[ARCHIVE] Match & Fuse – ReDeviDer and WSP March 7
Match & Fuse is a touring exchange program set up by WorldService Project (WSP) to enable them to perform with other cutting-edge groups across Europe. After a highly successful UK double-bill tour in 2012 with Irish quartet ReDiviDeR, WSP now travel to Ireland undertake a reciprocal tour. Each concert will see a set from each of these two boundary-pushing bands, as well as an extra set featuring a unique collaborative effort with pieces composed specifically by each bandleader. This tour has received special funding from the Arts Council of Ireland in celebration of Ireland’s Presidency of the Council of the European Union.
ReDiviDeR
Nick Roth – Saxophone- Colm O’Hara – Trombone
- Derek Whyte – Bass
- Matt Jacobsen – Drums
This two-horns-no-chords quartet was established by drummer Matthew Jacobson in 2007 as a creative outlet for his compositions as well as his somewhat perverse fascination with anagrams. While he failed to find such avid fellow followers of wordplays, he did find and enlist the help of creative and rhythmic specialists Derek Whyte (bass) and Nick Roth (alto sax), with trombonist Colm O’Hara arriving a little later. The band play all original compositions from Jacobson (“one of Ireland’s most exciting young talents” – The Irish Times) with influences including artists such as Charles Mingus, Jim Black, Deerhoof and Phil Ivey. The formula for putting all this together in one palindromic setting is downtown grooves with catchy riffs and collective improvs.
They have performed at many of Irelandʼs most prestigious festivals and events including the Galway Jazz Festival 2010 where they supported Chris Potterʼs Underground; representing Ireland at the 12Points! Festival 2010; and the Cork Jazz Festival 2011, where they were also awarded the accolade of ʻBest Young Irish Bandʼ. The group was also a recent recipient of the Music Network Recording Scheme Award 2012, to release their second album, featuring four top UK Musicians and to be recorded in Dublin in February 2013.
Since the release of their debut album ʻNever odd or eveNʼ on Diatribe Records, Irelandʼs leading Jazz and Experimental music record label in November 2011, the band have been busy performing new material both in Ireland and the UK. This yearʼs performance highlights so far include a short UK Tour with London band WSP including a gig in Londonʼs Vortex Jazz Club in January, as well as sets at the Bray Jazz Festival in May; the first ever Match&Fuse Festival in Dalstonʼs Gillett Sq in London in June; and the first ever DownWithJazz Festival in Dublinʼs Meeting House Sq in August. ReDiviDeR also featured on BBC Radio 3ʼs Somethinʼ Else show in July with a broadcast of their entire set and an interview with Jacobson from the previous monthʼs Match&Fuse Festival.
WorldService Project
- Dave Morecroft – keys
- Tim Ower – saxophones
- Raphael Clarkson – trombone
- Conor Chaplin – bass
- Neil Blandford – drums
Award winning* punk-jazz-funk specialists WorldService Project (WSP) have erupted across the UK and Europe through 2011/12. Alongside their innovative Match&Fuse programme they were chosen for the 12 Points+ European touring scheme, have featured on national radio stations in the UK, Portugal, Germany and Denmark and their intense live sound has taken numerous European cities and festivals by storm including the London Jazz Festival, Ljubljana Jazz Festival, 12 Points Festival (Porto), Brecon, Marsden, Swanage, Halesworth and Margate Jazz Festivals, Europe Day (Dublin), WDR Funkhaus (Cologne), and Match&Fuse double-headers taking in Italy, Norway, Germany, France and Ireland.
The London based unit are described by Time Out London as “…dazzling…big things lie ahead for them” and were also dubbed as “brilliant post-prog funk” (Jazzwise) a “tight, deftly structured and grittily grooving music…” (The Guardian) and “serious skronk-jazz” (The Telegraph).
Led by pianist/composer Dave Morecroft, WSP’s music speaks through dark, playful building passages, winding through dissonance, complex rhythmic manipulation and downright silliness. Other times it draws on the language of 20th Century Classical composers layered over boisterous grooves more commonly found in albums by heavy rock artists.
In essence, imagine a (loud!) four-way cage match between Frank Zappa, Loose Tubes, Stravinsky and Meshuggah.
The result is high-octane experimental but accessible music with a smile on its face.
