CD Launch: Kate Williams & "Four Plus Three"

Award-winning pianist Kate Williams is a fine musician who has made a name for herself as both a performer, composer/arranger and music educator (teaching at both the Guildhall School of Music and Middlesex University). A previous winner of the John Dankworth Award she has released five CDs, each one to critical acclaim, including Scenes And Dreams” (2005), rated in the top ten jazz albums that year, “Smoke And Mirrors” with the legendary tenor saxophonist Bobby Wellins and “Atlas & Vulcana” which she launched here at the Club in November 2014. She was also featured in the Steinway 2-Piano Festival at Pizza Express in 2010, 2011 and 2013, with two of the concerts broadcast on BBC Radio 3. Tonight Kate will be debuting her latest, and potentially most fascinating, CD "Four Plus Three", a collaboration between Kate and the Guastalla classical string quartet. The repertoire for this new project includes material by Bill Evans, Cole Porter and Antonio Carlos Jobim as well as originals by Kate herself. As Kate explains it "the arrangements exploit the varied sound palette of both string quartet and jazz trio, creating contrasts between the improvised and the notated, between sustained textures and strong grooves, seeking a fully integrated approach that is definitely not just a jazz trio with string accompaniment!". The featured musicians tonight, along with Kate, will be Oli Hayhurst-bass and David Ingamells-drums alongside John Garner and Marie Schreer-violins, Miguel Rodriguez-viola and Sergio Serra-cello. This promises to be a wonderfully inventive and musically satisfying evening. Booking advised.

“A worthy addition to the ranks of British Jazz composer pianists…” The Observer;
“Pianist Kate Williams writes robustly and fashions clean, cool improvised lines…evoking Tristano and Jarrett… a cerebral and quirky imagination in both composition and improvisation…a genuine talent to watch.” Mojo;
“Williams…a superbly lucid and inventive pianist and composer” BBC Radio 2