Dylan Howe

Really good photos taken at Sundays gig by Gary O'B at Go Photo

 

More here: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150880114160510.756476.595260509&type=1&l=269629b199

New live review: DHQ at Scarborough 2/2/11

Dylan Howe Quartet at Scarborough Jazz Club Wednesday 2nd February:

Made the trip over to Scarborough to see perhaps the best neo-bop quartet in the land opening a national tour at Scarborough Jazz. First time we’d been to their base at the Cask - a really well set out club in the Sigma Basement - informal, relaxed and comfortable.

Mike Gordon and crew have been organising regular events in Scarborough for 25 years and continue to present the best national / international acts in addition to providing a platform for local jazzers of all styles and ages. Dylan (son of Steve Howe - "Yes" guitarist) is one of the best contemporary drummers around.

His vesatilty is evinced by 13 years as a member of Ian Dury’s Blockheads, he currently tours in the Wilko Johnson trio too, with ace bassist Norman Watt-Roy.

His quartet are formidable players: Brandon Allen is considered by many to be the best tenor sax player in the country, bassist Tim Thornton recently left Birmingham Conservatoire for dates with Guy Barker, Kit Downes etc etc. They were joined in Scarborough by pianist John Turville (Tim Garland, Koby Isaelite etc) seamlessly depping for Ross Stanley.

Although firmly Blue Note based the quartet ripped through a working of Charlie Parker’s ‘Segment’ - other highlights included an evocative version of Joe Henderson’s ‘Short Story’ and imaginative treatments of a couple of David Bowie tunes including ‘Subteraneans’, from the album "Low".

Dylan’s drum-work was intricate, melodic, both delicate and driving. An exceptional evening of top class music.

http://www.cultfound.org/thelink.htm

 

Just a week away - Dylan Howe Quartet - exclusive London date Tuesday March 15th at Pizza Express Dean Street

 

Hi all - hope you're well - this is a quick reminder that our London gig at Pizza Express Dean Street is just a week away now - tickets are going fast now so if you get a chance book asap. Looking forward to seeing you + we're going to film it for a DVD so get yourselves down, let's pack it out! Cheers D

DYLAN HOWE QUARTET

Exclusive London date:

Tuesday March 15th - Pizza Express Dean Street

Tickets

Film

Tour details

Facebook

says:

'Cracking band led by ace hard bop drummer Howe exploring a wide range of music inspired by the likes of John Coltrane, David Bowie's Berlin period and choice cuts from the Blue Note vaults. Featuring fine Aussie tenorist Brandon Allen, keyboardist Ross Stanley and bassist Tim Thornton, this should be cookin'.

  

Time Out

The Pizza Express Jazz Club

10 Dean Street

Soho

London 

W1D 3RW

8.30pm 

£15/10

 

www.pizzaexpresslive.co.uk

Map link

More DH info here:

dylanhowe.com

facebook.com/dylanleehowe

twitter.com/DylanHowe

 

DHQ dates this week in Birmingham, Bridport, Poole and Colchester

 

Hi all hope you're well. I wanted to let you know about the dates this week for my quartet in our UK tour's 5th week. We've been having a great time so and have had very good attendance and notices as well as really getting the music together and getting our band sound happening. 

We have a completely new set for anyone that has seen me in the past, featuring our arrangements 

of 

Coltrane, Bowie, Parker and Bluenote. 

Below are some recent reviews if you have time to read them and details of the dates this week. 

Thanks to everyone that has come to see us so far - see you v soon!

 

Best wishes - 

 

Dylan

DYLAN HOWE QUARTET - UK Tour 2011

DATES 1ST WEEK OF MARCH 2011

01. TUES / BIRMINGHAM: The Jam House. 9.30pm / free / birminghamjazz.co.uk / tickets

02. WED / BRIDPORT: The Electric Palace. 8pm / £12/ £10 / electricpalace.org.uk / tickets

03. THURS / POOLE: Sound Cellar. 8.30pm / £5 / bournemouthjazz.org

04. FRI / COLCHESTER: Fleece Jazz. 8pm / £14 / jazzatthefleece.org.uk / tickets

Recent notices:

Critic's choice in THE TELEGRAPH and  

FINANCIAL TIMES:

'Drummer 

Dylan Howe's crisp hi-hat, sharp sense of time and tight presentation capture the essence of the Blue Note jazz style. Brandon Allen is a muscular tenor sax lead, Ross Stanley and Tim Thornton are rock solid on piano and double bass and the repertoire is broad enough to include David Bowie and John Coltrane.'

