Artists

Take Five Europe Edition II, image by Emile Holba

Benjamin Flament

Benjamin Flament is a vibraphonist and a percussionist who works with electricity, electronics and metal instruments – all built by himself. In 2005 he met bass player Joachim Florent, and began a prolific collaboration which resulted in the bands RADIATION10, MeTaL-O-PHoNe (“12 points” laureate) and White Light 4tet. In 2011, Flament founded We Are All Americans Quartet with Hasse Poulsen and a new duo with Clément Janinet (violin). He is the co-founder of the French collective and label Coax with Julien Desprez and also performs with Sylvain Rifflet, ONJ Franck Tortiller, Han Bennink, Michel Portal.

Bram Stadhouders

Bram Stadhouders uses guitar and technology to create ambient sound worlds with an emotional focus. In 2008 he was elected Young VIP, which allowed him to perform on many important jazz stages in Holland, and in 2011 he was selected for the North Sea Jazz Composition Assignment. He has toured extensively in Europe and the USA, and has played as a guest-musician in international projects with some of the world’s most established improvisers.

Celine Bonacina

Céline Bonacina specialised in baritone saxophone in Paris big bands from 1996 to 1998, later moving to Reunion Island to teach at the regional music conservatoire as well as performing in many festivals, notably as support for the French National Jazz Orchestra. In 2005, she released her first album, Vue d’en haut and then Way of Life in 2010. She has performed across France and has won a number of awards including the 2009 Rezzo contest during Jazz à Vienne.

Fraser Fifield

A piper, low whistle player and soprano saxophonist, Fraser Fifield has been a member of countless bands, ranging from folk rock legends Wolfstone to Irish/Scottish/Latin American outfit Salsa Celtica. He has collaborated with many artists – Afro Celt Sound System, Hidden Orchestra and Graeme Stephen Sextet, to name a few – and in 2010 he received a nomination for Composer of the Year in the 2010 Scots Trad Music Awards.

Gard Nilssen

Since obtaining a masters degree in improvised music at the NTNU, Trondheim, drummer Gard Nilssen’s main projects include the free improvised trio Puma, who were awarded young jazz musicians of the year in 2006, and the freejazz/rock group Bushman's Revenge. Nilssen is now working on his first solo record, which will be released in the spring of 2012 on his own label; Gigafon!

Maciej Obara

Maciej Obara’s career as a composer and alto saxophonist started after recording Message from Ohayo in 2006, with which he won the Bielska Zadymka Jazz Contest for young jazz bands. In the year 2008 he was recommended by Manfred Eicher to Tomasz Stanko, which resulted in their fruitful cooperation. During a winter workshop in Brooklyn Academy of Music, Obara recorded his second album Three and in 2011 he was invited to the project Free 4 Arts, resulting in numerous collaborative concerts around Europe.

Oene Van Geel

Influenced by jazz, Indian music, chamber music and free improvisation, Oene van Geel has applied his virtuosic improvisation skills and his compositional talents to a wide scope of musical activities. He has toured in Europe, Asia, the USA and Canada and is currently active with Zapp 4, a string quartet specialising in collective improvisation. Van Geel has won a number of awards including the 2013 VPRO Boy Edgar Award, as well as the Kersjes Award in 2005 with Zapp 4, and the Deloitte Jazz Award in 2002.

Ole Morten Vågan

Ole Morten Vågan studied at the well-known Jazzlinja, at Trondheim´s Conservatory. Upon his arrival in Oslo in the early 2000s, he joined Bugge Wesseltoft´s NCOJ, touring extensively for the next three years. A mainstay through his 10 year career is his role as bass player/composer in the ensemble MOTIF, which released their fifth recording Art Transplant in 2011.

Tom Arthurs

A BBC New Generations artist, trumpeter, flugelhorn player and composer Tom Arthurs has released four albums and is a member of the F-IRE Collective. He has composed works for the City of London Festival and the BBC Proms, and he was commissioned to write Fire Paintings for Yves Klein, which was performed by the BBC Concert Orchestra in 2010.

Artists

Airelle Besson

Airelle Besson plays trumpet, flugelhorn and violin and is a composer, arranger and orchestrator. She has appeared on over 40 recordings and has performed with many of the leading names in jazz including Charlie Haden and Carla Bley in the Liberation Music Orchestra and with numerous jazz ensembles including the French National Jazz Orchestra. Airelle’s jazz quintet, Rockingchair, received the first prize at the Concours International de Jazz de La Défence and she is a recipient of the Django d’Or for New Talent (Trophées Internationaux du Jazz), and has been commissioned to compose and perform the music for the silent film for the opening night of the festival Cinéma de la Villette à Paris and by the Orchestre National de Lyon to compose and orchestrate music on the silent movie "Loulou" by Pabst, performed at the Film Festival Louis Lumière in october 2012.

Arun Ghosh

Arun Ghosh is a British-Asian clarinettist, composer and music educator. He was Artist in Residence of Alchemy Festival at the Southbank (2010), and is an Associate Artist at the Albany Theatre, Deptford. He is a BT Celebrity Storyteller for the London 2012 Olympics, and a featured artist of the BT River of Music events as part of the 2012 Cultural Olympiad. Ghosh has released two albums,'Northern Namaste (2008) and Primal Odyssey (2011), receiving widespread critical acclaim and extensive airplay on local, national and international radio. He has composed numerous scores for theatre and dance, and has recorded four live sessions for BBC radio.

