Julian Arguelles' Late Birthday Gig
Tonight we welcome the Award winning world class saxophonist, composer, arranger & educator Julian Arguelles, who has been performing at the Club since the mid 1980’s. A precocious and fearsome talent I recall asking him once whether he was going to “hang out” for a while after sitting in on a gig and he replied “No, I have to get up and go to school tomorrow!”. Since then Julian has gone on to establish himself as one of the UK’s finest modern jazz saxophonists. From his beginnings with the legendary Loose Tubes through his worldwide collaborations with the likes of Dave Holland, John Taylor, Steve Swallow, Larry Grenadier, Jorge Rossy and Django Bates to his searching solo projects, Julian’s flowing, melodic, pitch perfect playing has been hugely influential to a whole generation of British & European jazz musicians. An exceptionally gifted artist, he has been compared to sax legends Wayne Shorter and Charles Lloyd (Jazzwise), his compositions have been described as “supremely lyrical”, his recordings have earned him the highest International accolades and he was awarded the Fellowship of the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire for Services to Jazz (2017) as well as a Parliamentary Jazz Award for his CD "Let it be Told" (2016).
As Julian is now living in Austria (he is currently professor of jazz saxophone at the Institute of Jazz, Graz) his trips to the UK to perform are infrequent, and this is a rare chance to hear him in his favourite musical setting. The band he has chosen to perform with this evening is made up of his long time collaborators and unsurprisingly fellow world class musicians Conor Chaplin-bass, James Maddren-drums & the brilliant, multi-award-winning Gwilym Simcock-piano. The programme will include many of Julian’s great compositions as well as music from his soon to be released album “Echo Fields”. Tonight we will be celebrating Julian’s Birthday (slightly late, but worth the wait!), so expect plenty of fun, some guest musicians and of course, some remarkable music!
“Arguelles…absorbing, joyful and uplifting…par for the course for one of the scene’s most consistently creative and emotionally compelling musicians” UK Jazz News; "One is left almost speechless with admiration" Independent; “…a mature, compact master in jazz..!” NDR (DE)
Photo by Paulo Pacheco