The Gabriel Wareing Trio –Feat. Euan Taylor & Greg Irons

www.gabrielwareing.comwww.youtube.com/gabrielwareing

About Us:

Glasgow based jazz guitarist and tutor Gabriel Wareing began the study of guitar at the age of eight. By the time he was fourteen, he had achieved his grade eight electric guitar and was beginning to perform professionally. Although originally schooled in blues and rock guitar, Gabriel began to gravitate towards jazz music in his mid teens – later dictating the path he would go on to follow.

Originally hailing from the West-Midlands, Gabriel has spent time studying and performing throughout the UK. Gabriel first began playing Jazz at Birmingham Conservatoire through their juniors program under the tutelage of Mike Williams and Percy Pursglove. It was in this institution where he began to develop his ability to perform Jazz guitar. In addition to this Gabriel spent time at the International Guitar Festival (both in Bath and Cheltenham) – tutored by Martin Goulding, John Wheatcroft and Dario Cortese. Before moving to Scotland Gabriel performed as a part of The Midlands Youth Jazz Orchestra, often as a featured soloist. In 2013 Gabriel was placed second in the live final of the Edinburgh guitar festival – the highest placed electric guitarist in the competition.

In 2013 Gabriel went on to continue his studies with the Jazz BMus program at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, studying with Tommy Smith, Kevin MacKenzie, Mario Caribe and many other named Jazz musicians. Whilst studying at the Conservatoire Gabriel had one-to-one tuition with Martin Taylor as well studying with Brandford Marsalis, Makote Ozone, Bob Mintzer and many other world famous musicians. The same year he was also featured on BBC Scotland’s Jazz house radio show.

In recent years Gabriel has dedicated his time to developing the craft of composition. Striving to find his own unique voice, he takes influences not only from Contemporary Jazz artists such as Brad Mehldau, Kurt Rosenwinkel and Gilad Hekselman, but also from Rock artists such as Radiohead and Mogwai.

"Gabriel is an up and coming jazz guitarist with a very bright future. Already an award winning performer, Gabriel's playing is full of energy and an understanding of the tradition as he brings his unique voice to the modern jazz guitar genre. Definitely a guitarist to keep your eyes and ears on in coming years."

- Dr Matthew Warnock(Writer for Guitar World, Mel Bay, Just Jazz Guitar Magazine, All About

Jazz…)

Euan began his musical education at the age of 9 playing the trumpet. Over the course of his years in school he progressed down the orchestra and played tuba for 7 years developing a love for the lower end of ensemble playing. This spurred him on to take up the electric bass and acoustic shortly after. Euan was accepted to study jazz at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in 2012 and studies under such artists as Tommy Smith, Mario Caribe, Paul Harrison, Kevin MacKenzie, Chris Grieve and many others.As a student at the Conservatoire, Euan has been given the opportunity of having masterclasses and performing with visiting artists including Dave Liebman, Paolo Fresu, Branford Marsalis, Makoto Ozone, Martin Taylor and Jacqui Dankworth.

Embracing all styles of music, Euan has played gigs in a number of settings, ranging from intimate jazz gigs to pop and rock shows and live sessions on BBC Radio Scotland. Euan has also been involved in the pit band for many musicals. These musicals include: The Wizard of Oz, Copacabana, Carousel, The Wedding Singer, A Man of No Importance, Footloose at the Edinburgh Playhouse, among others.

Composition is another aspect of Euan’s musical output, having recently been involved with providing the soundtrack and playing bass for brand new performances at On The Verge theatre festival in Glasgow. His soundtrack writing also includes various short films and skits.

Euan takes influence from a wide range of sources, covering nearly every musical style. From alternative artists like This Will Destroy You, Sufjan Stevens, Dallas Green and Ryuichi Sakamoto to bassists Scott LaFaro, Ron Carter, Christian McBride and Adam Ben Ezra, Euan continues to work on expanding his musical knowledge and awareness while developing and honing his skills.

Percussionist Greg Irons has been involved with music – in particular jazz – from a young age. He began playing sessions around Fife with his father, which gave him an ear for the repertoire that would follow. Shortly after that he joined the Fife Youth Jazz Orchestra (FYJO), which allowed for many collaborations.

Greg has freelanced as a drummer for several years, playing with many different musicians and ensembles. He has performed at numerous festivals throughout his career, including the Greg Irons Quartet playing at the Fife Jazz Festival. Greg and the FYJO combo were invited to perform live on BBC Radio Scotland’s Jazz House. Then were invited back for a second time to perform live again.

