REVIEWS OF RECENT CONCERTS

TOUR WITH MIKE WALKER/STEVE SWALLOW AND ADAM NUSSBAUM

GUARDIAN 4 STARS **** "Jazz supergroups are volatile concoctions, bespoke teams of virtuosi often just getting in each other's way. But the Anglo-US quartet built from scratch this week around the untried partnership of pianist Gwilym Simcock and Salford guitarist Mike Walker, with Americans Steve Swallow on bass and Adam Nussbaum on drums, fulfilled all its promise – and then some". read more

LEICESTER MERCURY

"A packed Embrace Arts Centre enjoyed a world-class performance by an international jazz group on its way to Ronnie Scott's and a European tour". read more

JAZZWISE

"Gwilym Simcock Dazzles With Ango-American Supergroup At Bergen Nattjazz Festival" read more

JAZZ BREAKFAST

"Let’s hope it becomes more than a one-tour stand. The band is going on to play around Europe but if you are within driving distance of either Leicester (Embrace Arts Centre tonight) or London (Ronnie Scott’s tomorrow) – so, anywhere on the mainland, in other words – I’d urge you to get along. It’s the real deal". read more

LONDON JAZZ BLOG

"This should be the start of something big". read more

LONDON JAZZ FESTIVAL TRIUMPH

"Melodically rich, harmonically daring, rhythmically subtle, pianist Gwilym Simcock's quartet piece, “Longing To Be”, which kicked off last night's Queen Elizabeth Hall gig was one of the most jaw-dropping performances I've heard at this year's London Jazz Festival". Peter Quinn, The Arts Desk

STUNNING REVIEW OF THE LONDON PREMIERE OF "I PREFER THE GORGEOUS FREEDOM" AT THE LONDON JAZZ FESTIVAL.

REVIEW OF GIG AT HOLYWELL MUSIC ROOM OXFORD

NORFOLK AND NORWICH FESTIVAL COMMISSION

"I Prefer the Gorgeous Freedom" described as "pure musical beauty" in the Norwich Evening News

Hear a sample here>>>>>

DUO WITH JOHN TAYLOR IN EDINBURGH GETS 5 STAR REVIEW

THE PROMS

Gwilym Simcock is dazzling poet of the keyboard

By Fiona Maddocks, Evening Standard  11.08.08

"Gwilym Simcock, 27, dazzling poet of the keyboard and Radio 3 New Generation Artist, has been catapulted from basement-club obscurity to Saturday night Proms stardom. As Jamie Cullum urged recently: "Catch Gwilym while you can still see him in venues without ushers".

Too late. The Red Coats were out in force.

In a weekend packed with premieres, Simcock's Progressions wins the prize for enlightened commissioning. This half-hour work combines the BBC Concert Orchestra with his own inspirational trio: Phil Donkin double bass, Martin France drums and Simcock himself. A stiffly traditional sounding piano concerto morphs into a noisy, rhythmically rich climax with extended improvisations and a short, bullet-shot ending".

"Pianist Simcock, bassist Phil Donkin and drummer Martin France played immaculately, as ever, in the improv sections of Simcock's Progressions for Piano and Orchestra". The Guardian

"The main premiere of the evening was Gwilym Simcock's 25-minute Progressions for piano and orchestra, which sought to fuse principles of jazz, including passages of improvisation, with the semblance of a bravura piano concerto. It was soft-centred music, with, in the smoochier bits, a sultry harmonic vocabulary redolent of the English 20th-century romantic, John Ireland, but there were also keyboard flourishes and propulsive rhythms that Simcock dispatched with aplomb". The Telegraph

"Gwilym Simcock is the new golden boy of jazz/classical fusion. A classically trained pianist, he plays with his own band (Phil Donkin, double-bass, Martin France, drums), and at the weekend found himself with the BBC Concert Orchestra in tow as well. Progressions was his new 20-minute, single- movement piano concerto, which fused with apparent ease the classical concerto format and the improvisations of jazz". The Times

"Simcock is one of the great jazz players of the day. He's British, and it'll be interesting to hear classical music influenced by jazz. And then he's a real cat playing his own stuff as well. That'll be cool, man." Nigel Kennedy, Radio Times

MONMOUTH 11th July 08

Great review of concert at Wyastone, Monmouth on 11th July 2008 >>>>

Another great review of this concert in the South Wales Argus

READ THE ARTICLE HERE

Great review of concert at Wyastone, Monmouth on 11th July 2008 >>>>

Another great review of this concert

LONDON JAZZ FESTIVAL - BRITTEN SINFONIA

Britten Sinfonia uncovers hidden treasure
Britten Sinfonia * * *
at Birmingham Town Hall
The hidden treasure of the evening was to be found at the start of the second half: Jackie's Dance, written specially for Britten leader, violinist Jacqueline Shave, and with Gil Evans' spirit at his shoulder, by the young British jazz musician Gwilym Simcock. Peter Bacon, Birmingham Post

This was the only piece that incorporated Evans' legacy while sounding like it was centred in 2007.

Cheltenham Festival 2007

"Gwilym Simcock put extra gloss on an already shining Cheltenham reputation (last year he was hugely impressive both supporting the enigmatic Lee Konitz and in his own right leading a band including Stan Sulzmann) by performing his ‘Lichfield Suite’ with a stellar big band, including Sulzmann, Mark Lockheart, Julian Siegel, John Parricelli, Laurence Cottle, Martin France et al. – a sixteen-piece outfit, including two french horns. Judiciously balancing carefully weighted composed elements with just enough solo space to infuse the whole with unpredictability and individuality – not to mention, at times, irresistible pep and infectious swing – Simcock, who sensibly devolved conducting duties on to Jules Buckley, while keeping an eye on proceedings from the piano, drew rousing yet elegant performances from all his soloists, contributed a number of characteristically cogent solos himself, and overall, proved himself to be a classy jazz composer in a medium that dearly needs such infusions of fresh talent if it is to be kept vibrant. Simcock’s arrangement of ‘A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square’, too, subtly and delicately brought out all the song’s gentle power without a hint of sentimentality – Simcock is a class act, and richly deserved his recent ‘Jazz Musician of the Year’ award from the All-Party Parliamentary Jazz Appreciation Group". Chris Parker, Vortex website

Tour with the Scottish Ensemble April 2007

"Bringing together separate traditions, particularly the jazz and classical ones, can result in a mixture rather like oil and water. Not here, though. Perhaps it's because the ensemble's guest, pianist Gwilym Simcock, works in and understands both these genres so fully, but with the help of a band that's really on top of its game, his Point of Contact for Piano, Vibraphone and Strings achieved a beguiling ease of movement and a real unity of purpose.

Simcock is a marvellous player. In his expansive solo work, his meticulously plotted duetting with Ben Bryant on vibraphone and his writing for strings he showed great imagination, wit and conceptual awareness. It was all fine stuff but the way he brought the piece to its conclusion, with a surge of energy, was sheer class".Rob Adams, The Herald 4 STARS ****

"a very attractive fusion that integrated the various strands of the music in satisfying fashion. It was lyrical rather than spiky, and the improvised passages featuring Simcock and Bryant blended seamlessly into the overall structure in convincing fashion" Kenny Mattieson, The Scotsman 4 STARS ****