In JAZZWISE this month:

'Finger-snapping post-bop funky drummer Howe has been a busy and ever present figure on the UK scene in recent years, with his pungent mix of Coltrane and Blue-Note-styled originals alongside tasty, jazzed- up re-imaginings of David Bowie's Berlin-era albums. Drawing on all of the above, his band also features authoritative Aussie tenorist Brandon Allen, Hammond virtuoso Ross Stanley and bassis Tim Thornton, all appearing on this extensive UK tour this month and next.' 

Mike Flynn

New reviews:

 

Seb Scotney @LONDON JAZZ: 

http://londonjazz.blogspot.com/2011/02/dylan-howe-quartet-tour.htm

 

---

STRATFORD JAZZ: 

 

http://www.stratfordjazz.org.uk/roy's_review_dylan_howe_quartet_at_the_chapel.html

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BIDEFORD PEOPLE: 

 

http://www.bidefordpeople.co.uk/groups/bandsgigsandfans/Hot-Cool-Jazz-Dylan-Howe-Quartet-Plough/story-10745701-detail/story.html

+ Don't forget  the London date - Tuesday March 15th - Pizza Express Dean Street

Tickets - Film - Tour details - Facebook

 

 

Plough review in full

Hot Cool Jazz With the Dylan Howe Quartet at the Plough

By A_McCormack | Saturday, February 26, 2011, 10:34

Dylan Howe Quartet at the Plough Arts Centre in Torrington, North Devon

In a world where bad means good and cool means hot then loose should be a fitting jazz-word to describe absolute tightness of the Dylan Howe Quartet.

I was at The Plough in Torrington last night to immerse myself in a night of what Howe describes as an eclectic mixture of jazz tunes from Blue Note to Bowie.

The mix may have been eclectic but with the Quartet's arrangements the set had a definite integrity to it.  When I dine out on jazz I would not expect to be served up a helping of Coltrane with a side order of Bowie but nothing in last night's set seemed out of place. 

Dylan Howe is like a box of fireworks on the drums. His solo on Bowie's Weeping Wall took us from dainty sparklers through catherine wheels on to a finale of explosive rockets leaving a stillness and whiff of gunpowder in the air.  Howe is charismatic and his passion for his art shines through his performance.

For me, jazz is the most romantic music of all.  I defy anyone to listen to Brandon Allen's superb tenor sax playing without being moved.  Allen is as one with his sax and handles it with tenderness and screaming fury in equal measure.

Ross Stanley's brilliant piano playing shone without hogging the limelight.  He was a perfect fit in the Quartet jigsaw and played McCoy Tyner, Gershwin and synth sounds for the Bowie numbers with fitting sensitivity.

The benefit of sitting auditorium-wise in the theatre of the Plough, as well as great acoustics, meant that we could see every move on stage.  However, I did have to check twice to confirm that Tim Thornton on double bass had no more fingers than me.  I for one, was grateful for the tradition of every player having their moment in the spotlight so we could really appreciate this young player's talent.

Chatting with Howe after the gig he told me that he had "always been a fan of Bowie from that (Berlin Albums) era" and the Quartet's arrangements of the Bowie material added a dream-like quality to the set.  The performance had certainly wowed the audience and as I walked away after thanking Dylan for a wonderful evening I heard an excited fan say "See you again next time, and the next, and the next ..." and I would certainly second, and third, that myself.

We left the Plough in howling wind and torrential rain and Howe's earlier introduction of Coltrane's After the Rain as "the most romantic piece of music ever written" came back to me. I slipped my hand into my husband's and walked off into the dark North Devon night with a spring in my step and jazz in my heart.

