London Jazz Festival: Byron Wallen’s Tribute To The Great Jazz Trumpets...and Beyond

It is with enormous pleasure that we welcome back to the Club tonight one of Europe’s finest trumpet players, the multi-award winning Byron Wallen with his fabulous six piece band. A seminal figure on the international jazz scene, Byron has been impressing with his fluent and dynamic playing since the early 1990’s. He first came to prominence working with the likes of South African Mervyn Africa, The Style Council, Charles Earland, Courtney Pine and Jean Toussaint. Since then he has been heard with a wide and eclectic group of world class musicians, including rap outfits such as The Roots, Digable Planets and Us3, African pioneers such as Hugh Masekela, Manu Dibango and Amampondo, Jazz and soul/groove icons Lonnie Liston Smith, Ronnie Laws and Chaka Khan. Firmly rooted in the jazz tradition he has toured with David Murray, Andrew Hill and Butch Morris and recorded and performed with the likes of Eddie Henderson, Wynton Marsalis, Herlin Riley, George Benson and Freddie Hubbard. He has toured the world with Incognito and recorded with Courtney Pine on both Back in the Day and Devotion. More recently he has been seen with Baaba Maal, Bobby McFerrin, Sam Rivers, Jack Dejohnette and McCoy Tyner. But, as well as a brilliant performer, Byron is also a composer of some considerable note with four highly acclaimed albums to his name, winning awards and nominations from the BBC and the MOBO Awards along the way. His music reflects not only his jazz roots but also carries echoes of his travels through Africa, Indonesia and the Near and Far East. As a composer, Byron has been commissioned by the Science Museum, PRS, BBC, Jerwood Foundation, Southbank Centre, National Theatre, Arts Council, FIFA, Sage Gateshead, Birmingham Arts and Plymouth University, and has also designed soundscapes for Universal Pictures, Warner Bros and Game of Thrones. Tonight he will be bringing in his Tribute to the Great Trumpet Players, an update of his 2004 commission ‘The Trumpet Kings’, especially put together for this LJF gig, paying tribute to the legendary trumpet players who have influenced how the trumpet, particularly in jazz, has developed. Again, this is a special, one off, performance organised especially for us here at the Club which will, not surprisingly, feature some of the finest jazz musicians in Europe and absolutely not to be missed.

“Byron Wallen…spectacular” Guardian;
“Wallen proved himself as engaging a showman as he is brilliant trumpeter, composer and bandleader” Jazz Views