Steve Buckley/Chris Batchelor - Zone B
“.....exuberantly inventive.....”
All About Jazz
The frontline partnership of Steve Buckley and Chris Batchelor has been a long and fruitful one dating back to before Loose Tubes, the iconic and highly influential 1980’s big band of which they were two of the founding members. Their music has always been highly eclectic reflecting their wide range of musical experiences, drawing on anything from Latin American to East European Folk, or from Congolese Soukous to free jazz. Previous projects include the internationally acclaimed and BBC award winning trans-Atlantic group Big Air, described by Chris May in ‘All About Jazz’ as “...funky and unbuttoned as a chimp on acid” and by Dan Spicer in Jazzwise as “satisfyingly adventurous, fiendishly well played and all done with good humour, intelligence and soul”.
Zone-b is their latest project, presenting vibrant original music with an emphasis on groove and featuring a world class rhythm section of guitarist Rob Luft, bassist Tom Herbert and drummer Gene Calderazzo.
"Altoist Steve Buckley….perkily unpredictable and the playing has a palpably fresh sparkle…..superbly realized" MOJO; “Batchelor, a fine trumpeter who intriguingly blends Miles Davis's shrewd pacing and evocative long-note sounds with something of Harry Beckett's bubbly phrasing" Guardian