GWILYM SIMCOCK

 

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Gwilym Simcock is a BBC Radio 3 New Generations Artist

 

PRESS QUOTES

“Gwilym’s an original. A creative genius” Chick Corea

"the ever-awesome Simcock" John Fordham, The Guardian

"If this is just the beginning, the coming years defy imagining". John Fordham, The Guardian (of Gwilym's album Perception 16th Nov 2007)

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.

Observer Music MonthlyREAD REVIEWS OF GWILYM'S ALBUM "PERCEPTION"

GWILYM FEATURED IN OBSERVER MUSIC MONTHLY NOV 1ITH

GWILYM FEATURED IN AUGUST EDITION OF JAZZWISE AND IN THE OCTOBER ISSUE OF PIANIST MAGAZINE


Gwilym Simcock - Keys To The City - The pianist emerged fully formed after a dazzling spell at music college with a firm classical and jazz grounding and then quickly found his feet winning prizes, playing with Kenny Wheeler and Dave Holland and quickly making a reputation for himself as an extraordinary new talent, making him the most talked about pianist in the UK since the early days of Django Bates. Stuart Nicholson meets him in the recording studio as he prepares to move his career one step further on with the making of his first album. READ MORE

 

 

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

"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 ****

THE NEW AMBASSADOR FOR JAZZ
read the Evening Standard Interview here

"As a pianist alone, Gwilym Simcock would have deserved all the hype, but this performance confirms that he doesn't see his composer's identity as his second string". John Fordham 4 stars ****Guardian on 1st March 2006

"Saturday night's performers drew a rapturous response. Opening was pianist Gwilym Simcock's superb quintet with Stan Sulzmann (tenor/soprano), John Parricelli (guitar), Phil Donkin (bass) and Martin France (drums), for whom Simcock provided a harmonically rich, rhythmically flexible environment full of surprise and diversity.

Solos which became joint improvisations, free playing, tempo and metre changes managed with magisterial aplomb and some inspired rubato playing were typical of their approach. There were no weak links; Simcock showed why he is regarded as the wunderkind of the piano in Britain, Sulzmann and Parricelli are simply outstanding soloists, and France and Donkin offered a superbly pliant rhythm section".
Irish Times 2nd May 2006

"The Waterman band was preceded by recently risen star Gwilym Simcock's piano trio. Simcock has rocketed through jazz education and out into a creative world of his own almost overnight. In a varied set, he included a typically flowing tribute to his teacher John Taylor's harmonically demanding Ambleside Days. But it was a fast exploration of a standard (How Deep Is the Ocean) that cried out for a recording machine to be running, in its headlong momentum, occasional classical flourishes, and melodic queries resolved or left quizzically suspended in space".
John Fordham, The Guardian Nov 2005

“Young piano recruit Gwilym Simcock delivered the first of a series of glittering solos…a startled turn of the head and appreciative smile from the old master Konitz confirmed what a class act Simcock has so quickly become.”
The Guardian

“one of the great new discoveries of the London scene”, Gwilym Simcock
Tony Dudley Evans, Director, Cheltenham Festival

"Gwilym Simcock enhanced an already enviable reputation as one of the UK’s fastest-rising jazz stars with his 25th-birthday quintet gig" Chris Parker, Vortex Jazz Club

"Gwilym Simcock frequently dazzling, especially on a tumultuous unaccompanied feature" Review of Acoustic Triangle's new CD Resonance 4 Stars **** The Guardian

"From our own scene I'll be watching our finest young piano-player Gwilym Simcock (606 Club, Nov 16; Purcell Room, Nov 17) - don't miss him while you can still see him in venues without ushers".

Jamie Cullum Interviews by John Fordham and John L Walters,The Guardian


"Though still in his early twenties, Gwilym Simcock has already played with the cream of the jazz world, including Kenny Wheeler and Tim Garland, with whom he appears in both Bill Bruford's Earthworks and Acoustic Triangle. He looks like being a piano star of the future"
The Independent


"Gwilym Simcock is a truly amazing piano player. His solo in John Taylor's Coffee Time was like nothing I have ever heard before - an exhilarating and intricate improvisation that sounded as if every note on the piano was being played. Several other times in the evening, the audience was treated to similarly dazzling explorations of themes".

Surrey Online

GWILYM FEATURED IN GERMANY'S LEADING MUSIC MAGAZINE FONOFORUM

READ ARTICLE HERE

AND FROM OTHER GERMAN MAGAZINES

Fono Forum, März 2008
"Mehr als Simcocks variables Spiel und sein prägnanter, zupackender Anschlag besticht seine originelle Handschrift als Komponist eigener Stücke, die zumeist lang ausgespielt werden und über simple Thema-Chorusse-Thema- Strukturen auf anregende Weise hinausgehen."

Jazz thing, Feb/März 2008
"Kein Wunder, dass Chick Corea sich von Simcock begeistert zeigt - der hat von ihm eine ganze Menge."

Spiegel Online, 29. Februar 2008
"Als typische Vertreter ihrer Generation haben Herman, Simcock und Schumann eine klassische Ausbildung genossen; sie zeigen sich aufgeschlossen gegenüber Trends in der Popmusik - und halten das uralte Piano- Trio nach wie vor für aktuell."

Jazzthetik, April 2008
"Seine Fähigkeit als Komponist sind schon im Ansatz seiner Trio- bzw. Sextettarbeit erkennbar: Die Kompositionen sind deutlich strukturiert und geliedert, die Orchestrierung in den Akkorden und Voicings des Pianisten innerhalb des Bandsounds deutlich."

JazzCity.NETedition, April 2008
"Großbritannien hat wieder einen Jazz- Superstar, diesmal nicht in der Abteilung hype (Jamie Collum), sondern im seriösen Fach des Jazz- Pianos."

Jazzpodium, März 2008
"Als Pianist liebt er offenkundig einen opulenten Sound und neigt im live aufgenommenen Schlussstück zu Romantizismen."