John Etheridge & Nigel Kennedy
@ the PizzaExpress Jazz Club
10 September 2013

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John Etheridge biography

John Etheridge rightly enjoys a glowing reputation throughout the jazz world and beyond and has been described by Pat Metheny as, “One of the best guitarists in the world”. He is a prodigiously gifted and creative player whose approach to music can only be described as ‘eclectic’ as he refuses to accommodate or even acknowledge artificial musical boundaries. His range is well illustrated by his years of touring and recording with the iconic Stephane Grappelli while simultaneously doing likewise with the legendary jazz-fusion group, The Soft Machine. John is equally at home on acoustic and electric guitar and his willingness to engage with so many styles is matched by his ability to excel in any of them. He has played with John Williams, Yehudi Menuhin, Dizzie Gillespie, Herb Ellis, Mundell Lowe, Nigel Kennedy, Pat Metheny, Birelli Lagrene, Barney Kessel, Vic Juris and countless others.

Ehteridges’s ability as an outstanding composer is sometimes overlooked but he is often under pressure from audiences to feature more of his own material. His promise was evident even during his earliest days of playing and he received recognition and encouragement from both Jimi Hendrix, whose comment was “You’re great”, and Eric Clapton, who told him after a gig, “You're not a great blues player but you’re a great guitarist.”

After graduating in the History of Art in 1970 from Essex University and returning to London, Etheridge started to get seriously noticed when working in the various bands such as ex-Curved Air violinist Darryl Way’s Wolf, an early jazz/rock outfit with whom he recorded three albums. Others included Icarus, Abednigo (which had a woodwind player named John Altman, later to become a famous film director), the short-lived Warhorse and the wonderfully monikered Global Village Trucking Company. His 1975 leap into the front rank came when he was contacted by The Soft Machine after they had been given his number by the departing Allan Holdsworth.

“The album ‘Bundle’ was just out, and I started by promoting that. Then we did this great Summer tour with Mahavishnu Orchestra, Soft Machine, Caravan, Climax Blues Band, Wishbone Ash, all together, on this Hercules transport aeroplane, flying at 80 miles an hour - took about 4 hours to fly from Stuttgart to Marseille!... Unfortunately, the whole thing went bankrupt in the middle of it”.

It is a measure of both the breadth of Etheridge’s ability and the recognition and regard he commanded from fellow musicians that less than a year after joining The Soft Machine, the great Diz Disley suggested that he would be Disley’s ideal successor to play alongside the stellar jazz violinist and ex-sparring partner of Django Rheinhardt, Stephane Grappelli. When Etheridge met up with Stephane (on a borrowed Framus acoustic guitar), he did not consider himself remotely to be a ‘Django’ player but he knew the repertoire and was a great improviser. He clearly made his mark because he spent the next 6 years touring the world in collaboration with Grappelli in what he describes as one of his happiest times in music; he certainly refers to this period with great affection.

Through the eighties and nineties, Etheridge could be found honing his craft and extending his range even further with collaborations with the likes of Vic Juris and Dick Heckstall-Smith. In the late seventies and early eighties he played a series of solo concerts in Australia (where he was given an early Smallman acoustic guitar by its admiring maker) and went on to play duo dates in the USA with bass-player Brian Torff with whom he had worked in the Grappelli band. During 1985, Etheridge worked with fellow guitarist Gary Boyle in both duo and quartet set-ups. Between ‘89 and ‘93 he then toured with Whatever led by the ubiquitous ex-Pentangle bass-player Danny Thompson and joined luminaries such as Alan Skidmore, Stan Tracey and Henry Lowther on the 1990 album Elemental. Around this time John was also working frequently with Elton Dean as the Elton Dean/John Etheridge Quartet with a rhythm section comprising of Fred Baker and Mark Fletcher on bass and drums respectively. The great Manouche guitarist, Birelli Lagrene was another touring partner in what was a gypsy jazz feast for their audiences.

Etheridge’s theme of working with the cream of violinists was to continue when he played with Didier Lockwood, featuring on his first album, New World, as part of an all-star line-up including Gordon Beck (piano), Tony Williams (drums) and Niels-Henning Ørsted-Pedersen (bass). With Ric Sanders he then formed the band Second Vision and recorded the eponymous album.

From 1993, Etheridge toured extensively with Nigel Kennedy and was featured on the 1996 album “Kafka”. 1994 saw John joining his long-time friend and ex-Police guitarist Andy Summers for a world tour and they released the album “Invisible Threads” as a duo.

In July 2006, Etheridge began touring a great new programme in a duo set-up with John Williams, the most celebrated classical guitarist of this generation. The two Johns have worked together before, most notably on their interpretations of African music with Francis Bebey, Richard Harvey, Chris Laurence and Paul Clarvis and documented on the CD “The Magic Box”. John Williams had always retained a desire to explore further the enticing combination of classical and steel-string guitar and got back in contact with Etheridge to realise this ambition.

A measure of the universal respect for John Etheridge’s accomplishment and skill was his nomination as one of just three finalists for the highly prestigious award for the 2006 Jazz Musician of the Year, presented on May 10th at the Parliamentary Jazz Awards ceremony at the House of Commons.

