Description

Three young experimental jazz musicians born out of collective obsession, emotion and It’s been exciting early days for Brighton based experimental group Vels Trio (keys player Jack Stephenson Oliver, bassist Cameron Dawson and drummer Dougal Taylor) since meeting in 2014.



Despite choosing to sidestep a release of their endeavours over these early years – it’d be somewhat unsurprising if you were to know them already in name. The bands drive to perform and consistently push their live prowess – already garnering an exceptionally diverse array of fans and admirers alike – has propelled them into the live arena to share stages with acts such as Cory Henry and the Funk Apostles, Sons of Kemet, Moses Boyd’s Exodus, Let Spin and two performances at the illustrious Love Supreme Festival.



Being almost indistinguishable by any sole genre, the group’s mutual loves and individual fortes across prog, electronic, jazz, funk and hip-hop has paved the collective way for their early sound.



With a keen desire in improvisation, Vels Trio’s sound can be characterised by their heavy grooves, emotionally charged songwriting, coupled alongside expressive, progressive modern musicianship to create an excitingly frenetic, and irresistibly engaging live sound structures.



After 3 years of tirelessly indulging in their passion for music in an endeavour to explore, discover and create – Vels Trio are ready to unveil their inaugural release Yellow Ochre EP – a small collage of their friendships, high times and experiences as a band so far.



“…dreamy space-jam, mixing up fragments of fusiony riffs with big washes of electronic sound to dramatic and very contemporary effect that borrows from jazz, rock, hip hop and funk without sounding like any of the above.” Jazzwise Magazine

Description

From “Two sausage and chips please, mushy peas with one of those, ta”, to “Meg! Meg! Don’t hit her too hard”. It’s been a thoroughly unconventional trip. Once Meg White had donned those boxing gloves Night & Day Café’s most unique upbringing felt complete.

An initial chip shop - stage - piano combo quickly gave rise to a traditional Amsterdam style ‘brown bar’ and artistic hub; the venue’s journey mirroring, and in no small part contributed to, Manchester’s move away from its baggy era heritage cum baggage.

Like a younger brother who could play guitar much better than you, but had no mates to play to, Night & Day grew out of a barren musical spell in Manchester back in 1991. When the city offered little else except a chrome mating hell, or a look back nostalgiafest. The homely feel and startling quality of the acts brought into the city by the venue made Night & Day the focus of the areas more discerning crowds of the area thereafter.

So much so that the last 20 years have read like a who’s who of Manchester’s continuing creative legacy…

Guy Garvey practically used it as an office, Johnny from I A Kloot worked there, Johnny Marr, Delphic and The Courteeners rehearsed there, Badly Drawn Boy wrote songs there and Mark E Smith’s been known to behave very strangely indeed there.

The walls have withstood the barrage from over 26,000 bands from all over the world. Some of the many, many stand outs have to be a naked Damo Suzuki, The Dirtbombs having to stop and towel down after one song, Meg White vs The Bar Staff, Keanu Reaves popping in to watch some bands, buy a t-shirt and get mobbed, and The Kaiser Chiefs first incarnation getting chucked offstage early.
But, let us not look back to deeply.

Certainly, preaching to the converted has never been the venue’s style or raison d’etre and currently, there are signs of another resurgence in the city’s musical fortunes. Young upstarts such Money can be found regularly hanging around causing botheration and a certain singular Liam Frey can be oft found planning his next lyrical barrage in the labyrinth of corridors downstairs.

Here’s to another 20 years!

26 Oldham Street,

Manchester,

Greater Manchester,

England,

M1 1JN.

0161 236 1822