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The Final

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The Band – Nikki Yeoh’s InfinitumNikki Yeoh (piano), Michael Mondesir (bass) and Mark Mondesir (drums)

Matt Carmichael Matt Carmichael: Hopeful MorningSaxophone Matt Carmichael: On the Gloaming Shore Matt Carmichael: Sognsvann

Deschanel Gordon Kenny Garrett arr. Deschanel Gordon: Haynes HerePiano Deschanel Gordon: Awaiting Thelonious Monk: Round Midnight

Alex Clarke Bernice Petkere: Lullaby of the LeavesSaxophone Dave Brubeck: In Your Own Sweet Way Alex Clarke: Before You Arrived

INTERVAL

Kielan Sheard Kielan Sheard: Worlds CollideBass Kielan Sheard: Wilfred's Abode Oscar Pettiford: Blues in the Closet

Ralph Porrett Billy Strayhorn arr. Ralph Porrett: Lotus BlossomGuitar John Coltrane arr. Ralph Porrett: Giant Steps John Parricelli: Scrim Boudleaux Bryant: Love Hurts

JUDGING INTERVAL

Xhosa Cole BBC Young Jazz Musician 2018Saxophone Thelonious Monk: Played Twice Xhosa Cole: George F on my mind

Announcement and presentation of BBC Young Jazz Musician 2020

The Final

BBC young jazz musician 2020

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YolanDa Brown Double MOBO award winning YolanDa Brown is the premier female saxophonist in the UK, known for delicious fusion of reggae, jazz and soul. Her debut album, “April Showers May Flowers” was no.1 on the jazz charts, her sophomore album released in 2017 “Love Politics War” also went to no.1 in the UK jazz charts.

YolanDa has toured with The Temptations, Jools Holland’s Rhythm and Blues Orchestra, Billy Ocean and collaborated with artists such as Snarky Puppy’s Bill Laurance, Kelly Jones from Stereophonics and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.

A broadcaster too – working across TV and radio, including her eponymous series for CBeebies, "YolanDa’s Band Jam", which recently won the Royal Television Society Awards as Best Children’s Programme.

For the BBC Proms she hosted the Ella and Dizzy Centenary, as well as Last Night of the Proms, Gospel Choir of the Year for BBC One and BBC Young Jazz Musician.

She co-presents Loose Ends with Clive Anderson on BBC Radio 4, covers for Trevor Nelson and Vanessa Feltz on BBC Radio 2 and presents her own show “YolanDa Brown on Saturday” on Jazz FM. YolanDa has also appeared on a whole host of TV shows including Celebrity Mastermind, Sunday Brunch, House of Games and BBC Breakfast.

YolanDa was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Arts by the University of East London and was also invited to meet the Queen at Buckingham Palace. A champion of the importance of music education, YolanDa is chair of Youth Music (the largest music education charity in the UK). In 2018 along with philanthropist James JP Drake, she launched the "Drake YolanDa Award" offering grants for emerging musicians. An entrepreneur too, YolanDa launched the “London Saxophone Festival” in 2018. From concerts for children, to film screenings and the very popular Sax Village, it is a welcome addition to the festival circuit.

YolanDa loves to drive fast cars around race tracks in her spare time – if you can seriously imagine her having any – and can even rattle off a Rubik’s Cube in around five minutes (on a good day).

She is a real renaissance woman, set to reach new heights.

Television


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The FinalistsMatt CarmichaelSaxophone Matt Carmichael: Hopeful MorningMatt Carmichael: On the Gloaming ShoreMatt Carmichael: SognsvannBorn in the highlands of Scotland, Matt began playing saxophone aged 11 at school thanks to his local music service and was later introduced to jazz by saxophonist and mentor Allon Beauvoisin. Early performance opportunities came through the East Dunbartonshire School’s Jazz Orchestra, NYJOS and the Tommy Smith Youth Jazz Orchestra before enrolling at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in Glasgow where he is still a student. Matt will release his debut album ‘Where Will The River Flow’ in early 2021, featuring Fergus McCreadie (piano), Ali Watson (bass) and Tom Potter (drums) who have been performing across the UK and beyond over the past few years. Matt’s music reflects his love of both Jazz and Folk, with the Scotsman newspaper claiming he ‘has developed an exciting Scottish style of his own.’

