the new OTOroku imprint. The vinyl is really top quality stuff, and having heard the test pressings, I’m extremely excited to get my hands on the ‘real thing’, which features some wonderful design from Oliver Pitt.

You can now pre-order Spontaneous Combustion from the OTOroku website. And please do – we’re all very proud of the music.

A massive thank you is of course due to the audience who made the atmosphere so electric that night at Cafe Oto. So let’s do it again and sell out this sucker – as you can see, we’ll once again be partnering the very great Marshall Allen at the end of March. We performed with this quartet in Austria last year, and it was deeply inspiring to spend time and make music with Marshall to say the least…

All About Jazz were kind enough to interview me recently. I got together for a couple of hours with John Sharpe during the London Jazz Festival, and you can check out the end result here. John and I share many musical passions, and have hung out on various occasions, so it was really great to have the chance to do this with him.

For readers of Italian, there is also an extensive piece in the January Musica Jazz magazine; this is print only, however!

And it’s early days yet, so not many reviews in at this point, but there was a very complimentary review in this month’s Wire magazine of ‘Keep Your Heart Straight’…more as they appear (together with news of April/May tour dates with Bra Louis).

So – many apologies for the technological gremlins which have kept this website down now for the best part of three weeks. But – the important thing is that all is now well, and it’s all back!

Some very exciting things coming early on in 2013. Please do check the Live page for news of a first foray onto the European mainland for my Ensemble, this January (January also sees the trio at Cafe Oto, recording and performing with Dominic Lash’s quartet, concerts with Mulatu Astatke in Dublin and Glasgow, and an exciting concert with a Gail Brand-led group featuring Maggie Nichols, amongst others); for runs with Harris Eisenstadt and Nick Malcolm in February; for gigs with Decoy, Steve Davis’ Human, and the legendary Marshall Allen in March, not to mention the Ensemble at King’s Place; and gigs – including an album launch – with the very great Louis Moholo-Moholo in April…

I’m also very privileged to have been commissioned for a very special project by the BBC. We will record this (and perform it the night before at Cafe Oto – Tuesday February 26th) in February – more nearer the time.

Finally, it’s been an honour to feature (as a result of the last Ensemble album) in a number of critics’ ‘Best of 2012′ (and similar) lists. For example, there have been very kind mentions in The Guardian, El Pais, All About Jazz (from both John Sharpe and Eyal Hareuveni), at Dan Paton’s blog, and elsewhere. Keep Your Heart Straight, the duo album with Louis Moholo on Ogun, was also chosen by the Morning Star as an album of the year. On the subject of this latter album, it was fun to share some thoughts at the fantastic Destination: Out blog about Bra Louis’ music.

Looking forward, we’ll be recording the next Ensemble album in March. There is also a first solo piano album almost ready to go: that will be appearing in 2013 for sure. And lookout too for new albums from Decoy with Joe McPhee (very very soon out this one; and on OTO roku vinyl, no less) and the Convergence Quartet (on NoBusiness). Steve Davis’ Human will be appearing on CD in March; and later in the year, Dominic Lash’s quartet. And there’ll be other things too, which are slipping my mind…

Discography page now updated with a couple of recent things – not least, ‘Keep Your Heart Straight’ – the new duo album with Louis Moholo-Moholo and myself on Ogun! The physical copies now exist; so please do support the label where possible and buy direct. Of course, if that isn’t possible for whatever reason, it’s available through the usual outlets…

For a more immediate fix, World Routes on BBC Radio 3 is currently broadcasting the Mulatu Astatke appearance at a packed out Koko last week as part of the London Jazz Festival. We all really enjoyed the show; it felt good at the time for sure. Do check it out here if curious!

…very excited to say that the sextet broadcast is this evening on Jazz on 3 – BBC Radio 3 at 11pm. If that’s too late for you, then no problem – it’s on iPlayer for a week after broadcast. And if you enjoy it – or indeed if you don’t! – it’d be great to hear from you at the email address above.

First of all, a huge thank you to everyone who came out to Kings Place to catch the concerts on Friday. We had a blast, and really appreciated the support. The trio will be back – more soon.

Now though – please do mark your cards for September 24th. The sextet will featured in session on Radio 3’s Jazz on 3 show…I’m extremely excited by the music we put down, so please do check it out (and of course on iPlayer for the week following broadcast!)…