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Denys Baptiste

Born in London of St Lucian parents in 1969, Denys studied music at school from the age of 13 and, in 1990, went on to study at the West London Institute (Brunel University). In 1992, he continued his music education at London’s Guildhall School of Music, studying under former Jazz Messenger, Jean Toussaint.

From the moment he joined the London jazz circuit, Denys displayed extraordinary talent, energy and commitment. Spotted by veteran Jazz Warriors double bassist, Gary Crosby at the bassist’s regular Tomorrow’s Warriors jam sessions, Denys was immediately invited to join Crosby’s new band, Nu Troop. Since then, Denys has soared in his development as a soloist and bandleader, earning enormous respect from his peers.

His colossal talent - based on a powerful technique and an ability to improvise fluently and effortlessly across a wide range of musical styles – is matched only by his unfettered energy which takes him and his audiences into the musical stratosphere. An evening with Denys guarantees a display of unsuppressed expression, ranging from sweet “saxuality” to breathtaking, edge-of-your-seat virtuosity. Over the years, Denys has evolved into what the Time Magazine describes as “the icon of British jazz”, with a most distinctive and immediately recognisable sound.

A much sought after soloist, Denys has played/recorded with some of the biggest names in jazz and other genres including McCoy Tyner, Andrew Hill, Ernest Ranglin, Bheki Mseleku, Marvin “Smitty” Smith, Michael Bowie, Courtney Pine, Manu Dibango, Gary Crosby, Steve Williamson, Julian Joseph, Jason Rebello, Martin Taylor, Lonnie Plaxico, Ralph Moore, Billy Higgins, Jerry Dammers, Sean Oliver, Jean Carne, Marlena Shaw, Noel McCoy, Juliet Roberts, Incognito, Jazz Jamaica, and others of distinction.

Denys is an amazingly versatile musician and, although his roots are steeped in the jazz tradition, he incorporates ideas from other musical forms and popular culture, producing a repertoire which is contemporary, multi-layered and highly accessible. He is also an enormously talented composer/arranger, whose brilliant compositions have already earned him immense critical acclaim. Awards

1999 Début album Be Where You Are (Dune Records DUNECD03)

Mercury Music Prize for An Album Of The Year 1999

MOBO Award for Best Jazz Act 1999

2000 British Jazz Award for Rising Star 2000

2001 Album Release Alternating Currents (Dune Records

DUNECD05)

2003 Album Release Let Freedom Ring! (Dune Records

DUNECD010)

2005 Release of Let Freedom Ring! in the USA

2011 Album Release Identity By Subtraction (DUNECD019)

Be Where You Are – his 1999 debut album on independent jazz label, Dune Records – earned him a Mercury Music Prize for An Album Of The Year and a MOBO award for Best Jazz Act. He followed this in 2001 with his second album, Alternating Currents (Dune Records DUNECD05) also receiving great critical acclaim.

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7
Live Review

Denys Baptiste at the 606 Club

Read "Denys Baptiste at the 606 Club" reviewed by Neil Duggan


Denys Baptiste 606 Club on Oh! JazzLondon August 24, 2023 There is something about jazz and basements, they just seem to work so well together. Maybe it is the intimacy the low lights and low ceilings confer. The 606 Club is a quintessential example of the cellar music venue. It is tucked away down an alley in the Chelsea area of London. Find the door below an unassuming sign, down the dim staircase and you ...

5
Album Review

Sultan Stevenson: Faithful One

Read "Faithful One" reviewed by Chris May


It is rare for a debut album by a young musician to merit four stars, but Faithful One, by the 22 year old London pianist and composer Sultan Stevenson, deserves every shining one of them. An alumnus of the community programme Tomorrow's Warriors, in his liner note he singles out the Warriors' founders, Gary Crosby and Janine Irons, and one of its tutors, tenor saxophonist Binker Golding, for special thanks. Stevenson has been a fast study. For confirmation of that, ...

