BIOGRAPHY
Alex Hill is a performer, composer and teacher based in Manchester. He is an alumnus of The Royal Northern College Of Music, where he completed a masters in jazz performance and was awarded both The Martyn Edwards Jazz Bursary and the Principal’s Prize for Improvisation.
He has performed at venues and festivals across the UK and Europe with gigs in Croatia, Malta, Bulgaria, France, Belgium, Netherlands, Italy, Spain, Andorra & Sri Lanka. Alex has also recorded sessions for the BBC, featured as part of the Edinburgh Fringe and Edinburgh International Jazz festivals, played on several studio albums and runs his own events production and promotion company. In addition, he has led artistic workshops in Bosnia, Serbia and India to encourage the formation of friendships through collaborative musical composition and performance.
LISTEN
LIEKO QUINTET
Lieko Quintet is a Manchester-based group turning contemporary jazz on its head with melodic, groove-infused compositions. Treading a path somewhere between soul music and folk song, they use melody as an anchor for moving between riff-based interplay and free improvisation. When blended together with the rhythmic precision of old school funk and cathartic energy of Nigerian afrobeat, the result is a brain-melting concoction of new-world explorations.
Since forming three years ago, the band has performed at venues and festivals all over Europe, with appearances at Manchester Jazz Festival, Brecon Jazz: Futures, Malta International Arts Festival, Kelburn Garden Party and many other venues across the UK. They released their debut EP, ‘Deja Vu’, in July 2016 and have since followed it with a wildly unconventional music video for the single ‘Scratch That’, which appears on their latest record, ‘Amethyst’.
If you’re not already dancing, they’ll pull the proverbial rug out from underneath your feet, and get you moving in places you never even knew existed.
“…intelligent, inventive and imaginative…”
- The Jazz Man
THE EASY ROLLERS
Grab your dancin’ shoes ‘cos the 20s are here to stay! Taking you back to the golden age of jazz, The Easy Rollers are a roaring seven-piece swing band performing hits from the speakeasy bars of the Prohibition era. Fronted by award-winning vocalist Dani Sicari, they have had audiences jumpin’ and jivin’ on dance floors across the country!
‘They present the music of their chosen era with verve, showmanship and great technical skill’
- The Jazz Mann
AGBEKO
'Manchester's finest - and most persuasive - advert for quixotic musical adventure'
Manchester Evening News
Agbeko (originally an Ewe warrior dance) effortlessly draw inspiration from the golden age of 1970's Nigerian, Ghanaian and Ethiopian dancefloors and deliver it through the filter of 11 young twenty-somethings who grew up on rock, funk and raucous-leaning jazz.
'Outstanding.'
Jazzwise
The '22-legged afro-party monster' (Soundcrash) released their debut E.P. 'Unite' in July 2017 and are rapidly gaining a reputation across the UK for a fierce, energetic and irresistibly danceable live show. Expect; singalong originals, hard-hitting arrangements of Afro-funk and Ethiojazz rarities all underpinned by politicised lyrical content, dirty guitars, wailing organs and healthy dose of on-stage sub-standard dance moves.
'Sure to continue impressing from festival stages for years to come'
Band on The Wall
Since their formation in 2015, Agbeko have performed at festival stages across the country including; Boomtown, Green Man, Kendal Calling, Secret Garden Party and Tramlines as well as overseas dates at Meadows in the Mountains. The next 12 months sees the band busier than ever, touring the UK in support of an upcoming 7'' release in May 2018.
PROJECTS
PERFORMER
ABOUT
Alex specialises in jazz, funk, soul & hip-hop and has performed extensively with orchestras and bands across Europe.
In 2011, he formed 8-piece funk/soul band The Foo Birds, who have played countless shows across Europe and released two albums, both of which were featured on BBC Radio Scotland’s ‘The Jazz House’. He is also one of the founding members of The Gramophone Jass Band, which, in the first year of its conception, featured as part of the Edinburgh Fringe and Edinburgh International Jazz festivals, performed for Prince Charles at the opening of Napier University’s Jazz Summer School, recorded a session for the BBC and completed a four-month tour of Europe with gigs in France, Spain, Holland and Belgium.
Alex leads contemporary jazz group Lieko Quintet, who recently released their debut album and featured as part of Manchester Jazz Festival and Brecon Jazz Futures. He performed at the same festivals with 1920s jazz band Dani Sicari & The Easy Rollers who have also enjoyed appearances at Spinfest, Buxton Festival and Manchester Day.
Alex has recently completed the master of music course at The Royal Northern College of Music where he was awarded The Martyn Edwards Jazz Bursary and the Principal’s Prize for Improvisation. During his time there he had the opportunity to play in master classes and concerts with Julian Arguelles, Jason Rebello, Tina May, Matt Ford, Clark Tracey and Stefan Redtenbacher.
COMPOSER
Alex is passionate about writing music and has a number of different projects that he composes for on a regular basis, which include contemporary jazz group Lieko Quintet and funk/soul eight-piece The Foo Birds.
He studied composition with Peter Nelson and Nigel Osborne at Edinburgh University and, more recently, with Adam Gorb at The Royal Northern College Of Music. Alex has had music performed by The Edinburgh University Jazz Orchestra and also put together the 2012 Boom & Hush concert featuring new works by composition students from The University Of Edinburgh. In addition, he has led composition workshops at Altrincham Grammar School and the Centre for Development of Music Studies in Kerala, India.
TEACHER
Alex has been teaching classical and jazz piano for over eight years. He has also been involved in a number of community projects both at home and abroad. In 2009, he volunteered on a music project in Bosnia for young people suffering from war trauma and the following year led music workshops for adults with learning difficulties at an activity camp in Serbia. More recently, in association with the World Appreciation of Music Foundation, he spent two months teaching in Kerala, India, where he gave workshops on jazz and piano performance and assisted in the setting-up of a new music college.
EVENTS
Alex runs Smack The Lemon, a live events production and promotion company that brings together audiences and artists from across the creative sphere and gives them the opportunity to be part of something different. Unique, innovative events for arts-lovers everywhere.
07928408747
CONTACT
Get in touch for bookings, lessons and general chit-chat!