The Guildhall Jazz Band is recognised as one of Europe’s top student jazz orchestras. Five-time winner of the BBC Big Band contest, it has performed with Kenny Wheeler, Billy Cobham, Norma Winstone, John Taylor, Rufus Reid, David Liebman, Toshiko Akiyoshi and many others, and recorded with Wheeler and Taylor.
Kenny Wheeler’s landmark Suite Time Suite, recorded on his 1990 ECM recording Music for Large and Small Ensembles, is recognised as one of the most influential big-band recordings in modern times. Wheeler, who died last year, had a long and fruitful relationship with Stroman and the Guildhall Jazz Band. After the success of adding voices to his pieces on the GJB’s 1988 Walk Softly album with Wheeler on Wave records, Wheeler and Stroman also added voices to the Suite Time Suite for several tours together.