**CD Launch**: Tori Freestone (Whirlwind Recordings)

Tori Freestone is a gifted sax and flute player who can now truly be counted as a major musician on the UK jazz scene. She has collaborated with the likes of the Creative Jazz Orchestra, Cuban group ‘Orquesta Timbala’, and Andy Sheppard, has performed on the RFH main stage and at the National Theatre, the Vortex and Ronnie Scott’s; at mainstream high-profile outdoor events including Glastonbury and the ‘Big Chill’; at premier jazz festivals such as London, Cork, Cheltenham, Brecon, Manchester and Haskovo Jazz, plus tours of the UK, Portugal, Germany and Bulgaria. Tonight Tori will be launching her latest CD, and her second for Whirlwind Recordings, “El Barranco”, which features her brilliant trio of Dave Manington on bass and Tim Giles on drums. Following their warmly-received 2014 release “In the Chop House” and subsequent live appearances, the trio have relished the opportunity to reconvene in the studio to record this collection of intuitive explorations (often first takes) of predominantly original compositions. The music on the CD that they will reproduce for this gig has been perfectly described as “a continuous channel of flowing, tumbling lines arriving from a seemingly limitless, spring-like source, where the quicksilver responses and diversions of both Manington and Giles are genuinely realised, combining in creating delightful group unpredictability, via a mutual, carefully crafted musical vocabulary”. The music is both thoughtful and delightfully melodic, as Tori says, “it’s lovely that somehow we have formed a language which, rather than being intellectual or inaccessible, can be both contemporary and relevant”. With her fluent technique combined with a mature and thoughtful approach, Tori’s distinctive style provides a dynamic journey through the modern jazz canon.

“Tori Freestone has a warm and open tone, her playing is melodic and innovative”AllAboutJazz.com; “fluent with subtle phrases, and delicate asides...captivatingly understated and original ...beautifully balanced, inventive" LondonJazzBlog