TIME: 8.00 – 11.00 pm

TICKETS:  £12

PERSONNEL

Mike Soper – Trumpet
Mark Taylor – Drums
Sam Leak – Piano
Mirko Scarcia – Double bass

A vibrant London-based band come together to celebrate the art of group improvisation, combining original material with well loved standards. Driven and heartfelt music, played to feed the spirit.

Trumpeter Mike Soper graduated from Trinity College almost 10 years ago. Since then he has played in everything from the trad Old Hat Jazz Band to the Bryan Ferry Orchestra to the Congolese dance influenced Kongo Dia Ntotila, as well as lots of more “conventional” modern jazz. Lately he can be heard on Mark Lockheart’s Smiling band , laeding a band with Elliot Galvin , Billy Marrow’s Big Band and many more

Pianist Sam Leak has been one of the busiest musicians on the London jazz scene for over 10 years . He hosted Oliver’s Jazz Bar in Greenwich , had his own quartet , a piano trio and an organ based band plus a regular at Ronnie Scotts

Mirko Scarcia started playing bass guitar back in 1997, with various local bands in small towns near Taranto, Italy. He then moved to Bologna, where he then began playing doublebass as well, inspired by the encounter with Ares Tavolazzi (former member of the Area, popular Italian rock-progressive band from the ’70s). Through a recommendation of Tavolazzi himself, he then went on to study doublebass with Maestro Luigi Giannoni at the Modena Conservatoire of Classical Music “O. Vecchi – A. Tonelli”, where he graduated in 2009.

Although always fascinated by multiple genders, his main occupation in Bologna has been jazz music. He has indeed attended a number of jazz workshops and private lessons with John Webber, Cecil McBee, Curtis Landy and Ron Carter. During his years in Bologna, he had the chance to play with various national and international artists such as Steve Grossman, Ronnie Cuber, Jesse Davis, Jerry Bergonzi, Rick Margitza, Piero Odorici, Barend Middlehoff, Jimmy Villotti, Carlo Atti, Paolo Fresu, Fabrizio Bosso, Flavio Boltro, Shawn Monteiro, Denise King, Giovanni Amato, Gregory Hutchinson, Gegè Munari, John Webber, Joe Farnsworth, Willy Jones III, Renato Chicco, Steve Gut and many more.

In 2007 he won the first prize at the Moncalieri Jazz Festival, near Turin, Italy.

In 1995 UK drummer Mark Taylor moved to New York at the invitation of US musician Lew Tabackin and ended up staying for more than 25 years! In a long and impressive career his powerful, swinging, playing has been heard alongside the likes of Joe Henderson, Ronnie Scott, George Coleman, Chet Baker, Roy Hargrove, Woody Shaw, Geoff Keezer, Mulgrew Miller, Monty Alexander, Billy Eckstine & Anita O’Day…and you don’t get to play with a team of iconic musicians like that unless you are very, very, good! Mark has recently returned to the UK and has been busy since in various groups

‘There isn’t another drummer since Billy Higgins who can adapt…and create intensity at any dynamic level” Lew Tabackin