Cambridge Jazz Festival: Rob Luft Quintet + Alex Hitchcock Quartet

Cambridge Jazz Festival presents: 

 

Rob Luft's guitar playing incorporates echoes of West African high-life, English folk music and indie rock, and his joyously original sound finds an ideal counterpart in the unique rhythm section of Joe Webb, Tom McCredie & Corrie Dick. The band also features Scottish saxophone virtuoso Joe Wright, and they predominantly play Luft's original compositions, many of which were recorded on his debut album, Riser, released on Edition Records in 2017 to widespread critical acclaim. It received many glowing reviews, such as a 4.5-star review in Downbeat Magazine, 4 stars in The Irish Times and 4 stars in The Guardian, where John Fordham wrote that it’s a “very sophisticated debut, but given Luft’s old-soul achievements since his early teens, we should have heard it coming”.

 

On the back of the success of his first album, Rob was nominated for a string of awards – Breakthrough Act in the 2018 Jazz FM Awards, Instrumentalist of the Year in the 2018 Parliamentary Jazz Awards and Instrumentalist of the Year in the 2019 Jazz FM Awards. In May 2019, Rob was selected as BBC New Generation Jazz Artist 2019-2021, an accolade granted to “some of the world’s most exceptional young musicians” (Emma Bloxham, Editor, BBC Radio 3).

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Rob Luft - Guitar

Joe Wright - Tenor Sax

Joe Webb - Piano / Keyboard

Tom McCredie - Bass Guitar

Corrie Dick - Drum Kit

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Described by Jazzwise as part of ‘the shape of jazz to come’, saxophonist Alex Hitchcock is joined by three of the UK’s most acclaimed improvising musicians in Will Barry, Fergus Ireland and Shane Forbes. The group won the prestigious Peter Whittingham Jazz Award in 2018 and it plays original music that is firmly rooted in the jazz tradition, but the powerhouse rhythm section are unafraid to take the music in bold new directions. Expect driving swing as well as propulsive grooves and virtuosic soloing.

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Alex Hitchcock - Tenor Sax

Will Barry - Piano

Fergus Ireland - Bass

Shane Forbes - Drum Kit

 

Pop-up FOOD available to purchase on site from VINES PIZZA SHACK (6:00 - 9:30pm)