Deco Heart, the musical pairing featuring Lucian Ban and Mat Maneri, will perform three exclusive UK shows ahead of the autumn release of their self-titled album. Working at the edge of jazz, contemporary classical and downtown NY improve, the duo present a set of jazz musings and downtown skronk, a joyously upbeat affair.
For their show at London's Vortex, the first of their three-night UK run, one of the giants of improvised music, special guest saxophonist Evan Parker, will join Deco Heart. In Derby, the show will feature the ever-inventive vibraphone player Corey Mwamba.
Born in Transylvania, Lucian Ban now resides in New York, and is a fully fledged member of the downtown scene and at the forefront of contemporary modern jazz. Described as "one of the most gifted pianists to move to New York in the past decade" and cited as "playing with a sensibility and fluency that recalls Vladimir Horowitz as much as McCoy Tyner", Ban has twice been nominated as Best European Jazz Musician in the prestigious Hans Koller Awards.
Yet it is through his Enescu Re-Imagined project that Ban made his mark in the UK, and first collaborated with Mat Maneri uncovering a unique musical rapport. The show was performed at London Jazz Festival, with the support of the Romanian Cultural Institute in London. It was, suggested the Guardian, "a rare combination of uninhibited but coherent solo and collective improv, shrewd arrangement and dazzling thematic writing".
Classically trained, Mat Maneri has been charged with the accolade of "changing the way the jazz world listens to violin and viola". The freewheeling scope of his musical imagination has led Maneri to become the go-to guy from artists such as paul Bley, Cecil Taylor and Matthew Shipp, John Medeski, Michael Formanek, Tim Berne as well as leading several of his own critically acclaimed ensembles.
Programme:
Thu May 17, Vortex Jazz Club, 8.30pm 11 Gillett Street, London, N16. Tickets: £12 | 020 7254 4097 | www.vortexjazz.co.uk | Book online Photo of Evan Parker by Benjamin Amure
Fri May 18, Literary & Philosophical Library, 8pm 23 Westgate Road, Newcastle NE1 1SE Tickets: £ 10 ( £ 8 concessions) | 0191 232 0192 | Book online Presented in partnership with Jazz North East
Sat May 19th, Voicebox Arts Centre, 6:30pm Forman Street, Derby DE1 1JQ Tickets: www.voiceboxuk.com
