andrew mccormack

Andrew McCormack on Ubuntu Music

British pianist and composer Andrew McCormack is in the ascendancy of his career as an artist, with plans for the future that will catapult him further on the worldwide jazz stage.

Since bursting on to the scene in 2006, McCormack has been a driving force behind A-list jazz artists Kyle Eastwood, Eric Alexander and Jean Toussaint as well as a host of home grown talent including Jamie Cullum and Denys Baptiste. McCormack has worked and performed with many other great artists including Quincy Jones, Manu Katchè, Till Broner, David Arnold and Courtney Pine. His talent as a composer has him work across numerous genres of classical and film music.

Andrew has appeared on more than 25 albums since the start of his young career. In 2006 his debut album, Telescope, was released to critical acclaim and picked up the BBC Jazz Award that year in the Rising Star category. From 2009, McCormack pursued his Duo Project with saxophonist Jason Yarde, releasing three albums together and receiving accolades internationally for its development as a project and the achievements attained in a duo format.

More recently, McCormack released two trio albums which included First Light in 2014. This was recorded in New York and again received considerable critical acclaim throughout the world, including 5 Stars from BBC Music Magazine.

As a composer and having studied privately with Mark-Anthony Turnage, McCormack has written for a number of different classical ensembles, including the Heritage Orchestra and the London Symphony Orchestra (LSO) which selected him to participate in their Young Composer Scheme in 2008. He was subsequently commissioned by the LSO to create Incentive, a 10-minute piece for a full orchestra which premiered in 2009 at the Barbican Centre in London.

Andrew’s film scores include orchestration, original music and performances, most notably for Clint Eastwood in a number of his productions, such as Flags of Our Fathers, Letters from Iwo Jima, Changeling and the John Cusack movie, Grace Is Gone.

In 2017, Andrew released Graviton, a new ‘all-star’ group album that is absolutely packed with unending musical personality and is supported by a limited series of exclusive shows throughout the year. Andrew has assembled some of the most sought-after musicians in modern jazz, all of whom bring something special to the mix. Eska, Mercury prize nominee, joined the band on vocals. Sons of Kemet’s sax sensation Shabaka Hutchings and Jacob Collier’s electric bass supremo Robin Mullarkey are stellar additions to the line-up. And, rounding out this exceptional offering is Scandinavia’s Anton Eger--of Phronesis and Marius Neset fame--the driving force on drums.

It is fair to say that Andrew McCormack is now poised to take his career to the very top of the worldwide jazz circuit. His achievements thus far, are substantial and Andrew’s career is expected to accelerate at an even greater rate than ever before.