Olie Brice

Two gigs in already, I should have posted this a week ago!  Great fun so far…

Album launch on Friday 29th September at Kings Place, London

Here’s an interview I did recently with Jazzwise magazine

I’ve been sharing some (mostly) solo videos on social media, plus a duo with Alex Bonney.  Thought I’d gather all 4 of them in one place, here –

Had a great time recently playing the tunes from Sunship with the Paul Dunmall Quartet (with Howard Cottle and Tony Bianco)  plus special guest Alan Skidmore.  Getting to play with Dunmall fairly regularly is such a joy and privilege, one of my favourite things that I do…

Anway, the three Quartet tunes were filmed and put on youtube, not sure if the Skidmore ones will follow or not.  Here’s the first tune, which should link to the others:

The first few reviews are in for ‘Day After Day’, and they’re pretty gratifying…

Richard Williams had this to say on his blog, The Blue Moment:

“Olie Brice Quintet: Day After Day (Babel). I love this band, led by a brilliant bassist and completed by Alex Bonney (cornet), Mike Fletcher (alto), George Crowley (tenor) and Jeff Williams (drums). What it has is the loose-limbed fluidity I associate with the New York Contemporary Five, the band that included Don Cherry, John Tchicai and Archie Shepp, with just a hint of Albert Ayler’s Bells ensemble. But it’s not derivative. It’s a continuation, and a worthwhile one. Brice’s own playing is exceptionally strong (he can make me think of Wilbur Ware, Henry Grimes and Jimmy Garrison), his compositions provide the perfect platform for the horns, and Williams swings at medium tempo with such easy grace that you could think you were listening to Billy Higgins”

London Jazz News said “There’s nothing formulaic here, just an open, responsive approach that speaks to many different strands of improvising tradition, old and new, and makes them personal” in this review – http://www.londonjazznews.com/2017/07/cd-review-olie-brice-quintet-day-after.html

and a 4 star review on All About Jazz can be found here: https://www.allaboutjazz.com/day-after-day-olie-brice-babel-label-review-by-john-eyles.php

Hopefully more to follow!

Really nice review on the ‘Free jazz Collective’ blog for ‘Of Tides’ –

“Olie Brice plays bass as if he’s jumped onto a bear’s back to throttle it but then tries to Greco-Roman wrestle it to the ground. It is mesmerizing because there is no way to predict who will win. His pizzicato pounds like a battering ram knocking down doors, or taps like a hammer on notes like nails. His bowing bounces and stutters, then soars and dives to rip open space. Few bassists leave me as awestruck as Olie Brice.”

http://www.freejazzblog.org/2017/04/olie-brice-achim-kaufmann-of-tides.html

If anyone is reading this in Scandanavia, Achim and I will be playing a duo gig at Blow Out! in Oslo, on May 23rd, and then in Stockholm the next day, playing at the Glenn Miller Cafe in a trio with Susana Santos Silva.

I’ve just received copies of two new releases by trumpet-led bands that I’m in – ‘Halda Ema’ by the Alex Bonney Quartet and ‘Life on the Edge’ by Loz Speyer’s Inner Space.  Very pleased to be part of both!

Alex’s band also includes James Allsopp on bass clarinet and Jeff Williams on drums.  You can find it here: https://loopcollective.bandcamp.com/album/halda-ema

Inner Space is a quintet (with Chris Biscoe, Rachel Musson and Gary Willcox) and can be found here: http://www.leorecords.com/?m=select&id=CD_LR_782

We’ve got a couple of gigs coming up with Inner Space, at the Old Fire Station in Hadleigh, Essex on the 7th April and at the Bulls Head in Barnes on the 10th May

Here’s a live recording of my Quintet, the final gig of our tour last year.  We’re playing my piece ‘Red Honey, Yellow Honey’, which will be on my forthcoming quintet album ‘Day After Day’.  The new album was recorded a couple of days after this gig, and will be released this June on the Babel label.  Album launch on June 14th…