The Phoenix Collective is an educational project that Coventry Jazz Festival initiated in the year 2000. The project brings together young people from Coventry's schools for intensive tuition under the auspices of the local Performing Arts Services, led by Owen Dutton. This year the performance takes place underneath St. Michael’s Porch, next to the Great West Screen which faces towards the steps of the Cathedral Ruins. The event is free, so bring along your friends.
Alcyona started playing piano at the age of three. She studied at Birmingham Conservatoire and the Royal Academy of Music with Liam Noble, Pete Saberton and Mike Gibbs. Composition is a big part of Alcyona’s life. She writes for her own bands and has also received commissions to write for other band leaders. She has worked with Gene Calderazzo, John Etheridge, Chris Bowden’s ‘Slightly Askew’, Told by an Idiot Theatre co, and Ingrid Laubrock among others.
- Alcyona Mick
- piano
- Julie Walkington
- bass
- Jim Hart
- drums
Polar Bear seem set on “reshaping the vocabulary and grammar of British jazz” as Guardian critic John Fordham has it. “What they are playing is Euro-jazz, with Rochford’s tunes encompassing military swagger, tongue-in-cheek pomp and acoustic drum‘n’bass.” Whatever “Polar Bear swing hard, and blow in the most compelling way” whilst “Leafcutter John adds sonic, anti-jazz danger to Polar Bear’s sound, and the crowd love him”. Militant and accessible at the same time, Rochford and his F-ire Collective associates seem to have captured the zeitgeist and are holding it to ransom in the name of jazz.
- Seb Rochford
- drums
- Pete Wareham
- tenor sax
- Mark Lockheart
- tenor sax
- Tom Herbert
- bass
- Leafcutter John
- electronics
French bassist and composer, Henri Texier is one of the most respected figures in jazz. A dazzling career began in the 60s playing alongside American bebop giants such as Bud Powell, Donald Byrd, Dexter Gordon and Kenny Clarke – before he was even twenty. As a bandleader he has nurtured the talents of some of the most formidable improvisers on the European scene, including those of his son Sébastien. A major force in jazz, this quartet represents the very best in contemporary music.
- Henri Texier
- double bass
- Sébastien Texier
- clarinet/alto clarinet/alto sax
- Manu Codjia
- guitar
- Christophe Marguet
- drums
Stan Tracey is generally regarded as one of Britain’s greatest living jazz musicians. His career spans over 60 years and extends back to the formative days of modern jazz in this country. In 1960 he began a seven-year stint as resident pianist at Ronnie Scott’s Club, playing with every visiting musician from the USA. Tracey has continued to celebrate the great tradition of jazz, particularly that of Ellington and Monk, whilst always remaining doggedly true to himself. This band is perhaps one of the finest working jazz orchestras ever to hail from these shores.
- Stan Tracey
- piano
- Nathan Bray
- trumpet
- Mark Armstrong
- trumpet
- Guy Barker
- trumpet
- Henry Lowther
- trumpet
- Mark Nightingale
- trombone
- Andy Wood
- trombone
- Alistair White
- trombone
- Nigel Hitchcock
- saxophone
- Simon Allen
- saxophone
- Brandon Allen
- saxophone
- Mornington Lockett
- saxophone
- Alan Barnes
- saxophone
- Andrew Cleyndert
- bass
- Clark Tracey
- drums