Jazz swings onto the theatre stage
North Wales Jazz at Theatr Clwyd in Mold
NORTH Wales Jazz will be welcoming Swing’s The Thing to Theatr Clwyd in Mold later this month. The acclaimed five-piece band is led by saxophonist Tom Harrison and features award-winning vocalist Cleveland Watkiss.
A joyful celebration of the music of jazz legend Duke Ellington and his longtime collaborator Billy Strayhorn, Swing’s The Thing sees alto saxophonist Harrison head an all-star cast of musicians in a performance which includes stunning interpretations of numbers such as Solitude, Take The A Train and Prelude To A Kiss.
“Like all jazz musicians I grew up listening to Ellington,” says Harrison.
“I haven’t tried to reinvent the music, I’m trying to capture the feeling behind Duke’s songs, what they’re about, what they mean to me, and build a performance on that.”
A graduate of the renowned Trinity College of Music, Harrison has performed with many internationally renowned jazz musicians including Terell Stafford, Jason Rebello and Jean Toussaint, as well as with pop bands like M-People and The Fall.
Watkiss has been described as “the best male vocalist in Britain”.
A winner of multiple awards including the London Jazz Awards and Wire/ Guardian Jazz Award (for three consecutive years) for best male vocalist, Watkiss was born in Hackney, East London, to Jamaican parents. A co-founder of the influential Jazz Warriors Big Band, he has performed with a diverse range of global artists including Stevie Wonder, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and Bob Dylan.
Completing the line-up, Robert Mitchell (piano) emerged onto the London jazz scene in the early 1990s as a member of two very different bands, Quite Sane and Tomorrow’s Warriors.
David Lyttle (drums) first reached a national audience playing with jazz guitar legend Louis Stewart in 2006.
Daniel Casimir (double bass), winner of the Musicians’ Company Young Jazz Musician Award, 2016, has performed with Julian Joseph and many more.
The gig is at Theatr Clwyd, Mold on March 28 at 8pm