Martin Speake alto saxophone/compositions
Alyson Cawley tenor saxophone/clarinet
Nick Costley White guitar
Asaf Sirkis drums/percussion
Indian/Arab/Turkish music influenced highly rhythmic Quartet.
Martin Speake’s Charukesi reflects the bandleader’s interest in music from India, The Middle East and other non-western music. It’s emphasis is rhythmic and melodic rather than harmonic (as in most Western music) and consists often of repetitive groove based material, scales not used in Western music and drones, often giving the music a feeling of trance-like and atmospheric pieces where the improvisation can take longer to develop as in Indian music. Also each musician in the quartet brings their own jazz sensibility, wide musical influences and experiences to the group to create it’s unique sound.