“It’s so important to explore new sounds in jazz.” says J-Night and Hull Jazz Festival Director David Porter, “We’re as interested in great new sounds for the future as we are in celebrating the wonderful jazz tradition.”
2017’s been a busy year so far for J-Night. Being UK City of Culture demands something different. Something extra. Something that makes people see jazz in a new way.
What better than funding our most creative UK artists to explore and create new music for our audiences?
The PRS (Performing Right Society) Foundation has funded J-Night to commission a number of cracking projects this year:
GoGo Penguin, the acoustic electronica trio, will unveil their tribute to the industrial sounds of the North in a Basil Kirchin-inspired piece called As Above So Below. It premieres in Hull and London in July as part of the PRSF New Music Biennial.
They’ll then revisit Hull in November to reprise the piece, alongside their astonishing score to Godfrey Reggio’s cult film Koyaanisqatsi, itself commissioned by Home in Manchester.
GoGo Penguin performing at Home, Manchester (c) Sarah Leech, Home Manchester
J-Night will also support guitarist / composer Stuart McCallum and electronica artist Revenu to create new works exploring their love affair with their instruments and with the City of Hull. Stuart McCallum is established as one of the UK’s leading guitarist and composers, working with the Cinematic Orchestra. Stuart will write a piece to celebrate the versatility of the guitar. Revenu has been discovered by Giles Peterson’s Future Bubblers in 2016 and took part in the Basil Kirchin celebration weekend Mind on the Run in February this year. Revenu will be exploring his favourite sounds of Hull, alongside visuals from artist Joe Bird.
The commissions will headline the Hull Jazz Festival 25th anniversary in November, joining another commissioned piece. A Journey with the Giants of Jazz is Peter Edwards’ new piece for the Nu Civilisation Orchestra. It’s all about the defining year of 1917, that saw the birth of jazz’s most influential artists – Thelonius Monk, Dizzy Gillespie, Ella Fitzgerald, Tadd Dameron, Dizzy Gillespie and Mongo Santamaria. Young people from Hull and East Riding will be working with Peter in the run up to the November festival and they’ll perform pieces by these six giants of jazz before Nu Civilisation Orchestra take the stage.