Wednesday, 1 June 2016

Tori Freestone All You Need to Know

Tori Freestone is a British saxophonist, flautist and violinist who performs at the forefront of the UK improvised music scene as both a sidewomen and highly regarded bandleader.
Freestone is known for her robust tenor sound, melodic invention as well as an ability to amalgamate into a variety of styles and musical contexts while maintaining her highly personal and distinct voice. As a composer Freestone's writing balances wit with playfulness while exploring new ways to blur the lines between the written and improvised.

Freestone's playing is featured in a number of the UK’s most exciting contemporary bands such as The Ivo Neame Quintet and Octet, Compassionate Dictatorship, Fringe Magnetic, the London Jazz Orchestra, Neil Yates’ N-Circle Jazz Orchestra, Solstice, Andy Sheppard, NYJO, the Creative Jazz Orchestra, country legend Lee Hazlewood, the Cuban group ‘Orquesta Timbala’ and the Dave Manington Septet.
But it is Freestone’s new trio that has been gaining the most attention for her as of late. Comprised of long-time musical associates in uber-creative drummer Tim Giles and the highly original bassist Dave Manington, Freestone has been developing her own repertoire which explores the openness that the saxophone trio allows while taking inspiration from some of the non-chordal sax led trios of the moment. 

Freestone’s performance and session highlights to date include: The Royal Festival Hall, the Queen Elizabeth Hall, the National Theatre, The 606 Club, The Vortex, Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club, Glastonbury Festival, the ‘Big Chill’, Skein Jazz (Norway) and the London, Cork, Jersey, Cheltenham, Brecon, Manchester, Elb (Germany), Haskovo (Bulagaria) and North Sea (Holland) Jazz Festivals, plus tours of the UK, Portugal, Germany, Holland and Bulgaria.  She has also recorded with Melanie Blatt and DJ Levan J with releases for De Wolfe Music, SFP (USA), Soul Star (Germany), Cool Sound Music (Spain), United (NL) and VI music (Puerto Rico).


As an educator she has performed workshops for the Welsh College of Music, Kingston University, Falmouth University and Truro College, while lecturing at Middlesex University and Leeds College of Music.  She is currently a tutor for the National Youth Jazz Collective running workshops and tutoring on summer schools alongside the likes of Dave Holland and some of the UK's finest musicians and educators.

No comments:

Post a Comment