WENDY KIRKLAND QUARTET PIANO DIVAS

Grimsby Central Hall Trust presents:

                                                     "PIANO DIVAS"‘Wendy Kirkland Quartet’

 

 ‘Piano Divas' is a tribute to the female singer pianists of jazz including Shirley Horn, Diana Krall, Eliane Elias, Blossom Dearie, Nina Simone. Celebrating the music of the self-accompanied female voice, the Wendy Kirkland Quatet present special arrangements of jazz pieces to captivate and entertain with their unique brand of melodic, lyrical jazz.

WENDY KIRKLAND - Piano and Voice

PAT SPRAKES - Guitar

PAUL JEFFERIES - Double Bass

STEVIE SMITH - Drums

WENDY KIRKLAND - has been performing as a jazz pianist singer for over 15 years. Her voice has been compared to Blossom Dearie and Diana Krall and her pianistic style, with harmonic voicing's has been described as a happy marriage of Wynton Kelly and Eliane Elias. The idea of a show featuring the work of pianist singers came from the meeting of minds of the band members; but who could produce such a performance? There are few pianists in jazz today that can step up to the mark of singing and playing and rather than simply accomanying themselves, can exhibit superb technical and harmonic ability at the piano. Wendy is that singer.

PAT SPRAKES - cut his jazz teeth with Tony Kofi, Darius Brubeck and has performed for Robben Ford. As a guitarist, his biggest influences are Wes Montgomery and Gearge Benson, and he has a great love of latin rhythms. He is an excellent accompanist as well as a clear and melodic soloist.

PAUL JEFFERIES - A hugely entertaining player with an inventive, lyrical approach he is well know for his superb sense of time and rhythmic playing. He can be seen all around the UK performing with an array of ensembles and luminaries including Tommaso Starace, Tina May, Nicolas Meier and Art Themen: he's a member of GYPSY FIRE, the Frank Hockney Project, the Ben Holder Quartet/Quintet and his own chord-less trio TANTRUM.

STEVIE SMITH - As a drummer percussionist, he has played many countries around the world and toured extensively through-out the UK. He has been involved in about every conceivable musical setting, from orchestral through to jazz, musical theatre and pop. On the jazz scene, steve has perfomed with Jim Mullen, Bobby Shew, Dave O'Higgins, Jean Toussaint, Bruce Adams, Alan Barnes, The Matthew Herbert Big Band and the National Youth Jazz Orchestra.