Ivo Neame with his quartet at Ronnie Scott’s.

Ivo Neame Quartet at Jazz Hastings October session

Jazz Hastings October session features Ivo Neame, one of an elite handful of conservatory-educated British jazz musician/composers who are redefining the sound of British jazz. He’ll be playing with his quartet on Tuesday 3 October, as Julian Norridge reports.

A graduate of the Royal College of Music, Ivo was a featured member of the 2011 MOBO-Award winners Kairos 4tet, as well as Phronesis (whose 2010 album Alive was recognized by both Jazzwise and MOJO magazines as Album of the Year).

A multi-instrumentalist, he possesses an enviable technical facility on both piano and saxophone as well as a distinctive style, characterized by a rhythmic complexity that is pensively meandering one moment and dazzling with exhilarating bursts of speed the next.

As a composer, to quote The Guardian, he has a “…knack for spry and surprising postbop writing,” and building upon that reputation, his latest album Glimpses of Truth was nominated for a 2021 Ivors Award for jazz composition, receiving glowing reviews.

Jazzwise Magazine said of it: “This wide-screen triumph by Ivo Neame is one of the standouts of the pandemic era”. London Jazz News declared that Glimpses of Truth “…features some of the most engaging jazz you’ll hear this year”.

In addition to leading his own bands, Ivo features in several of European jazz’s most forward-looking groups. He regularly performs at jazz festivals worldwide, collaborating with ensembles as diverse as the Frankfurt Radio Big Band and the London Sinfonietta. He is also an associate of the Royal Academy of Music and professor of Jazz Piano at the Guildhall School of Music.

For the Jazz Hastings session he will be playing with his usual quartet, which features some of the most highly regarded musicians on the UK jazz scene. On tenor sax is George Crowley, who, alongside his jazz commitments, has worked with artists such as Boy George and Culture Club.

On drums is James Maddren, who has performed with musicians such as Enemy, Wynton Marsalis and Seamus Blake. And on bass is multi-award-winning Tom Farmer, who has worked with Empirical and many other diverse ensembles.

Ivo Neame Quartet Jazz Hastings, Tuesday 3 October, East Hastings Sea Angling Association (on the Stade behind the lifeboat station). Doors open 7.45pm for 8.30 start, tickets £15 on the door.

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