Vipertime spring 2024 tour
Vipertime are back on the road this spring. We’re hitting a load of brand new venues and some old favourites and can’t wait to share new music with you. See you down the front x
Poster design by Jon Lodder.
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Vipertime november dates
Vipertime are back on the road this November for a handful of very special shows. On 14th November we’ll be making our first visit to the amazing Cornish Bank in Falmouth. This show has been in the pipeline for a long, long time and we’re dleighted to finally make it work. Then on 15th we’re returning to the Big Smoke to play a show for EFG London Jazz Festival. You can catch us at Off The Cuff in Herne Hill alongside the amazing Knats. Then finally on 17th we’re back at The Lighthouse in Deal to play a double bill with our brothers in arms Clusters of Eyes as part of the venue’s 10th anniversary celebrations.
14 Nov - Cornish Bank, Falmouth
15 Nov - Off The Cuff, London
17 Nov - The Lighthouse, Deal
Poster by the amazing (and very affordable) Jon Lodder
Vipertime album and tour annoucement
News news news. Vipertime are hitting the road this spring to tour our long awaited second album Arise. We are immensely proud of this record and can’t wait to hit some of our favourite venues in the country. The album drops 5th May and pre-orders are live on Bandcamp now, including limited edition vinyl cut by Press On Vinyl in sunny Middlesborough. Hit the North!
Get your vinyl and digital orders in here: https://vipertime.bandcamp.com/
And get your ticket and other updates here: https://linktr.ee/vipertimemusic
Catch us on the road at...
10/05 - The Crescent Community Venue, York
12/05 - Cobalt Studios CIC, Newcastle
13/05 - Northern Quarter, Huddersfield
16/05 - Frederiks, Liverpool
17/05 - The Old Blue Last, London
18/05 - The Canteen, Bristol
19/05 - Bossaphonik, Oxford
21/05 - SMSJ -Old School Room, Clitheroe
29/05 - Hyde Park Book Club, Leeds
07/06 - Peggys Skylight, Nottingham
Leeds Jazz Festival 2022
I’ve got a handful of gigs for this year’s inaugral Leeds Jazz Festival. Exciting times….
On 2 June Another Workout returns to Domino Club to pay tribue to the golden era of Blue Note Records. For this LJF special we’ll be performing Herbie Hancock’s Takin’ Off and Wayne Shorter’s Speak No Evil in full. It’s free entry, but reserve a table to secure a good spot.
I’ve assembled a Leeds super group to play Brudenell Social Club on 8 June. Live Evil will be exploring the exploring the 1970s electric works of Miles Davis, including material from A Tribute To Jack Johnson, On The Corner and Live Evil. More fuel for my obsession with Steve Grossman. Tickets available here.
The mighty Salemango Festival returns to Hyde Park Book Club as part of LJF, and I’ll be playing with Vipertime on 10th June and Ben Haskins Quartet on 11th. Other highlights include Mabgate Organ Trio, Spacey Basement Cult, Awen Ensemble, Ferg’s Imaginary Big Band, Shaku, Amy Clarke and Joshua Zero. Bring earplugs. Tix for this one available here.
Check out this Jazz Revelations write up for a deeper insight into what’s going on at LJF 2022 (including an interview with yours truly).
Wandering Monster + AADAL at Hyde Park Book Club
Wandering Monster are teaming up with touring Norwegian group AADAL for a show at Hyde Park Book Club in Leeds on 3rd November. Both bands draw from the jazz canon as well as folk, rock, free improvisation and electronic music and tickets are on sale HERE.
You can hear music from and find out more about Wandering Monster here and AADAL here.
Worldservice Project + Roller Trio UK Tour
WorldService Project are back on the road this November with our brothers in arms Roller Trio. This will be the long overdue album tour for our September 2020 release Hiding In Plain Sight and we can’t wait to be performing it live. We kick off at this years EFG London Jazz Festival and tickets for all shows are now on sale via the links below. You know what to do.
16 Nov - Rich Mix, EFG London Jazz Festival
17 Nov - The Jam Jar, Bristol
18 Nov - Bonington Theatre, Nottingham
19 Nov - Aatma, Manchester
20 Nov - Cobalt Studios, Newcastle
21 Nov - Wharf Chambers, Leeds
‘Limbs / All Our Heroes Are dead’ - New offerings from Vipertime
New Vipertime single ‘Limbs’ and B-side ‘All Our Heroes Are Dead’ were released yesterday on HPBC Records. These were recorded in December 2019 but release was delayed by The Plague, so it’s great to have them roaming free in the wild. We’ve already hit the ground running with BBC 6 Music plays on Gilles Peterson’s show, Worldwide FM plays from Colin Curtis and Tina Edwards and a review from Jazz Revelations.
Both tracks are available on all your streaming services but, as always, we’re pointing you to the good people at Bandcamp. Check out the rest of the HPBC Records catalogue while you’re there - there’s some great music there, occasionally featuring me.
Our Jazzland show at Brudenell Social Club has been rescheduled for 30th April (tickets available here) and before then we’re heading up to The Globe in Newcastle to stream a live session. Grab your tickets here.
New releases for a new year
Although it might not feel like a new year, Leeds-based label HPBC Records are hitting the ground running with three new releases. I’ve been helping out on the label side of things as well as playing saxophone on two of these.
First up on 5th February (conveniently the next Bandcamp Friday) is new Vipertime single Limbs accompanied by the B-side ‘All Our Heroes Are Dead’. These were recorded at Eiger Studios in Leeds at the tail end of 2019, so they’ve been in the vault a little while and we can’t wait to share the fire and the fury. Our launch show at Brudenell Social Club has been inevitably postponed, but we’ll keep you in the loop.
