05 November 2017 - 7.00pm

'Do Not Go Gentle' - Huw Warren & Friends @ Birmingham

Huw Warren - piano
Iain Ballamy - saxophones
Steve Watts – bass
Martin France – drums

Swansea born composer Huw Warren presents a jazz suite based on the poetry of Dylan Thomas. The project is the result of Warren’s lifelong interest in Thomas’ poetry, and reflects the inherent South Walian musicality of the words. Specially commissioned for the Dylan Thomas centenary year, the piece has been touring after its world premiere at the Brecon Jazz Festival. The quartet features three of Warren’s long term collaborators, who have all been at the cutting edge of the UK jazz scene since the 1990’s.

No project linking Dylan Thomas and Jazz can fail to be influenced by Stan Tracey’s iconic Under Milk Wood Suite of 1965, and this suite is respectfully dedicated to Stan, who sadly passed away recently.

“Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light”

All four musicians have been at the cutting edge of the UK and European jazz scenes since the early 1990’s, and have worked extensively together in various combinations. Ballamy and Warren record together for ECM as part of the Quercus trio, and France and Warren have recorded together extensively both as Perfect Houseplants and on a string of Huw’s solo records.

Links >  Birmingham Jazz |  Blue Orange Theatre |  Huw Warren