Fraser Smith Quartet

About

Saturday 27 May 2023

Venue: Peggy's Skylight 

TWO SHOWS

Twilight: 6-7pm
Doors at 5pm, vacate by 7.30pm

Highlight: 8.30-10.30pm
Doors at 7.30pm, vacate by midnight. Two sets of music with an interval

Tickets: £11-£16

Fraser Smith Quartet

Fraser Smith's music harkens back to the Golden ages of jazz, from 40's Kansas City through to 60's New York. "An 'All Star' Outfit" - David Freeman, Jazz FM. Featuring a star band with Rob Barron, Steve Brown & Simon Read

"An 'All Star' Outfit" – David Freeman, Jazz FM
"Smith wallows in that funky Gene Ammons/Ike Quebec sound" – Lance Liddle, Bebop spoken here

Saxophonist Fraser Smith has played across the world and is a regular in some of London's leading clubs. He has brought his own band to Ronnie Scott's on numerous occasions and is now signed to the esteemed UK jazz label Ubuntu Music, with whom he'll be releasing his latest album TipTop! later this year. A working musician, Fraser has cut his teeth and paid his dues on the London scene over the last decade and a half.

With a focus on swing and the straight ahead, he channels the sound and language of the big Tenor men. His music harkens back to the Golden ages of jazz, from 40's Kansas City through to 60's New York.

Born in Birmingham, raised between the Midlands and Wales, Fraser first picked up the sax at the age of 15. He first came to the music of Charlie Parker, Louis Armstrong and Ike Quebec through the Woolworth's bargain bucket. After studying hundreds of these solos, he considers himself a 'practical scholar', bringing these sounds of a bygone era to a modern stage.

"Original tunes which take the virtues of 50s and 60s hard bop and soul jazz and infuse them with a youthful enthusiasm born of the 21st century" – Ian Mann, Jazz Man

Line up:
Fraser Smith – tenor sax
Rob Barron – piano
Steve Brown – drums
Simon Read – bass