‘My Iris’ is a new project from BASCA award winning composer and saxophonist Trish Clowes. Following collaborations with string quartets and the BBC Concert Orchestra, My Iris shifts Clowes’ perspective to the possibilities of a small ensemble. With Chris Montague on guitar, Ross Stanley on piano and Hammond organ and James Maddren on drums, My Iris explores startling melodies, earthy grooves and gnarly lines, creating a sound world that is both intimate and thrilling. The ensemble has honed these musical concepts in major performances including the Women in (e)Motion Festival for Radio Bremen, the Deal Festival and at the Southbank Centre. The group’s first recording, Clowes’ fourth album for Basho Records, will be released on 13th January 2017 with accompanying tour dates across the country.
The album includes Muted Lines by Cevanne Horrocks-Hopayian - commissioned by Clowes with support from the PRS for Music Foundation - and Clowes’ sister piece Tap Dance (For Baby Dodds). The works share a theme of migration, in particular forced migration; Muted Lines addresses loss and silence from the perspective of Cevanne’s Armenian heritage and features a 16th Century poem by Nahapet Kuchak. Tap Dance is built upon fragments of a Baby Dodds drum solo, celebrating the birth of the drum set and its central role in the music of the African diaspora. Blue Calm evokes the multifaceted Iris, messenger to the Greek and Roman gods, and One Hour imagines the additional hour of dreaming and brain repair afforded when the clocks go back. In Between The Moss and Ivy is Clowes’ ballad of an English garden, Be A Glow Worm responds to some gnomic advice from a wise musician and A Cat Called Behemoth acts as a sequel to Clowes’ earlier Mikhail Bulgakov-inspired piece ‘The Master and Margarita’. In addition to Clowes’ thoughtful writing, the group also explore dynamics, textures, exciting interaction and fiery improvisation. ‘My Iris’ represents a new chapter in Clowes’ career and is her most assured album to date.
REVIEWS
16/01/2017 Jazzwise
a poise and depth that is rewarding
12/01/2017 Irish Times 4 stars ****
the front rank of the new generation of UK jazz
12/01/2017 John Fordham, The Guardian 4 stars****
Clowes’s emphasis on composition, and the reserved evenness of her delivery often get her a “chamber-jazz” label, but the Englishwoman’s quirky songwriter’s ear, subtly sleepy tenor sax sound and bright intensity on soprano are anything but cerebral.
11/01/2017 Matthew Wright, The Arts Desk
'To achieve that range of sounds with a jazz quartet requires rare skill. How much other contemporary music has such adventurous or eclectic intellectual horizons?'
04/01/2017 Fiona Talkington, BBC Radio 3 Late Junction
“ A stunning new album which proves firmly thatTrish Clowes is one of the core artists on the British jazz and contemporary scene”
19/12/2016 Stephen Graham, Marlbank
One Hour 7:20
Blue Calm 6.28
I Can't Find My Other Brush 7.00
A Cat Called Behemoth 7:30
Muted Lines 6:28
Tap Dance (for Baby Dodds) 5:41
In Between The Moss And Ivy 6:26
Be A Glow Worm 4:21
Trish Clowes – saxes
Chris Montague – guitar
Ross Stanley – piano / Hammond organ
James Maddren – drums