Chris Sharkey

Chris Sharkey is a musician who plays guitar in no particular style with lots of different people. He is also an inspired educator and a founding member of the Leeds Improvised Music Association (LIMA). Sharkey plays, composes and arranges music for several groundbreaking UK groups including trioVD, Acoustic Ladyland, World Sanguine Report and Bilbao Syndrome. Outside of the UK, he collaborates with musicians from Norway (The Geordie Approach and Nils Henrik Aarsheim), France (Christian Sebille and Franck Vigroux), Spain (Asociacion Musica Libre) and Lithuania (Liudas Mockūnas and Marijus Aleksa). In addition he has performed with musicians from many backgrounds including Mark Knopfler, Ken Vandermark, The Sisters of Mercy, Marc Ribot, Spring Heel Jack, Jack DeJohnette, Debbie Harry, Andy Sheppard and Corinne Bailey Rae.

Daniel Herskedal

Norwegian tuba player and composer Daniel Herskedal was educated at the Conservatories of music in Trondheim and Copenhagen and is active on the Norwegian and international music scenes. Main performance vehicles are City Stories, Trondheim Jazz Orchestra, Magic Pocket, Herskedal/Neset and Listen and Lochs/Balthaus/Herskedal. He was voted tuba player of the year in All About Jazz in 2010 and also made his debut as a composer for a professional large Jazz Orchestra that year when Magic Pocket received the “JazZtipendiat” award which resulted in new music for the Trondheim Jazz Orchestra. Herskedal composes for film, exhibitions, choirs and bands.

David Kweksilber

David Kweksilber is a clarinettist and saxophonist with an impressive formal education who has received many awards and a vast array of performing opportunities. He enjoys going from performing Mozart’s clarinet concerto to playing his own (improvised) music. He has had works written especially for him and has performed as a soloist throughout Europe, Russia and the USA. He also composes for the David Kweksilber Big Band which features 26 musicians from the Dutch jazz, classical contemporary and improvised music worlds. The band plays new music by a wide range of composers as well as groundbreaking classics by composers like Robert Graettinger and Igor Stravinsky.

Guillaume Perret

A saxophonist with an innovative approach to performance and the desire to unravel a new kind of sound, Guillaume Perret is a sound explorer who has performed all over the world. His music is a hybrid of contemporary jazz, funky grooves and screaming metal that is combined with a visual presence that enhances his reputation as on of the most exciting performers on today’s live scene. Perret’s current international projects include: Miles Okazaki / William Perret / Damion Reid Ensemble (USA-FR 2009), a video with Epic Electric by Leigh Nicholls (FR-UK 2012), choreographic creations (Ballet C de la B, Kaori Ito FR-BE-JP 2011-2013), and theatre performances ( Cie F7, Cie Voyages Extraordinaires CH-FR 2005-2008)

Marcin Masecki

Pianist and composer, Marcin Masecki, is a versatile artist with a discography of over 20 titles and, since 2006 has been associated with the independent record label Lado ABC, which records and promotes Polish alternative music. He is active in a wide variety of projects – from solo recitals in jazz and classical music to his sextet Profesjonalizm and international bands like ParisTetris and is also music director of the first edition of Warsaw Orchestra of Recreation (WOR) – a project which unities musicians from different backgrounds and features a rotating leadership. Masecki is a composer in great demand and has three premieres scheduled for 2012.

Marcos Baggiani

Described as a ‘nice mischief-maker whose unexpected interventions often steer music into new directions’, Marcos Baggiani is a drummer, composer and producer who moved from Argentina to Amsterdam in 2001 were he got a Master Degree in Jazz. His performing projects include Lily’s deja vu, The Ambush Party and the Celano/Baggiani Group and is part of Trytone stichting, a collective of musicians supporting musical projects. Marcos works with the Royal Improvisers Orchestra, was part of the 2009 edition of Jazz Plays Europe and works in dance and theatre, performing, composing and structuring music.

Per Zanussi

Double bassist Per Zanussi studied at the Conservatory in Trondheim and the Norwegian Academy of Music in Oslo. He was a founding member of the widely travelled electronic project Wibutee with Håkon Kornstad and Wetle Holte and now runs Zanussi 5– an acoustic vehicle for his own compositions that has recorded five albums with a host of collaborators including the Trondheim Jazz Orchestra. On occasion Zanussi 5 becomes Zanussi 13 and incorporates all guests who have ever appeared with the band, in one large ensemble. He has composed for prize winning theatre and dance performances and short films and for large scale instrumental ensembles including Nils Petter Molvaer/Bergen Big Band and Stavanger’s Kitchen Orchestra.

Piotr Damasiewicz

Piotr Damasiewicz is a composer, trumpeter and activist. He studied at the academies of music in Wrocław, Bydgoszcz and Katowice and founded the ‘Music According To Art Association’ (MATA) which promotes artists looking for alternative solutions in art. In his musical work, he references the languages of hard bop, modal jazz, free jazz, European classical music and new European improvised music. Current projects are Damas Ensemble Power of the Horns, Damas Quartet Mnemotaksja and VeNN Circles. He participated in Jazz Plays Europe – a musical platform that promotes musicians and composers from France, Belgium, Germany, Netherlands, Slovakia and Poland and is a laureate of Krzysztof Komeda International Music Competition.