Geoff Simkins Trio : from left, Dave Green (bass), Nikki Iles (piano) and Geoff Simkins (alto sax).

Geoff Simkins Trio at Jazz Hastings

Jazz Hastings welcome the Geoff Simkins Trio to their February gig. John Donaldson describes the treat that lies in store.

Highly regarded jazz musicians Geoff Simkins, Nikki Iles and Dave Green, who will be appearing at the monthly Jazz Hastings session at the East Hastings Sea Angling Association on Tuesday 13 February, are old friends and collaborators who have been playing together for quite a while.

But it was only last summer that they released their first CD as a trio. It was called ‘in a quiet way’ [that’s right – no capitals] and received rapturous reviews. “The interplay among all three is a joy,” said The Guardian. A “sublime trio outing,” said London Jazz News. “The elegant, eloquent swinging music speaks for itself.”

Saxophonist Geoff Simkins has been a professional musician since 1977. He has appeared at clubs and concerts all over the UK, Europe and beyond, has played with a panoply of American jazz luminaries visiting Britain and has recorded CDs with UK tenor player Danny Moss and American trumpeters Billy Butterfield and Yank Lawson.

Over the years he has been much praised by the critics. “World class…. simply wonderful,”  said Digby Fairweather on Radio 3. “One of Britain’s finest and most inventive alto saxophonists,” wrote The Observer. “A master of the art of improvisation,” declared JazzUK.

He is also a highly respected teacher, running successful improvisation classes at the University of Sussex and tutoring at the Royal Academy of Music and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, amongst others.

Nikki Iles is a pianist and composer who studied jazz at the Leeds College of Music. She has played and recorded with a wide range of musicians and in 1996 won the John Dankworth Special Award at the BT British Jazz Awards.

Since then she has received a whole string of prize nominations, including four for the prestigious Paul Hamlyn Composition Award and two, in 2012 and 2014, for the Jazz Piano category of the British Jazz Awards.

Dave Green is a veteran jazz bass player whose earliest performances were with his childhood friend Charlie Watts in the late 1950s. He spent 18 years playing with Humphrey Lyttelton from 1965 to 1983 and also worked regularly with Stan Tracey.

He also found time to back a host of visiting US stars at Ronnie Scott’s, including Coleman Hawkins, Ben Webster, Zoot Sims, Roland Kirk, Buck Clayton and Sonny Rollins. He has also toured with the Charlie Watts Quintet to the USA, Brazil and Japan.

Geoff Simkins Trio Jazz Hastings, Tuesday 13 February, East Hastings Sea Angling Association (on the Stade behind the lifeboat station). Doors open 7.45pm for an 8.30 start, tickets £10 on the door.

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