Cecilia Stalin/Skydive

7:30pm Cecilia Stalin
Swedish by birth, since 2004 Cecilia has been working in Sweden, New York and her adopted city, London as a singer, composer, arranger, recording artist, teacher and vocal coach. Blessed with a wonderful, pure tone and great time Cecilia has built an impressive reputation amongst many of the most influential musicians on the UK Jazz scene and her brilliant band tonight is made up of some of the finest players around, Esben Tjalve-piano, Ben Hazleton-bass and Rod Youngs-drms. Highly recommended.

“wow, what a voice!” Radiovista;
“Stalin has impressive range and flexibility and timbre, from sustained vibrato to percussive almost beat boxing sounds” LondonJazz Blog

10:15pm “Skydive”
Named after a Freddie Hubbard tune they played during their first performance, Skydive were brought together for the Chatham Jazz Festival as an all star pickup band and in the tradition of such things, enjoyed themselves so much that they decided to do more gigs together. Featuring legendary 606 Club owner and flautist Steve Rubie (Julian Joseph Big Band, Samara), virtuoso trombonist Geoff Mason (Ronnie Scotts Big Band), leading UK pianist Jonathan Gee (best known for his work with the likes of Pharoah Sanders, Cleveland Watkiss and Tim Whitehead as well as his own excellent trio), star bassist Larry Bartley (Chris Biscoe, Abdullah Ibrahim) and the brilliant drummer Winston Clifford (Courtney Pine, Monty Alexander). Their musical roots stem from mid-60s Hubbard and Hancock, through Brazilian music of the 80s in to their own contemporary compositions. A world-class band.

“[Gee] a performer of flexibility, resourcefulness and technical command to rival any of his generation" The Guardian