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Gavin Barras

Born in Kendal, Cumbria Gavin Barras studied music at the University of Manchester, receiving private tuition from Roberto Carillo-Garcia and Corin Long. Whist studying classical music Gavin continued developing his love for jazz and received lessons from Steve Berry in jazz bass. Gavin is a busy working musician, actively involved in several recording and touring projects both in the UK and abroad. His influences on bass include Ray Brown, Paul Chambers, Wilbur Ware, Charlie Haden, Christian McBride, George Mraz, Hein van de Geyn and electric bassist Jaco Pastorius. Gavin is also heavily influenced by Chet Baker, John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Enrico Pieranunzi and Billy Higgins. He has performed at jazz festivals such as London, Manchester, Brecon, Glasgow, Wigan, Southport and Birmingham. Overseas he has appeared at the North Sea Jazz Festival in the Netherlands and in 2010 travelled to Taiwan to perform at the Taipai International Jazz Festival. Recent and forthcoming venues Gavin has performed at include Ronnie Scott’s (London), Pizza Express Jazz Club (London), The Vortex (London), Royal Festival Hall (London), King’s Place (London), Matt and Phred’s Jazz Club (Manchester), The Bridgewater Hall (Manchester), Symphony Hall (Birmingham), Dizzy’s Jazz Club (Rotterdam), Sounds Jazz Club (Brussels), Music Village (Brussels), Cafe Alto (Amsterdam). Gavin has played with musicians such as saxophonists Tim Garland, Dave O’Higgins, Iain Dixon and Ed Jones; trumpeters Neil Yates and Steve Waterman; pianists Les Chisnall, Dan Whieldon, Rick Simpson and Zoe Rahman; guitarists Mike Walker, Stuart McCallum, Gary Boyle and Mike Outram; drummers Luke Flowers, Dave Walsh, Jon Scott, Pat Illingworth and Eryl Roberts. Gavin is currently a member of several groups including EU4, Dan Whieldon Trio, Jadid Ensemble, Sarah Ellen Hughes Band, 6Pac Jazz Sextet, Nat Birchall Band, Matthew Halsall Band, Unfurl and Steve Plews Trio. A founding member of the jazz quartet EU4, Gavin has toured the UK, Ireland, the Netherlands and Belgium. The band features musicians from Slovakia, Germany, Holland and the UK and they recorded their debut album in 2008 on GLP Records. Their second album was released on the Netherlands’ OAP Records in October 2011. Recorded near Amsterdam, it features original compositions by Gavin and the rest of the band. As a member of the Matthew Halsall Quintet Gavin has featured on three critically acclaimed albums and, in 2011 appeared on Jamie Cullum’s BBC Radio 2 jazz show. He has also been involved in several live sessions for BBC 6 Music and for Gilles Peterson’s Worldwide Show on BBC Radio One with both the Matthew Halsall and Nat Birchall Bands.

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Album Review

Matthew Halsall: Bright Sparkling Light

Read "Bright Sparkling Light" reviewed by Geno Thackara


Like an author adding a surprise epilogue when you thought the novel was all wrapped up, Matthew Halsall turns out to still have another turn up his sleeve. An Ever Changing View (Gondwana, 2023) offered the musical equivalent of a seaside creative retreat--the kind of vacation that inevitably seems too short, yet would also feel less special if it actually went on much longer. Fortunately there turned out to be enough unused material to make a complementary EP alongside the ...

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Album Review

Matthew Halsall: An Ever Changing View

Read "An Ever Changing View" reviewed by Geno Thackara


Whatever view Matthew Halsall is sharing here, it is drawn from life and correspondingly picturesque--not just always changing, but always colorful and fascinating. This View comes partly from the sea-and-sky vistas he enjoyed while creating it, splitting time between England and Wales. Partly, it also comes from a couple of years collecting a trove of percussive odds-and-ends, and cheerfully playing with all the organic sounds they offered. Tinkering with those tones, with no strict framework in mind, he produces a ...

4
Album Review

Matthew Halsall: An Ever Changing View

Read "An Ever Changing View" reviewed by Chris May


Based in the northern English city of Manchester, trumpeter Matthew Halsall debuted on record in 2008 with Sending My Love (Gondwana), a stylish take on the meditative end of the spiritual jazz of Alice Coltrane and Pharoah Sanders. Halsall's emergence pre-dated by over half a decade that of the London alternative scene vanguarded by musicians such as Nubya Garcia and Shabaka Hutchings, and his trajectory has continued to progress quite apart from it. This is unusual in England, a small ...

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Album Review

Jasmine Myra: Horizons

Read "Horizons" reviewed by Chris May


Unlike America, a country big enough to support multiple, more or less autonomous jazz scenes, England, like its European neighbours, is more suited to supporting a single centre. However, by a combination of talent and perseverance, a few artists have managed to create regional scenes which flourish independently of London. One such artist is the trumpeter, producer and record label director Matthew Halsall (interviewed here), who is based in the northern city of Manchester. Halsall's own albums ...

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Album Review

Matthew Halsall: Salute To The Sun

Read "Salute To The Sun" reviewed by Chris May


Trumpeter and composer Matthew Halsall is an inspirational figure on the British scene, as a musician and as the founder of the successful Gondwana Records label. Based in the northern city of Manchester, two hundred miles and a lifestyle away from London, Halsall debuted in 2008 with Sending My Love, on which he unveiled his distinctive spiritual-jazz take on the less-is-more modalism and lustrous sound of Miles Davis circa Kind Of Blue (Columbia, 1959). Since then, Halsall's bands have accelerated ...

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Take Five With...

Take Five With Gavin Barras

Read "Take Five With Gavin Barras" reviewed by Gavin Barras


Meet Gavin Barras: Born in Kendal, Cumbria in the UK, bassist Gavin Barras studied music at the University of Manchester, receiving private tuition from Roberto Carillo-Garcia and Corin Long. Whist studying classical music, Gavin continued developing his love for jazz and received lessons from Steve Berry in jazz bass. Gavin is a busy working musician, actively involved in several recording and touring projects both in the UK and abroad.Instrument(s): Double bass and bass guitar.

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Recording

Gavin Barras Quintet Releases "Day Of Reckoning"

Gavin Barras Quintet Releases "Day Of Reckoning"

Source: Gavin Barras

GAVIN BARRAS QUINTET 
NEW ALBUM – Day of Reckoning (ASC Record) Release Date: June 11, 2012 As excitement builds for the launch of Gavin Barras’s latest album, Day of Reckoning, ASC Records are proud to confirm that saxophonist Ed Jones is a major feature of the album. Also featuring Dave Walsh on drums, Corey Mwamba on vibes and Steve Plews, piano The album was inspired by the riots and violence that spread throughout the country last summer. Gavin explains: “On ...

The Independent on Sunday – June 10th 2012 Album: Gavin Barras Quintet, Day of Reckoning (ASC) The first jazz response to last summer’s riots, inspired by bassist Barras’s experience travelling back from a gig at Ronnie Scott’s to his home in Manchester, where he watched TV news with the sound down as he composed the material for this album. It’s a quintet, with Ed Jones on tenor, Corey Mwamba on vibes, Steve Plews on piano and Dave Walsh on drums and the overall mood is swinging but edgy, with Jones wailing mightily.

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Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Bright Sparkling Light

Gondwana Records
2024

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An Ever Changing View

Gondwana Records
2023

buy

Horizons

Gondwana Records
2022

buy

Salute To The Sun

Gondwana Records
2020

buy

Day of Reckoning

ASC Records
2012

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Day of Reckoning

From: Day of Reckoning
By Gavin Barras

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