UK Jazz News

‘Freedom Jazz Dance’ (new band led by Tim Whitehead)

Premiere at Ram Jam Records, Kingston on 7 Nov.

Saxophonists Tim Whitehead and Aaron Lidard (composite of publicity photos)

Saxophonist Tim Whitehead has always been an instigator of projects. The former member of Loose Tubes, of Ian Carr’s Nucleus, Morrissey Mullen, Jim Mullen’s Meantime… has often provided the energy to make new things happen and helped to gather teams together, notably the Way Out West group of musicians in South West London, a musician-led regular gig which has at different times involved well over a hundred musicians.

And he has a new project. Together with a bunch of fellow musicians he will be launching a new project at The Ram Jam in Kingston. “Freedom Jazz Dance” will have its debut on Sunday 7 November from 2pm to 5pm

He sums it up as follows: “I look forward to the dance of freedom from this extraordinary collective of inspired artists.”

Tim describes Freedom Jazz Dance as a “free-rolling, multi-faceted jazz/funk/soul collective led by some of the finest players in the UK, born out of the dark days of lockdown, dedicated to freedom and improvisation in the jamming frequency of their performances.”

Aaron Liddard and Tim Whitehead head up the horns. Aaron was a touring member of Amy Winehouse’s band, toured with Beverley Knight, performed with James Brown and Maceo Parker, and was in the band for Prince’s legendary 21 days at the 02 Arena.

The band’s pianist is latin specialist John Crawford, another musician who has worked with a huge range of musicians. One of them, whose guiding spirit will be hovering over this band is Airto Moreira. As Tim Whitehead says: “the heart of this band is in jamming, the most important thing is a sense of liberation.”

The drummer and bass guitarist are other ubiquitous figures, Tristan Maillot and Rob Statham respectively.

Sunday 7 November at Ram Jam Records behind the Grey Horse, two minutes’ walk from Kingston Station.

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