Join us for a night of new, improvised & free music. The evening opens with Dan Johnson & Tina Hitchens presenting a musical dialogue stretching the boundaries of their instruments and exploring the textural & rhythmic responses between each other & their environment. Heading proceedings will be the trio of Raph Clarkson, Charlotte Keeffe & Tony Orrell, celebrated free explorers and improvisers of the contemporary Jazz scene.

Raph Clarkson is a trombonist, improviser, composer / arranger & workshop leader. His guiding principle is the power in music to form connections in community and collaboration. Raph has an inviting, open spirit and his playing and approach celebrates loved ones, mentors and musical inspirations.

Noted as one of the rising stars of the U.K. improv scene, celebrated by Verity Sharp of BBC Radio 3's Late Junction and applauded by Adrian Pallant of London Jazz News for his ability to create 'challenging but engaging music' of deep feeling with openness and experimentation.

We welcome Raph as a new resident amongst us in Bristol & are grateful for his energetic magnetism in drawing exciting collaborators together.

Charlotte Keeffe is a trumpeter & flugelhorn player. A committed free improviser, Jazz & experimental musician, Charlotte has performed extensively from Cafe OTO to the London Jazz Festival, a sell out performance at Lancaster Jazz festival & at the beginning of this year she was invited to perform at the Ear We Are International Improvised Music Festival in Switzerland where she shared the stage with Moor Mother & Irreversible Entanglements.

Charlotte is a jazz and improvised music trumpet professor at the London Performing Academy of Music. She is also part of the Parliamentary Award Winning, Women in Jazz Media team, working in collaboration to create gender and diversity equality within the music/jazz industry. She is inspired by the way painters explore colours and shapes, referring to her trumpet and flugelhorn as her ‘sound brushes’.

Her music has been featured on Jazz FM, BBC Radio 3 & BBC Radio 6.

Tony Orrell is a wonderfully playful, free flowing & searching percussionist & drummer. A celebrated presence amongst the Bristol Jazz scene, Tony’s drumming has sparkled on many recordings & live shows from his trio with Pat Thomas & Dominic Lash to collaborations with Will Gregory & Adrian Utley and drumming on Goldfrapp’s Felt Mountain.

Dan Johnson is a freelance musician, performance artist, and teacher specialising in improvisation, rhythm, listening, and creative development. As a musician and performer, Dan's work is rooted in improvisation and seeks to explore human nature; exposing and expanding the limits of mind, body, & spirit. Perhaps best known as the primary drummer with EP/64, Dan is also an accomplished educator. He has shared original research and led workshops on listening and creativity at conferences and universities throughout the UK. He is currently interested in relationships between sound, silence, self and others.

Tina Hitchens is a flautist, improviser, composer, and sound artist. As a performer she has specialised in free improvisation for over 15 years, currently appearing with Viridian Ensemble, Harpoon, and Halftone. Tina has worked across musical disciplines in collaboration with many musicians including  Keith Tippett, Dominic Lash & Helen Papaioannou. Her most recent album, Right Into the River, was released on TBC Editions in 2021.

Dan & Tina started playing as a percussion and flute duo during the first lockdown in 2020, exploring the acoustic possibilities of outside spaces across the empty city of Bristol. Through improvisation they explore their immediate environment, the silence and shape of space

Doors: 7:30 pm