Formed in early 2006 after a series of informal jam sessions at a house in Manchester, the Magic Hat have gone on to excite audiences throughout the UK.
The band endeavor to play wherever they can and have been seen recently in Edinburgh, London, Manchester, Liverpool, Nottingham, North Wales and Stratford Upon Avon. A new CD is in the the pipeline with a plan to release the debut studio album in 2009. The band will then be promoting the album with a UK tour late 2009.
"The Magic Hat Ensemble have built a solid name for themselves as a cracking live unit around the UK. Offering a youthful and often irreverent take on standards asserted through incredibly tight rhythmic playing and cheeky metric modulations the result is pulsating post bop given a refreshing boot up the behind. Led by Steve Chadwick on cornet with pianist Andrzej Baranek, guitarist Tony Ormesher, bassist Nick Blacka and drummer Rob Turner this is a dynamic and hugely listenable band worth catching live" - Jazzwise
"Magic Hat is a very tight unit with a dynamic approach and a totally appealing sound. A gem of a band, and quite rare with its stimulating nature, in our sometimes staid or over self-conscious home-grown UK jazz scene. They present an exciting, upbeat programme of very original, quirky and sometimes even hilarious re-arrangements of standards, as well as some neat originals. Great individual playing and a very cool ensemble sound indeed!" - Bill Kyle (The Jazz Bar)
'An extremely well-rehearsed band with an invigorating and unusual take on the repertoire, ably led by Steve Chadwick's gorgeous tone and precise articulation.' - Stuart Johnson (Zeferellis)
"Magic Hat was the most outstanding new band to appear at Stratford Jazz this year. They impressed with their new take on jazz standards coupled with stimulating tunes of their own. A tight, energetic and swinging band that is clearly going places." - Roy Stevens (Stratford Jazz)
"The Magic Hat Ensemble was a perfect opener for our 09 'Jazz on a Winter's Weekend'. Innovative, with tight and intriguing head arrangements of some well known standards and good soloing all round. Tony Ormesher's guitar work was particularly impressive on 'Darn That Dream'. A large proportion of the sell out crowd were not from the North West where the band is best known and we got lots of complimentary and 'who-are-they' comments after the gig." - Geoff Mathews (Southport Melodic Jazz Society)
“…it’s the spontaneity of the live show which makes this band special.” - Oundle Chronicle
Having studied under the jazz titan Jerry Bergonzi – Kaylor brings his no frills attached, straight down the line jazz genius to Welcome Home Sexy for a post Valentine’s Day jazz love in. Having performed with artists as diverse as Bob Mintzer, Joanna McGregor, Roy Wood (ELO, Wizard, The Move) & Marissa Price (Prince & Chaka Khan) Kaylor ploughs a musical furrow at once ancient & modern. He is more than loved up by the talents of Jamil Sherrif on the ivories - who regularly performs with the likes of Zoltan Dekany & Pat McCarthy in his acclaimed octet; Russ Pearson on Upright Bass who finds time to perform with the likes of Soweto Kinch, Joanna McGregor, & the Grand Union Orchestra as well as producing commissions for the BBC & Ch4 & finally Dave Walsh on Kit -a man equally at home playing jazz, Latin, drum 'n' bass or rock & who has bashed his pig skins with the likes of John Surman, Stan Sulzman, Jim Mullen amongst other. Lovely music, lovely guys, lovely groove. Lovely.
Fri 15 Feb - 8.30pm @ The New Beehive Inn, 171 Westgate, Bradford
Hi Magic Hat, After a chat with Andre and Rob in M&P the other night, we posed the question of Northern Jazz Names to the audience at Bakers last night and came up with a few ideas...
See what you think!
Horwich Silver Dexter Gorton Disley Gillespie Art Blakely Bury Rich (said in northern accent!!) Dinah Warrington Stan Denton Leeds Morgan
This has snowballed!! Hope the tour goes really well.
