Aidan Pope Quartet

Aidan Pope - guitar, Rebecca Nash - piano, James Owston - bass, Matthew Holmes - drums

Aidan is a guitarist, composer and educator based in the midlands. During his time studying at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire Aidan was awarded the Phil Miller solo guitar prize and was noted as having a strong improvisation aesthetic by British guitar legend John Etheridge. He has recorded with musicians such as Iain Ballamy, Emma Rawicz and John Turville, played in jazz clubs throughout Europe and had airtime on radio stations such as Brooklyn Free Radio and Jazz FM. Aidan has studied with Jonathan Kreisberg and is heavily influenced by musicians such as Kurt Rosenwinkel, Jim Hall and Keith Jarrett.

Pianist, composer, arranger, educator and collaborator Rebecca Nash defies categorisation. Established as one of the brightest and boldest jazz talents in the UK, she is just beginning to garner international recognition for her wide-ranging music which draws on influences from electronica, rock, drum and bass, soul-jazz, and singer-songwriters to create a distinctive personal sound full of artistry and heart. Her band, ATLAS, have become renowned for their uniquely beautiful soundscapes and released their debut album Peaceful King on Whirlwind Recordings to high critical acclaim. “At the vanguard of innovative and compelling new music” (Downbeat Magazine), this “simply stunning” (UK Vibe) record has received widespread airplay across stations including Worldwide FM, Jazz FM and BBC Radio 3’s J to Z. It was also featured on Spotify’s State of Jazz Playlist, Amazon’s Fresh Jazz Playlist, Best Jazz on Band Camp, and the Europe Jazz Network charts.

Double bassist James Owston graduated from the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire in 2019 with a first-class degree with honours, since when he has gone on to forge a prolific career, playing with many of the UK’s most highly regarded musicians, and has led multiple projects of his own. He has played and recorded with a diverse range of musicians including Paul Dunmall, Neil Yates, Xhosa Cole, Greg Abate, Dean Masser, Jay Phelps, Lekan Babalola, Martin Speake and in 2018 was a finalist in the BBC Young Jazz Musician of the Year award, performing at the Queen Elizabeth Hall with Gwilym Simcock and Asaf Sirkis.

Drummer Matthew Holmes won the Tony Levin Drum Prize 2019 and subsequently graduated from Birmingham Conservatoire in 2020. He has performed with Soweto Kinch, Alex Hitchcock, Tony Kofi, Norma Winstone, Nikki Iles, Alan Barnes, Tim Whitehead, Percy Pursglove, Ian Shaw, Arnie Somogyi, Dave Newton, Liam Noble and Hermeto Pascoal!

The programme will be a mixture of Aidan's original compositions as well as some of his favourite jazz standards.