Yamaha More Music!
New Artists
Jazz and jazz-related performers
Ruby Wood (vocal)
Singer Ruby Wood won a Yamaha Parliamentary Jazz Scholarship in 2008, while studying at Leeds College of Music. Since receiving her award she has enjoyed turning her skills to a broad range of music, with bands like Submotion Orchestra and Extra Curricular, alongside her writing and gigging duo with guitarist Noah Burton. While some musicians may regret the fact they they need to be able to turn their hands to all kinds of musical activities in order to sustain a career in a highly competitive professional world, Ruby has a very positive attitude to this and is enjoying broadening her horizons with activities ranging from hip-hop to a capella singing! We look forward to following her developing career. (November 2010)
Kit Downes (piano)
Kit Downes (piano) won a Yamaha Parliamentary Jazz Scholarship in 2009 while studying at the Royal Academy of Music and has already taken the British and international jazz scenes by storm. A breath-taking improviser, Kit has played with Empirical, Troyka, Stan Sulzman, Peter Ind and Dennis Rollins' Badbone. Kit's own trio features 2008 Yamaha Parliamentary Jazz winner, double bassist Calum Gourlay and drummer James Maddren. The trio's influences are wide-ranging - from Bela Bartok to Keith Jarrett to Rufus Wainwright - and pays homage to the classic piano trio tradition but most certainly develops it further. The Kit Downes Trio was nominated for a Mercury prize in 2010. (August 2010)
Rick Simpson (piano)
London-based Rick Simpson won a Yamaha Parliamentary Jazz Scholarship in 2008, when he was in his final year of his jazz studies at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama. Rick plays playing a wide variety of music but his great love is leading his own group, the Rick Simpson Quartet, playing his own compositions. He is a regular performer at the 606 Jazz Club, Pizza Express Dean Street, The Vortex, The Bull's Head, Charlie Wright's, and larger venues such as the Royal Festival Hall and the Purcell Room. Since graduating from the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, he has performed with musicians such as John Patitucci, Rufus Reid, Martin Speake, Stan Sulzmann, Jeff Williams and Alan Barnes, as well as younger London musicians, such as Paul Booth, Phil Donkin, James Maddren, Zhenya Strigalev and Mark Hanslip. He has also performed at Ronnie Scott's with actor Kevin Spacey. (August 2010)
Calum Gourlay (double bass)
Calum Gourlay was a 2008 winner of the Yamaha Parliamentary Jazz Scholarships, who has gone on to enjoy a busy career since graduating from the Royal Academy of Music, working with the likes of Tommy Smith, the Scottish National Jazz Orchestra, Cathie Rae, Richard Michael, Pete Churchill, Stan Sulzmann, Gwilym Simcock and Tom Cawley. He is very much in demand as a session player, too. Calum is a bass-playing embodiment of the Yamaha More Music! legacy and works with several former Yamaha jazz scholars, and is the regular bass player the in Kit Downes Trio. His own Calum Gourlay Quintet, a relatively new venture, has already performed in London to critical acclaim. (March 2010)
Zem Audu (sax)
Zem Audu was a 2008 Yamaha Parliamentary Jazz Scholarship winner, whose music career has already exploded on to the international scene since he graduated with first-class honours from the jazz course at Trinity College of Music. He has played with Gary Crosby's Nu-Troop, Jazz Jamaica, Trevor Watkiss, Mica Paris and Hugh Masekela. He is an experienced workshop leader and educator, having worked for many years with a world music group under Roger Watson's Traditional Arts Projects banner, and with Tomorrow's Warriors. Zem played for a Yamaha event at the 2009 Federation of Music Services conference with another 2008 Yamaha Parliamentary Jazz Scholarship winner, pianist Rick Simpson, where Zem's sax playing was never less than impressive and where he also gathered new fans amongst the heads of UK music services. We hope to involve Zem in future Yamaha Education workshops and will post details here as they occur. (December 2009)
(updated: November 2010)