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Dave Stapleton

Dave Stapleton is a singular young artist and has been recently described by the Guardian as having “produced one of the success stories of UK jazz over the past year’. Since graduating in 2002 from the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama with a degree in classical piano Dave has recorded six albums as a leader and has won critical acclaim for each album from the Guardian, Observer, Jazzwise, and Independent on Sunday. Dave’s industriousness and imagination has seen him write for and record with a variety of ensembles over the past few years.

In 2004 he formed his quintet (Dave Stapleton Quintet—DSQ), which provides the main outlet for his music. Since its formation they have released two highly acclaimed albums ‘When Life Was In Black and White’ and ‘The House Always Wins’ and seen them perform throughout Europe and the UK including the Budapest, Cork, Zagreb, Belgrade, London, Brecon and Cheltenham Jazz Festivals, the latter as part of the Jerwood Jazz Generation.

In 2005, Dave teamed up with Deri Roberts and recorded ‘The Conway Suite’. Devised as a project for church organ and saxophone, it includes music that crosses the boundaries between classical, jazz and contemporary minimalism. BBC Radio 3’s 'Mixing It' compared it to the Jan Garbarek and Hilliard Ensemble recordings and the Independent on Sunday awarded it a four star review. In 2008 Dave collaborated with award-winning composer and pianist Matthew Bourne which saw them release a highly acclaimed album called ‘Dismantling the Waterfall’. Featuring seventeen episodic tracks all linked by a seventeen line poem by Julie Tippetts, it was described by Jazzwise as “a fine collaboration between two of the UK’s most exciting young pianists”.

As a musician there’s a strength and virility to his playing, matched by an innate capacity for tenderness and reflection. As a composer, he draws upon a formidable grasp of Jazz, Classical and World styles, yet transforms these raw materials into something richly personal. His music touches on the language of contemporary classical music and jazz and has powerful riffs, melodic hooks and intriguing and surprising turns of phrase.

Dave’s beautifully evocative music and his multi-functional approach to the business of music led to him being accepted onto the second edition of the prestigious Jerwood/PRS Foundation ‘Take Five’ Initiative produced by the international music producers Serious. ‘Take Five’ is designed to give some of the UK’s most talented young jazz musicians the unique opportunity to take ‘time out’ to develop their craft.

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3
Album Review

Slowly Rolling Camera: Flow

Read "Flow" reviewed by Geno Thackara


At first glance, it looks like an album they were always destined to make. Natural flow has been one central characteristic of Slowly Rolling Camera since the start. From their beginnings in quasi-trip-hop/jazztronica fusion, through a shift into a picturesque instrumental outfit, they have always been effortlessly fluid and comfortable with a good slow burn. They have seemed to be following a sort of elemental theme as well, with Juniper (Edition, 2018) setting down some earthy roots and Where the ...

5
Album Review

Slowly Rolling Camera: Where the Streets Lead

Read "Where the Streets Lead" reviewed by Geannine Reid


Slowly Rolling Camera is a jazz ensemble. Its core is pianist-composer Dave Stapleton, producer Deri Roberts, vocalist-lyricist Dionne Bennett, and drummer Elliot Bennett. Their newest album Where the Streets Lead is a follow-up to their acclaimed album, Juniper (Edition Records, 2018). The album presents eight tracks with a large ensemble, including an 8-piece string section and a list of world-class guests including Mark Lockheart, Jasper Høiby, Verneri Pohjola, Chris Potter, and Sachal Vasandani, as well as the band's regular guitarist ...

5
Album Review

Slowly Rolling Camera: Where the Streets Lead

Read "Where the Streets Lead" reviewed by Chris May


You might imagine jazz musicians are well suited to run record companies, for risk taking and creativity are fundamental to both activities. Mostly, however, musician-led labels have unhappy histories. Either the musician is not from the top drawer and their A&R skills suffer accordingly; or they lack the administrative skills to run a business enterprise effectively. Bassist and composer Charles Mingus was an example of the latter. But just occasionally the combination works. Trumpeter Charles Tolliver and pianist Stanley Cowell ...

