Ivo Neame
Pianist / Saxophonist / Composer
Ivo Neame is an unusual jazz musician in that he is equally at home on saxophone and piano, and has recorded and performed on both of these instruments with many artists in the UK and abroad, including Empirical, Cinematic Orchestra, Matthew Herbert, Seb Rochford, Crowded House, F-ire collective big band, Stan Sulzmann, Julian Siegel, Gerard Presencer, Gilad Atzmon, Mark Lockheart and Chris Batchelor.
Ivo’s most idiosyncratic contributions to progressive, improvised music have been in collaborations with members of the LOOP collective; as pianist/bandleader of the Ivo Neame Quartet, with the trio Phronesis (also on piano), and on saxophone with Jim Hart’s Gemini. Ivo has also played on recordings by groups that have developed unique, beautiful sounds such as Fringe Magnetic (Rory Simmons) and the Dave Manington Quartet.
The Ivo Neame quartet features Jim Hart (vibes), Jasper Hoiby (bass) and drum sensation James Maddren, and was recently signed to Edition Records. The first album Caught in the Light of Day is due for release in late October 2009. The most recent tour saw the band develop an audacious openness based on the strong trust developed over the years by regular playing and recording. Ivo’’s writing attempts to create music that is not limited by its own parameters, and which constantly explores the juxtaposition of the relative poles of texture, timbre and group interplay.
The band has three core musical values at heart:
1) An open-minded approach, backed up by an ability to destroy or to honour written material with equal enthusiasm. This is reflected by the music’s pendulum-like ability to move from freely improvised sections in the spirit of Paul Bley to very specific, dense, complex Zappa-esque writing.
2) A commitment to narrative, meaningful improvisation. This is evident from the motivic improvisatory concept that is employed by all band members. An effort is made to ensure that the improvisation always serves the music, and is relevant to the ideas in the tunes.
3) A love of musical contrast. This reflects the composer’s interests and ensures that the music can be appreciated on many different levels.
DISCOGRAPHY AS A COMPOSER
EDN1016 – Caught in the Light of Day [Edition 2009]
LOOP 1002 – Swirls and Eddies [Loop 2007]
DISCOGRAPHY AS A PERFORMER
Caught in the Light of Day – Ivo Neame Quartet [Edition 2009]
Green Delay – Phronesis [Loop 2009]
Swirls and Eddies – Ivo Neame Trio [Loop 2007]
Emergence – Gemini [Loop 2007]
Different Smile – Kaz Simmons [Fast Awake Records 2007]
Getting Giggy – Andy Davies Quartet [Rhythm and Muse Records 2007]
Flying Dreams – Brigitte Beraha [F-ire 2008]
Headrush – Dave Mannington [Loop 2008]
REVIEWS
“I will just say that the band is totally smoking, the music is modern, angular, complex and stunning and the over-all impression is jaw dropping. I’m really digging this one! If you have a taste for more modern, aggressive and/or artistic approach to jazz, check “Caught in the LIght of Day” out”. BASS PLAYER MAGAZINE
“Angular lines, unexpected intervals and changes of tempo and mood, all negotiated with a deft fluidity echoed by the playing of this fine young quartet”. IRISH TIMES
“Sounds rather like a slippery, angular, latterday MJQ”. OBSERVER
A showcase for Neame’s blossoming keyboard powers. There are fast postboppers with stop-time variations, meditations turning into arrhythmic Latin grooves, bright melodic fragments dropping into preoccupied rocking vamps and then dreamy contemplation. It’s a set full of edgy and characterful themes, matched by resourceful, conversational improvising”. GUARDIAN ****
“Multi instrumentalist Ivo Neame is fast becoming one of the rising stars of British jazz. Tightly kinit, superbly played music from an increasingly mature musician and composer”. JAZZ MANN ****
“Appealing, fresh and stimulating, courtesy not only of the infectious enthusiasm and commitment of Neame’s band but also of the sheer classiness of his writing for it. Recommended”. VORTEX JAZZ REVIEWS
“Neame’s intricately engaging Caught In The Light Of Day (Edition) is an album of varied, virtuosic musicianship, from the fleet-footed bop of opener Birdbrained, through the dark romanticism of Quixotic, to the dense, angular, Monk-ish descending motifs of closer Pear Shaped”. METRO
“Caught in the Light of Day is a calling card which many listeners will be able to appreciate. Because the quality of the music is that it is not pretentiously innovative, but it’s firmly grounded in the best straight ahead-jazz tradition, and adds elements of contemporary music with discretion. The writing goes beyond traditional song form by using a patchwork quilt of influences. This allows the musicians to play with rhythmic freedom and changeable harmonic structures, allowing the musical flow to unfold smoothly or to twist nervously between sudden swerves and unexpected accelerations. ALL ABOUT JAZZ ITATIA
There’s something splendidly unhip about Neame: he plays complex, intellectual music with unashamedly extended sections of soloing and free blowing. An album of great promise”. JAZZWISE
“From the initial accelerating line that opens the title track, it’s clear that here is a band pushing hard with exacting playing and complex material”. JAZZ BREAKFAST
“Saxophonist Ivo Neame (also a gifted pianist) made the familiarities sound fresh with his punchy emphasis and unorthodox phrasing.”GUARDIAN
“Pianist Ivo Neame’s quartet (pictured) with the outstanding Hart on vibraphone gave an established format a contemporary sheen of shifting structures and linear logic. Spiritual swirl morphed to anarchic climax, skittering cross-rhythms shifted to bucolic pastoral and “Caught in the Light of Day” – we were told to “think vampire” – captured the sense of a desperate search for escape. Maddren’s fractured flams cajoled a stunning performance from the rhythmically poised Hart, who delivered a fine balance of ringing tones, deadened notes and hard-swinging lines.” FINANCIAL TIMES
“Their music is, in its own way, equally adventurous, consisting of quirky originals with appropriately off-centre titles (’Passing Point’, ‘Caught in the Light of Day’ –’Think vampires’, as Neame remarked, introducing it – and ‘Quixotic’), packed with constantly shifting rhythms skilfully and powerfully played by the ever-improving Maddren and robustly propelled by the dark-toned Hoiby. With the intelligently virtuosic Neame and the inexhaustibly inventive Hart as gripping soloists, this is a punchy but subtle band whose music richly rewards the close attention it demands.” VORTEX
For more information:
www.ivoneame.com
www.myspace.com/ivoneame
