Biography
I started my rather diverse musical career beating African drums at the tender age of four in Kalabo, western Zambia where my parents worked as teachers. I then lost touch with drumming until re-discovering it at the age of seventeen, this time with heavy rock and blues (Free, John Mayalls Bluesbreakers, Eric Clapton, Led Zepplin, etc.) - it's all descended from African drumming anyway! From these bands it was a pretty natural progression into the progressive rock groups, mainly Yes and King Crimson, where I quickly became hugely influenced by Bill Bruford.
I got into the then thriving Acid Jazz scene (a bit of a departure from prog rock) while at Bath University. My main band at the university was Freakwave (see the sounds page for a recording), which was an instrumental jazz-rock group. We played Moles club in Bath a few times, including a support slot for the Emperors New Clothes (at the time signed to the Acid Jazz label: I don't know if they're still going but they were great - the only band on the label really doing Jazz rather than just funk with jazzy bits). Not suprisingly, the Acid Jazz scene got me into Jazz which is what I spend most of my time playing today.
While living in Weymouth for a few years after University, I played anything from jazz at local jam sessions to rock/pop covers with Pondlife (see the sounds page for a recording). It was in Weymouth that I met my friend, teacher and mentor Andy Trim, who taught me some of what he knows (and a lot of what I know) about playing the drums.
I moved back to Bath towards the end of 2000, glad to find the local music scene as vibrant as ever. I'm currently busy playing various jazz gigs around the Bath/Bristol area, and can often be found playing at the Green Park Brasserie or the Farmhouse in Bath. I've had the pleasure of playing with many of the talented musicians who live around this area, including the late great Danny Sheppard, Guy Harrup, Jeff Rodman and John Paul Gard to name a few.
My main drumming influence is Jack DeJohnette, who is the most musically free drummer I've ever heard, as well as being a superb pianist. Other influences include Roy Haynes and Elvin Jones, Peter Erskine, Bill Stuart and many others, most recently Mark Guiliana (this guy is the future). Something I've always tried to do, and have been able to do due to my diverse musical background, is to fuse different styles together and try to add something different to a piece of music. Enjoy the rest of the web site.