Some other fantastic artists Matt has recently collaborated with include Mark Hendry, Luca Manning, corto.alto, The Joshua Elcock Big Band, Alan Benzie, JM Jazz World Orchestra, Seonaid Aitken, Jonny Mansfield, Peter Wilson, Charlie Stewart, Fat-Suit and Mezcla.

Deschanel GordonPianoKenny Garrett arr. Deschanel Gordon: Haynes HereDeschanel Gordon: AwaitingThelonious Monk: Round MidnightTwenty-two-year-old pianist Deschanel was born in Hackney and attended youth programmes such as the Hackney Creative Jazz Ensemble and the Julian Joseph Jazz Academy. Growing up he was surrounded by a wide range of music from gospel to reggae, and was inspired aged ten by a video of virtuoso pianist Oscar Peterson. This sparked his love of jazz and he switched from classical to jazz piano training. Deschanel plays in his own trio and with various bands across the London jazz scene, including the Mercury Prize nominated SEED ensemble and as a regular with Mark Kavuma’s The Banger Factory, also featuring on the album of the same name.

He has performed at the likes of Ronnie Scott’s, The Barbican, the Love Supreme jazz festival in East Sussex, the Gent Jazz festival in Belgium and Winter Jazzfest in New York. Called ‘the piano man to watch’ by London Jazz News, Deschanel graduated from Trinity Laban in 2020 with first class honours.


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Alex ClarkeSaxophoneBernice Petkere: Lullaby of the LeavesDave Brubeck: In Your Own Sweet WayAlex Clarke: Before You Arrived

Alex is a 20-year-old saxophonist, flautist and clarinettist, originally from South Cheshire now based in Warwick. Beginning her music journey at a young age playing classical piano and flute, Alex has been playing the saxophone since the age of 14. Alex has benefitted from tuition from Andy Scott, Dan Whieldon and Alan Barnes, and is also an alumnus of the National Youth Jazz Collective. After studying for a year at The Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, Alex left to focus on her career as a performer. She now studies with Dean Masser and juggles her busy gigging schedule with a full-time job as Music Assistant at Warwick School.

As well as leading her own bands, The Alex Clarke Hot Five (traditional/New Orleans) and her straight-ahead quartet, Alex has performed alongside notable names such as Bruce Adams, Gilad Atzmon, Dave Newton and Art Themen. Alex released her debut album ‘Mirage’ in 2018 and won the Rising Star category in the 2019 British Jazz Awards.

Kielan SheardBassKielan Sheard: Worlds CollideKielan Sheard: Wilfred's AbodeOscar Pettiford: Blues in the Closet

Kielan is an upright and electric bassist and composer from London. He started playing classical double bass at the age of nine and began experimenting in rock on the electric bass at eleven. During secondary school he played in the Habs Big Band and was taught by Tom Taylor, Matt Herd and Jon Ormston. Kielan joined the Junior Royal Academy of Music when he was fifteen, when he was taught by Gareth Lockrane. It was during his three years there that he got serious about playing jazz. Kielan began studying at Trinity Laban in September and loves being surrounded by like-minded musicians.

He has composed an album’s worth of tunes and aims to record a full album by 2022.

© Jonathan Trotm

an

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Ralph Porrett GuitarBilly Strayhorn arr. Ralph Porrett: Lotus BlossomJohn Coltrane arr. Ralph Porrett: Giant StepsJohn Parricelli: Scrim Boudleaux Bryant: Love Hurts

Currently in his 3rd year at Guildhall School of Music and Drama, Ralph studies jazz guitar with John Parricelli, Stuart Hall, Colin Oxley, Tommy Emmerton and classical guitar with Jørgen Skogmo. Ralph loves performing and improvising in a variety of styles, especially jazz. Ralph draws inspiration from Wes Montgomery, Bill Frisell and Mike Walker. Regular performances with his trio consolidate these influences and catalyse the development of his voice as an improviser.

Memorable moments include performing at the Music for Youth Proms, playing with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and hearing the orchestral arrangements CBSO commissioned him to write, performed at Symphony Hall by ‘Project Remix’. Before moving to London, he attended Jazzlines, National Youth Jazz Collective Summer Schools and the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire Junior Department, where he studied with Mike Williams and Percy Pursglove.Ralph is proud to be part of the wider Guildhall community and has performed on mandolin with the Guildhall Symphony Orchestra at the Barbican. He is also a member of Guildhall Jazz Singers and played for the Opera Department's premiere of ‘The Angel Esmeralda’. Ralph is thrilled to be in the BBC Young Jazz Musician 2020 Final!