After that is the equally long awaited Lara, A Piano At Night by Lara Jones, stepping away from her usual saxophone and electronics for some meditative piano music also recorded at Eiger Studios.
Then in March is the next release from Ben Haskins Quartet, also featuring yours truly on saxophone. Ben’s been writing some great music in a Bill Frisell/Kurt Rosenwinkel mould but has also totally found his own voice. This was a pleasure to record.
Keep an eye on HPBC Records social media for updates, teasers and reviews in the next few weeks.
Jazzland Sessions
Stalwart of the Yorkshire jazz scene DJ Lubi Jovanovic has set up a series of socially distant jazz gigs at the legendary Brudenell Social Club. This winter the Jazzland Sessions will bring you the best in ‘0113 contemprary jazz sounds’ and I’m lucky enough to be playing three shows, with Vipertime, Wandering Monster and Blue Note Records tribute project Another Workout. Tickets are limited, so snap them up.
Full Jazzland Sessions listings are:
5th December - Wandering Monster + Jasmine
9 December - Ugetsu + Jeff Hewer
12 December - Malcolm Strachan Sextet
30 January - Vipertime (Single Launch) + Book
12 February - Another Workout
I can’t wait to be back in my favourite boozer and spiritual home, playing music with humans for humans.
New worldservice project album ‘hiding in plain sight’ out 25 september
Back in January WorldService Project holed up at Greenmount Studios in Leeds to record our fifth album Hiding In Plain Sight, released 25th September on RareNoise Records. The tunes had been written by Dave and then we learned and gigged them while on tour across Italy the previous album. In Leeds, under the guiding hand of Liran Donin, we hewed this raw material into the rugged yet perfectly formed album that will soon grace your ears.
“Packing a mighty sonic punch, the stripped-back heavy riffing is matched with timely political subject matter and irreverent humour” - Jazzwise Magazine
Check out the video for the first single ‘Deeper’ below and order your CDs and LPs via RareNoise HERE.
Video Evidence of a real life indoor gig
I had an actual indoor gig performing to real humans recently thanks to the good people at Seven Arts and Jazz Leeds. Our friend Trevor took some videos which have now surfaced on Youtube. The first is a tune of mine called Scorpio and the second is the Joe Henderson classic Isotope, both performed in the stellar company of Ben Haskins on guitar, Sam Quintana on bass and Josh Smout on drums.
Sam, Josh and I will be playing some more of my compositions at Hyde Park Book Club in Leeds on 3rd September as well as in a live steam from Sela Bar on 16th September.
Gigs + streams, Take II
Due to bad weather and a suspected (but negative) case of Covid, my gigs and livestreams last week ended up being cancelled. They’ve now been reschduled and I’ve got some new ones too. So….
23 August - Ben Powling/Ben Haskins Quartet at Seven Arts, Leeds, 1:30pm
25 August - Vipertime Facebook livestream hosted by Hyde Park Book Club, 8pm
27 August - Howlin’ Ric & The Rocketeers livestream from Sela Bar, 8:30pm
3 September - Ben Powling Trio at Hyde Park Book Club, 9pm
16 September - Ben Powling Trio livestream from Sela Bar, 8:30pm
24 Septmeber - Wandering Monster livestream from Sela Bar, 8:30pm (Single Launch Show)
The gigs are on the horizon
As we begin to creep back towards normailty I’m pleased to announce that I have some “real life” and some live streamed performances coming up.
On 5th August I’ll be playing quartet with Ben Haskins, Sam Quintana and Joshua Smout at Seven Arts in Leeds and on 6th Sam, Josh and I will be livestreaming a trio performance from Sela Bar. Both shows will include some new music I’ve written during lockdown, some older originals and some music by Joe Henderson, Cedar Walton and Benny Golson.
5th August - Ben Powling/Ben Haskins 4tet @ Seven Arts, Leeds. 6pm
6th August - Ben Powling Trio livestream from Sela Bar. Tune in on Facebook
Quarentine saxophone inspiration
One upside of lockdown has been the sheer amount of time to listen to music. I've used this to re-focus on listening to jazz (with short breaks for Killing Joke and The Birthday Party) and this time spent with a lot of saxophone-led music has been really integrated with my practice.
I've put together a playlist of tracks from albums that have been of particular inspiration in the last few months, featuring some of the grand masters and recent music by Denys Baptiste, Tori Freestone, Josephine Davies and Polar Bear.
You can listen on Spotify here or at the embedded player below.
Lockdown activies
Like most other musicians, this Spring I had the unpleasant experience of wathcing my diary for 2020 be wiped swiftly clean. That said, lockdown has been a great time to compose, practice and rest and, resilient as we are, musicians are still finding ways to be creative.
In April Vipertime released Live At Smugglers Festival, an EP recorded the previous August. This is available on Bandcamp as PAYF download with all proceeds going to the amazing charity Solidaritech.
I also put together some quarantine Spotify playlists for Vipertime and Mansion of Snakes, kept regulary updated with tracks by our heroes, friends and peers. You can check them out here and here.
If you like your music to be curated in a more hamfisted (but hopefully endearing) way, I also live steamed several vinyl DJ sets from my living room in collaboration with Hyde Park Jazz Club. These are availabe to watch in full on their Facebook page.
Vipertime also took part in a live streamed “festival” run by Matt & Phreds and Lancaster Jazz Festival. Matías, Luke and I each recorded a solo improvisation at home, plus we included some live footage from Smugglers Festival and Hyde Park Book Club back in 2019. You can see this in full here plus I’ve included my saxophone improvisation below.