He has since collaborated and formed friendships with Roger Ball, Molly Duncan, Fraser Burke, Richard Michael, Gordon McNeil, Richard Ingham and Peter Erskine.

Greg is currently living in Glasgow studying jazz under Tommy Smith and drum set under Alyn Cosker in his first year at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. Previous to this he had studied jazz at the University of St. Andrews under Richard Ingham.

“A fabulous display of drumnastics.” – Stephen Duffy BBC

Album Launch:

On the 20/04/2015 the Gabriel Wareing trio will be releasing their new album. The album is a collection of classic Jazz standards - brought up to date with the musician’s unique approach to performing – as well as some new and exciting original material. The album has been put together in aid of Yorkhill Childrens hospital. Not only will some of the money from the production of the album be donated to aiding the hospital, the musicians will also be performing a workshop for some of the patients.

The day of the album launch, The Gabriel Wareing Trio will be performing the album in its entirety as well a collection of original compositions. Money from this event will also be donated to children’s charities. That morning the trio will be performing their workshop for the children of Yorkhill hospital.

Outreach Project:

The trio will be providing a workshop to the children of Yorkhill hospital. They will be focussing on introducing Jazz music to these children. There will be a discussion of the various elements of music and some practical performance by both the musicians and the participants. Due to the difficulty level of the workshop the participants must be aged 8+.

The musicians will be coving a variety of topics in the 2 hours workshop. They will discuss:

- Introduction to the genre of Jazz (including a performance)- Rhythm- Scales- Combining Rhythm and Scales- Phrasing - Final performance

The introduction to Jazz will discuss a brief history of the genre from its roots in Blues (playing examples) up to modern Jazz (including examples). This part will be a very brief overview as the importance of this workshop is very much the practical participation.

Rhythm will be discussed in terms of a practical application. The group of participants will be asked to repeat rhythms, create their own rhythms and also pass rhythms around the group.

Scales will be discussed in their most basic terms. The group of participants will be asked to repeat a variety of scales (namely the pentatonic and blues scales). They will be singing the scales in a variety of manners e.g. all together, each member of the group singing a different note etc…The next step in the workshop will be combining rhythms and scales. To do this the musicians will ask the participants to sing the scales using various rhythms. This will allow the participants to begin to understand what goes into

the construction of a Jazz musician’s improvisational vocabulary. It will also allow them to hear the building blocks of music, and how something as plain sounding as a scale can become music through the application of a rhythmic pulse.

Phrasing is the next logical step to discuss, however this must be carefully handled, as it can be a very complex subject matter. However if the idea of phrasing is treated as a call and response exercise, the children will understand that concept. The musicians will perform examples that the participants will then sing back. The musicians will discuss different devices such as sequences, call and response and thematic development.

Finally the musicians will perform a final piece of music, however this time they will involve the children in the performance, putting all the covered subjects of the workshop together in one final piece of music.

Rationale For Outreach Project

Jazz music is an ever-evolving genre, yet it suffers from a very narrow audience base. One of the key problems with the average perception of Jazz is a sense of elitism that can alienate the average listener. One of the greatest struggles a Jazz musician faces is finding an audience for their music. Gone are the days that Jazz music filled the charts, therefore it is very important for musicians to make a strong effort to reach the widest array of people they possibly can.

It is incredibly important that people actually hear the music, the average preconceived notion of Jazz music is very different to the reality – therefore people just need the chance to hear the music before they can pass judgement. Hearing music at an early age is the best way to start building a bond with the art form. Young ears are the most open to new experience. We feel that bringing our music to children is our best possible chance at surviving in a progressively bleaker musical landscape.

Particularly in Scotland, Jazz musicians are few in number; therefore the opportunity to reach the next generation at a young age cannot be missed. The younger you are when you experience music the more of a chance you have to become a musician. Therefore we feel it is important that we bring our music to the next generation.

We also feel that helping the next generation of children in their time of need is the least we can do to help. Hopefully they’ll begin to associate our music with bringing joy to a hard time. Jazz is a music born out struggle; it’s a beautiful art form that has provided a form of expression that is unique to it’s own idiom. It is only fair to children to make them aware that such a musical path exists.

Biographies for Euan Taylor and Greg Irons were provided by the individuals themselves and are not written by Gabriel Wareing