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Nikki YeohPiano

Nikki Yeoh is a creative free spirit who, although deeply rooted in the language of improvisation, is open to a range of music that leans as much to populism as it does high art.

Since her emergence on the British jazz scene in the mid-90s, pianist Nikki has proved to be an improviser, composer and all-round adventurer who has continually sought to broaden her musical horizons.

Accomplished soloist as she is, Nikki has also excelled as a composer; this is borne out by the number of very significant commissions. Among her most notable recent works are Suite Of Seven Tunes, based on the seven deadly sins for the internationally renowned reeds virtuoso John Sunman, and River Spirit, written for New College Boys’ Choir following a commission from Oxford Contemporary Music.

In April 2017 Nikki received the Jazz FM Instrumentalist of the Year award sponsored by Rathbones.


© Nick W

hite

The Band – Nikki Yeoh’s Infinitum

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Mark MondesirDrums

Growing up in East London Mark was surrounded by a diverse range of music from birth – rock, funk, jazz, country, soul, pop and calypso which played from the family stereo in his West Indian household.

Mainly self-taught, Mark fell into playing drums by accident for a school production, and his professional career kicked off in 1984 with Ian Carr's workshops at the Weekend Arts Centre. It was here he met saxophonist Courtney Pine who he played with until the early 90s, including for Nelson Mandela’s 70th birthday at Wembley.

Mark has collaborated with a diverse range of artists since then, including Kevin Eubanks, Van Morrison, Art Farmer, Joanne Brackeen, Cecil Payne, Ronnie Matthews, James Williams, Hermeto Pascoal, Joe Zawinul, McCoy Tyner and John Scofield, Pee Wee Ellis, Bobby Byrd and Julian Joseph. He has also toured with John McLaughlin, Jethro Tull, Todd Sharpville and Joe Louis Walker.

As well as playing drums, Mark composes and is an extremely popular drum clinician. He also performs as part of The AllStars Collective, a unique concentration of musical elite talent who back some of the world’s biggest stars.

Michael MondesirBass Jazz bass guitarist and composer Michael Mondesir has a career spanning over 35 years. He is proudly self-taught, having learned by ear from records and being greatly inspired at 15 by Billy Cobham at the Hammersmith Odeon.

Michael is one of the most in demand jazz bass players in Europe. He tours regularly with Django Bates, Cream, Ginger Baker, Billy Cobham, Jeff Beck and Pee Wee Ellis, James Brown’s musical director. He has credits on over twenty major name jazz albums and has composed album tracks for artists such as Fred Wesley, Lewis Taylor and Courtney Pine.

Michael has played in various West End musicals including Dreamgirls, Bat Out Of Hell and the Thriller Live world tour.

He is currently part of the visiting faculty at the Royal Academy of Music, Trinity Laban, the Rhythmic Conservatory of Copenhagen and LCCM as well as teaching privately and at other establishments throughout the world.


© Nadjib Le Fleurier

©Tinak Photography

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Guy BarkerGuy Barker's career has moved through several distinct phases, from jazz soloist and sideman, to bandleader, composer and latterly one of the most in-demand arrangers in Europe.

Guy’s distinctive trumpet sound has led him to work with some of the industry’s greats, such Gil Evans, Ornette Coleman, Quincy Jones and Wynton Marsalis, to name a few. He’s toured with Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr, Lena Horne, Liza Minnelli, and Mel Tormé. Guy has also recorded eight solo albums, two of which were nominated for the Mercury Music Prize.

As a session musician Guy has worked with Paul Weller, Sting, Van Morrison, Elvis Costello, Phil Collins, Grace Jones, Peter Gabriel and George Michael. He has also presented more than a dozen radio series for BBC Radio 2, 3 and the World Service. Since 2008 Guy has been the Musical Director and arranger for the annual Jazz Voice which opens the EFG London Jazz Festival. He performs a similar role at the Cheltenham Jazz Festival every year and has formed long-lasting working relationships with many of the singers from both events.

Composing and arranging has always formed an important part of Guy’s musical life and over the last fifteen years he has become increasingly sought after. In 2013 he was appointed Associate Composer for the BBC Concert Orchestra and was awarded an MBE in 2014.

