Doors 7:45 PM, Music 8:30 PM – 2 set(s) of music
Line-up:
Bruno Heinen – Piano
Kobe Heath Ngugi – Double Bass
Gene Calderazzo – Drums
About
“Top Class” – Gilles Peterson
“Brilliant playing…tuneful and intricate” – Big Issue
“Demonstrating that originality doesn’t have to be complicated” – Observer
Described by the Guardian as “eclectic, eccentric and unobtrusively erudite“, pianist Dr. Bruno Heinen is equally at home supporting Lee Konitz or Roy Hargrove at the Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club as he is playing with the London Symphony Orchestra at the Barbican conducted by Sir Simon Rattle. Coming from three generations of classical musicians, Bruno Heinen started playing piano at the age of four. He started composing pieces early on, and was introduced to the world of jazz through the music of Bill Evans by his uncle (jazz pianist Johannes Heinen) in his late teens. His compositional voice has been informed by his love of composers from Duke Ellington to Béla Bártok and from Wayne Shorter to György Ligeti.
Professor of jazz piano and composition at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music, Bruno has written for artists ranging from DJ Vadim to the Camerata Alma Viva string ensemble, with the Independent noting his ‘consistently intelligent linking voice’.
His trio features fiery young talent Kobe Heath Ngugi on bass and acclaimed UK/USA drummer Gene Calderazzo (Pharaoh Sanders, Freddie Hubbard).
Support Bonnici/Bieri/Bota/Hjelm
The English singer, dancer and actress Emma Bonnici, the Swiss clarinettist Reto Bieri, the Romanian violist Sacha Bota and the Swedish double bassist Jordi Carrasco Hjelm formed an improvising quartet of a special kind on the occasion of the Oxford Chamber Music Festival 2023. With their first joint program, they are now making people sit up and take notice with a rare alchemy, presenting folk idioms from a variety of sources in free-flowing interplay. The four musicians seem to have created their very own stylistic realm in which folk songs, chamber music and improvisation combine in a natural and extremely fascinating way to form a whole. Gallic songs meet music by Luciano Berio, old psalms meet Kurt Weill, Bach dances can be heard alongside impressive music by Gyia Kancheli.
