Biography of Jonathan Taylor

Jonathan Taylor Group

Jonathan Taylor (piano/composer)

In 1994 Jonathan was one of the first jazz musicians to be accepted onto Yehudi Menuhin’s Live Music Now! scheme for whom he has given concerts and run workshops across the country. He has performed with his own group What Four and jazz orchestra Ultrasound at the Purcell Rooms in London and major festivals including Brecon Jazz, Bath International Music Festival, Glastonbury and Getxco International Jazz Festival in Spain, and recorded CDs with both groups. Commissions include two collaborations with contemporary dance choreographer Yael Flexer and the New Technology Commission in 1999 from Birmingham Jazz resulting in a project entitled Synergy combining live improvisation with popular dance music grooves and sampling. This was performed at Cheltenham Jazz Festival 2000 alongside the Courtney Pine Group. Jonathan has also worked with many of the UK’s leading jazz artists such as Andy Sheppard, Tim Garland and Dave O’Higgins and US artists such as Michael Hashim and Pee Wee Ellis.
Outside of jazz, Jonathan is a co-founding member of Tango Siempre, the UK’s leading tango ensemble which tours extensively and has received critical acclaim for its performances and recordings.

Eddie Parker (flute, bass flute)

Eddie Parker has been central to some of the most important British jazz in recent years and was nominated for the 1994 British Jazz Awards. He was a founder member of and an important composer for Loose Tubes, the successful 1980s big band and a key member of the Bheki Mseleku Band. He now leads two of his own bands, and continues to feature as a soloist in Django Bates' Delightful Precipice. He also performs and composes material with Cafe del Mar Chillout stars, A man called Adam, in Ibiza.
Eddie is a lecturer in jazz at Middlesex University, and musical director of IMPRO (Integrated Music Project) which ran a major education, training and performance project, People Symphony in 2001/2. "Teaching”, he says, “is as important as composing and playing".

Jez Franks (guitar)

Jez is currently the senior jazz guitar tutor at Leeds College of Music (where he studied and won the guitar prize in 1991) and has worked with leading British jazz musicians Julian Arguelles, Laurance Cottle, Russel Vandenberg, Ingrid Laubrook and Tim Giles. He also leads and writes original material for his own band Second Nature, and is soon to release an album on the FMR jazz label. “A talented young guitarist” (Guitarist Magazine).

Dave Mannington (acoustic & electric bass)

Dave works as a bandleader, composer, and bass player in and around London. One of the brightest stars of the Guildhall post-grad jazz course, he is now mainly involved in contemporary European jazz projects, but also works with salsa, pop, and indo-jazz outfits.

Ben Reynolds (drums)

Ben recently completed a jazz studies degree at Middlesex University. Since then his formidable technique and creative approach to drumming has seen him working with leading contemporary jazz artists including Tommaso Starace and Eddie Parker. He has performed at Ronnie Scott’s and recently toured Australia, Germany and Sweden.