Chris Biscoe's Profiles Quartet

Chris Biscoe's Profiles Quartet: Chris Biscoe, saxophones & alto clarinet; Alcyona Mick, piano; Larry Bartley, bass; Winston Clifford, drums.

Chris Biscoe, who came to prominence with Mike Westbrook's Brass Band in the 1970s, is a musician whose playing crosses musical boundaries and never fails to excite audiences with its freely expressed invention.

The Profiles Quartet draws on a deep-rooted tradition within jazz; that it is a music about people and places, the routes between the meetings and the getting away. Jazz compositions abound with titles dedicated to musicians, friends and family, lovers and political enemies and even a toilet-trained cat!

Tunes for the quartet include, Thelonious Monk's 'Jackie-ing' (written for his niece Jackie Smith) and 'Monk's Dream', Eric Dolphy's 'Miss Ann' and his portrait of Monk, 'Hat and Beard'. 'Teenies Blues', another family dedication, was written by Oliver Nelson for his little sister. It's impossible to leave out Charlie Mingus, who is represented by 'Goodbye Pork Pie Hat' (for Lester Young), 'Pussy Cat Dues' (that bemused cat sitting on a Manhattan apartment toilet seat) and 'Fables of Faubus', the great satirical composition 'dedicated'  to Orval Faubus, once Governor of Alabama. Migration and travel, important facets of the 'jazz life', appear too, with Billy Strayhorn's 'Take the "A" Train', and 'Going to Chicago; not the familiar blues but Mike Westbrook's multi-faceted composition.

Chris will be joined by three of the most exciting musicians on the UK jazz scene - award winning pianist Alcyona Dick, described by MOBO as a 'powerhouse of a talent', Larry Bartley, with his 'Mingus-like drive' on bass  and drum-master Winston Clifford.

The Chris Biscoe Profiles Quartet will ensure that the glory days of Monk, Dolphy, Mingus et al continue to burn brightly.