Nigel Kennedy biograpy

“An immensely gifted musician who is comfortable in his own skin!”

For over twenty-five years, Nigel Kennedy has been acknowledged as one of the world's leading violin virtuosos and is, without doubt, one of the most important violinists Britain has ever produced. His virtuoso technique, unique talent and mass appeal have brought fresh perspectives to both the classical and contemporary repertoire. He is the best selling classical violinist of all time.

From a young age, he was Yehudi Menuhin’s most famous protégé, studying first at the Menuhin School before moving to the Juilliard School of Music in New York to study under celebrated teacher, Dorothy DeLay.

During his career, Nigel Kennedy has undertaken countless international tours, performing with the world’s leading orchestras and conductors throughout Europe, North America, Central and South America, South East Asia and Australia.

Nigel Kennedy has attracted an enormous amount of worldwide media attention throughout an extraordinary career and his international television appearances have been wide and varied. He has given public and private performances for members of the British royal family and has also been presented with many awards including, amongst others, Outstanding Contribution to British Music and Male Artist of the Year at the UK Brit Awards; in France a Vivement Dimanche Gold Award, numerous Echo Awards and Switzerland’s Gold Rose of Montreux.

Nigel Kennedy’s multi-award-winning discography is extensive. His first highly-acclaimed recording was Elgar’s Violin Concerto which was voted 1985 Record of the Year by Gramophone magazine and was awarded Best Classical Album of the Year at the BPI Awards. His first landmark recording of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons earned a place in the Guinness Book of Records as the best-selling classical work of all time. It sold in excess of 2 million copies and the album remained top of the UK classical charts for almost two years. His second Vivaldi volume with the Berliner Philharmoniker won the prestigious German Echo Award for Best Performance of 18th Century music and the supreme Austrian Classical Award, The Amadeus Prize, for Best Instrumental Recording. He has also made best-selling concerto recordings of Bach, Beethoven, Berg, Brahms, Bruch, Mendelssohn, Sibelius, Tchaikovsky and Walton, alongside chamber music and recital discs.

His passion for jazz resulted in the album Blue Note Sessions, made under the eye of Grammy award winning producer Jay Newland, featuring a band of jazz giants such as Ron Carter and Jack DeJohnette, amongst others.

In September 2002, Kennedy was appointed Artistic Director of the Polish Chamber Orchestra, a role the late Lord Menuhin once held. With this orchestra, he rediscovered a stunning and forgotten late Romantic Polish concerto, Emil Mlynarski’s Violin Concerto No 2 and combined it with Mieczyslaw Karlowicz’s Violin Concerto in A major, which was released under the title ‘Polish Spirit’ in 2007. ‘Polish Spirit’ has won numerous awards the world over, including the prestigious Echo Klassik Award in Germany (Instrumentalist of the Year) and Poland’s Fryderyki Album of the Year Award.

Kennedy’s 2009 release, named in typically idiosyncratic fashion, A Very Nice Album, marked a typically bold excursion into non-classical repertoire and was recorded with his group, ‘The Nigel Kennedy Quintet’, made up of the violinist and four of the most dynamic musicians on the Polish jazz scene. His earlier Bluenote album focussed on interpreting compositions from past masters of the jazz repertoire but, for A Very Nice Album, Kennedy stepped to the fore as composer as well as improviser. 2010 saw the release of the latest Nigel Kennedy Quintet release of mainly original Kennedy compositions, entitled SHHH! The album also features Kennedy’s arrangement of Nick Drake’s Riverman, sung by Boy George.

The violinist recently founded a new orchestra, made up of vibrant young (mainly Polish) musicians. In April 2010, the Orchestra of Life made its debut tour in Germany, presenting a unique programme of Duke Ellington (specially arranged by Nigel Kennedy for his band and the Orchestra of Life) and Bach, before going on to perform in major cities and festivals in Europe.

2010 saw Kennedy present a project inspired by the music of Jimi Hendrix; a performance at Ronnie Scotts (the last venue Hendrix performed at) on the 40th anniversary of the musician’s death was a triumph.

In 2010, Kennedy’s UK performances of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons were a staggering success, and included a stunning, sold out show at London’s Royal Albert Hall. Nigel Kennedy has undertaken a major 2011 tour, performing his exhilarating and unique new take on Vivaldi’s Four Seasons as well as his own brand new composition, the Four Elements.

In February 2012 he presented Bach plus Fats Waller across Asia. An entirely acoustic programme developed for venues with natural acoustics. The first half consists of solo Bach pieces and, for the second part, Kennedy has arranged the music of Fats Waller for violin, guitar, bass and percussion.

Nigel Kennedy records for Sony Classical, which has released The Four Elements. Referring to the Bach meets Fats Waller programme, Kennedy recorded parts of this repertoire and other pieces under the title Recital that Sony Classical releases in March 2013.

Nigel Kennedy is a passionate Aston Villa fan and attends as many games as his schedule allows. He has one son, is married to Polish lawyer, Agnieszka, and they divide their time between homes in the UK and Poland.

As well as several customised 5 string electric violins, Nigel Kennedy plays a 1732 instrument by the great violin maker, Carlo Bergonzi of Cremona.