JEAN TOUSSAINT QUARTET

Tickets £8, Doors 7pm, Performance 8pm

Jean Toussaint Quartet

Jean Toussaint - sax

Andrew McCormack - piano

Larry Bartley - bass

Troy Miller - drums

Caribbean born, US-educated saxophone star who made his home in London during a meteoric ongoing International career. In 1982, Jean joined Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers. ‘I learned more in four years with Art than I’d have learned in ten had I not got through that audition,’ says Toussaint, who played alongside Mulgrew Miller, Terence Blanchard, Donald Harrison and Lonnie Plaxico. While in New York, Toussaint also worked with Wynton Marsalis, McCoy Tyner and Gil Evans, and regularly led the jam session at New York’s Blue Note club. Touring with the Messengers, he always looked forward to London where he made friends amongst the capital’s young musicians. ‘I met Cleveland and Trevor Watkiss, Steve Williamson and Julian Joseph. Being of Caribbean descent myself, I saw similarities in the blend of musical influences - jazz, African, calypso and reggae.

Recently he has toured Europe with Max Roach, headlined at the world-famous Sweet Basil in New York, joined Cedar Walton in London and worked with Horace Silver. With a commission for composition from the Arts Council he has toured the UK with old friends Mulgrew Miller, Terence Blanchard and Reginald Veal.

“… class material, matured over the years and now bursting out of the cask. Single malt with a vengeance.” JAZZ EXPRESS

“Toussaint displays a beautiful incisive tone that you can only compare to liquid crystal…” Timeout

“[McCormack] swings hard, with a spiky, rhythmically adventurous punch to his
playing …(but) is as soft and sensitive as one could wish for.” Independent on Sunday