The Sam Norris New Quartet- Live Recording

Event information

‘Norris is a particularly refreshing voice on the alto saxophone, and one who largely avoids pervasive influences to follow a more individual path’ - UK Jazz News


Fresh out of an intense period of playing exclusively his peers’ compositions throughout 2025, alto saxophonist and composer Sam Norris (Ronan Guilfoyle) brings together an exciting new quartet of some of London's most idiosyncratic improvisers- Tom Challenger (Kit Downes), Oli Hayhurst (Pharoah Sanders) and Darren Beckett (Lee Konitz). They play a highly nuanced music which sits at the nexus of modern jazz, contemporary classical, folk and the avant-garde, with key influences including John Coltrane, Paul Bley, Dmitri Shostakovich and Gyorgy Ligeti.


Sam studied at the Royal Academy of Music on a scholarship under Julian Siegel, Stan Sulzmann and Kit Downes, graduating in 2021 with first-class honours. He won the Craig Ball prize for jazz saxophone the same year and was a finalist in the coveted Musician’s Company Young Jazz Musician of the Year competition in 2022. His debut album ‘Small Things Evolved Slowly’ was released to critical acclaim in 2024, with an accompanying UK tour. He works regularly as a sideman with many of Europe’s finest improvisers, composers and cutting-edge ensembles, such as Ronan Guilfoyle, Ashkan Layegh, the London Sinfonietta, MACKWOOD, Stan Brunt and Saurabh Shivakumar.


Tom Challenger is a saxophonist, composer, educator, band leader and sideman. Challenger leads Brass Mask, which performs music inspired by traditional street-music and collective improvisation. He also plays with Kit Downes in a church organ and saxophone duo; is a member of Dice Factory, a jazz quartet exploring alternative methods of composition, releasing their debut album in 2012 to critical acclaim; and Ma, an electro-improv outfit who have released three albums to-date. Kit and Tom have performed together at the Royal Festival Hall, Café OTO, The London Contemporary Music Festival, Cologne Philharmonie and Swaledale Music Festival, and have been broadcast live on the BBC.


Oli Hayhurst graduated from the Royal Academy of Music in 2000. Whilst still a student under the late Jeff Clyne he was touring with Gilad Atzmon and Cara Dillon. In 2006 he was featured on Zoe Rahman's Mercury nominated album, 'Melting Pot'. He continued to play with Zoe until 2011 playing at festivals throughout Europe and recording a further three albums. This was the first of frequent pairings with Gene Calderazzo which have been continued in the bands of Julian Siegel and Pharoah Sanders. He was a regular in Sanders’ quartet for European dates from 2012 onwards, playing with Kurt Rosenwinkel, Dan Tepfer, Joe Farnsworth, Gene Calderazzo and William Henderson.


Darren Beckett (drums) won a prestigious Bass Ireland Award as a teenager, leaving the Emerald Isle to study jazz in New York, where he resided for 21 years. Across his career, he has played drums everywhere from Carnegie Hall to the Royal Albert Hall. He’s performed on over 50 albums with notable names like Lee Konitz, James Williams, Brandon Flowers, Madeleine Peyroux, and Kenny Wheeler, George Colligan, and Daniel Lanois. Since moving to the UK in 2016 he's been a regular on the London jazz scene playing Ronnie Scott's and the 606 club, playing with Jason Rebello, Gilad Atzmon, Jim Mullen and Alan Barnes.


The performance will be recorded live (audio and video) by Dom Howard and Harvey Cullis.