Small Print

Stoller Hall (Carole Nash Hall)

Norma Winstone vocals / Nikki Iles piano / Mike Walker guitar / Steve Watts bass

This is an ensemble with a vast emotional range, brought together by their collective love of song and a powerful spirit of collaboration. Small Print (a nod to their larger Printmakers ensemble) sets out to cross many musical boundaries; with themes of obsession, murder, migration, home and first love, they present a brilliant unity of concept and sound, delivered with honesty and stunning clarity and all bought together with their collective love of songs.

Award winning pianist/composer Nikki Iles is one of the heroines of British jazz. She has made an invaluable contribution to the jazz scene in this country and beyond, whilst also making a very personal musical statement in many groups, not least her own superb Anglo-American trio with Rufus Reid and Jeff Williams and as Composer in Residence withe NDR Big band in Hamburg.

Grammy nominated and ECM recording artist Norma Winstone MBE, pioneering innovator of the voice, has been a leading light in European music for many years. She collaborated with Kenny Wheeler and John Taylor in Azimuth, and has also worked with Fred Hersch, Steve Swallow, Jimmy Rowles, Mike Gibbs and Ralph Towner. Her music has in recent years found new collaborators and listeners, with three superb award-winning ECM releases in trio with European musicians Klaus Gesing and Glauco Venier.

Mike Walker is rightly regarded as one of Europe’s most exciting guitarists – always passionate, dangerous and highly inventive. He has worked with some of the most innovative musicians in the world, including George Russell, Kenny Wheeler, John Taylor, Julian Arguelles and Gwilym Simcock.

Bassist Steve Watts has been the all-important linchpin in many significant bands in British Jazz, including Django Bates’ Human Chain, and with Kenny Wheeler and Stan Sulzmann. He has also worked with Iain Ballamy and Kirk Lightsey and Joe Lovano.

“In the old days, this band would have had the words ‘All-Stars’ in their name. Every one of them is a leading figure in British contemporary jazz. Together, they create evocative sound-pictures of places and times. It’s remarkable how just three instruments and voice can suggest space and depth as they do.” – Dave Gelly, The Observer.