Time: 8.00 – 11.00pm

Tickets: £12

Personnel

Alcyona Mick – piano
Tori Freestone – sax 
Dave Manington – bass
Tim Giles – drums

Unfortunately Alcyona is unwell so they will be playing as the Tori Freestone Trio tonight

Last time Alcyona and Tori were here they played as a duo first set then the second set was Tori with Dave and Tim. This time they will be approaching it as mainly a quartet gig

Tori and Alcyona formed their duo in 2015 after being invited to perform together at the Manchester Jazz Festival. Both much in demand players on the London jazz scene, the two have known each other for years, working together in many different ensembles including Ingrid and Christine Jensen, Yazz Ahmed, Natacha Atlas, Nikki Iles Jazz Orchestra, Cleo Laine/Alec Dankworth band, and are permanent members of the London Jazz Orchestra. They recorded their debut album ‘Criss Cross’ at the famous Artesuono Studios in Italy in 2017, released in 2018 to wide critical acclaim followed by a tour of the UK, Germany and Spain with live radio performances.
The duo has a very spontaneous, interactive approach and shares a large range of musical
influences that fall not only within the jazz genre, including English folk, Brazilian music, Arabic
music, free playing, Monk and more. Performances have included Birmingham Symphony Hall,
Museo del Grifo (Spain), Emotion Festival (Bremen), Halle 242 (Hamburg), Salle Krieps auditorium
(Luxembourg) and the Manchester and London Jazz Festivals.
In 2020 they won the Help Musicians ‘Do it Differently’ and ‘Record and release’ awards to write
and collaborate on a second album. The new music was premiered in live/streamed concerts
including the Up and Down Festival (Spain) and the Royal Albert Hall in collaboration with
Steinway. The latter premiere resulted in the Ivor Novello Award and featured on BBC Radio 3
November 2022.

Tori Freestone features in many of the UK’s most exciting ensembles: The UK All Star Big Band with Hermeto Pascoal, the Julian Siegel Jazz Orchestra, Ivo Neame’s Quintet/Octet, Andre Canniere’s Sextet, Rory Simmons, Neil Yates’ ‘Surroundings’, the Asaf Sirkis Quartet, the London Jazz Orchestra, ‘Compassionate Dictatorship’, Cuban group ‘Orquesta Timbala’ and a duo with pianist Alcyona Mick alongside musicians such as Iain Ballamy, Stan Sulzman, Norma Winstone, Dave Holland, Jim Hart, Julian Siegel, Jasper Hoiby, Jamie Cullum, Andy Sheppard and Jason Yarde.  Performances include the Cheltenham, Brecon, North Sea, Haskovo (Bulgaria), Elb, Sudtirol, Leibnitz, La Laguna (Spain) Jazz festivals, the Binhuis, Ronnie Scott’s, La Zorro y El Cuervo (Cuba), DB museum (Nuremberg) plus tours of the UK, Canary Islands, Portugal, Norway, Germany and Austria and recordings/interviews for Jazz FM, Radio 3, Radio 2, Loop, Edition and Whirlwind Recordings. She leads her own trio and their debut album (2014) and second album ‘El Barranco’ (2016) attracted wide acclaim in the UK and abroad.  Tori composed a commission for the trio for the 2014 EFG London Jazz Festival which was performed at the QEH supporting Henri Texier and in she was shortlisted for the 2017 Arts Foundation Award for Jazz Composition and the Parliamentary Jazz Award for Jazz Instrumentalist of the Year 2017.

“Freestone has clearly listened widely, but her musicality and broad experiences have stirred all that input into an imposingly original sound”, John Fordham, The Guardian 4 star review

“a flute and reeds player of nicely sinuous melodic invention” – The Telegraph

Picture of Tori and Aly at God’s Own Junkyard by Daniel Devlin