Alex Merritt/Steve Fishwick Quintet

About

Based in Bristol saxophonist Alex Merritt has, over the last few years, been steadily building a solid reputation as fluent and powerful improvisor, a composer of great skill and originality and a respected educator. He has recorded two albums for the Barcelona-based Fresh Sound New Talent label as well as producing, composing and performing on their 30th anniversary album “Common Threads”. Steve Fishwick is widely regarded as one of the finest jazz trumpeters to come from the UK, sharing the stage with the likes of Ron Carter, Anita O’Day & Cedar Walton. Alex and Steve take the tenor/trumpet frontline into fresh, exciting, directions drawing on a wide spectrum of influences from contemporary jazz to classical music, performing a mix of classic jazz quintet material as well as original material from themselves and award-winning pianist John Turville . Their debut album 'Mind-Ear-Ladder' was released on Fresh Sound New Talent in 2022 to significant critical acclaim and the gig tonight features the aforementioned John Turville-piano along with Connor Murray bass and Ethan Sweeting drums. “A lovely example of contemporary British modern jazz by five of the UK's best” Bebop Spoken Here; “exquisite...consistently intelligent, sophisticated and varied” The Jazz Mann