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Kit Downes

Kit Downes is a British jazz and classical composer, organist and pianist, known for a clean playing style no matter the setting. His compositions lean heavily on polychromatic investigation and timbral discipline. He also plays cello. He began his career as a founding member of the jazz group Troyka, and is a first-call sideman. He led a jazz piano trio for 2009's Mercury Prize-nominated Quiet Tiger. 2013's Light from Old Stars crisscrossed modern jazz, vintage blues, and global rhythms. His 2018 ECM debut Obsidian, showcased his skills on church pipe organs in original compositions, folk songs, and improvisations. In 2021 he released two classical duet outings: Premonitions of the Unbuilt City with pianist and composer Matt Rogers, and Subaerial with cellist Lucy Raiton. Downes issued the piano trio offering Vermillion for ECM in March 2022. In January 2023, Downes joined drummer/composer Sebastian "Seb" Rochford for the duo offering A Short Diary on the label. That year he played organ with New Zealand-based saxophonist Hayden Chisolm, backing Balkan womens' chorus PJEV in a church. He returned to ECM in duet with vocal icon Norma Winstone on Outpost of Dreams in 2024. In September, he played pipe organ with guitarist Bill Frisell and drummer Andrew Cyrille on the trio set, Breaking the Shell. Downes is a formally trained musician. He attended Norwich School, the Purcell School, and the Royal Academy of Music. His first recorded appearances were as a guest with Empirical on their self-titled debut in 2007. Produced by Courtney Pine, it was named jazz album of the year by Jazzwise and Mojo. In 2008, Downes was the winner of the BBC Jazz Award in the category of Rising Star. Troyka, a flexible trio with guitarist Chris Montague and drummer Joshua Blackmore, was founded that same year and cut their initial self-titled date for Edition in 2009. Downes also recorded a duo album with saxophonist Tom Cauley for Impure, and released his first trio date as a leader (with bassist Calum Gourlay and drummer James Maddren, with whom he had been playing since their school days at the Royal Academy in 2005). Entitled Golden, it was shortlisted for Great Britain's Mercury Prize. He followed it with Quiet Tiger, which augmented his trio with a cellist and a saxophonist. In 2012, he co-led the Neon quartet with Sulzmann, issuing the album Subjekt on Edition. Troyka's sophomore outing Moxxy appeared as well. 2013 was prolific: Downes issued two solo piano EPs -- both in digital-format only, a pair of leader dates including Light from Old Stars with a quintet on Basho, and Live at the 2013 Cheltenham Jazz Festival with the 18-piece Troykestra. He also played on Nostalgia '77's Journey Too Far. Over the next year, he toured festivals as well as playing regular gigs in London, and performed in concert with a number of other outfits. In 2015, they resumed recording. Troyka's Ornithophobia was acclaimed by the British press as one of the best jazz outings of the year. Downes also made his first appearance on ECM as a member of Thomas Stronen's band for Time Is a Blind Guide. In 2017, Downes and saxophonist Tom Challenger released Vyamanikal, a duo improvisational album cut in various churches around England the previous year. That set was a precursor to his ECM leader debut, Obsidian. Performing (mostly) solo on various pipe organs in November of 2016, Downes recorded originals, folk songs, and improvisations in two churches in Suffolk and the Union Chapel in London. Challenger guested on the track "Modern Gods." It was released in January 2018. A follow-up, Dreamlife of Debris, arrived on the label in 2019 and found Downes playing both piano and church organ. The album again featured Challenger, as well as guitarist Stian Westerhus, cellist Lucy Railton, and drummer Seb Rochford. In 2021, Downes and Raiton teamed up for the duet offering Subaerial on SN Variations, while the pianist released another duet offering in Premonitions of the Unbuilt City with pianist and composer Matt Rogers independently. For 2022's Vermillion, Downes assembled a trio with Swedish bassist and composer Petter Eldh and English drummer James Maddren. The set included five tunes each by the pianist and bassist, and a cover of Jimi Hendrix's "Castles Made of Sand." In January 2023, Downes joined friend, drummer, and composer Seb Rochford for the duo offering A Short Diary (ECM). Rochford described it as "a sonic memory, created with love, out of need for comfort," and dedicated it to his family, in particular to the memory of his father, Aberdeen poet Gerard Rochford. Later that year, the album Medna Roso on Red Hook Records. Recorded in St Agnes Church, in Cologne, Downes played church organ alongside New Zealand-born, Belgrade-based saxophonist and multi-instrumentalist, Hayden Chisolm. They backed Balkan acapella womans vocal quintet, PJEV. In July of 2024, Downes played piano in collaboration with British jazz vocalist / lyricist Norma Winstone to release Outpost of Dreams on ECM. They composed three originals together, cut two traditional folk songs, and recorded tunes by Carla Bley, Ralph Towner, and John Taylor, with new lyrics by Winstone. In September, the album Breaking the Shell, featuring a pipe organ trio with guitarist Bill Frisell and drummer Andrew Cyrille was issued by Red Hook Records. The album was recorded and improvised over two days at St. Luke in the Fields, New York; it was engineered by Joseph Branciforte, mixed by Alex Bonney, and mastered by Taylor Deupree.
© Thom Jurek /TiVo
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Discographie

55 album(s) • Trié par Meilleures ventes

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