Hi, thanks for checking out my website. I've the good fortune to be involved in lots of interesting musical projects with musicians from many countries living in London, doing some sessions (more than 50 released cd's now) and a smorgasbord of work in venues from Ronnie Scott's to the Royal Albert Hall and around the world.​ (Please see the ''Concerts'' and ''Projects'' pages on the site for more detail.) I've been here since September 2006 ; prior to that, I lived 4 years in Paris which exposed me to lots of great music and musicians I might never have encountered otherwise. (Most especially, from north and west Africa and Madagascar, and from Cuba and Brasil.)  

 

When I was a student (reading English at the University of Birmingham) I took drum lessons from legendary Birmingham player/teacher Malcolm Garrett and followed in the footsteps of Ian Palmer, Neil Bullock, Chris Dagley, Peter Cater and Steve Arguelles as drummer with the Midland Youth Jazz Orchestra (MYJO). At that time the repertoire was mostly by Bob Florence, Rob McConnell and Tom Kubis. We backed many great soloists including Bud Shank, Bill Watrous, Nigel Hitchcock and Mark Nightingale and won the BBC Big Band Competition.

 

I grew up in Southport  ( near Liverpool ) and first played bebop and hard bop with some Liverpool musicians at 16.

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Some career highlights so far include playing at the China Drum Summit in Beijing in 2015 (see poster to the right!) and again in 2016, this time sharing the bill with David Garibaldi, Steve Smith, Mark Giuliana and Billy Kilson ! And in 2018 Partikel (featuring Duncan Eagles and Ant Law) played at the Vancouver and Rochester (N.Y.) International Jazz Festivals. Please see the "Career Highlights" page if you want more !!

 

At the time of writing - and I would like to stress that I enjoy playing all kinds of music and have made a living since graduating from university by doing just that -  most of my work is jazz-related. That's stuff that anyone would describe as "jazz" ( both ancient and modern ) and some stuff that some people wouldn't - fusiony or "world" music projects which feature a lot of improvisation. There's also some pop and rock, musical theatre, folky singer-songwriter stuff, 20th Century orchestral music , ballroom / sequence dance gigs, sessions, etc. I don't want to be pigeon-holed as a ''jazz drummer'' because I enjoy and have a lot of experience of playing many other styles of music, all of which are related. I'm pleased to work across the entire spectrum of music and generally dislike artificial boundaries. For lists of collaborators, please

see the "Projects" page or the "Home" page for what's happening imminently.

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Thanks for your time, I hope you enjoy the site !