Mopomoso Live May 19 2024 Live at the Vortex Jazz Club, London

Mopomoso LIVE at the Vortex Sunday 19th May 2024

International Free Improvised Music

upstairs at the Vortex Jazz Club, 11 Gillett Square,

London, N16 8AZ

United Kingdom

Geoff Hearn (sax) & Olie Brice (bass) & Milo Fell (drums)

Susanna Ferrar (violin), Sylvia Hallett (violin/saw/FX), Maggie Nicols (voice/tap), Tracy Lisk (drums)

Reuben Derrick (sax/clarinet)

Mia Zabelka (violin), Charlotte Keeffe (trumpet) Tracy Lisk (drums)

(not necessarily playing in this order)

More info on the gig:

Geoff Hearn

Based in the South of England, Hearn is one of Britain’s most vibrant musicians on the creative music scene today. He is seriously overlooked and has led many inspired bands including Hoboko, Kasanga , Ten Men, Hipnosis, Up Down and Strange, Amigos, Planet Earth Ensemble, Jump Street, Tetragon, Steam, Torque, Organ-ics, and AKIMA who sometimes collaborated with a troupe of African Yoruba bata’ drum masters with great success. Stints with America jazz singer Joe Lee Wilson, Vibraphonist Johnny Lytle and r’n’b legend Tommy Brown. One of his main interests is improvisational ‘sonic sculptures’ which is most evident in his work with his trio TORQUE with legendary drummer, the late Steve Harris and the extraordinary Canadian guitarist Jim Black, and of course the ground-breaking ‘shape shifting’ ensemble ZAUM, and recently witha new sonic adventure Shindo!

A ‘free’ improv trio with Hearn, bassist Olie Brice, and drummer Milo Fell perform togetherwhen they are all available to meet up to play spontaneously improvised music.

Olie Brice

Olie Brice is a double bassist, improviser and composer. Raised in London and Jerusalem, he now lives by the sea in Hastings.

Olie Brice leads and composes for two groups, a trio (with Tom Challenger & Will Glaser) and an Octet (with Alex Bonney, Kim Macari, Jason Yarde, Rachel Musson, George Crowley, Cath Roberts & Johnny Hunter). Both of these groups were featured on the critically acclaimed double album ‘Fire Hills’. Previously Brice lead a quintet – “one of the most interesting and satisfying bands on the current UK scene” – which released two albums, ‘Immune to Clockwork’ and ‘Day After Day’. He has also composed a piece for improvising string quartet, ‘From the Mouths of Lions’, which will be released in 2024.

Milo Fell

Milo Fell lived and played in the Manchester for seven years, playing with many local bands and musicians such as John Ellis’ Big Bang, Jon Thorne, Pocket Central, Isthmus and Rare Birds. He also played with some of the best jazz soloists in the UK - Don Weller, Bobby Wellins, Peter King, Alan Barnes and Jean Toussaint.

He moved to London in 1999 to play for a week at Ronnie Scott’s Club with saxophonist Tim Whitehead

He played and recorded with The Cinematic Orchestra, the great US jazz singer Mark Murphy, nuevo tango group Tango Siempre, Tony Woods Project, Italian pianist Giovanni Mirabassi, children’s poet Laureate Michael Rosen, Nostalgia 77, Julie Sasoon and singers Juliet Kelly and Karen Lane amongst many more. He has toured a lot - gigs in Russia and Poland with Dutch based group Dalgoo, and gigs in jazz clubs, festivals and concert halls of Europe

Tracy Lisk

Tracy Lisk is a percussionist who mainly performs on drum set, based in Philadelphia PA. Lisk’s history as a painter informs the substance of her improvisations which contain references to rhythmic structures while maintaining a fluid, suspended continuity. Lisk has a background in Brazilian percussion and has worked with master drummers in Salvador, Bahia and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and performed in, as well as lead percussion ensembles in Philadelphia. She has collaborated with William Parker, saxophonist Gary Hassay, Andrea Pensado (electronics/voice), dancer Ryuzo Fukuhara (JP, SI), Mia Zabelka (AU), and cellist Helena Espvall (PT), among others.

Maggie Nicols

joined London’s legendary Spontaneous Music Ensemble in 1968 as a free improvisation vocalist. She then became active running voice workshops with an involvement in local experimental theatre. She later joined the group Centipede, led by Keith Tippets and in 1977, with musician/composer Lindsay Cooper, formed the remarkable Feminist Improvising Group. She continues performing and recording challenging and beautiful work, in music and theatre, either in collaborations with a range of artists (Irene Schweitzer, Joelle Leandre, Ken Hyder, Caroline Kraabel) as well as solo.

Susanna Ferrar

Susanna Ferrar is a violinist with a special interest in site-specific improvisation. She is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, and one of HT Ferrar’s grandchildren. She undertook her Postgraduate Certificate in Antarctic Studies (PCAS) at the University of Canterbury, New Zealand in 2011-12, and, during this time, saw many of the places first visited and named by the men of “Discovery”. She has played her violin in Scott’s hut in Antarctica.