KEITH TIPPETT + THE ELYSIAN QUARTET

Event information

Keith Tippett is one of the most important European jazz musicians/improvisers/ composers/ arrangers of the last 40 years and we’re delighted to present three very special and very different evenings showcasing his new work. Centred around two world premieres, performances with the Elysian Quartet, a commission from the Kreutzer Quartet, a new Octet, and of course Julie Tippetts, these three nights are not to be missed.

The magnificent Elysian Quartet are drawn towards new projects, collaborations and playing that challenge notions of what a string quartet can do - what sounds and noises it can make and how performances can be presented.
Tonight they perform as a quartet and as a piano quintet with Tippett, performing both their own pieces and pieces commissioned by the Kreutzer Quartet.

KEITH TIPPETT
Keith Tippett is the revered free-jazz pianist who crossed over into art-rock in the early 70s, playing with King Crimson and, in 1970, convening the monstrously ambitious Centipede, an avant-garde big band that drew together more than 50 of the UK’s most adventurous jazz and rock musicians. Since then he’s recorded and performed prolifically with groups including Mujician with saxophonist Paul Dunmall, and Ovary Lodge, alongside percussionist Frank Perry and his wife, Julie. Mrs Tippett – nee Driscoll – was the mod-soul sensation who worked with Rod Stewart and Long John Baldry in Steampacket, and found pop stardom with Brian Auger and the Trinity, providing witchy vocals for 1968’s definitive psychedelic version of Bob Dylan’s This Wheel’s On Fire before, in the 70s, making a concerted move out of the charts and into experimental vocals.

In the early '70s Keith Tippett also moved easily between jazz and rock, becoming well-known even among rock audiences for his studio-based contributions [sometimes with KT Group members Charig and Evans] to three successive early King Crimson albums. His association with Crimson led to a lasting friendship with Robert Fripp, who has produced five of Keith's albums over the decades to follow. Other irregular combinations have included work with a quartet including Peter Brotzmann and Harry Miller (sadly, not officially documented); a duo with Howard Riley that has produced three recordings; membership of Derek Bailey's Company; and duos with Stan Tracey, Andy Sheppard, Peter Fairclough, and Giovanni Maier.
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Pianist, composer, bandleader, innovator, catalyst – the internationally acclaimed Keith Tippett is all these things and more—The Wire

Creative pianist–composer Keith Tippett is a national treasure [and] one of our most innovative but undervalued musicians—Jazzwise

THE ELYSIAN QUARTET
The Elysian Quartet is a British string quartet specialising in contemporary, experimental and improvised music, who formed while studying at London’s Trinity College of Music. In 2011 they celebrated ten years together with a one day mini-festival at The Yard, Hackney which featured performances and collaborations with many of the musicians the quartet have worked with over the years, including Adem, Simon Fisher Turner, and Joby Burgess (Ensemble Bash).

The Elysian Quartet are drawn towards projects which investigate the possibilities of what a string quartet can do, what sounds and noises it can make and the various ways performances can be presented. They have performed all over the world in a multitude of diverse scenarios: prestigous concert halls, theatres, sweaty clubs, a volcano, helicopters, wild meadows, multimedia art installations, beaches, fire sculptures, forests and once in a barn being dive bombed by bats. In recent years the Quartet have worked with the legendary vocalist and composer Meredith Monk, performing with her ensemble in Edinburgh, Wroclaw and Dartington in a work which requires them to sing and dance as well as play their instruments.

They have twice been commissioned by BBC Radio Three’s Late Junction to create new music in collaborations with poet/rapper Kate Tempest and, more recently, with Syrian Kanun player Maya Yousseff. They have also premiered many new commissions including recent works by Graham Fitkin, Gameshow Outpatient and Keith Tippett.

‘Feisty boundary pushers, four supremely talented classical musicians’ London Metro