Urban Jazz Collective

Mike Hobart is an experienced and soulful saxophonist with a warm tone and a fluid technique. Self taught with a little help from UK free-jazz iconoclast Evan Parker, he cut his professional teeth with the chart-topping soul band Johnny Johnson’s & the Bandwagon. Since then, he has balanced the free and the funky on the European festival circuit, clubs and studio sessions and has toured South America.

Credits include gigs with Esther Phillips, the American poet Barry Wallenstein and a long stint with Otis Grand. He launched his latest CD, Evidential, at the Vortex Jazz club on 11 February, and the band performed at this year’s Love Supreme Jazz Festival. His first inspirations were the flowing freedoms of Miles Davis’1960s quintet and the soulful blues of Ray Charles, but a lot has happened since then. Evidential puts it all together, gives it an urban twist and keeps it soulful and swinging.