31
Interview

Denys Baptiste: Pathfinder For The New London Jazz

Read "Denys Baptiste: Pathfinder For The New London Jazz" reviewed by Chris May


Bandleader, composer and educator Denys Baptiste is among the generation of musicians, many of them of Caribbean or African heritage, who pointed the way for the younger players who have emerged on the London jazz scene since around 2015. Baptiste's contemporaries include saxophonists Jason Yarde, Soweto Kinch, Steve Williamson and Courtney Pine, and trumpeter Byron Wallen, and they were the first wave of British players purposefully to include their cultural heritages in the jazz they played. Unlike earlier generations of ...

8
Profile

Denys Baptiste: Making the Late Trane Accessible

Read "Denys Baptiste: Making the Late Trane Accessible" reviewed by David Burke


Even the most avowed John Coltrane disciples among us would admit to grappling with some of the albums he released in the couple of years before his death--the likes of Ascension, Sun Ship and Om. And we weren't alone. His long-time drummer, Elvin Jones, told Downbeat magazine, “At times I couldn't hear what I was doing--matter of fact, I couldn't hear what anybody was doing. All I could hear was a lot of noise." Evidently British saxophonist Denys ...

8
Album Review

Denys Baptiste: The Late Trane

Read "The Late Trane" reviewed by Roger Farbey


When a church is named after a jazz musician you know there's something more than music involved here. The spirituality with which John Coltrane immersed himself as exemplified by A Love Supreme, was just one of the drivers that helped make the saxophonist one of the greatest innovators of jazz. His later works were even more iconoclastic, embracing abstract themes and a conscious move towards free jazz, but still utilising time as propelled by the rhythmic powerhouse that was Elvin ...

581
Interview

Denys Baptiste: Jazz Missionary, Part 2-2

Read "Denys Baptiste: Jazz Missionary, Part 2-2" reviewed by Paul Olson


Part 1 | Part 2

London saxophonist Denys Baptiste made a huge splash in the U.K. when his debut 1999 CD Be Where You Are was shortlisted as a prestigious Mercury Prize Album of the Year. Jazz fans were perhaps less surprised, as Baptiste had apprenticed for years on record and in concert with the likes of tenor player Courtney Pine and bassist/Dune Records patriarch Gary Crosby's Nu Troop. I spoke with Baptiste in London about his musicial career, his ...

659
Interview

Denys Baptiste: Jazz Missionary, Part 1-2

Read "Denys Baptiste: Jazz Missionary, Part 1-2" reviewed by Paul Olson


Part 1 | Part 2

London saxophonist Denys Baptiste made a huge splash in the U.K. when his debut 1999 CD Be Where You Are was shortlisted as a prestigious Mercury Prize Album of the Year. Jazz fans were perhaps less surprised, as Baptiste had apprenticed for years on record and in concert with the likes of tenor player Courtney Pine and bassist/Dune Records patriarch Gary Crosby's Nu Troop. I spoke with Baptiste in London about his musicial career, his ...

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168

Event

Rich Mix Winter 2010: Live Music and Jazz on the Screen

Rich Mix Winter 2010: Live Music and Jazz on the Screen

Source: Michael Ricci

Rich Mix JAZZ Music, Film and more Jan - Apr 2010 Rich Mix 35 - 47 Bethnal Green Road London E1 6LA Rich Mix breaks boundaries this season with a jazz programme that combines music with film, history, literature and politics. The programme begins with the explosive Let Freedom Ring! from Mercury/MOBO award winning saxophonist Denys Baptiste. The show features a world class line-up of jazz musicians; brand new visuals from VJ collective Yeast ...

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Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Faithful One

Whirlwind Recordings
2023

buy

The Late Trane

Edition Records
2017

buy

Let Freedom Ring!

Dune Records
2003

buy

Alternating Currents

Dune Records
2001

buy

Be Where You Are

Dune Records
1999

buy

Videos

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