Jazz: Moonscape

Moonscape “Fresh and Joyous” (Manchester Jazz Festival).

Moonscape is an exciting contemporary group playing original music drawn from a wide range of influences. Taking the 60s chordless quartets of Ornette Coleman and Don Cherry as a starting, point, Moonscape incorporate electronics, sound manipulation, and an open approach to ensemble improvisation, drawing in part on the influence of musicians such as Paul Motian, Bill Frisell, and Lee Konitz. This might include setting up and improvising on grooves, but there is also an emphasis on spontaneity, which allows the music to take unexpected directions. This is born out of long experience of playing together in various line-ups over many years on the jazz scene.

Trumpeter Jim Howard (Yann Tierson, Django Bates’ Delightful Precipice, Billy Jenkins, Randy Brecker, The Happy End) and saxophonist Luke Annesley (4tet w. Dave Cliff, John Wilson Orchestra, Saxtet, Rufus Wainwright, Jazz Crusaders) are long-time musical collaborators. Their improv project “Im”, was featured as part of the BBC Introducing scheme for Radio 3. Chris Jones (bass) and Paulo Adamo (drums) are well known to Bristol audiences and bring their individual musical imaginations and groove to the compositions and arrangements of Luke and Jim. The band is as comfortable with abstract free improv as with reimagining a Rodgers and Hammerstein standard.