Improvised music

tomball.co.uk

Music on buses is actively encouraged in Brazil!

I started playing the piano aged 5 and was taught by my father for a few years before graduating to more professional teachers. However it was he who taught me to play by ear and harmonize melodies, something many classical players do not learn until much later. I discovered jazz at the age of 15, thanks to Chris (below) and from then on we immersed ourselves in the music, using the ideas of great players like Miles Davis, Oscar Peterson and Bill Evans as inspiration for our own improvisations.

Through temporary injury I was unable to take up a place at the Guildhall college of music and drama, and focused instead on my medical training. I am currently a surgical trainee in Gosford, Australia, but am also working on compositions for both acoustic and electric groups.

Chris Anderson started out playing trumpet when he was 7 but soon became interested in the electric bass. He experimented for a while with heavy metal, rock and the like, before undergoing a Damascene conversion to jazz. He is equally at home providing a solid groove for the rest of the band to riff over or improvising a solo himself. He often combines these two roles, weaving counterpoint melodies around the other players in the best tradition of bassists like Scott LaFaro, Jaco Pastorius and Marc Johnson. He also plays drums; indeed he would provide the entire rhythm section if this were humanly possible. He is currently pursuing a career in banking.

Alex Gallafent is heard here on drums, although he is equally at home on the trumpet and piano. His knowledge of melody and harmony make him a sensitive drummer, as his work on Pulse Therapy bears out. He is a professional composer, and has provided music for several West End shows. A true polymath, he is also an accomplished actor, graduating from London’s RADA in 2001. He is now a producer for BBC radio and is on secondment in the USA.

 

It is hoped that the trio will reunite once all its members eventually return to the UK!

Fingers moving faster than the shutter speed...

A regular gig we had at the student bar of University College, London.