Nubya GarciaNubya Garcia is a multi-award winning saxophonist and composer who studied under pianist Nikki Yeoh at Camden Music. She was a member of Gary Crosby’s Tomorrow’s Warriors in her late teens, then completed her training at Trinity Laban.

Her debut album, SOURCE, recently released under the iconic Concord Jazz, has been received with wide critical acclaim. Following her album release, the London-based jazz player extraordinaire debuted on NPR’s Tiny Desk (Home) Concert, coming off the heels of a Pitchfork ‘Best New Music’ honour and a Rolling Stone ‘Album of the Month’ mention. The New York Times described SOURCE as “a life’s worth of experiences into an hour long listen.”

She has won both the Jazz FM and Sky Arts Breakthrough Act of the Year Awards in 2018, and the Jazz FM UK Jazz Act of the Year Award in 2019. She has made a huge impact internationally and in the UK, with her debut album entering the UK charts in the Top 30, a rousing performance for Glastonbury 2020, and a feature story in MOJO Magazine.

Garcia is also a member of the experimental septet Nerija and she has toured extensively worldwide. Her reputation as a DJ is burgeoning, and she currently helms a hit radio residency on NTS.

©Adam

a Jalloh

The Judges

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Orphy Robinson MBEOrphy is an award winning multi-instrumentalist specialising in tuned percussion, and is one of a select few musicians in the UK to have been signed to the legendary US Jazz record label ‘Blue Note’. With a career spanning more than 40 years, he has played on over 100 recordings and won or been nominated for numerous industry awards, including winning Jazz FM’s Live Performance of the Year in 2017. In 2015 Orphy received a top 12 placing in the 'Vibraphonist of the Year' Critics’ Poll for the historic Jazz magazine Downbeat. Orphy is regularly invited to perform with internationally acclaimed artists from many genres of music. These have included such diverse artists as Nigel Kennedy, Carleen Anderson, Dr Robert (The Blow Monkeys), Wadada Leo Smith, Thurston Moore, Joss Stone, Robert Plant, Robert Wyatt, Hugh Masekela and many others.

Orphy is an external examiner for master’s and undergraduate degree studies at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama in Cardiff. An experienced teacher and workshop leader from primary to university level, he is currently the Artist in Residence at the Plumcroft junior school in Woolwich, as well as lead coach at the National Youth Jazz Orchestra for their exciting new ensemble the Jazz Exchange. Orphy sits on various boards including The Ivor’s Academy (formerly known as BASCA ‘the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers & Authors’) where he is the current Chair of the Jazz genre committee. He is a Trustee and Vice Chair of the National Youth Jazz Orchestra and sits on the judging panel for many top music industry awards, including the Ivor Novello Awards, The British Composer Awards and The Commonwealth Resounds International Composition competition. In 2018, Orphy was awarded an MBE for his services to music.


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Xhosa ColeRecently named Jazz FM’s Breakthrough Act of the Year, Handsworth-born Xhosa Cole is an embodiment of the success of numerous community arts programmes in Birmingham. Having first played the tenor at Andy Hamilton's Ladywood Community Music School, he's now among a long legacy of Birmingham saxophonists. In October 2018, he won the BBC Young Jazz Musician competition following a critically acclaimed performance in the Final at the Queen Elizabeth Hall as part of the EFG London Jazz Festival.

Xhosa's earliest memories of the arts are with ACE Youth Dance group. However, since playing in Holyhead School's Jazz band with Ray Prince and Sid Peacock he decided to pursue music and joined the Jazzlines Ensemble, Birmingham Schools Symphony Orchestra and Midland Youth Jazz Orchestra among others. While studying at Bishop Vesey's Sixth Form Xhosa attended courses with the National Youth Jazz Collective and National Youth Wind Orchestra.

Xhosa continually pushes his playing while studying with teachers and mentors including Mike Williams, Jim Bashford and David Austin-Grey. He performs regularly around Birmingham, was commissioned to write for the Ideas of Noise Festival and Bobbie-Jane Gardener's 'For-Wards', and teaches Birmingham's next generation of talent alongside his former teacher Toni Grehan.

“Xhosa’s performance was so heartfelt, sincere and communicative. It’s easy to see he has such a deep and genuine love of the tradition" – Iain Ballamy, jury member, BBC Young Jazz Musician 2018.


2018 Winner's Story

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