The Dylan Howe Quartet continue the tour with a gig at the Future Inns in Bristol on Sunday, 27 February.  I'll say it again - if you get the chance to go to this gig - don't miss it!

http://www.bidefordpeople.co.uk/groups/bandsgigsandfans/Hot-Cool-Jazz-Dylan-Howe-Quartet-Plough/story-10745701-detail/story.html

Nice review of the Great Torrington gig at The Plough Arts Centre + Bristol tonight

http://www.bidefordpeople.co.uk/groups/bandsgigsandfans/Hot-Cool-Jazz-Dylan-Howe-Quartet-Plough/story-10745701-detail/story.html

We're in Bristol tonight at Future Inns: 

Jazz at Future Inns. 9pm / £12/10 / futureinns.co.uk

 

Week 4 of quartet tour starts today west

Looks like this:

22/2/11: Jazz at Dempseys, Cardiff

23/2/11: Swansea Jazz Club

24/2/11: Teignmouth Jazz Club

25/2/11: Plough Arts Centre, Great Torrington

27/2/11: Jazz at Future Inns, Bristol

More at http://www.dylanhowe.com/new-quartet-tour-2011.html

and: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=114370371953150

Great review at London Jazz of the Welwyn gig - thanks Seb

Dylan Howe Quartet Tour

http://londonjazz.blogspot.com/2011/02/dylan-howe-quartet-tour.html

Preview: Dylan Howe Quartet: Pizza Express Dean Street, Tuesday March 15th

The Dylan Howe Quartet is in the early stages of a twenty-five date UK tour. Yes. Five times five. Twenty-five gigs.

While others sit around lamenting the decline of civilization... I absolutely take my hat off to Dylan Howe. The sheer drive and entrepreneurial flair he shows in having put this together, in being so utterly devoted to the process of allow four musicians to grow into music and to grow with it by taking it out on the road are like gold dust in these times.

I was able to catch the fourth date, Herts Jazz in the Civic Centre in Welwyn last Sunday. Londoners, the date you will - I hope... I recommend! - be putting in your diaries is Tuesday March 15th. It's the nineteenth date of the tour.

Howe has taken the repertoire which really speaks to him, assembled a group to play it. Looking at the promo video (above), there has already been onward progress from it, more confidence, more freedom to explore, in the gig I heard last week. The collective "band sound" is starting to gel properly. Brandon Allen can use his rounded, focussed tone on tenor saxophone to state melody, to be urbane, but he is also adept at turning up the heat and the aggression. Ross Stanley on piano and synth has a wide tonal palette, and brings out the contrasts. It is somehow hard to believe, seeing how assured he is, that bassist Tim Thornton was still a conservatoire student until last summer.

Dylan Howe himself has huge creativity and energy to bring to all of these situations. His irrepressible energy and positivity doesn't just fix the gigs. More importantly, it inspires the others in performance, spurs them on, brings life and vivacity to everything he (or his sticks or his brushes) touches.

But a project like this stands or falls by the quality of the music. Howe has sought out huge variety in the tunes which the quartet takes on, from the good-humoured waltz-time sway of the first set opener, Harry Warren's Summer Night, through numbers by Charlie Parker (Segment) , Joe Henderson (Shade of Jade), through to what is the darkest, most challenging music on offer, David Bowie tunes such asWarszawa, Weeping Wall and Subterraneans.

The Bowie numbers from the "Berlin" period in the late 1970's are an interesting project in their own right. Warszawa, is an intricate narrative, probably taking more than one hearing to grasp fully. It was last in the programme at the gig I went to, and made a suitable culmination to it. I'm fascinated to hear what it will sound like in London next month, after it has been played live many times. It is bound to start to really cohere and tell its story - it will be memorable. The band are due to record the material after all of the tour dates have been completed, and that too will be worth waiting for.

Seb Scotney

The Dylan Howe Quartet Tour (follow the link for dates) is supported by Jazz Services and the PRS Foundation

- check out the rest of Seb's great blog site here:

http://londonjazz.blogspot.com
Listed as one of Lastminute.com's top 10 London blogs
Nominated for a 2010 Parliamentary Award as jazz publication of the year
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/culture/author/sebastianscotney/

Interview last Tuesday for the tour on BBC Radio Kent

I was a guest on Karen Lane's and Roger Day's BBC Radio Kent show on Tuesday evening btw 9-10pm. http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/kent/hi/

Listen again on here - they played a few tracks and we talked for about 10 minutes (will be in the last hours I think) - thanks guys 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/i/p00d7b9x/

My interview in Drummer Magazine is out - thanks Brent

http://www.drummermagazine.co.uk/currentissue.php