Alcyona Mick & Tori Freestone Duo

Description

A pairing of perfectly matched musicians who fuse their unique writing styles and improvisational approaches to explore some new compositions and contemporary standards with a twist.

After working together on the London jazz scene in various ensembles and travelling to the Canary Islands to work on a project in 2014, Mick and Freestone began to work together in a chamber jazz duo as an ideal setting to blend their distinct voices for a more intimate expression of engaging and innovative material. This is a partnership of equal voices, with each player nimbly moving in and out of foreground and thoughtful accompanying roles.

Their writing and playing reveals a shared love of Thelonious Monk, with off-kilter stabs at the piano keyboard and half-voiced exclamations on the sax. At other times their style is lyrical and passionate calling to mind the classical music of Poulenc and Debussy.

Listen: Alcyona Mick & Tori Freestone Duo Live at The Vortex

Tori Freestone (tenor saxophone) has been working with many of the most noted musicians on the UK and international scene for many years including the Julian Siegel Jazz Orchestra alongside the likes of Stan Sulzmann, Mark Nightingale, Jason Yarde and Henry Lowther, the UK Allstar big band with Hermeto Pascoal, the London Jazz Orchestra, Ivo Neame quintet alongside Jasper Hoiby and Jim Hart, ‘Solstice’ (a co led sextet with Brigitte Beraha and John Turville), the Andre Canniere Quintet with Mike Janisch and Ted Poor and her own trio with two releases on Whirlwind records. Her writing and playing has a range of influences from folk to straight ahead jazz and Brazilian music.

Alcyona Mick (piano) has been performing internationally for many years, working regularly with Arabic artist Natacha Atlas and has performed extensively in France in recent years. She is a member of the esteemed London Jazz Orchestra – for whom she also writes, the John Warren Nonet, and has a trio with Paul Clarvis/Stuart Hall, she has played on TRT Turkish TV with many Turkish artists, and performed with a wide array of other musicians including Samy Bishai (Egypt), Ibrahim Maalouf (FR), Macadi Nahhas (Jordan), Mircan Kaya (Turkey), Zoe Rahman, Merit Stephanos, Jerry Dammers Spatial aka Orchestra, Yazz Ahmed, Blink, Fae Simon. She has composed music for many independent short films, documentaries, silent cinema, and released three albums.