Veryan Weston / Trevor Watts / John Edwards / Mark Sanders

Event information

We may well ask why this group took so long to get together as there are such strong connections between each of the musicians. It is these connections that give the group it's cohesion.

John and Mark have been working together in different combinations for many years providing a unique rhythm section with a strong contemporary identity. They also had a trio project with Veryan for several years.

Trevor & Veryan have been playing as a duo in the 'Dialogues' project for over 4 years, including a couple of tours in America, one in Australia & Brasil and some in Europe. They have also played together in other combinations since the seventies.

While this is purely improvised music, the strong connections between the musicians constantly give each piece a sense of perspective, structure and most importantly a compositional identity.

The beauty is that each musician can rely on the other to help construct these “compositions”, and give them a satisfying shape. It is one big support group. A true collective in spirit and endeavour with no written rules on how to do it, just the players own creativity, instincts, discipline, experience and willingness to make it work.

- Trevor Watts – 2012


VERYAN WESTON / piano

Born 1950; piano. Veryan Weston moved to London from Cornwall in 1972 and began playing as a freelance jazz pianist as well as developing as an improvisor at the Little Theatre Club. He accepted a fellowship with the Digswell Arts Trust in Hertfordshire in 1975 who commissioned him to revise his book on piano improvisation which he was able to do through a subsidy from the Arts Council of Great Britain. During this time he co-founded and composed for Stinky Winkles. With the group he was voted a 'Young musician of 1979' by the Greater London Arts Association and won three major awards in France, Spain and Poland.

Whilst at Digswell, he also collaborated with visual artists, giving exhibition/solo performances at the Victorian & Albert Museum (1979) with potter Liz Fritsch, and at Hammersmith Jazz Festival (1980) with visual artist Stephen Cochrane. During this period he composed and performed music for a range of films and documentaries, most notably with Lol Coxhill for Derek Jarman's Carravaggio (1985). This interest in music and media collaborations led to a degree course in Performance Art at Middlesex Polytechnic (now University) where he gained 1st class Honours, and in 1990 he was awarded a Masters in Music Composition from Goldsmith's College, University of London. These qualifications then led to a brief period as a part-time lecturer at Bretton Hall and Middlesex University.

Throughout the 1980s and early 90s he worked primarily with the Eddie Prévost Quartet, Trevor Watts' Moiré Music and duets with Lol Coxhill and Phil Minton. He also worked in other ensemble projects with Minton, including 'riverun' the Phil Minton Quartet with John Butcher and Roger Turner. Major festivals have included Zurich, Berlin, Nicholsdorf, Karlsruhr, Warsaw, Wroklaw, San Sebastian, Bombay, Vancouver, St Etienne, Aukland, Nevers, Washington, Lille, Houston, Le Mans, Straasbourg and Victoriaville.

"Watts and Weston trade ideas with sometimes dazzling rapidity, moving from percussive aggression to coolly minimal abstraction without ever compromising the coherence of their discourse, negotiating those transitions with consistency, accuracy and, always direct emotional appeal." - Dalston Sound

TREVOR WATTS / saxophone

Trevor Watts is an English jazz and free-improvising alto and soprano saxophonist. He is largely self-taught, having taken up the cornet at age 12 then switched to saxophone at 18. While stationed in Germany with the RAF (1958–63), he encountered the drummer John Stevens and trombonist Paul Rutherford. After being demobbed he returned to London. In 1965 he and Stevens formed the Spontaneous Music Ensemble, which became one of the crucibles of British free improvisation. Watts left the band to form his own group Amalgam in 1967, then returned to SME for another stretch that lasted until the mid-1970s. Another key association was with the bassist Barry Guy and his London Jazz Composers' Orchestra, an association that lasted from the band's inception in the 1970s up to its (permanent?) disbandment in the mid-1990s.

Though he was initially strongly identified with the avant-garde, Watts is a versatile musician who has worked in everything from straight jazz contexts to rock and blues. His own projects have come increasingly to focus on blending jazz and African music, notably the Moiré Music ensemble which he has led since 1982 in configurations ranging from large ensembles featuring multiple drummers to more intimate trios. He has far from abandoned freer modes though, duo recordings with Veryan Weston: '6 Dialogues', '5 More Dialogues' (both on Emanem) and 'Dialogues in Two Places' (on HI4Head Recs) all demonstrate his ability to delve headfirst into improvised adventure.

Watts has toured the world over numerous times, run workshops, received grants and commissions, and he has collaborated with some of the great jazz musicians including Archie Shepp, Steve Lacy, Don Cherry and Jayne Cortez.
“Watts's bird-calling high sounds over Weston's balletic dances often sound as bright and shapely as compositions, and wriggling sax runs against boogie-like piano fuse together so heatedly that both players' notes blur into drones. Watts's alto tones sometimes echo the soulful quaver of Albert Ayler, and there are contrastingly minimal sections in which the instruments are barely blown or touched, followed by squalls bursting over percussive piano rumbles.” - John Fordham, The Guardian


JOHN EDWARDS / double bass

John Edwards is a true virtuoso whose staggering range of techniques and boundless musical imagination have redefined the possibility of the double bass and dramatically expanded its role, whether playing solo or with others. Perpetually in demand, he has played with Evan Parker, Sunny Murray, Derek Bailey, Joe McPhee, Lol Coxhill, Peter Brötzmann, Mulatu Astatke and many others.

MARK SANDERS / drums

One of the key figures of European free improvisation, Mark Sanders is one of the most unostentatiously experimental percussionists, never using exactly the same kit twice and always seeking out new sonic possibilities and musical potential. Precise, propulsive and extraordinarily dynamic, his drumming has animated encounters with musicians ranging from Axel Dörner to Wadada Leo Smith, Peter Brötzmann to John Butcher, Matthew Shipp to Otomo Yoshihide.
"ubiquitous, diverse and constantly creative, drummer Mark Sanders always outdoes himself, whether playing with restraint or erupting like a dynamo." Bruce L Gallenter, Downtown Music Gallery. NY