Gwilym Simcock's Tribute to Jaco Pastorius at 606 Club

A multi-award winning pianist, Gwilym is unquestionably one of the finest musicians of his generation. Fluent and highly inventive his powerful piano playing adds class to any group that he’s in. He includes work with the likes of Bill Bruford, Kyle Eastwood, Kenny Wheeler and Lee Konitz on a dazzling CV and it’s a testament to his remarkable abilities that he has already won the Perrier, BBC Jazz and British Jazz Rising Star Awards and is a Radio 3 “New Generation Artist” (the first jazz musician to receive this accolade). He was voted “Jazz Musician of the Year” at the 2007 Parliamentary Jazz Awards and been nominated for two more BBC Jazz Awards...

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A multi-award winning pianist, Gwilym is unquestionably one of the finest musicians of his generation. Fluent and highly inventive his powerful piano playing adds class to any group that he’s in. He includes work with the likes of Bill Bruford, Kyle Eastwood, Kenny Wheeler and Lee Konitz on a dazzling CV and it’s a testament to his remarkable abilities that he has already won the Perrier, BBC Jazz and British Jazz Rising Star Awards and is a Radio 3 “New Generation Artist” (the first jazz musician to receive this accolade). He was voted “Jazz Musician of the Year” at the 2007 Parliamentary Jazz Awards and been nominated for two more BBC Jazz Awards. You get the idea – he’s very, very good! Not content with being a great player Gwilym also has a burgeoning career as a composer, including the highly acclaimed live televised performance (BBC 2) of his Jazz/Contemporary Classical piece “Progressions” with the BBC Concert Orchestra as part of the 2008 BBC Proms season. In 2011 his recording “Good Days at Schloss Elmau” received a Mercury Award and his most recent appearances at the 606 – with Lighthouse Trio and the Impossible Gentlemen – were major events on the 606 calendar. Now established as an international artist of considerable standing, Chick Corea described Gwilym as “A creative genius”, he is rightly considered to be one of the most exciting talents to emerge from the UK in recent years. Gwilym’s performance this evening is a reprise of a similar programme that received rave reviews when it debuted last year, a tribute to the extraordinary bass player, composer and producer Jaco Pastorius. Jaco’s contribution to the bass lexicon cannot be overstated; from his first recordings with Pat Metheny to his later work with Weather Report and Joni Mitchell, he simply took the instrument to another level, a re-imagining of what the electric bass could be. That same vivid, fervent intensity and intelligence runs through Jaco’s own compositions, from “Continuum” to “Teen Town” to “Liberty City”, and it is no surprise whatsoever that, although he died in tragic circumstances in 1987 when he was only 35, his stature as an artist is as powerful and compelling as ever. It is against this backdrop that Gwilym chose Jaco as the subject of this tribute performance. To stand the challenge of the undertaking alongside him, Gwilym picked as his allies two musicians who are held in the highest of regard on the British jazz scene, bassist Laurence Cottle and drummer James Maddren. Laurence leads his own “Portrait of Jaco” Big Band project and in a diverse career spanning some decades (Laurence was a regular at the 606 Club in its original location on Kings Road), has worked with a range of artists across a wide spectrum of musical styles. Featured with numerous high profile jazz artists (Bill Bruford, Tim Garland, Nigel Hitchcock, Jason Rebello, Jim Mullen, Gareth Williams) as well as with hard rock, prog, Groove and pop bands (Black Sabbath, Alan Parsons, Seal) he is also a formidable composer and arranger in his own right, with dozens of credits to his name, writing music for TV programmes such as Third Rock from the Sun, Friends and the Oprah Winfrey show. Drummer James Maddren, who although graduating from the Royal Academy of Music a mere five years ago (receiving the ‘Principal’s Award for Outstanding Scholarship’), has already earned a place in the premier league of jazz players while working with Ivo Neame, Seamus Blake, Phronesis, Martin Speake, Ant Law, Nathaniel Facey and of course, Gwilym Simcock. James played on the Mercury Award-nominated CD “Golden” by the Kit Downes Trio, and it is certain that is the just the first stage of what will prove to be an enduring and celebrated career.

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