Roy Powell studied piano and avant-garde composition at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester England before studying jazz. He first came to prominence in 1994 with his debut recording A Big Sky which was hailed as “a real bench mark in British contemporary electric jazz” by Jazz on CD. He then emigrated to Oslo, Norway where he collaborated on an album of free improvised music – Holus which was described as “ an outstanding success” by Jazz journal International. His next release as a leader- North by Northwest featuring Norwegian bassist Arild Andersen has also been a critical success as well as being selected as Best Jazz CD of 2001 by Amazon.co.uk. Solace which was released in 2003 received lavish praise including 4 stars in Downbeat. His piece Bow Out has been performed by Oakland, Richmond, Cincinnati and Florida ballet companies and has had performances all over the globe from Japan, Australia, and USA to Europe and Scandinavia. His recordings have appeared in the Gramophone Jazz Good , CD guide, Gramophone Classical Good CD guide, the Lord Discography, The new Grove Dictionary of Jazz as well as jazz magazines in Europe and the US and radio shows in the UK, Germany, Japan, Switzerland, Holland Scandinavia and the US.
Powell has recorded with and played concerts with many significant musicians including; Art Farmer, Eddie Daniels, Jeff Berlin, Hadrian Feraud, Lorenzo Feliciati, Reggie Washington, Bobby Shew, Anthony Braxton, Vince Mendoza, Mike Gibbs, Iain Ballamy, Martin France, Frode Berg, Erik Smith, Arild Andersen, Terje Rypdal, Mike Walker, Sigurd Køhn, Jarle Vespestad, Jacob Young, Terje Gewelt, Cuong Vu, Pat Mastelotto, Joel Harrison, Dan Weiss, Nils Olav Johansen, Dominique Di Piazza, Per Mathisen, Roy Hargrove, Nils Petter Molvær and Dave Liebman amongst others.
Current Projects
Powell Vespestad Young -organ guitar drums trio with Jarle Vespestad and Jacob Young Contemporary take on classic organ trio -European, lyrical CD out March 2011
Jarle Vespestad and Jacob Young belong to the new generation of Norwegian musicians on ECM records. Jarle is known for his work with Tord Gustavsen, Silje Nergaard, Supersilent, Farmers Market.He has performed all over the world at most major jazz venues and fesivals. He has recorded over 40 jazz albums with 5 being for ECM records.Jacob Young has recorded 7 albums of his own music, 2 for ECM and was recently a guest on Manu Katché s CD Third Round together with Tore Brunborg , Jason Rebello and Pino Palladino .His own quintet features such visionary players of Nordic jazz as Jon Christensen and Mathias Eick.His music is known as far as Japan and the United States where his elegant writing and playing has garnered him many loyal fans.
Roy Powell Trio -piano bass drums trio with Lorenzo Feliciati and Maxx Furian/Jarle Vespestad Currently planning Japanese dates as well as Germany and Italy. Current CD Napoli out now in Japan coming soon to UK, Norway, Italy and iTunes.
Order from Contact
Naked Truth with Cuong Vu, Pat Mastelotto and Lorenzo Feliciati
CD Shirazu out now on RareNoise Records Tour dates for 2012 coming soon
New CD Releases 2012
January sees the release of Holy Abyss with Cuong Vu , Lorenzo Feliciati, Joel Harrison and Dan Weiss on Cuneiform Records
http://www.cuneiformrecords.com/bandshtml/harrison.html
Febuary: Lorenzo Feliciati´s solo CD out on RareNoise Records http://www.rarenoiserecords.com/
Pat Mastelotto of King Crimson, Mr. Mister , XTC and Naked Truth
sets March 20th album release date for Recidivate, a collection of outtakes, rarities and highlights from the past 20 years of his career on Mar. 20 via Trey Gunns 7d Media.
April and May international release of InterStatic´s CD (Roy Powell with Jacob Young and Jarle Vespestad) on RareNoise Records
