HEADLINER: Robert Mitchell and Shirley Smart

Event information

​★​★★★★ 5/5! Kevin Le Gendre, Jazzwise.

"Smart conjoins Bach-like surges from low notes to high with sensuous Middle Eastern inflections, has a wide sonic range and simultaneously plucks and bows. Mitchell delivers quickfire mid-range clusters, sensitive accompaniment and rhythmic thrust." Mike Hobart, The FT


This duo developed out of conversations between Robert and Shirley whilst working on Robert’s Invocation project in 2014. Their discussions explored the varied paths of their respective backgrounds, and different relationships of all aspects of those musical paths to improvisation.
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Shirley Smart spent many years in the Middle East, where she also became involved with both jazz and Middle Eastern regional traditions and their forms of improvisation. Since returning to the UK, she has established a formidable reputation as one of the most versatile and creative cellists on the scene.

Robert Mitchell is long established as one of the UK’s finest jazz pianists and composers, and finds expression also through the medium of poetry to explore themes of his background. He also debuts here as a narrator of his own poetry, focussing on a response to the Windrush scandal and tribute to his mum and the search for global peace.
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Their album Zeitgeist brings together these different strands in each musicians journey, linked through the dialogic act of improvisation, to explore and re-explore their pasts and present.

In association with The Kellaway Concert Series ​