O’Higgins & Luft

Dave O’Higgins & Rob Luft on ubuntu music

 Dave O’Higgins’ tenor and soprano sax sounds are highly personal and recognisable, with a clear sense of melodic development and adventure. A popular performer with the public, with an excellent sense of pacing and presentation, he has a wide palette from Charlie Parker, Dexter Gordon, John Coltrane, Joe Henderson through to Stanley Turrentine and Michael Brecker.

 Dave is a highly regarded educator at the LCCM, where he is the Jazz Pathway Leader.

 He also runs a small specialist jazz recording studio (JVG), in search of the optimum way of recording jazz musicians through a combination of old techniques (á la Rudy Van Gelder) and newer innovations.

 Dave has worked with some of the world’s finest musicians, including: Joey Calderazzo, Joe Locke, Dave Kikowski, Eric Alexander, Grant Stewart, Max Ionata, Phil Dwyer, Adam Nussbaum, Joe Lovano, Phil Woods, Jimmy Smith, Nancy Wilson, Peggy Lee, Kurt Elling, Wayne Shorter, Eddie Gomez, Billy Childs, Abdullah Ibrahim, Chico Chagas, Stephane Grappelli and Michel Legrand. He wrote and produced the last Matt Bianco album, “Gravity”.

 Rob Luft is an award-winning 25-year-old musician from London, and has been described as one of the UK’s most prominent and talented young contemporary jazz guitarists. Praised by The Times “to achieve great things in the future”, Rob was the recipient of the 2016 Kenny Wheeler Jazz Prize and he also received the 2nd Prize in The 2016 Montreux Jazz Guitar Competition. His debut album, Riser, was released in July 2017 to widespread critical acclaim from the European jazz media. John Fordham wrote in The Guardian that it’s a “very sophisticated debut, but given Luft’s old-soul achievements since his early teens, we should have heard it coming”.

 Concert highlights include performances with artists including Django Bates’ “Saluting Sgt Pepper”, Iain Ballamy, Eddie Parker’s “Mister Vertigo”, Loose Tubes, Laura Jurd’s “Dinosaur”, Tommy Smith’s Scottish National Jazz Orchestra (SNJO) & The Hamish Stuart Band.

 Rob is a regular member of some of London’s finest modern jazz groups, such as Byron Wallen’s “Four Corners”, Martin Speake’s “Mafarowi”, and Enzo Zirilli’s “Zirobop”. He appears on Liane Carroll’s latest release on Linn Records (‘Seaside’ – 2015), Brazilian singer Luna Cohen’s new album on the Catalonian independent label Temps Record (‘November Sky’ – 2016), & the debut album from Enzo Zirilli on Milanese label UR Records (‘Zirobop’ – 2015). In 2015 he was the recipient of the Peter Whittingham Award as part of two collective ensembles – Patchwork Jazz Orchestra and jazz-rock quartet Big Bad Wolf.