Guitarmen Peter Oxley, left, and Nick Meier.

Guitar duo back in Hastings

The Jazz Hastings session on Tuesday 12 March brings a welcome return for two of the best guitarists around. Pete Oxley and Nicolas Meier both have huge international reputations as individual artists, but together they reach new heights as the Oxley-Meier Guitar Project, says Julian Norridge.

One national newspaper critic said of their recent album The Colours of Time, “When it comes to empathy, this duet of guitar virtuosi come close to perfection.”

Expect a dazzling display of contemporary fare, ranging from Turkish panache through soundscapes of Latin America to English pastoralism. Hear it played on nylon string, steel string, electric, 12-string, fretless, slide, guitar-synth, glissentar guitars and more!

​For their live gigs, the Oxley-Meier Guitar Project aim to entertain by playing with a spontaneity and an intuitive interplay between them that keeps them fresh and fired up from gig to gig. So expect the unexpected!

From Paris to UK

A graduate of Leeds Jazz College, Suffolk-born Peter Oxley is began his musical career in Paris in the mid 1980s before relocating to the UK in 1997.  In 2003, he formed his own touring and recording band, Curious Paradise. To date he has released 14 critically acclaimed CDs which feature his own original compositions.

Nicolas Meier was born in Switzerland and studied at that country’s prestigious Conservatoire de Fribourg before winning a scholarship to Boston’s illustrious Berklee College of Music. He has now been based in the UK for some years.

Drawing on a love of Turkish, Eastern and Middle Eastern music, flamenco, tango and more – all mixed with jazz – he has carved out a reputation as one of the UK’s most original and talented guitarists.

Nick’s catholic musical taste even extends as far as rock and heavy metal – so much so that he caught the attention of rock guitar legend Jeff Beck who made him a mainstay of the Jeff Beck Group, taking him on two world tours during the course of the last three years.

Pete and Nick first teamed up in 2015 to release the album Chasing Tales, which received many four-star reviews. Their latest album, The Colours of Time, is their most ambitious project to date, a double album with one disc in duo format and the other featuring a quartet with bass and drums.

Oxley/Meier Guitar Project Jazz Hastings, Tuesday 12 March, East Hastings Sea Angling Association (on the Stade behind the lifeboat station). Doors open 7.45pm for 8.30 start, tickets £10 on the door.

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