Jazz On Tour

Touring across 2023/24 will be the following amazing bands:

The Trinity Laban Charlie Parker Project

One of the greats of 20^th century music, Charlie Parker helped to define bebop in the 1940s and change the course of modern jazz with it. This 13-piece ensemble explores his music afresh from a contemporary jazz perspective. Featuring new arrangements of Parker’s music created especially for this line-up by Hans Koller, Trinity Laban’s Head of Jazz, written during the lockdowns of 2020, the centenary year of Parker’s birth. These performances will showcase the improvisational and instrumental talent and prowess of Trinity Laban’s current students, casting a thrilling light on the origins of the music and also re-inventing it anew for the present day.

The Trinity Laban Studio Band

This 17-piece band explores an exciting and varied repertoire from the 1950s right up to the present day, by composers and arrangers from across the world, as well as new music by current students eager to flex their own writing and arranging skills. Featuring a large brass section and the full range of saxophones, the Trinity Laban Studio Band is capable of a kaleidoscopic palette of timbres and a huge dynamic range. Led by trombonist Richard Henry, the band celebrates the spirit of community at Trinity Laban – musicians developing their sound and learning together, preparing and being ready for the profession. Being part of the band develops and refines reading and ensemble skills, and immerses its musicians and listeners alike in a broad and fascinating range of big band aesthetics and approaches to collective music-making, both composed and improvised.

The Trinity Laban Fletcher Henderson Big Band

This 13-piece group specialises in playing big band music of the 1930s-40s, featuring the arrangements of pianist and band leader, Fletcher Henderson, one of the most important figures in jazz of the time, as well as music from Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman, Count Basie and others. Led by trombonist Malcolm Earle-Smith, the band provides current jazz students with a solid understanding of earlier periods of music, challenging them to phrase and blend in ways they have not encountered before. The students strive to improvise simply and melodically, with a sound that is full of expression and swing. This is accessible music with a joyful, soulful and big sound, with spontaneity and excitement added to these classic arrangements by the musicians playing their own ‘riffs’ and ‘shout choruses’.

The Trinity Laban Thelonious Monk Band

This 11-piece group specialises in playing the music of the iconic jazz pianist and composer Thelonious Monk (1917-1982). Although mentored by Monk experts TL tutor and saxophonist Tony Kofi and Head of Jazz Hans Koller, this is essentially a student-led ensemble. Trinity Laban’s senior jazz students know Monk’s music from their personal practice and listening, and this is their new platform to explore Monk’s music in depth and in the collective setting. The result is accessible music with a joyful, soulful and big sound – even featuring tuba, French horn and a vocalist in the line-up – with spontaneity and excitement added by on the spot improvisations in the unique harmonic-rhythmic milieu of Monk. As Monk said himself: When you are swinging, swing some more!