Trumpeter Andy Hague first formed a big band back in 2005 to mark his 40th birthday. The idea was to showcase the wealth of jazz talent residing in Bristol, and to use as far as possible the musicians with whom Andy played most frequently. The band played a few gigs over the next couple of years at The Tobacco Factory, St George's and Swanage Jazz Festival, gaining excellent reviews.

This is another new line-up with quite a few different players to the original band, reflecting the changes in Andy's musical activities over the past decade. Besides their jazz activities band members have many TV, film and session credits on their CV's, including performances with chart bands Portishead, Goldfrapp & Kasabian.

Andy is a prolific composer and arranger - although his own groups feature him on trumpet he also plays drums to an equal extent, and has performed with many big names in this capacity. Having grown up in Croydon, he took up a place at Bristol University to read Psychology and ended up settling in the city.

Over the past 25 years Andy has become well known in Bristol both as a performer and as organiser of weekly jazz venue The Be-Bop Club. He has released several CDs of his music, and appeared on four programmes of BBC Radio’s Jazz Notes during the 1990s. Besides his jazz activities he has played in many other settings, including the albums by Portishead, various theatre productions, TV [Waking the Dead, Cold Lazarus] and the soundtrack of the motion picture "A Good Woman" starring Helen Hunt and Scarlett Johannson.

Andy is also well known as a jazz educator, having taught under the banner of Bristol Jazz Workshops for over a decade. This has led on to tutoring for several jazz summer schools and residential weekends. He has also acted as an external examiner for the Royal Welsh College Jazz Degree Course.

Debuting the new line at The Cresswell Centre last October a near capacity audience were treated to a great night of big band sounds with top class soloists, notably Ben Waghorn (Keith Tippett), Jake McMurchie (Get The Blessing), Johnny Bruce (Dave Stapleton, Bruce/Illett Big Band) and Andy Hague himself. Time then for another run out, in slightly more intimate surroundings.

All the music performed has been arranged by Andy, and the repertoire is a mixture of original compositions and jazz standards. The aim has been to stay true to the traditional big band sound and instrumentation whilst playing arrangements informed by current jazz styles.

The review of the Cresswell Centre gig for Bristol 24/7 by Tony Benjamin can be read here giving you a flavour of what you can expect this night.

andyhague.co.uk