SFQ2 ••••
SFQ2 ••••
Alex Ward - clarinet • Guy Llewellyn - french horn • Simon H. Fell - double bass • Mark Sanders - percussion
compositions and arrangements for quartet by Simon H. Fell
• "Outstanding.
Simon Fell is at the forefront of developing musical structures
which release - rather than constrain - his collaborators."
Jez Nelson JAZZ ON 3, BBC RADIO 3
• "Unmissable."
THE GUARDIAN
• "A
witty, swinging and joyfully audacious synthesis of free
improvisation, experimental jazz and modernist composition." LMC
• "Fell
is one of the most interesting and consistently successful composers
working with improvisers today." RESONANCE
• "Simon
Fell is probably England's most distinguished composer for
improvisers... he's a Lenin in a sea of mediocre anarchy." Ben
Watson RESONANCE FM
SFQ2 is the second instalment in the series of smaller ensembles initiated by Simon Fell in 1999; regularly performing units which would enable Fell to bring his compositional theories and discoveries to bear on organic, flexible groups, featuring some of the finest musicians available.
SFQ1 saw Fell returning to his love of contemporary and experimental jazz composition, featuring a line-up of two horns, piano, bass and drums. SFQ2 was formed in late 2003, and gave their first performance in January 2004. SFQ2 reflects a different set of priorities in Fell's composition, moving slightly away from the jazz influence to emphasise his music's connection with contemporary classical and experimental non-jazz composition, although jazz-influenced elements will not be completely absent. The groups includes some of the UK's leading improvisers, including performers with extensive experience of bridging the gap between improvisation and contemporary composition.
Fell compositions premiered by this group so far include Composition No. 70: Liverpool Quartet
The group's first CD (shared with SFQ1) - Four Compositions - was released by Red Toucan in December 2004.
For further information, recorded examples of the group's music, or details of fees, availability, contact:
Bruce's Fingers, c/o Simon Fell, 29 Teillet, 23400 St. Dizier-Leyrenne, FRANCE
e-mail: info@brucesfingers.com
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Alex Ward first came to prominence for his work with Derek Bailey & Company, and his duo with Steve Noble. Since 1993 he has been working with Switch in The 13 Ghosts, and is a member of Camp Blackfoot. He has also worked with Eugene Chadbourne, Butch Morris, Thurston Moore and doubtless a host of others..... |
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Guy Llewellyn is a specialist in contemporary classical performance, but also has a long association with improvisation and intuitive music. He has worked with Simon Fell several times in the past, as well as with Mark Wastell, Rhodri Davies, Karlheinz Stockhausen, the Anglia Sinfonia, Alan Wilkinson, Cambridge Circus and Paul Hession |
Simon Fell is a composer and double bassist active in free improvisation and contemporary jazz and chamber music. He has worked in small or medium groups with John Butcher, Peter Brötzmann, Lol Coxhill, Billy Jenkins, Joe Morris, Keith Tippett, John Zorn, Derek Bailey, Joey Baron, Elliott Sharp, Billy Bang, Christian Marclay and numerous others, and is a founder member of London Improvisers Orchestra. Other regular groupings include IST, Mick Beck's Something Else, Hession/Wilkinson/Fell and many more. He has presented compositions for improvisers at the LMC Festival, the Termite Festival, the Frakture Festival, Leo Records' Unsung Music Festival, Freedom of the City Festival and on many other occasions. His discography includes over 80 recordings. "A major contemporary musician" - The Penguin Guide To Jazz On CD |
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Mark Sanders has played with jazz, rock and improvising musicians around the world including Jah Wobble, Bill Laswell, Harold Budd, Evan Parker, Jaki Leibezeit, Dudu Pukwana, Elton Dean, Roswell Rudd, David Sylvian, Tim Berne, Mats Gustaffson and Charles Gayle. He is without doubt one of Europe's finest musicians |
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some press responses to other Fell composition projects:
"The debate about
2lst-century music starts right here." HIFI NEWS & RECORD REVIEW
" Music of a passion and
originality unusual in Britain." THE GUINNESS ENCYCLOPAEDIA OF
POPULAR MUSIC
"It's hard to think of
anybody in the UK among the jazz-related musicians of his
generation.....who is working on this scale and with such audacious
inventiveness." THE WIRE
"The sharpest dialogue
between composition and improvisation realised by any English
composer." RESONANCE
"Composition
No. 12.5
is a remarkable piece of work. In short, we have a potential classic
here.....Brilliant." THE WIRE
"Some of the most vivid and
creative improvisation/composition fusions in recent times." THE
PENGUIN GUIDE TO JAZZ ON CD, LP & CASSETTE
" Fell's serialist tenets
are radically energised by the shades of Mingus and Dolphy, while the
baggy excesses which can mar jazz or extended free improvisation have
been pared away, leaving finely variegated and beautifully balanced
compositions." THE WIRE
" Remarkable for its
ambitious objective as well as the means employed, Composition
No. 30
must be recognised as a significant event for British jazz." IMPROJAZZ
"Two hours of music, 42
musicians, one mad genius at its centre. I am starting to believe
that Simon H. Fell is one of the most important composers alive, and
releases like Composition
No. 30
just make the case more cut-and-dried by the minute." RESONANCE
"The monumental Composition
No. 30,
is an important monument in the history of late 20th
Century music. In this single piece one finds not only Ives, Webern,
Cage, Ligeti, Partch, and Boulez, but also Ellington, Mingus, Sousa,
Sun Ra, and even a little urban blues. It's as if all of Braxton's
varied and copious output were microscoped into one audacious work
for large ensemble. Fell seems to me to have created a piece of music
on the level of Boulez' Pli
Selon Pli and
Ives' Holidays Symphony.
Fell's Composition
No.30 for
Improvisers, Big Band and Chamber Ensemble is nothing less than a
summing up and distillation of the experimental strains of Western
music at the end of the millennium. It's a resounding success; a
modern masterpiece. Composition
No. 30 should
not only be considered as one of the top ten recordings of the year,
but (move over all you Cardews, Birtwistles and Ferneyhoughs!) as one
of the most important musical works to come out of Britain since the
Sixties." CADENCE
"Listening to this music, I
feel as if it is an inexhaustible document - that there is more
substance, more happening than I could ever take in. Composition
No. 30
is truly a land-mark recording in contemporary music." SIGNAL TO NOISE
"Composition
No. 30
is the lifetime masterpiece by a major contemporary musician -
except, of course, Fell is hopefully going to be delivering much more
music to us yet." THE PENGUIN GUIDE TO JAZZ ON CD
all photos: © Jo Fell
