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Julian Siegel

JULIAN SIEGEL is an in-demand saxophonist on the UK and European Jazz scene who has worked with many of the top figures in the music. He was awarded the 2007 BBC Jazz Award for Best Instrumentalist. He is currently touring with the Julian Siegel Quartet featuring pianist Liam Noble, bassist Oli Hayhurst and drummer Gene Calderazzo. The Quartet's first CD ‘Urban Theme Park’ was awarded the 2011 London Jazz Award and in February 2018 the Quartet released their new album 'VISTA' on Whirlwind Recordings. Since the release of ‘VISTA’, the band has performed internationally at Jazz Festivals including Inntöne Jazz Festival in Austria, Made in The UK at the Rochester International Jazz Festival, NY, Jazz Standard NYC, JazzFestival Göttingen, Germany, Limerick Jazz Festival Ireland, UK’s Love Supreme Festival, Bristol and Manchester International Jazz Festivals and an extensive 2018 – 2019 Arts Council England UK Tour. The Quartet was featured on the cover of UK’s Jazzwise Magazine in February 2018 and VISTA was included in Jazzwise’s Top 20 Jazz Albums of the year.

From 1996 Julian co-led the influential band Partisans with the award-winning NYC based guitarist Phil Robson, featuring Thaddeus Kelly on Bass and Gene Calderazzo on Drums. The band has played at major Jazz Festivals in Europe, USA and Canada. In May 2019 the band released their sixth (and first live) album 'Nit de Nit' on Whirlwind Recordings. The band’s fifth album ‘Swamp’ (Whirlwind) was awarded Best Album in the 2015 Parliamentary Jazz Awards.

The Julian Siegel Trio with US Improvising stars, drummer Joey Baron and bassist Greg Cohen was formed as a result of a major commission from Cheltenham Jazz Festival in 2006. The Trio has toured the UK three times and released a double album ‘Live at the Vortex’ (Basho Records).

In recent years Julian has begun writing music for Jazz Orchestra and in March 2017 Julian toured the newly formed Julian Siegel Jazz Orchestra on a six date UK tour supported by Arts Council England, the tour was produced by Derby Jazz and Right Tempo with the support of EMJazz. J.S.J.O. played Julian's compositions and arrangements including the new suite commissioned especially for the tour by Derby Jazz, 'Tales from the Jacquard'. In June 2021 the band’s debut album ‘Tales from the Jacquard’ was released on Whirlwind Recordings. The album was recorded live on tour by BBC Radio 3 ‘Jazz Now’ and remixed and mastered for CD release by Chris Lewis and mastered in NYC by Tyler McDiarmid for release on limited edition Double Vinyl.

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14
Album Review

John McLaughlin: Liberation Time

Read "Liberation Time" reviewed by Geno Thackara


Perhaps the biggest success of Liberation Time is that its title feels sincere and not ironic. Such a sentiment could have easily come out as a cute bit of wishful thinking under the restrictions of pandemic life. Being who he is, though, John McLaughlin inevitably finds the value and positivity even in this strange state of affairs. “The wonderful thing about music is that you put the headphones on and you are all in the same room," he says in ...

3
Album Review

Julian Siegel Jazz Orchestra: Tales from the Jacquard

Read "Tales from the Jacquard" reviewed by Angelo Leonardi


L'eredità orchestrale britannica, rappresentata dagli eclettici lavori di Mike Gibbs, Mike Westbrook, Django Bates e Colin Towns, si rinnova in questo brillante debutto da bandleader di Julian Siegel. Nato a Nottingham 55 anni fa, Siegel è uno dei massimi sassofonisti del Regno Unito, leader di un quartetto e sideman in molte formazioni orchestrali: da quelle dei citati Bates, Gibbs e Towns ad altre dirette da John Taylor, Kenny Wheeler, John Dankworth e Stan Sulzmann. La ...

15
Album Review

Julian Siegel Jazz Orchestra: Tales From The Jacquard

Read "Tales From The Jacquard" reviewed by Chris May


Reed player Julian Siegel has been an important part of the London jazz scene since the late 1990s, when he cofounded Partisans, a high-energy quartet completed by guitarist Phil Robson, bassist Thad Kelly and drummer Gene Calderazzo. The band is pretty much beyond category, although it is usually billed as jazz-rock. Unlike normative jazz-rock outfits, however, Partisans is anchored firmly in the acoustic tradition, Robson's plugged-in guitar aside. Also contrary to the jazz-rock norm, Partisans, as its name suggests, has ...

