Andrew Robb

Winning 2nd Prize at European Society of Bassists Jazz Competition

June 12, 2017 by admin

Back in September 2016 I was very honoured to have won 2nd Prize at the European Society of Bassists BassEurope Jazz Competition in Prague! There were some fantastic bassists there and I must mention my fellow Brit in the competition Freddie Jensen who deservedly won 1st Prize. He was only 17 and is a lovely person too so keep your eyes peeled for him in the future. The other winner was Vinicius Ciccone Cajado who currently lives in Vienna. Here is a picture of myself and the other winners after the competition:

The other competitors were equally great and to be honest, it was a relief when the playing was all done and we could hang out with each other. It seems a bit odd but bass players don’t normally get to spend too much time with one another so it was really nice to spend some time with some great players in Europe. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to spend too much time at the convention itself as I had to leave early the next morning after the competition but if you’re a bassist, i’d recommend checking it out sometime. There are loads of recitals, workshops and masterclasses that are hard to get a hold of in normal life so check it out. The next ESB convention will be in Lucca, Italy. You can find more out about it here: https://basseurope.org/events.html

Rite of Spring 5 Star Review!

January 28, 2016 by admin

I was over the moon to find out that David Patrick’s week run of the Rite of Spring for jazz octet was given five stars in the Scotsman Festival review. This project has definitely been one of the most musically challenging and rewarding ones I’ve been apart of. Over the last two years the ensemble has really developed a way of making this beastly work musical and engaging so it’s really great that the work has paid off with this review! Here’s a link to it below:

http://www.wow247.co.uk/2015/08/27/music-review-the-jazz-rites-of-spring/

Since we recorded the album we’ve had some really good reviews as well as being featured as one of the albums of the year on the BBC Radio Scotland’s Jazzhouse program. If you don’t know the program it’s every Wednesday night for two hours and always has a good mixture of contemporary and traditional recordings being played by Stephen Duffy. Often features Richard Michael taking apart a solo and explaining it too so check it out! Here are some other reviews for David’s Rite of Spring CD:

http://www.heraldscotland.com/arts_ents/13792025.CD_Review__David_Patrick_Octet__The_Rite_of_Spring__davidpatrickmusic_com_/

http://lance-bebopspokenhere.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/cd-review-david-patrick-octet-igor.html

http://www.marlbank.net/reviews/3110-david-patrick-octet-the-rite-of-spring-davidpatrickmusic-com.html

Alan Benzie Launch Tour + Successful Reviews!

January 15, 2016 by admin

After a couple of week on the road in late April and early May, Alan Benzie’s debut album Travellers Tales was released to critical acclaim. We had a really successful tour including a successful trips to Poland and a live broadcast on BBC Radio Scotland’s program The Jazzhouse. The album was a featured on the program’s review of the year not only as one of the album’s of the year but as a live studio performance as well.

Below are some links to reviews of the album i’ve managed to put together, take a look and see what the press say and if you’d like to buy the album check Alan’s website here: http://www.alanbenzie.com/travellers-tales/

Reviews here:

http://www.scotsman.com/lifestyle/culture/music/jazz-pianist-alan-benzie-on-the-virtue-of-patience-1-3859639

http://www.heraldscotland.com/arts_ents/13416116.Alan_Benzie_Trio__Traveller_s_Tales__own_label_/

http://www.thejazzmann.com/reviews/review/alan-benzie-trio-travellers-tales/

http://www.allaboutjazz.com/travellers-tales-alan-benzie-self-produced-review-by-bruce-lindsay.php

http://lance-bebopspokenhere.blogspot.co.uk/2015/06/cd-review-alan-benzie-trio-travellers.html

http://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/jul/30/alan-benzie-trio-travellers-tales-review-confident-scottish-jazz

http://www.marlbank.net/gigs/2881-the-alan-benzie-trio-debut.html

Alan Benzie Debut Album Launch Tour!

