ABOUT
"Truly inspirational..the octet were simply superb. Thank you and the guys for all their hard work and wonderful playing"
The great jazz bass player, composer, arranger and bandleader, Charles Mingus had a unique approach to the development and performance of music, combining composition and collective improvisation to create music that was at provocative and avant-garde as well as being rooted in the jazz tradition and in blues and gospel music.
Based in Sussex, The Mingus Underground Octet, formed in 2014 and including some of the finest jazz and improvising musicians in the South East and London are dedicated to capturing the excitement and the spirit of Mingus’s music and to giving audiences the opportunity to hear his unique legacy performed live by a larger ensemble.
The Octet have performed sell-out shows at the Love Supreme Festival, The Brunswick in Hove, at the inaugural South Coast Jazz festival and at the Verdict Jazz Club.
The Mingus Underground Octet are:
Mark Bassey - trombone
David Beebee - piano
Milo Fell - drums
Rob Leake - baritone sax, bass clarinet, flute
Sam Miles - tenor sax
Terry Pack - double bass
Andy Pickett - alto sax
Martijn van Galen - trumpet, flugelhorn
The Octet frequently perform with poet Gilli Bloodaxe, who brings his dark humour to Mingus' 'The Clown' as well as performing his own poems set to music.
THE BAND
The members of the Mingus Underground Octet are all talented improvising musicians and composers playing in many other contexts and leading thier own projects.
MARK BASSEY - TROMBONE
Jazz trombonist Mark Bassey has been described as "a superb, witty player" (Dave Gelly). His playing can stretch from the "raucous" (John Fordham) to an "exquisite sound and perfect phrasing" (Brian Blain). Mark is a highly versatile musician who can be heard in many different guises playing with Alan Barnes, Julian Arguelles, Nikki Iles, recently with Billy Jenkins and the BBC Big Band, and also at Ronnie Scotts with Liane Carroll.
Mark has written numerous compositions and arrangements, many of which have been recorded and/or broadcast - over 30 big band charts and various commissions including work for the Associated Board. In 2007 he released Mark Bassey's Telling Stories, featuring his own highly programmatic writing. His quintet Bassey Plays Basie also has an album in the pipeline.
Mark has been involved with jazz education for over 25 years, teaching all instruments and running classes in harmony, improvisation, composition and arranging at many colleges including the Royal Academy of Music, Trinity College of Music, and also the Jamey Aebersold jazz summer school.
DAVID BEEBEE - PIANO
David Beebee is a piano and bass player and composer who lives in Seaford. He studied piano at the Royal Academy of Music under John Taylor (among others) and has since played a wide range of different music both professionally and for fun. He used to run small record label that released some albums of original jazz and sometimes he tours with the Palestinian singer Reem Kelani. Also he grows vegetables and goes to the Himalaya. The octet feature a number of David's radical reinterpretations of Mingus tunes including Goodbye Pork Pie Hat and Nostalgia in Times Square.
MILO FELL - DRUMS
Milo Fell was born in London in 1970 and began playing drums and percussion as a teenager attending workshops led by Ian Carr. In 1989 he went to Manchester University to study Biology where he met and played with many local and student musicians. After graduating he decided to stay in Manchester and pursue a career as a professional musician, playing with many local bands including John Ellis' Big Bang, Pocket Central, Rare Birds and Clarke/Thorn/Fell and in local rhythm sections for many of the country's top jazz soloists.
After a local date with Saxophonist Tim Whitehead led to an offer of a week at Ronnie Scott's and a recording, Milo decided to move back to London in 1999. Live and recording work followed with Mark Murphy, The Cinematic Orchestra, Tango Siempre, Sounds of Senegal, Tony Woods Project, The Homemade Orchestra, Kenny Wheeler, Michael Rosen, Patrick Naylor's Soundial, Reem Kelani, Nostalgia 77 and Amsterdam based group Dalgoo. Milo has performed in Russia, Poland, Germany, Holland, France, Greece and Ireland.
In 2011, 2012 and 2013 Milo performed with the acclaimed dance show Midnight Tango in the West End and on tour throughout the UK.
Milo relocated to Brighton in 2013 and has since played with locals including Studio 9 Orchestra and Terry Seabrook, as well as continuing to gig regularly in London.
“Restless, clamorously polyrythmic drummer” John Fordham, Guardian
ROB LEAKE - BARITONE SAX, BASS CLARINET, FLUTE
Rob Leake grew up in the North-East and began gigging in and around Newcastle after leaving school. In 1995 he left to go to college at Leeds College of Music. The next 3 years provided a great period of study and playing that ultimately lead to a move to London. Here, Rob landed gigs with Polar Bear, Oreille and extensive work on the salsa scene. The influence of this period was formative. A visit to Hastings brought him into contact with the legendary saxophonist Trevor Watts. Following extensive rehearsals and study with Trevor, Rob toured Europe and the USA with the Celebration Band: a continuation of’ Moire Music’ featuring 4 saxophones and a heavy ‘World music’ component.
