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Trish Clowes

Saxophonist and composer Trish Clowes has been described as “an improviser to be reckoned with” (Downbeat Magazine) and “one of the most agile and original jugglers of improv and adventurous composition to have appeared in the UK in recent times” (John Fordham, the Guardian). A BASCA British Composer Award winner and former BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist, Clowes has received critical acclaim for all five of her releases for Basho Records, the last two featuring her My Iris quartet with Chris Montague (guitar), Ross Stanley (piano and Hammond organ) and James Maddren (drums). Hailed as “the jazz of the future” (Augsburger Allgemaine) the band have toured and performed worldwide, including appearances at Rochester International Jazz Festival (US), Toronto Jazz Festival, the Barbican (EFG London Jazz Festival), the National Opera House (Wexford), Gateshead International Jazz Festival, Turner Sims, Women in (e)motion Festival and the Stadthaus Ulm. They have also recorded broadcasts for BBC Radio 3 and Radio Bremen.

Born on May 11th 1984, Clowes was raised in Shrewsbury, Shropshire and moved to London in 2003 to study at the Royal Academy of Music, notably with saxophonist Iain Ballamy and composer Pete Churchill. Clowes was later honoured as an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music (2013). Clowes’ first album ‘Tangent’ (2010) was noted for its “promise – and ambitious vision” (Guardian), featuring her band of the same name, special guest pianist Gwilym Simcock and an orchestra conducted by Jules Buckley. ‘And in the night-time she is there’ (2012), her second, featured an improvising string quartet lead by Thomas Gould and Clowes recorded her “highly individual” (Schweiz am Sonntag) third album ‘Pocket Compass’ in 2014, working with the BBC Concert Orchestra on three tracks.

Clowes has been commissioned by BBC Radio 3 on two occasions to write for the BBC Concert Orchestra and one work (‘The Fox, the Parakeet and the Chestnut’) went on to win her a BASCA British Composer Award in 2015. Other significant achievements include a television appearance as part of BBC Proms Extra, a songs project called Under Your Wing with vocalist Norma Winstone and guitarist Mike Walker (broadcast on BBC Radio 3, 2014), solo appearances with BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra (Celtic Connections 2014) and Northern Sinfonia, a debut at Wigmore Hall (2015) with the Heath Quartet and Gwilym Simcock and commissions for Onyx Brass and London Sinfonietta. Alongside her work as a performer and composer Clowes has been curating her own new music project Emulsion since 2012.

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My Playlist

Trish Clowes

Read "Trish Clowes" reviewed by Vincenzo Roggero


1. Chico Buarque: Construção (Philips, 1971) This is a very new find, although released in 1971. Just take a listen, what a mind! 2. Joe Henderson: Double Rainbow (Verve, 1995) I was doing a lot of listening to Brazilian music recently (including the above album!) and as a result I was drawn back to this brilliant album. All roads lead to Joe Henderson. He's the person who brings it all together for me, ...

My Playlist

Trish Clowes: gli album che sto ascoltando

Read "Trish Clowes: gli album che sto ascoltando" reviewed by Vincenzo Roggero


1. Chico Buarque, Construção (Philips, 1971). È una nuova scoperta, benchè l'album sia del 1971. Dategli un ascolto, geniale! 2. Joe Henderson, Double Rainbow (Verve, 1995). Sto ascoltando parecchia musica brasiliana ultimamente e ciò mi ha fatto recuperare questo bellissimo album. Tutte le strade portano a Joe Henderson, collega tutti i punti tra i grandi sassofonisti. 3. Charlie Haden, Paul/Motian, Geri Allen Etudes (Soul Note, 1987). La pianista e compositrice ...

Album Review

Trish Clowes: A View with a Room

Read "A View with a Room" reviewed by Vincenzo Roggero


My Iris è un quartetto guidato dalla sassofonista inglese Trish Clowes giunto con A View with a Room alla quarta fatica discografica. Nato in tempo di lockdown, con riferimenti, a partire dal titolo, alle criticità provocate dalla pandemia, sviluppato attraverso live streams e pubblicato dalla prestigiosa Greenleaf di Dave Douglas, A View With a Room conferma Clowes come una delle voci più interessanti della effervescente scena britannica, incarnandone il volto gentile e raffinato. La sonorità sia al ...

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Album Review

MY IRIS: MY IRIS Live!

Read "MY IRIS Live!" reviewed by Ian Patterson


Unable to undertake its scheduled April tour due to COVID 19, MY IRIS, the quartet led by saxophonist Trish Clowes, releases this live recording culled from gigs in Belfast and Galway in October 2019. Captured on Zoom recorder, Clewes has done an admirable job in producing a presentable sound on this digital-download, Bandcamp release. More importantly, in capturing for posterity one of the UK's leading jazz quartets in such fine form, MY IRIS Live! is an important document, and perhaps ...

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Interview

Trish Clowes: Sounding Colors, Playing With Gravity

Read "Trish Clowes: Sounding Colors, Playing With Gravity" reviewed by Ian Patterson


If it hadn't been that day, twenty some years ago when the young Trish Clowes first felt the pull of the tenor saxophone, it would surely have been another. Barely in her teens at the time, Shropshire-born saxophonist and award-winning composer Clowes already played piano, clarinet and sang when she went to see her Dad, an amateur trumpeter, play with the local big band. “When I heard a tenor saxophone feature on “In a Sentimental Mood" I thought ...

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Album Review

Trish Clowes: Ninety Degrees Gravity

Read "Ninety Degrees Gravity" reviewed by Ian Patterson


Trish Clowes' stock has risen steadily since her debut, Tangent (Basho Records, 2010), which featured jazz quartet and, on several tracks, orchestra. That record announced a promising and ambitious voice, one equally at home with jazz and classical colors. Since then the saxophonist has continued to explore the meeting of jazz, voice and strings, attracting a growing chorus of admirers along the way. With the critically acclaimed My Iris (Basho Records, 2017), Clowes opted for a more stripped down, jazz ...

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Live Review

Trish Clowes at Mermaid Arts Centre

Read "Trish Clowes at Mermaid Arts Centre" reviewed by Ian Patterson


Trish Clowes Mermaid Arts Centre Bray, Ireland February 9, 2018 Almost five years had passed since saxophonist/composer Trish Clowes' only previous gig in Ireland, at the Derry Jazz and Big Band Festival 2013. Since then, Clowes has released a couple of well-received albums and was selected as a BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist--a prestigious residency programme that recognizes talent deserving greater exposure. Clowes has also founded Emulsion, a collective-cum-annual festival dedicated to improvised ...

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Interview

UYS: Angelita Jimenez & Trish Clowes Interviews

UYS: Angelita Jimenez & Trish Clowes Interviews

Source: underyourskin


Photos

Concerts

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

A View with a Room

Greenleaf Music
2022

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MY IRIS Live!

Self Produced
2020

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Ninety Degrees Gravity

Basho Records
2019

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My Iris

Basho Records
2017

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Pocket Compass

Basho Records
2014

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Be A Glow Worm

From: My Iris
By Trish Clowes

Videos

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