April 24, 2015 by admin

I’m really excited to be a part of Alan Benzie’s debut album launch tour alongside Marton Juhasz, which starts this week. Come along to one of the dates if you can and say hello (and buy a CD):

24th April at 5pm: Jazzlines free gigs at Symphony Hall, Birmingham
27th April at 8pm: The Vortex, London
28th April at 11:30pm: Ronnie Scotts Late Show, London
29th April at 9pm: The Jazz Bar Edinburgh
30th April at 8pm: Glasgow Art Club, Glasgow (does what it says on the tin)
1st of April: United Europe Jazz Festival, Zakopane, Poland
2nd of April: United Europe Jazz Festival, Zakopane, Poland
3rd May: Galeria Batko, near Krakow, Poland
4th May: PiecArt, Krakow, Poland
6th May: Live appearance on BBC show The Jazz House,
7th May at 8pm: The Blue Lamp, Aberdeen

There’s a really nice preview and interview of the album by LondonJazzNews which you can read here:

http://www.londonjazznews.com/2015/04/preview-interview-alan-benzie.html

Here’s a video of one of the pieces from the album called Glass

Article on Improvising – Musical Orbit

April 6, 2015 by admin

A month or so ago I was asked by Musical Orbit to write an article about how to get classical musicians interested in improvising. It was an interesting experience collating my own experiences against others and also assessing the musical benefits of improvising for classical musicians. I also got the opportunity to interview composer Sally Beamish for her views. I’m delighted to say that the article has been completed and is up on their website!

You can check it out here: http://www.musicalorbit.com/news/in-at-the-deep-end

Musical Orbit is a brilliant website created by Nicole Wilson, aimed at helping young professional musicians connecting with the best classical principal players in the country. It’s definitely worth checking out!

Matt Roberts BigISH Band

April 3, 2015 by admin

Last year I was asked by composer and trumpeter Matt Roberts to play in a new ensemble of his, The Matt Roberts BigISH Band. This is a large ensemble with the majority of the musical development taking place with improvised solos as opposed to written material. The band debuted in the London Jazz Festival 2014 to a sell out crowd and was a great success! We have another coming up on the 21st of May at The Spice of Life. Tickets for the last one sold out two weeks before so I suggest you book ahead to avoid disappointment at the door.

Here’s short video of Matt talking about the band.

The Jazz Rites of Spring

January 27, 2015 by admin

I’ve involved with David Patrick’s fantastic and challenging project for over a year now. The Jazz Rites of Spring takes Stravinsky’s masterwork and reinterprets it for a jazz ensemble of 3 woodwind, 2 brass and jazz trio. Musically it involves a complete performance of the original written material with sections that have been arranged and opened up for improvising.

I love doing this project as it forces me to use my classical training and jazz abilities in equal measure. The band features some fantastic musicians from the UK and Europe. As the music has no conductor, minimal cueing and with frontline either doubling or trebling we’ve really worked very hard indeed to make the music happen!

Since being asked to be apart of the project we’ve toured all over Scotland as well as having a 5 night run in the Edinburgh Festival where each performance was sold out and people were sadly turned away! We also recorded the project after the run in the Festival and a recording should be coming out later this year.

Upcoming performances for the project include concerts in Germany in March and further performances in the UK later this year.

Here’s a link to David Patrick’s website where you can watch a short video from one of our performances.

http://www.davidpatrickmusic.com

Interview With David Graves

September 5, 2014 by admin

Here is an interview I did a few months ago with an old friend and now journalist David Graves. Aside from talking about my beginnings into music I think he writes really well! Here is a link to the interview as well as David’s website and blog where you can check out the other articles that he has written as well.

http://davidjgraves.com/2014/02/16/jazz-andrew-robb-talks-bass-scottish-jazz-and-living-in-london/

The Downstairs Jam @ The Vortex

February 10, 2014 by admin

I’ve been lucky enough to play at this Jam Session up in Dalston a couple of times, hosted by guitarist Hannes Riepler, and here are a couple of pictures from one gig I did with Hannes, James Gardiner-Bateman (sax) and Chris Draper (drums). It’s a wicked gig with a great band every week and is definitely worth checking out and supporting the work Hannes does there each week.