Argüelles/Guilfoyle/Black

Formazione

Julian Argüelles tenor sax, recorders
Ronan Guilfoyle acoustic bass guitar
Jim Black drums

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Concerti

Biografia

Julian Arguelles

Julian began his career as a musician at the age of fourteen touring throughout Europe with the European Community Big Band. Quickly he gained recognition as an original musician and joined the much acclaimed 21 piece UK big band “Loose Tubes”. He stayed with them for four years and recorded two albums.

Since their demise Julian has collaborated with fellow Tubes members including  Django Bates who appears on Julian’s albums “Skull view” on Babel and  “Escapade” – on Provocateur Records. In 1986 Julian was awarded the prestigious Pat Smythe award and has also been awarded several BBC awards.

His main interest continues to be writing and performing with his own band. In 1990 the Julian Argüelles Quartet, with pianist John Taylor recorded their first CD “Phaedrus”.
The second CD “Home Truths” was released in 1995 with Mike Walker on guitar, Martin France on drums and Steve Swallow on electric bass.
This was followed by a project with his brother Steve Argüelles, entitled “Scapes” which was released in 1996.

The BBC commissioned Argüelles to write 60 minutes of music for a new band to be premiered at the 1996 Bath Festival, the Octet was formed and the music became his fourth album “Skull View” which was voted Jazz CD of the Year 1997 by the Independent on Sunday. His previous two albums (Scapes & Home Truths) had been voted Jazz CD of the Year in both 1995 and 1996.

Julian has worked with musicians drawn from around the world including  Tim Berne, Hermeto Pascoal, Steve Swallow, John Abercrombie, Dave Holland, Dave Leibman, Jim Black, Peter Erskine, Chris McGregor, John  Taylor, Kenny Wheeler and Carla Bley.

In 1999 Julian released his first album for Provocateur records the critically acclaimed “Escapade”. His second, some 5 years later, was the much anticipated “As Above So Below” – a large scale work for jazz and classical musicians featuring the 20 piece Trinity College of Music String Ensemble. The album evolved from a commission that was originally performed in Saint Wendredas Church in March in the Fenlands. The result is an album charged with a wide range of emotional and melodic surprises. His recent CD “Partita” was recorded in New York and features Tom Rainey on drums and Michael Formanek both from New York. In Jan 2009 a solo CD “Inner Voices” was released on the Portuguese label TOAP and in May 2009 a CD was released intitled ‘Momenta’ on Basho Records featuring all Julian’s compositions for the Frankfurt Radio big Band, Germany.

Despite being very busy performing he maintains a commitment to teaching and has been invited to teach at various places such as The Royal Academy of Music, Trinity College of Music, Guildhall School of Music and Drama, Glamorgan Jazz School, Edinburgh and Manchester summer schools and music colleges in Den Haag, Lisbon, Porto, Koln, Weimar and Copenhagen.  In 1995 Julian was offered the first position of Jazz Musician in Association at the Royal Northern College Of Music and in 2007 he became tutor of Saxophone. The Julian Arguelles Octet is currently the Ensemble in Residence at The University Of York.

Ronan Guilfoyle

Ronan Guilfoyle is a major figure on the Irish jazz scene and has developed an international reputation as a performer, teacher and composer. He began his career with Louis Stewart’s group in the early 1980′s and studied at the Banff Centre for the Arts in 1986 and 1987 where his teachers included John Abercrombie, Dave Holland, and Steve Coleman.

Performing on the acoustic bass guitar since the early 1980s, Ronan is now one of the instrument’s leading exponents, and is now much in demand as a bassist, both in his native Ireland and on the international jazz scene. Among the people he has performed with are Dave Liebman, Kenny Werner, Joe Lovano, Kenny Wheeler, Keith Copeland, Brad Mehldau, John Abercrombie, Larry Coryell, Benny Golson, Jim McNeely, Sonny Fortune, Andrea Keller, Andy Laster, Emily Remler, Simon Nabatov, Richie Beirach, and Tom Rainey. He has also been leading his own groups since the mid 1980s, and his groups have toured extensively in Europe, Asia, and North America. He has recorded extensively both as a sideman and as a leader and his output includes the award winning “Devsirme” in 1997.

