Tonight’s Musicians:

Henry Lowther
During the sixties Henry played with the famous Cream bassist, Jack Bruce, and John Hiseman while also working on the rock scene with Manfred Mann and John Mayall, and also with Keef Hartley, with whom he appeared at the famous and legendary Woodstock festival in 1969.
Over the last 50 years Henry’s work on the British jazz scene reads like a “Who’s Who”. He has played regularly with, amongst many others, Gordon Beck, Michael Garrick, Graham Collier, Mike Gibbs, Pete King, Loose Tubes, John Surman, John Taylor, Stan Tracey and Kenny Wheeler.
Over the years Henry has toured widely with various artists and bands in Europe, Canada, India, Japan, Finland, the former Soviet Union, Bermuda, Kuwait and the USA. Tours in recent years have included those with the Berlin Contemporary Jazz Orchestra, John Harle, Rolling Stones’s drummer Charlie Watts and His Tentet, the London Jazz Composers Orchestra, the New York Composers Orchestra, the Hamburg NDR band and Hermeto Pascoal. He is one of only two or three players in the world to have had the honour of playing lead trumpet with both Gil Evans and George Russell.
Henry’s musical breadth is confirmed by his frequent engagements as a classical player with major symphony orchestras and ensembles, including the London Brass Virtuosi, the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, the London Sinfonietta, Germany’s Ensemble Moderne and the Matrix Ensemble. Until its demise Henry was for five years the solo flugelhorn player with the strings of the BBC Radio Orchestra, and as a session musician has recorded with Bing Crosby, George Harrison, Elton John, Henry Mancini, Paul McCartney, Van Morrison, Sir Simon Rattle, Nelson Riddle and Talk Talk, amongst many others.
Henry worked regularly for nearly 45 years playing in many of Sir John Dankworth bands and projects and it was in 2009, whilst playing in duo format with the amazing percussionist and drummer Paul Clarvis in the Stables Theatre, Wavendon, that John played in public for the very last time “sitting in”.
In 1996, along with his great friend the great bass player Dave Green, Henry formed his own band Still Waters to enable him to pursue his increasing interest in composition. Although most of Henry’s compositional activity has been directed towards small band jazz as vehicles for improvisation, he has, in the last few years tried to devote more time to larger compositions commissioned by the BBC, the Berlin Contemporary Jazz Orchestra, the London Brass Virtuosi (LBV) and Jemina Festival in Spain.
Currently Henry writes for and plays in the London Jazz Orchestra, gigs with Still Waters and Henry has played the solo role a number of times in performances of all of the Miles Davis and Gil Evans incomparable albums, Miles Ahead, Porgy and Bess and Sketches of Spain. 
In 2011 Henry was awarded a Fellowship by the Royal Academy of Music and last year, 2017, he was nominated for a Parliamentary Jazz Award in the category Services to Jazz.

John Turville
John Turville has developed a reputation as ‘one of the leading jazz pianists of his generation’ (Ian Mann). He has performed at clubs and festivals throughout the UK, Europe, the Middle East and Africa with artists as diverse as Tim Garland, Ola Onabule, Gilad Atzmon, Yuri Golubev Trio, Matt Ridley Quartet, Transtango, El Ultimo Tango, and the London Tango Orchestra.
John has recorded five albums as a leader, which have won multiple awards including ‘Best Album’ in the Parliamentary Awards, the PRS Promoter’s Choice Award, and ‘Best instrumentalist’ prize in the inaugural London Jazz Awards. His most recent album ‘Head First’ featured the renowned saxophonist Julian Argüelles, and received 4 and 5 star reviews in the UK and European press. He has also recorded over 30 albums as a sideman with various jazz, tango and crossover projects.
    Besides performing, John is also an experienced composer, writing for his own groups and receiving commissions to write original music for Transtango, Living Room in London and the Almagro Ensemble.
John is the principal jazz piano tutor at Birmingham Conservatoire, the Purcell and Yehudi Menuhin music specialist schools, and has led workshops and taught at a number of international summer schools, including ‘Concertato’ (Capri), the Saarwellingen International Jazz Academy, the Piano Week festival and the Dartington International Summer School. He has also been on the audition panel for Help Musicians UK and Trinity Laban.

Dave Jones
While Dave is the also organising force behind Grand Union Jazz his bass playing in recent years has included Hejira - a Tribute to Joni Mitchell, Ronnie Scott’s Soul and Jazz Orchestra, Pete Cater Big Band, Way Out West Jazz Collective, Stefanos Tsourelis Trio, Tom Seals, Brandon Allen Groove Band, Jeremy Sassoon and Julian Costello. He has played with some of the finest jazz musicians in the UK such as Pete Long, Jacqui Dankworth, Frank Griffith and John Etheridge and also with visiting American artists such as Howard Levy. He has played alongside drummers Steve Gadd, Steve Smith and Keith Carlock and he is active in jazz education teaching regularly at Richmond Jazz School, International Summer Schools and Kingston University.
Dave also leads a classic nonet line up featuring some of the UK’s finest jazz musicians including Henry Lowther, Mark Armstrong, Nick Mills, Tony Woods, Tom Ridout, Chris Biscoe, John Turville, Tristan Mailliot plus various special guests including Brigitte Beraha, Demi Garcia Sabat on percussion and Mike Outram on guitar.
Playing and exploring the Nonet arrangements of great American writers such as Bob Hammer, Marty Paich and Frank Griffith provided the inspiration for the band while the experience of playing with Pete Cater Big Band, Ronnie Scott’s Soul and Jazz Orchestra, BBC Big Band and in formative days ‘Eurojazz' the European Community Youth Jazz Orchestra provided a unique perspective on writing for this the classic Nonet line up.

Dave’s writing is sophisticated and nuanced. Just when you think you know where he’s going, there is a change of texture or tempo, you do find yourself in an unexpected place and …. it’s beautiful!! … “ London Jazz News’.