This weekend saw the exciting first performance of the new ‘Songs of the Ridings’ commission tour at the Scarborough Jazz Festival.

Lance Liddle of the bebop spoken here blog had this to say about the gig:

Commissioned by Creative North Yorkshire and Scarborough Jazz Festival this was a bold and ambitious work composed and arranged by leader Anderson. Is compositional ideas are good and his tenor sound warm although on Cold Spell it was appropriately – cool! Kari Bleivik’s vocal lines added a Winstonian feel to the ensembles.

On bass John Marley delivered a strong harmonic foundation propelled along by Gardner’s drums whilst, on piano, Sheriff, proved, as he has done at previous Scarborough Festival, what an inventive player he is.

A fine set and yet…

…on a descriptive suite such as this I felt that the leader should have spoken more about the background or, if time was prohibitive, to have provided programme notes such as Tommy Evans did in the evening.

That aside, it was musically sound.

(Lance Liddle, bebop spoken here: Scarborough Jazz Festival – Sunday Afternoon, 26/09/11)

To see the full article, follow this link: http://lance-bebopspokenhere.blogspot.com/2011/09/scarborough-jazz-festival-sunday.html

We’re looking forward to the next three gigs of the tour – next up is Pave Bar in Hull, this Sunday the 2nd Oct. Also in the pipeline is Matt n’ Phreds, Manchester (11th Oct) and 7arts Centre, Leeds (16th Oct).

The Matt Anderson Quartet sampler CD was reviewed by Ron Burnett for the York Press in this week’s ‘Jazz Notes.’ This is what he said:

Saxophonist Matt Anderson has a new quartet album of his own with John Marley, Aubin Vanns (guitar) and Sam Gardner (drums), who are all on Kate’s CD.

Aubin’s mellow, Metheny-esque electric guitar in place of piano creates a cool, spacy dynamic, occasionally booted up a notch by Gardner’s drums in a compelling programme of original compositions. Ralph’s Cross has elegiac saxophone over gently meandering rhythm, guitar chords with a hint of atmospheric reverb and Marley’s full-toned bass.

Cold Spell is a warmly propulsive and rewarding four-part conversation between the instruments. The Vanns composition, Free Into Edinburgh, is a boppy, 6/8 piece and the guitarist stretches out in an articulate solo.

The Matt Anderson 6-track album can be streamed or downloaded free or at your own price at mattandersonquartet.bandcamp.com

(Ron Burnett, York Press Music News and Reviews – Jazz Notes, Fri 2nd September 2011)

To read the full Jazz Notes article, follow this link: http://www.yorkpress.co.uk/leisure/music/9230598.Jazz_notes/

Just received the image file for the new flyers designed by Oli Bentley at Split.co.uk, also with a great landscape photograph by Jon Stanley Austin. Will be getting them off to venues soon when the printing is complete.