Chris Allard Qt With Special Guest Charlie Wood at Colchester Arts Centre Jazz Club

Described by the legendary Pat Martino as “a real guitar player”, and by Jamie Cullum as "one of the great guitarists in this country", Chris Allard cites Pat Metheny, Radiohead and Miles Davis among his influences, and while firmly rooted in the jazz tradition, his group encompasses elements of rock, World, classical, blues and folk.

A former member of the National Youth Jazz Orchestra, Chris has worked with a vast and varied number of artists - from Jacqui Dankworth, Gwyneth Herbert, Dame Cleo Laine, Sir John Dankworth, Carleen Anderson, Claire Martin and Jamie Cullum, to Madeline Bell, Il Divo, Gwilym Simcock, the BBC Big Band, Ken Peplowski and his Special Guest, Charlie Wood....

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Described by the legendary Pat Martino as “a real guitar player”, and by Jamie Cullum as "one of the great guitarists in this country", Chris Allard cites Pat Metheny, Radiohead and Miles Davis among his influences, and while firmly rooted in the jazz tradition, his group encompasses elements of rock, World, classical, blues and folk.

A former member of the National Youth Jazz Orchestra, Chris has worked with a vast and varied number of artists - from Jacqui Dankworth, Gwyneth Herbert, Dame Cleo Laine, Sir John Dankworth, Carleen Anderson, Claire Martin and Jamie Cullum, to Madeline Bell, Il Divo, Gwilym Simcock, the BBC Big Band, Ken Peplowski and his Special Guest, Charlie Wood.

A musician whose playing is both lyrical and understated, Chris will be performing material from his latest critically acclaimed album, Invisible Landscape, plus his previous releases, Jupiter Island and Open Spaces - both of which garnered a plethora of plaudits in Jazzwise, Musician and Guitarist. There'll also be a few standards thrown in for good measure.

An accomplished and prolific singer/songwriter, Chris’ special guest, Charlie Wood, has received stellar reviews for his original releases, including Southbound, Who I Am, and Flutter and Wow. He’s also becoming recognised as a talented and original arranger, with recent scores performed by the RTÉ Concert Orchestra, the Brodsky Quartet, the Back To Basie big band, and numerous others.

A musician whose eclectic musical style incorporates elements of jazz, blues, soul, traditional R&B and popular music, Charlie embodies a hepcat worldliness and bar room empathy, with the style and wisdom that gives it heftiness, while his lean, unblemished voice has the high, lonesome timbre of a dedicated bluesman.

A singer who’s as soulful as his songwriting is smart and a wicked piano player, Charlie's composition, Promised Land, won the Jazz category in the 2015 US Songwriters’ Competition.

When first reviewing one of Charlie's gigs, Jazz Times commented: “Remember the first time you heard Dylan, or Springsteen, or Costello, or Waits? Charlie Wood delivers that same jolt.”

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