3
Album Review

Julian Siegel Quartet: Vista

Read "Vista" reviewed by Roger Farbey


Julian Siegel is an in-demand and award-winning British saxophonist who teaches saxophone in the jazz department of London's Royal Academy of Music. This is his Quartet's follow-up to their London Jazz award-winning album Urban Theme Park (Basho Records). Although Siegel is no stranger to Whirlwind Recordings in his role as a member of Partisans who released Swamp on the label in 2014, this is his first album for Whirlwind as leader. “The Opener" with its memorable head achieves ...

272
Album Review

Julian Siegel Quartet: Urban Theme Park

Read "Urban Theme Park" reviewed by Bruce Lindsay


The Julian Siegel Quartet epitomizes some of the finest elements of jazz: creativity, virtuosity, collaboration, invention and (the often neglected) fun. As a result, Urban Theme Park, the band's second album, is a positive feast of music. Broadly speaking, this is probably best described as post-bop, but no single definition can encapsulate the breadth of vision Siegel and his fellow players bring to this collection--it's music, let's leave it at that. Reeds player Siegel has been part ...

264
Extended Analysis

Julian Siegel Quartet: Urban Theme Park

Read "Julian Siegel Quartet: Urban Theme Park" reviewed by Chris May


Julian Siegel Quartet Urban Theme Park Basho Music 2011 Now of an age which places him at the crossing point between Young Turk and seasoned older statesman, London reeds player Julian Siegel's progressive classicism is growing more compelling with every new album. Siegel's first Basho Music release, the helter-skelter Live At The Vortex, made with his “American trio," featuring bassist Greg Cohen and drummer Joey Baron, was a highlight of 2009. Urban Theme Park, ...

193
Album Review

Julian Siegel Trio: Live at the Vortex

Read "Live at the Vortex" reviewed by Jack Kenny


The saxophone/bass/drums trio is a challenge both to the players and listeners, with no hiding place. Saxophonist Julian Siegel, drummer Joey Baron and bassist Greg Cohen prove that it can be creative, involving and exciting. Siegel has escaped the influence of John Coltrane, and it's possible to spend time working out his tenor influences before deciding that he is pure Siegel, with a sound that is fluid, warm and engaging. Siegel seems to enjoy the tenor; he plays it like ...

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"Spontaneous sparkle, Siegel's wailing, swerving lines burst with character" John Fordham, The Guardian “With drive, a warm sound and an endless flow of ideas, Siegel's lines seem somehow three dimensional, even at breakneck tempos.” Hi-Fi News and Record Review ( 'Vista' Album Choice - March 2018)"A world class saxophonist" - Jazz UK.

“Kept an awestruck audience on tenterhooks” JazzUK, Julian Siegel Trio, Vortex, Jan07

"Approaches the depth and sensitivity of a Wayne Shorter or Stan Getz." Straight No Chaser

''Interfacing between the worlds of straightahead, free improv and dance grooves, Siegel posits his sonic world with a coherence and strength of character that reflects the lucidity of a man who knows exactly who he is. No matter what he plays.' Kevin Le Gendre, Echoes

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Primary Instrument

Saxophone, tenor

Willing to teach

Beginner to advanced

Credentials/Background

Saxophone Professor at the Royal Academy of Music London https://www.ram.ac.uk/about-us/staff/julian-siegel Saxophone Professor at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance, London http://www.trinitylaban.ac.uk/

Clinic/Workshop Information

International Jazz Summer School https://jazzsummerschool.com/

Photos

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Tales from the...

Whirlwind Recordings
2021

buy

Liberation Time

Abstract Logix
2021

buy

Vista

Whirlwind Recordings
2018

buy

Partisans - Swamp

Whirlwind Recordings
2014

buy

And So It Goes...

Babel Label
2012

buy

Urban Theme Park

Basho Records
2011

buy
https://soundcloud.com/julian-siegel

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