The Jamil Sheriff Octet

Their new album, Daydreams is a record that clearly demonstrates that Sheriff is not intimidated by writing for four hornsbalancing early influences of Horace Silver with a Wayne Shorter-like commitment to narrative composition.... There is no shortage of fine soloist... immaculate taste... soul and lyricis. The Guardian

What Jamil Sheriff has to say about the Octet: The octet is an outlet for some of my compositions. With tenor sax/ flute, alto sax/ tenor sax, trumpet/ flugel, trombone, piano, guitar, bass and drums, theres plenty of opportunity to explore different textures. The octet has consisted of the same eight players since the first rehearsal sometime in 2002. Theres Kev, Andrew, Joel, Ben, John, Pat, Zoltan and myself (surprise surprise). I view them as seven of the finest soloists around. And within the band they all get a fair share of the limelight. We play some quite densely arranged pieces but the sections are very open for improvisation and we always seem to find different angles to explore. The octet has been supported by ACE (Arts Council England) at different stages throughout its existence and it would be fare to say that without their help it is unlikely we would have been able to accomplish so much. Since the early days, weve been performing throughout England at festivals, clubs and theatres. Our debut album Daydreams is signed to GLP and has received national acclaim. Im continually writing for the group, so theres plenty of new material on the horizon. The Octet line up consists of: Jamil Sheriff- Piano, Andy Coleman- Trumpet, Ben Martin- Tenor Sax, Joel Purnell- Alto/Tenor Saxes, Kev Holbrough- Trombone, Pat McCarthy- Guitar, Zoltan Dekany- Double Bass, John Perry- Drums

"Daydreams" "Backchat"

Recordings

www.jamilsheriff.com www.myspace.com/thejamilsheriffoctet

Kev Holbrough

Trombonist, Educator, Composer

copyrightwww.kevinholbrough.co.uk2008