Jez Franks

Jez took up the guitar age 15 and attended Leeds College of Music acquiring a 1st in the Jazz, Popular and Contemporary Music Course, plus the College's Jazz Guitar Prize. He has played, recorded and toured with a variety of ensembles in jazz, pop and world music including F-ire Collective member Tom Arthurs' 'Centripede', Russell Van den Berg, Asaf Sirkis' 'Inner Noise', 'Centre-Line', Loz Speyer's 'Timezone', Rick Astley, Turkish pianist/composter Selen Gulun, The Dave Mannington Septet and Johnny Mayor (Indo-jazz fusion) with recordings for Babel, 33 records and FMR and performances including the Cheltenham International Jazz Festival, The Queen Elizabeth Hall, The London, Manchester, Marsden, Lichfield and Teignmouth Jazz Festivals, EXCEL, the 606, Pizza Express, The Vortex, Ronnie Scotts, BBC Jazz on 3 plus tours of the UK, Ireland, Switzerland and Bulgaria. He has also played alongside numerous musicians including Eddie Parker, Paul Clarvis, Lawrence Cottle, Geoff Gasgoine, Mick Hutton, Dudley Phillips, Julian Arguelles, Steve Lodder, Jim Mullen and Henry Lowther. He is Senior Guitar Lecturer at Leeds College of Music and Kingston University and is visiting Guitar Examiner at Trinity College in London and the Welsh College of Music and Drama. He is also a product demonstrator for TASCAM...

"...a staggering improvisational force" - All about Jazz website

Tori began her musical career aged 7, playing and singing in folk clubs. She later studied flute on the Leeds College of Music Jazz Course then took up sax and studied joint first study flute/sax on the Guildhall Postgraduate Jazz Course plus was regional finalist of Young Jazz Musician of the Year in '96. She has played saxes/flutes/violin/vocals with many groups in a variety of styles including NYJO, the Creative Jazz Orchestra, Neil Yates, country/rock legend Lee Hazlewood, Selen Gulun, 'The Spacial Ensemble' (alongside Simon Picard, John Ellis, John Thorne etc), The Dave Mannington Septet, Melanie Blatt, Pete Lawrence (alongside Neil Cowley, Andy Gangadeen, Mozez etc), and Cuban group 'Orquesta La Timbala' alongside Annie Whitehead, with performances including Glastonbury, the Big Chill, the RFH main stage, National Theatre, 606 and the London, Cork, Jersey and Manchester Jazz Festivals plus tours of Portugal and Bulgaria. She has also written/recorded with dj/producer 'Levan J' with releases for SFP (USA), Soul star (Germany). Cool Sound Music (Spain), United (NL) and VI music (Puerto Rico). She has performed improvisation workshops for the Guildhall School of Music Connect Project and Kingston University and is now saxophone and flute tutor at Leeds College of Music...

"Haunting playing...star quality" Guernsey Press, "A gem" The Standard

Tori Freestone

Jasper Hoiby

Jasper was born in Copenhagen and began playing bass aged eighteen in local groups later moving to the UK to study on the Royal Academy of Music Jazz Degree. Since leaving the Academy, Jasper has been making a name for himself on the Jazz and improvised scene in London, both as a sideman and as a bandleader/composer.
He is currently working on two of his own projects: Qualia - a six piece ensemble, and a trio 'Phronesis'. The trio are releasing an album in the Early autumn of this year. He is a regular member of F-ire Collective member Julia Biel's Band and the 'Arthurs, Hoiby, Ritchie' trio with Tom Arthurs and Stuart Ritchie. 'Arthurs, Hoiby, Ritchie' performed in the Cheltenham International Jazz Festival in 2005, has recorded for BBC jazz on three and are to release an album in 2007. Jasper has also performed alongside numerous musicians including Hermeto Pascoal, Gerard Presencer, Seb Rochford, Pete Wareham, Jonny Phillips, Finn Peters, Nick Ramm, Julian Arguelles, and Gene Calderazzo Jasper is a member of the 'Loop Collective' a London based collective focusing on original improvised and written music.

Ben Reynolds started playing drums at the age of 11 and went on to study on the jazz degree course at Middlesex University. He has played with The Eddie Parker group, Jacqui Dankworth, Mark Lockheart, John Parricelli, Stan Sulzman, Steve Buckley, Mike Walker, Dudley Phillips and Ingrid Laubrook. He is a member of various London based groups including Carlos Lopez Real’s ‘Mandorla’, Rory Simmons 'Curve' and Loop Collective members ‘Fraud’ who have recently released an album on the Babel label which has been nominated for the BBC jazz award for Album of the year. He has toured and played in festivals and clubs all over the world including Nepal, Wellington (New Zealand), the Cheltenham International Jazz Festival, The Vortex, Pizza on the Park, Pizza Express, the 606 Jazz Club, the Edinburgh Festival and performances on radio including recording for jazz on 3 and a live performance for Friday night is Music night with the BBC Concert Orchestra.

Ben Reynolds