4
Album Review

Slowly Rolling Camera: Where the Streets Lead

Read "Where the Streets Lead" reviewed by Geno Thackara


When you're not sure which street to take, why not take several and see where they all lead? The inability to decide might just turn into the strongest asset in the right hands. It's always worked just fine for Slowly Rolling Camera, who have always remained too busy carving out a picturesque one-of-a-kind niche to actually bother pinning down what it is they do. Following on from the superb turning point of Juniper (Edition, 2018), which reinvented the ...

17
Interview

Dave Stapleton: Edition Records Takes Flight

Read "Dave Stapleton: Edition Records Takes Flight" reviewed by Bruce Lindsay


Any discussion of successful independent jazz record labels of the twentieth century will readily encompass musical icons such as Blue Note, Impulse! and ECM. Cardiff-based Edition Records is already a likely contender for the same discussion applied to labels that have arisen in the 21st century, even though its first release didn't appear until 2008. A key figure in the success of the label is co-owner and Artistic Director Dave Stapleton, who also happens to be one of the label's ...

195
Extended Analysis

Dave Stapleton: Flight

Read "Dave Stapleton: Flight" reviewed by Chris May


Dave StapletonFlightEdition2012Dave Stapleton is a multi-tasker of Olympian energy and talent. That is not a new observation, but as the pianist and record company director's outputs increase, it bears repeating. As well as operating the Edition label, which has released 30 albums of immaculately-recorded British and European jazz since he founded it in 2008, Stapleton has maintained his own career as a musician. Flight is his seventh album for the label as ...

340
Album Review

Dave Stapleton Quintet: Between The Lines

Read "Between The Lines" reviewed by Chris May


Leading a band while simultaneously recording other musicians for your own label is no easy feat, but it's one pianist Dave Stapleton is achieving with style. Between The Lines is the third disc by the feisty and engaging Dave Stapleton Quintet for Edition Records, whose catalogue includes well received albums by Polar Bear saxophonist Mark Lockheart, pianists Ivo Neame, Matthew Bourne, Keith Tippett and Tom Cawley, and Troyka, and is growing fast. Stapleton, who graduated from the Royal ...

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152

Recording

Dave Stapleton Quintet Invites Fans to Get Involved in the Production of Their New CD

Dave Stapleton Quintet Invites Fans to Get Involved in the Production of Their New CD

Source: All About Jazz

Dave Stapleton Quintet gives fans a unique opportunity to be involved in their highly anticipated third album When Dave Stapleton and Tim Dickeson set up Edition Records in 2008, they could hardly have hoped for a better start. In tough economic times, this ambitious label has gone from strength to strength. The label’s success has come from a positive response to its ethos of quality and integrity. Everything about an EDITION RECORD – from the music and production to the ...

“Dave Stapleton is a real find for British Jazz…a young musician of real maturity and vision…it’s the breadth of his talent that’s most encouraging. He writes exceptionally well drawing on his classical training as well as jazz and he’s hungry to explore the possibilities of free improvisation…There’s something refreshingly unstuffy about Dave Stapleton’s sources of inspiration. There’s Jarrett and Hancock, of course, Dave Holland and Joshua Redman but also the American Minimalists like Phillip Glass, Steve Reich and Terry Riley.” —Jazzwise

"Stapleton is one of the most refreshing, sophisticated and intelligent young jazz composers working today. Innovative, infectious and utterly compelling, the future of new British jazz is in safe hands". —The Western Mail

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Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Flow

Edition Records
2023

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Where the Streets Lead

Edition Records
2021

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Flight

Milestone Records
2012

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Dave Stapleton: Flight

Edition Records
2012

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Between The Lines

Edition Records
2010

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Dismantling the...

Hollywood & Highland Summer Jazz Concert Series
2009

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Henryk Part 2

From: Flight
By Dave Stapleton

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