Home » Jazz Musicians » Graeme Stephen

Graeme Stephen

Graeme Stephen was born in Aberdeen, Scotland and has been playing guitar since the age of 9. Today he leads and contributes to a multitude of musical projects in Scotland and overseas, playing a wide array of styles from free improvised jazz to Scottish folk.

Stephen’s peerless improvisational skills and talent for composition make him one of Scotland’s most exciting and prodigious musical talents.

He is a very unusual jazz guitarist in that he is as skilled and comfortable playing in a virtuoso way over standards and chord changes, as he is heading into completely free improvised soundscapes. His playing shows the influence of all the great contemporary guitarists Metheny, Schofield, through the sonic inventiveness of Bill Frisell as well as into the more conceptual and fragmented worlds of James Blood Ulmer, Marc Ribot and David Torn.

Stephen's instrument is in a sense more than a guitar, as he seamlessly uses loop pedals and effects as a fully integrated part of his musical language.

As a composer Stephen writes music that reflects his diverse musical interests, but with a gift for melodic and rhythmic accessibility amongst the more expansive free form colours. He has written a significant body of extraordinary film music, with his scores to the early masterpieces of 20s German cinema.

The Go Get It Trio | Playtime | Film Scores

The Go Get It Trio, which is jointly led by Graeme and Scotland’s über drummer Tom Bancroft and features Brazilian bassist Mario Caribé and , is making waves with performances in concert settings. The same three players regularly play in cinemas where their renditions of Stephen’s acclaimed compositions of silent film scores for Nosferatu, The Cabinet of Dr Caligari, Faust and The Navigator have been delighting audiences since 2011.

The Go Get It Trio performs regularly at fortnightly jazz residency, Playtime, at Edinburgh’s Outhouse, which Stephen co-founded with saxophonist Martin Kershaw. Playtime is a platform for new writing where all members of the collective (Kershaw, Stephen, Caribé and Bancroft) plus guests get to showcase recent compositions and fresh arrangements of classic jazz numbers.

Graeme Stephen has also written an award-winning score to the silent film Sunrise for a quartet of tenor saxophone (Phil Bancroft), guitar (the composer), cello (Ben Davis) and drums (Chris Wallace).

Graeme Stephen and Zapp4 | Metropolis

In 2014 Graeme Stephen began an exciting working relationship with ultra-creative Dutch string quartet Zapp4. Distances, an album of new works by Stephen recorded in Amsterdam with Zapp4 was recorded in 2015 and will be released in 2017.

Read more

Tags

Photos

Get more of a good thing!

Our weekly newsletter highlights our top stories, our special offers, and upcoming jazz events near you.