Efpi Records is proud to present as its debut release the first EP from the Hunter/Andreae Quartet. Led by the duo of Anton Hunter on guitar and Sam Andreae on tenor saxophone, the quartet also features the considerable talents of Gavin Barras on double bass and Fin Panter on drums
1. Tune One (Andreae/Hunter)
2. Tune Two [...]

Chris Ackerley (who writes for Jazzwise from time to time) has set up a great new blog on all things Mancunian and/or jazzy. Well worth taking the time to check it out, bookmark it, and tell all your friends about it.

Now.

Do it now.

…is the name of a play in this year’s 24:7 Theatre Festival by Sean Gregson for which I’ve written the music.

It’s had some good reviews so far including this one: “original music by Anton Hunter serves to enhance the atmosphere…is definitely to be applauded.”

Here are the recordings from the fantastic day we spent in St Ninians as part of CAF. Once again I’d like to give a massive thanks to everyone who took part in the day, I think a good time was had by all.

Enjoy!

Festival Launch Party: The Moss Project + Laurence McNaughton Quintet + Southbound + Matt Halsall – DJ set

The opening night of this year’s festival is hosted by Freedom Principle: come down and celebrate with us as we welcome three young Manchester bands to the stage, each with their individual sound, both raucous and reflective in equal parts, but effectively fusing their wide spectrum of influences, representing a new wave of original bands active on the local music scene.

The Hunter/Andreae Quartet EP will be officially launched with a gig in Sandbar. We can’t wait, but we’ll have to as the gig’s not till 14th July.

Thanks to everyone who managed to make it down to the Mint Lounge last week for the Big Band Bonanza, it went really well and it was great to see so many faces in the audience. One of those faces was Chris Ackerley, a jazz journalist who has previously worked with Jazzwise, BBC Jazz on [...]

So, we’ve finally got it together to record some tunes in a studio. We spent a long day at a secret location with Ben and co. at the controls and so far, from the rough mixes, we’re really happy with what we’ve done. The highlight of the day was, I’m sure everyone involved [...]

Once likened to “crossing the road in reverie and being run over by a passing bus – but in a pleasing way” Led Bib are both a maverick jazz band and an unlikely rock quintet. Taking their name from a protective garment used on patients during dental treatment, this East London based five-piece pride themselves [...]

Hi Hi!
After having such a great time on my last visit I couldn’t resist another opportunity to spend some more time in Copenhagen. So after my planned trip to Aarhus I hopped on a train back to the Danish capital and wasted no time meeting up with my friend Marc for a quick informal recording [...]

JAZZ FACTOR 29.05.09
I spent the best part of today at the first in a series of workshop days organised by NW JazzWorks designed to link up local players/promoters with industry experts from around the country. Our panel of experts for the day were;
Stuart Johnson (musician, promoter, tour manager) – our Chair for the day
Oliver Weindling [...]

Acoustic Ladyland have been a fantastic force for change on the British jazz scene, not least because they don’t play anything recognisably jazzy. The band, who formed through their “mutual distaste for jazz sterility and respect for Jimi Hendrix” have gone from strength to strength with their most recent albums Last Chance Disco and Skinny [...]

Freedom Principle & The Noise Upstairs are hosting a night at this years Chorlton Arts Festival. It definitely promises to be a unique experience with a variety of groups performing in the fantastic venue that is St Ninians Church. There will be a mix of contemporary performance drawing influence from jazz/classical/electronic & Jewish music. We will also be staging several spacial-sound-jams which audience members will be encouraged to take part in. Oh yeh, and we’ll be supplying the food, if you bring the booze!

Go and visit www.beatsnpieces.net and have a look at the brand new Beats & Pieces website, and leave a comment to let me know what you think! Its a bit bare now but over time its hopefully going to have a full archive of live recordings, and of course all the details of upcoming gigs [...]

Anton and myself have just spent several thoroughly enjoyable days in the Danish capital meeting some fantastic musicians and generally soaking up the vibe. We flew out on Wednesday, Antons flight was badly delayed (he can fill you in with the details) and we eventually arrived at our very kind hosts (Fredrik and gang) who [...]

Thanks a lot to everybody who could make it down to the RNCM last night for our gig before Guy Barker’s Amadeus Project, hope you enjoyed it as much as we did! I’ve now uploaded the recordings as I promised in amongst all my waffling, so do take a listen. The piano is unfortunately a [...]

This month’s featured artist is Concrete Moniker co-founder Josh Kopecek aka The Red Box.
All are welcome to join in via the traditional “name-in-a-hat” method.
Direct all questions to this page.
FUEL CAFE BAR – WITHINGTON – MANCHESTER – 9PM – FREE ENTRY

For at least a few months now we’ve been hosting a Thursday morning group practice session at my house in Withington. I wanted to talk a little about it on this blog and hopefully get some of the participants to comment below (nothing offensive please Ben). How the groups normally run is that everyone turns [...]