Tribute to Frank & JJ

Ian’s exciting new band has an all-star line-up of British jazz talent. The band recreates the fabulous quintets of trombonists Frank Rosolino and JJ Johnson from the late 1950’s – early 1960’s, both of which comprised trombone and tenor sax with a trio.

The music is essentially hard swinging bebop jazz and mainly original compositions by these two great trombonists. All the music is from transcriptions that Ian scored from original recordings and is sure to have your feet tapping to some of the greatest swinging jazz music played with love and enthusiasm by the greatest swinging musicians in the country:

The band has recorded a debut CD and we expect to release it once the coronavirus pandemic is over and we are hopefully out there booking gigs! Here is a taste of what’s to come:

Playing alongside Ian, we have the following star-studded line-up:

Simon Spillett – Tenor Saxophone. Simon has won several awards for his music, including the tenor saxophone category of the British Jazz Awards (2011), Jazz Journal magazine’s Critic’s Choice CD of the Year (2009) Rising Star in the BBC Jazz Awards (2007) and most recently the Services to British Jazz in the 2016 British Jazz Awards. Other celebrated jazz leaders and bands with whom he has worked have included Sir John Dankworth, Stan Tracey, Peter King and The Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Orchestra. “Straight-ahead, high energy jazz is his line and he does it with aplomb” – The Guardian

Craig Milverton – Piano. Craig is one of the UK’s ‘go to’ jazz pianists, working regularly with such icons as Ken Peplowski, Scott Hamilton and Greg Abate. He leads his own small groups, usually in the style of his hero, Oscar Peterson. He is also a member of the acclaimed Bateman Brothers Jazz Band and Digby Fairweather’s Half-Dozen.

Craig also runs his own ‘Milverton Legacy Band’ with his son and daughter who are both very talented musicians in their own rights.

Ashley John Long – Bass. Ashley John Long is a virtuoso double bassist and composer active in a diverse range of musical idioms including Jazz and Improvisation, Session Music, Early and Contemporary Chamber Music, and as a Soloist. Since graduating from the RWCMD in 2008 he has maintained a busy and varied freelance career which has encompassed many strands.

He has performed and recorded internationally with some of the UK’s leading Jazz musicians, as well as accompanying visiting international artists, whilst his work as a soloist has seen the premiers of numerous new works for solo bass. He toured in 2008 with French double bassist Louis-Michel Marion in a series of recitals featuring music by Xenakis, Bussotti, Scelsi and Barry Guy. Over 20 composers have written new works for him and has had performances broadcast on television and radio throughout the U.K and Europe.

Nick Millward – Drums. Nick is one of the UK’s most versatile drummers, with a cv that stretched from Terry Lightfoot to Kenny Ball to Digby Fairweather. In between all of of that, Nick has been in demand by any band or visiting international jazz musician that wants a hard swinging drummer, which means that he is ideal for this project!