"Visions of Miles" with the Colin Towns' Mask Orchestra, Support: The Ronnie Scotts All Stars Friday 30th September - Saturday 1st October

London born pianist, composer and arranger Colin Towns here leads his fabulous Mask Orchestra. Hailed as one of the most dynamic and original ensembles in European jazz, the Mask Orchestra features some of the finest players in British jazz. Towns, who has worked with the likes of Michael Brecker, Norma Winstone, Guy Barker and Sting, brings a unique vision to all that he does drawing on jazz fusion, film music and of course the inspiration of Gil Evans to create stunning new arrangements of classic material. Tonight’s very special concert features arrangements of music from Miles Davis legendary electric period.

‘VISIONS OF MILES’

This programme arranged by Colin Towns

celebrates the music of the electric period of Miles Davis

“richly varied, musically demanding and deeply satisfying…stunning”

The Guardian – live at Ronnie Scott’s 2010

 

“Colin Towns the hero of the hour”

The Evening Standard – live at Ronnie Scott’s 2010

 

ALBUM QUOTES

 “Towns is a brilliant deployer of a big jazz band’s textural variety and raw power, and he combines it with the movie-composer’s sense of drama”

The Guardian

 

“Towns delivers dramatic, chromatic live re-workings that are stand-alone brilliant”

The Independent

 

“an absorbing set”

The Times

 

“The unnervingly hypnotic Spanish Key surfaces in wild, slewing brass fanfares and racing percussion patterns”

The Guardian

 

“Towns’ writing is highly imaginative, even on pieces of absolute music…Towns makes you focus on the musical content on his own terms, using Davis’ famous title as a jumping off point to create his own musical fantasy”

Jazzwise Magazine

 

“Towns is a master of texture and pacing… a pulsating suite that is at once thoroughly Miles-ish and highly original”

Metro

 “The opening, otherworldly trumpet fanfare of ‘Spanish Key’ sets a high standard of invention that never wavers”

The Independent

 

"Colin Towns is the man for whom the phrase multi-talented was invented."
Gramophone Good CD Guide

London born Colin Towns began his music career playing piano in various UK based jazz ensembles. Since then he has gone on to front some of the most innovative and exciting big bands in Europe - the Hamburg based NDR Bigband, Frankfurt's HR Bigband and the Colin Towns Mask Orchestra.

The Mask has now released six highly successful albums for Provocateur Records and is regarded as one of the most dynamic and original ensembles in European jazz. By providing an outlet for the jazz composing and arranging skills of Colin Towns, The Mask Orchestra has brought a wholly individual voice, imbued with freshness and vitality, to the European scene. BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE

As an arranger, Colin has been involved with the likes of Michael Brecker, Christof Lauer, Norma Winstone and the Guy Barker/Sting collaboration 'You Don't Know What Love Is.'
 
Other projects include a collaboration with world-acclaimed choreographer David Bintley on a new production of Orpheus for the Birmingham Royal Ballet. The Mask orchestra played for the ballet which premiered at Birmingham Hippodrome that October and moved onto London Sadler's Wells and Plymouth Theatre Royal.

Colin recently travelled to Sweden to tour his arrangements of Cole Porter's music entitled Don't Fence Me In with The Bohuslan Bigband and Nils Landgren.  This December he will return to the NDR Bigband in Hamburg to record a selection of new compositions.

ORCHESTRA LINE UP – CONFIRMED

 

 

TRUMPETS:

HENRY LOWTHER

GRAHAM RUSSELL

JEAN-PAUL GERVASONI

JACK DAVIES

 

TROMBONES:

BARNABY DICKINSON

ROGER WILLIAMS

LIAM KIRKMAN

PAT HARTLEY

 

SAXOPHONES:

JULIAN SIEGEL

SIMON ALLEN

BEN CASTLE

TOM RICHARDS

GEMMA MOORE

 

ELECTRIC BASS GUITAR:

DUDLEY PHILLIPS

 

KEYBOARDS:

STEVE LODDER

 

GUITAR:

PHIL ROBSON

 

DRUMS:

NIC FRANCE

 

PERCUSSION:

PAUL CLARVIS

 

CONDUCTOR:

COLIN TOWNS