Guildhall Jazz Festival: Nikki Yeoh's Café Oran

Harry Trevillion flute, alto saxophone and fx
Tom Potter acoustic/electronic drums
Kavi Maraj bass guitar, bass synthesizer and sound design

Jazz Flute Sucks is the latest project spearheaded by multi-instrumentalist composer and improviser Harry Trevillion (Steam Down, cityscape ensemble, etc). In this experimental concert, Harry joins forces with celebrated drummer Tom Potter (Guildhall Alumni, Rosie Frator-Taylor, Matt Carmichael etc) and up-and-coming bass player and sound designer Kavi Maraj (Morgan Noise, Faker Villain, Sokkyo) for a set of improvised grooves and IDM soundscapes . Expect to hear jazz improvisation, hard-hitting UK Breakbeat, euphoric house and plenty more.

Harry Trevillion- Harry Trevillion is a recent graduate of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. His angular and creative approach to flute playing has led him to share stages with some of the most exciting names in UK Jazz such as Steam Down, Moses Boyd, Theon Cross and, his mentor, Gareth Lockrane. When not working as a sideman, Harry fronts his own project cityscape ensemble who are booked to perform at some of London's most iconic jazz music venues: Pizza Express Soho, 91 Living Room and Jazz in The Round. In addition, he regularly performs music in improvised settings where music is written on the spot in reaction to what the other performers are doing.

Trevillion put together Jazz Flute Sucks to explore the relationship between jazz and electronic music styles (house, jungle, garage, IDM, glitchcore, hip-hop etc), his major influences for this project being legendary producers such as Squarepusher, SOPHIE and Aphex Twin and jazz fusion musicians such as Louis Cole, Kamaal Williams and DOMi & JD BECK who are playing with melding genres in interesting and unique ways."

Max Barnard tenor saxophone
Dan Fawcett electric guitar
Cara Joshi electric bass
Josh McGregor electric baritone guitar
Fin Millard drums

The Colossals are a jazz-funk five-piece who take influence from Snarky Puppy, Casiopea, The Brecker Brothers and Marcus Miller, to name a few. Their sound combines a tight rhythmic foundation with searing melodies and dreamy textures, creating a platform for experimentation and improvisation, they strive to push the boundaries of instrumental funk and groove-based music.

Formed of Fin Millard (drums), Cara Joshi (bass), Max Barnard (saxophone), Josh McGregor (baritone guitar) and Dan Fawcett (guitar), they began playing together because of their love for music with grooves that you can’t help but dance to, and melodies that you can’t help but sing back. Their explosive live shows are unforgettable and unmistakable, they demonstrate a high level of tightness developed from hours of playing together.

Mário Correia guitar/vocals
Martina Mihulková flute/vocals
Ed Rice piano
Jakub Rokosz drums/percussion
Mark McQuillan bass

United by a love of Brazilian music, Aquarela offer a unique blend of jazz and Afro-Brazilian traditions, presenting compelling grooves and melodic jazz improvisation. They perform music by the likes of Gilberto Gil, Caetano Veloso, João Donato, João Bosco, Djavan, Hermeto Pascoal, Pixnguinha, Luiz Gonzaga and many more. Aquarela create a feel-good vibe and always get their audiences swinging their hips. Formed of promising graduates and current students of the Jazz department of Guildhall School, Aquarela members trained in Brazilian music in the acclaimed samba band Rhythms of the City, performing for the Queen's Platinum Jubilee, at carnival-themed events at Maxilla Social Club, at Dover Castle, or in numerous processions around London.

Aquarela have performed at Southend Jazz Festival 2023, High Tide Festival 2022, and intimate venues around London, including Finch Café, Hoxton Cabin, Doña Bar, and Basement Bar EC1. Aquarela members have individually performed on stages like the Vortex Jazz Bar, Old Street Records, Pizza Express Live jazz clubs, larger venues including Royal Albert Hall, Cadogan Hall, Barbican Hall, Bridgewater Hall, Birmingham Symphony Hall, and stages across European cities.

Maurice El Médioni (born 18 Oct 1928 in Oran, Algeria) is considered by many to be one of the grandparents of Algerian pop music. An Algerian Jewish pianist, composer  and interpreter of Andalusian, Rai, Chaabi, Sephardic and Arabic music, he is one of the few living artists to have performed with the great Chaabi artists Lili Labassi, Line Monty, Samy el maghribiand Reinette l’Oranaise, along with modern Rai greats like Khaled.

Max Reinhardt, broadcaster and  editor of Maurice’s memoir,  will trace his music and  piano style,  tell his story and explain the connection with Nikki Yeoh, jazz piano virtuoso and composer, who has totally fallen for the art of the Master of Pianoriental.

Jack Ross trumpet
Julian Woods guitar
Finn Genockey drums/vibes
Sam Leak piano/Moog
Eliot Whitehouse double bass
Grazina Pukaite vocals

The ‘Anatomy of Being’ explores various musical influences and genres, such as folk, jazz and electronic, combined with fearless improvisation elements, contemporary harmony, lush melodies, free jazz elements, and spoken word while setting the tone for contrasting textural sounds.
Compositions include 'Ode to my skin', 'Ode to my Soles', 'Ode to my right lobe', 'Ode to my backbone', and 'Ode to my heart and fingers’, to name a few.

'Ode to my backbone' – an original composition that reflects on childhood and a multicultural upbringing by combining unexpected fearless improvisation, with fragments of Lithuanian folk tradition, free jazz elements, spoken word, and a melodic wordless overflowing conversation between voice and trumpet, in contrast to an intense atmosphere of whispers and an internal buzz from electronics.

'Ode to my heart and fingers' – another original composition that explores the patterns and cycles of memory and subconscious in micro and macrocosms in us. The hypnotic soundscapes create a textural foundation for the lush harmonies, quirky lyrics, mellow and loose melody, riffs, and expressive drumming.

Nikki Yeoh’s Café Oran:
Nikki Yeoh piano/synth
Stuart Hall double bass/violin/oud
Demi Sabat Garcia drums/percussion

Nikki Yeoh’s Café Oran project celebrates the music of Maurice El Médioni. A self-taught pianist, Médioni frequented Oran‘s American bars in the 1940s, where he played boogie-woogie and Cuban music fused with the distinct influences with Arabic music. Nikki Yeoh's trio combine his music with her own compositions.

Find out more Maurice El Médioni and his music in a pre-performance talk at 6pm with Max Reinhardt & Nikki Yeoh entitled A Memoir: From Oran to Marseilles 

Nikki Yeoh is a creative free spirit who, although deeply rooted in the language of improvisation, is open to a range of music that leans as much to populism as it does high art. Since her emergence on the British jazz scene in the mid-90s, Nikki has proved to be an improviser, composer and all-round adventurer who has continually sought to broaden her musical horizons.
Those who have seen Yeoh will testify to her virtuosity on the keyboard. Drawing on pioneers from the worlds of jazz, classical music and soul, above all the likes of Herbie Hancock, Alexander Scriabin and Stevie Wonder, Yeoh has developed a style that can move from explosive rhythmic energy to understated lyricism at a moment’s notice. Her ability to conjure up the most vividly evocative of moods by way of subtle, probing harmony has been proven time and again.

Nikki also performs with NYJO on the final day of the Guildhall Jazz Festival.