Rob is now based in Hastings and enjoys a varied life of playing, teaching and family. Rob’s music is firmly rooted in jazz, but reflects his passion for ‘World’ influences such as Latin and Funk. Rob’s debut album, ’Present Time’, was finished in 2010 and is all of the above. It features Liane Carroll, Pete Wareham, James McMillan, Terry Pack, Nick Peck and Jim Whyte. Currently, I am part of The Hastings Horns, Chacon y su Timba among others.
SAM MILES - TENOR SAXOPHONE
Winner of Yamaha’s Jazz Scholarship programme in 2013, Sam has recently graduated from the Royal Academy of Music Jazz course where he studied with musicians such as Julian Siegel, Stan Sulzmann and Gareth Lockrane. He is also a keen pianist and has been taught by Nikki Iles and Pete Churchill. Growing up in a musical family with a varied music collection, Sam developed a keen interest in harmony and incorporating different styles in his music taking influences from New Orleans and Folk. Sam has regularly performed at Ronnie Scott’s and the 606 Club with bands such as James Taylor & Horns the Sandy Suchodolski Quartet, the Tom Green Septet, Stoop, Quintet and his own Quartet. He recently played with Troyk-estra at Cheltenham Jazz Festival which aired on BBC Radio 3.
TERRY PACK - DOUBLE BASS
During a career that spans four decades, bassist, composer and bandleader Terry Pack has been a member of prog rockers The Enid, worked as a session musician for a diverse array of musicians including Steve Howe and Candy Dulfer and played in bands across much of the world from Europe to South America and Australia. He played jazz from his earliest years as a musician, working with singer Liane Carroll from the early 1980s, and has released two albums of his own compositions and arrangements on Symbol records What Happens Now and Palimpsest. Terry is a member of Full Circle, The Cloggz and the Studio 9 Orchestra.
Other credits include work with Claire Martin, Steve Waterman, Bobby Wellins, Paul Booth, Vasilis Xenopolous, Alan Skidmore, Art Themen, Don Weller, Pete King, Simon Spillett, Ben Castle, Julian Nicholas, Ian Price, Paul Greenwood, Simon D'souza, Greg Abate, Deepak Ram, Joss Peach's Lighthouse, Spike Wells Trio, Bryan Spring Trio, The Paul Busby Bigband, Keith Emerson and Dave Liebman.
Terry's most recent project is his super-sized big band Trees, that performs his own compositions arranged for large ensemble.
ANDY PICKETT - ALTO SAXOPHONE
Andy founded the Mingus Underground Octet to fulfil a long-held desire to perform Mingus' repertoire with a larger ensemble, and arranges most of the music for the band. Andy performs with many bands around the Brighton and Sussex area including Lewes Ska-Jazz institution Ska Toons and their occasional big band incarnation, Ska Kestra, for which he arranges and composes, JOKO, The Grits, The Paul Busby Big Band, The Soul Steppers, The South Coast Jazz Orchestra, The Studio 9 Orchestra, Fat 45, The Sussex Jazz Orchestra, Smithville, Terry Pack's Trees and x-TET.
Andy appears on the acclaimed self-titled debut album by Fumaca Preta and on their follow-up, Impuros Fanáticos.
MARTIJN VAN GALEN - TRUMPET
Canadian jazz artist, composer, arranger and trumpeter / flugelhornist Martijn van Galen has, since moving to England established himself and an in-demand player and eductor.
Highlights of his career to date include performances at the Montreux and Brienz Jazz Festival in Switzerland with Saxoffonee, the Calgary Jazz Festival with his own group The Jazz Infidels trio and the Primetime Big Band (with Hugh Frasier), studying (with Yosvany Terry) and recording in Cuba, and studying at the Banff Centre of the Arts (Jazz Workshop 1999) with among others Kenny Werner, Joe Lovano, Dave Holland and Dave Douglas. In the summer of 2002 he performed and toured with the Canadian dance company Decidedly Jazz Danceworks in their show Perched on the Edge of a Quarter Note. He has very actively performed for four year (1998 - 2002) with the Canadian Afro-Cuban Jazz group Masacote and is featured on their first album Nada Mas (2002).While living in Japan, Martijn had the opportunity to regularly perform in Tokyo with the funky and imaginative group The Conductors, among others.
Special Guest: GILLI BLOODAXE - SPOKEN WORD
Gilli Bloodaxe is an English poet from the north (1955 – 2037 based on current projections) whose work has appeared on BBC Radio 3’s Late Junction, Stuart Maconie’s Freakier Zone (BBC Radio 6) and BBC Radio 3’s The Verb. He has performed in clubs, a crypt, a barge, by the sea strand and at festivals big and little. His collection of poems, Fin, was published last year by Matador.
