Jean Toussaint Quintet at Bristol Beacon

Top booking of the autumn programme sees the visit of Grammy Award winner Jean Toussaint; who first came to prominence when he joined Art Blakey’s ‘Jazz Messengers’ in 1982, after studying at Berklee College of Music in Boston, USA.
His blistering technique and lyrical sound has graced many great bands from Wynton Marsalis, Gil Evans and various Julian Joseph bands to his own groups.

Jean has released 12 critically acclaimed albums as a leader, including 2018’s ‘Brother Raymond’, which saw him win Best Instrumentalist at the 2019 Jazz FM Awards; as well as top 10 lists in The Telegraph, Jazzwise, The Sunday Times, The Guardian and Jazz in Europe. ...

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Top booking of the autumn programme sees the visit of Grammy Award winner Jean Toussaint; who first came to prominence when he joined Art Blakey’s ‘Jazz Messengers’ in 1982, after studying at Berklee College of Music in Boston, USA.
His blistering technique and lyrical sound has graced many great bands from Wynton Marsalis, Gil Evans and various Julian Joseph bands to his own groups.

Jean has released 12 critically acclaimed albums as a leader, including 2018’s ‘Brother Raymond’, which saw him win Best Instrumentalist at the 2019 Jazz FM Awards; as well as top 10 lists in The Telegraph, Jazzwise, The Sunday Times, The Guardian and Jazz in Europe.

Jean will be featuring a collection of new compositions, written or rearranged during lockdown, in tribute to his siblings and people and places important in his life, called “Songs for Sisters, Brothers and others”.
A highly respected educator as well as performer, Jean has taught at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, Trinity College of Music and the Birmingham Conservatory.

The band also features; Winner of British Jazz Awards ‘Best Trumpet of 2017’ Freddie Gavita; who is a fearless improviser; “a soloist gifted with fluent authority; a tone ranging from the warmly conversational to the eloquently strident.”
A graduate of the Royal Academy and the National Youth Jazz Orchestra, Freddie has been soloist with the BBC Big Band, three times at the BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall

Pianist and composer Jonathan Gee has been one of the UK’s top jazz pianists for over three decades and was seen to good effect in the last season, as co-founder of The Monk Liberation front with Tony Kofi. That gig was outstanding with Gee shining at the piano

Mutale Chashi is a bassist and composer who draws influences from his Zambian heritage; Manchester upbringing and cosmopolitan London living. His immersion into the London Jazz scene was catapulted by joining ‘Tomorrow’s Warriors’ under the tutelage of Gary Crosby.

Shane Forbes is best known for his membership of multi award winning British Jazz group Empirical.

Top class stuff tonight. Expect exciting music from a saxophonist of international stature:
“…Toussaint displays a beautiful, incisive tone that you can only compare to liquid crystal...”; Time Out

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