Line-up:
Martin Speake – Alto Saxophone
Alyson Cawley – Tenor Saxophone
Jakub Cywinski – Double Bass
Daniel Israelsen – Drums
About
I have been drawn to Ornette’s music since I began playing alto saxophone nearly 50 years ago. In 1974 after I had left school at 16, I was working in an office and saved up enough money to buy a saxophone after realising there must be more to life than filling out motor insurance claim forms and staring at the office clock hoping it would get to 5pm quickly each day.
Ornette was an early influence and the album Live At The Golden Circle was the first I purchased (along with Bird and Diz) and the tune Dee Dee was the first I tried to learn. The saxophone I bought was a white plastic Grafton alto as I had seen a photo of Ornette with one on those early Atlantic Records albums.
Over the years in my musical and personal development I have a returned to Ornette Coleman and Charlie Parker for further inspiration and each time discovering something new about them and deepening my connection with this music. I have had projects playing this music with like minded souls over the years.
I am going through an Ornette period again now and have transcribed many of these wonderful melodies. In fact working out these tunes has kept me going through this challenging period in our history. This new band are all more recent collaborators and is wonderful to hear how they interpret these melodies as inspirations for improvising together and telling their own story.
Many of Ornette’s melodies have become ‘standards’ being played by many musicians all over the world such as Lonely Woman, Ramblin’ and Law Years but there are many undiscovered gems that are not played as often or at all by others.
We have 60 tunes to draw on already and the repertoire is growing.
This music is endless. Ornette is the supreme melodist.
Martin Speake
INSTRUCTIONS FOR AUDIENCE MEMBERS – PLEASE READ
Welcome to the Vortex. Although the government is relaxing its Covid restrictions on July 19th 2021 the Vortex will continue to operate measures to protect users of the premises.
Please note the following:
- Please buy tickets in advance as there will be no door sales.
- We ask you not to attend gigs if you have or think you may have any Covid-19 symptoms. If you can’t make a gig because you have to self-isolate then just get in touch by filling out this form and we’ll give you a voucher for another gig.
- We will ask you on entry to sign in for NHS Test and Trace either using the NHS Covid app or manually
- There will be no standing at gigs. Everyone who books a ticket will be allocated a seat, but we cannot guarantee that you will have a table.
- Orders for drinks and snacks will be taken and paid for using the Butlr app which you can download on arrival. (If you do not have a smartphone then your order will be taken at the table and you can make a contactless payment. We do not accept cash.)
- We ask that everyone wears a mask when moving around inside the building.
- Automatic hand sanitiser stations are provided at various places within the building and we encourage regular use of hand sanitiser.
- Full details of the measures that we are taking to prevent transmission of Covid are set out in our risk assessment and management plan which can be found on our website.