ASHBURTON: Arts Centre

Wednesday 14th May, 2025

7:00pm

Event information

Here's something a little different — conversation with a living legend of the British jazz scene combined with a concert.

Guitarist Jim Mullen has lived a lifetime in jazz and has played his part in its evolution since the 1960s. Self-taught from records and friends in his native Glasgow, his talent and drive took him to London and from there to worldwide fame as part of the Morrissey-Mullen band, a jazz funk outfit that rode the crest of the wave of popularity for that genre in the 1970s and 80s. Since then he remained a stalwart of the London scene and has met and played with many of the greats in jazz from Gene Harris to Jimmy Smith, Mose Allison to Claire Martin.

Jim will be in conversation with his friend and long-time drummer Tristan Mailliot and will discuss his influences, his unique approach to guitar technique and his reflections on a life immersed in jazz. Music is a tough but rewarding vocation and this will be of interest to musicians and music fans alike.

After a short interval Jim will join vocalist Zoe Francis, Tristan and Tom Ball on the house Hammond organ to play an extended set of songs from the Great American songbook, both well known and rare. This band went down very well last year so it should be a great evening.

Zoe Francis - voice
Jim Mullen - guitar
Tom Ball - organ
Tristan Mailliot - drums

Zoe Francis is a devoted proponent of the Great American songbook popularised by Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, Anita O’Day and Billie Holiday. She tells the story of the songs she chooses with a poised and flawless delivery. Having trained in New York with one of bebop's leading lights, Barry Harris, she has played in all the big London clubs and at many festivals around the country, mixing with the best musicians (Jim, Tristan, Ross Stanley, Gareth Williams) as attested by her three albums. She will be presenting well known songs as well as choice selections from the lesser known canon, always crafted into enticing arrangements.

Jim Mullen has been around in jazz since the 1960s, soaking up and indeed influencing the different directions it's taken since then. Figures of his stature rarely venture West and we are excited to present him in Torquay along with premier drummer, long time collaborator and friend, Tristan Mailliot.

Growing up in Glasgow, Jim bought his first arch top guitar aged 14 and learned everything he could from other local musicians and from listening to the American West Coast records that some of them owned, copying Barney Kessel and Wes Montgomery early on. As a young man he formed a jazz group with sax player Malcolm Duncan and keyboardist Roger Ball, who went on to form the Average White Band, a group with which he later toured and recorded.

Moving to London in the late 1960s, Jim's first professional job was as a musician for the poet Pete Brown, today remembered as a song lyricist on the legendary Wheels of Fire album by Cream. After recording two albums with Pete Brown’s band, Mullen moved on to Brian Auger’s Oblivion Express. After appearing on the band’s first three albums he joined the band Kokomo and in the mid-1970s he joined forces with tenor saxophonist Dick Morrissey to form the Morrissey-Mullen Band, a tremendously popular jazz-funk outfit where they both carved out a niche in UK jazz history, with multiple TV appearances and international tours.

Following 15 years and 6 albums with Morrisey-Mullen, Jim formed various groups playing with some of London's top musicians including Mornington Lockett, Dave O’Higgins, Gary Husband, Mick Hutton, Gareth Williams, Stan Sulzmann, Gareth Lockrane, Mike Gorman, Matt Skelton and Tristan Mailliot. He’s been featured on the Paul McCartney-produced All About the Music and more recently on the Citrus Sun album, People of Tomorrow, produced by Incognito co-founder, Jean-Paul ‘Bluey’ Maunick. In the last few years he recorded two organ trio albums and Volunteers (for a large ensemble arranged by Lockrane) and Bumpin', a tribute to Wes Montgomery's music with singer Claire Martin. Other "names" in Jim's CV include the great blues pianist Gene Harris, with whom he toured extensively, Mose Allison, Teddy Edwards, Plas Johnson (famed for the Pink Panther theme), Jimmy Smith and Georgie Fame.

Tristan Mailliot is one of London's top drummers and has played with everyone and anyone on the scene. Tristan leads his own bands including the Loire All Stars, a jazz funk band and a Chick Corea project with Tom Ridout, a young jazz musician of the year finalist. Tristan has known Hammond organist Tom Ball for many years and together they have organised this South West tour.

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