Ronan has been composing for classical ensembles since 1993, specialising in compositions which feature both improvised and written music. He has had great success in this field and has now a large body of work that ranges from solo piano pieces, to chamber works, to orchestral compositions. He has had commissions from a wide range of ensembles and organisations including the RTE Concert Orchestra in Dublin, The Opus 20 String Orchestra in London, and the European Jazz Youth Orchestra. He has also been commissioned to write works for many great soloists including the saxophonist David Liebman, the violinist Michael D’arcy and the virtuoso accordionist Dermot Dunne.

Ronan has also acquired a formidable reputation as a composer in the world of contemporary jazz, and his music has been performed by such jazz luminaries as Dave Liebman, Kenny Werner, Kenny Wheeler, Keith Copeland, John Abercrombie, Andy Laster, Simon Nabatov, Richie Beirach, Tom Rainey, Julian Arguelles, Rick Peckham, and Sonny Fortune. In 1997 he won the Julius Hemphill Jazz Composition Competition in the United States.

Over the past 10 years Ronan has become very well known for the teaching of advanced rhythmic techniques for jazz improvisation and his book, “Creative Rhythmic Concepts for Jazz Improvisation” which covers such areas as metric modulation and odd metre playing, is now seen as the standard text for this area. He has been invited to teach this subject at many schools around the world including Berklee College of Music, The New School, and is an associate Artist of the Royal Academy of Music in London, and has also lectured on it for the International Music Congress (UNESCO) in Copenhagen. Ronan is the founder of and head of the jazz department at Newpark Music Centre in Dublin, the only school offering post-secondary jazz education in Ireland.

Jim Black

Jim Black is at the forefront of a new generation of musicians bringing jazz into the 21st century.  In addition to being one of the most influential drummers of our time, he is also the leader of one of the world’s most forward-thinking bands, AlasNoAxis, featuring his longtime collaborators Chris Speed, Hilmar Jensson and Skúli Sverrisson.  Based on the foundation of his virtuosic but highly personal approach to jazz drumming, Black’s aesthetic has expanded to include Balkan rhythms, rock songcraft and laptop soundscapes.  Though he is revered worldwide for his limitless technique and futuristic concepts, what many listeners treasure in most Jim Black’s work is the relentless feeling of joy and invention he brings to his performances.  Jim Black’s smiling, kinetic, unpredictable presence has enthralled and inspired audiences worldwide for over twenty years.

Since the mid-90′s, Black has played a major role in the incorporation of new sounds and techniques into the jazz/creative music context.  As a member of the collective group Pachora (with Speed, Sverrisson, and guitarist Brad Shepik) Black was one of the leaders in the study and adaptation of Balkan music into jazz-based music.  His advanced techniques abstracted the odd time signatures of the Balkans into a new polyrhythmic language equally informed by modern jazz, drum&bass and the dumbeks of the Balkans.  Black has also been an innovator in the use of electronics in improvisation, bridging the gap between electro-acoustic improv and more jazz-based traditions.  Today, Black’s performances are just as likely to feature his laptop-based electronic textures as his drumming.

Born in 1967, Jim Black grew up in Seattle alongside future colleagues Chris Speed, Andrew D’Angelo and Cuong Vu.  After cementing their personal and artistic relationships in Seattle’s various youth jazz ensembles, in 1985 they moved to Boston, where Black entered the Berklee School of Music.  In Boston, Black, Speed and D’Angelo formed Human Feel with guitarist Kurt Rosenwinkel, which rapidly attracted the attention of the jazz cognoscenti in Boston, New York and beyond.

By 1991, Black and the other members of Human Feel had moved to New York City, where they electrified the Downtown music scene then centered around the Knitting Factory and rapidly became among the city’s busiest sidemen.  Black’s early years in New York saw him take featured roles in some of the most critically acclaimed bands of the time, like Tim Berne’s Bloodcount, Ellery Eskelin’s trio, and Dave Douglas’s Tiny Bell Trio.  Thus began fifteen years of near-constant touring and recording, with the above bands as well as artists like Uri Caine, Satoko Fujii and Laurie Anderson.