simon
h. fell chronology
1976-82: First experiences of improvised music and contemporary jazz. Founder member of Leeds Musicians' Collective. Performances during this period with Paul Buckton, John MacMillan, Roger Turner, John Russell, Lol Coxhill etc.
1983-89: Formation of Bruce's Fingers record label (1983), Persuasion national tour (supported by Eastern Jazz), Performances with Derek Bailey in Northern Company (including first performances with Alan Wilkinson & Paul Hession) and first appearance of Hession/Wilkinson/Fell trio (1989). Performances with Cambridge Circus and at 1989 Termite Festival with Paul Rutherford, George Haslam, Lol Coxhill etc. Compilation II commissioned by Arts Council of Great Britain
1990-95:
Performances at Cambridge Festival Fringe (with Su Lyn), Bradford
Festival (with Buckton/Haslam/Hession/Fell/Rutherford), Leipzig
Jazztage, Termite Festival (with Hession/Wharf/Wilkinson/Fell) and
Oxford Jazz Festival (Lol Coxhill/George Haslam Quintet). 5 full
days' intensive improvising with Hession/Wilkinson/Fell (Arts Council
of GB commission). Première in Cambridge of string quintet In
Memoriam Harry Miller (1990).
Première in Cambridge of Thirteen Bagatelles
for flute, oboe, violin & cello, Performances at Four Bars Inn,
Cardiff (solo), Bradford Festival (Buckton/Haslam/Hession/Fell),
Termite Festival (various groupings), Foot & Mouth Festival
(Something Else), Hession/Wilkinson/Fell on Arts Council national
tour, Wire interview and photo session for feature in issue 92 (1991).
Première in Cambridge of Four Slices Of Zappa
and Plus-Minus Parts 1 & 2a, both for small chamber
ensemble, and Three Jazz Etudes for clarinet, piano &
double bass. Performances at Strawberry Fair, Cambridge (Su Lyn),
Termite Festival (Buckton/Durrant/Fell). National tour of Hession/Wilkinson/Fell
(1992).
Interview and feature in The Wire to
celebrate Bruce's Fingers 10th anniversary, Arts Council national
tours of Something Else (x2) and Hession/Wilkinson/Fell. Performance
at Oxford Jazz Festival (Something Else), Premières of Plus-Minus
Parts 2b & 3 for small chamber ensemble and Concertino
for double bass and ensemble (in Cambridge) and Music For 10(0)
(in Leeds). Second performances (Cambridge) of Three Jazz Etudes
and Plus-Minus Parts 1 & 2a. Commissions from Termite Club
and Yorkshire & Humberside Arts of Music For 10(0) for
1993 Termite Festival and from Arts Council of Great Britain of Compilation
III for Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival. Performances
at Company Week (Hession/Wilkinson/Fell), Outside In Festival
(Something Else) and Termite Festival (Music For 10(0)). Improvised
Music workshops at Secondary schools throughout the Sheffield area
for Sheffield City Council and The Musicians' Union (1993).
Performances at SPNM Oneday at the ICA, Sound
Symposium in St, John's, Newfoundland and Termite Festival (with
Hession/Wilkinson/Fell), Cambridge Conference on Contemporary Poetry
(with Out To Lunch) and Other Music Festival (with Something Else).
Further Improvised Music workshops for Sheffield schools. First
performances with Brötzmann/Wilkinson Quartet and
Badland. TV and radio recording sessions and interviews for Canadian
Broadcasting Corporation (with Hession/Wilkinson/Fell). National book
launch tour with Out To Lunch (1994)
Interview for BBC Radio Norfolk, recording session (Music
For 10(0)) for Netherlands Broadcasting Organisation (NOS).
Performances at East Coast Jazz Festival (with Something Else), L.M.C.
Festival (Music For 10(0)), Leytonstone Festival
(Hession/Wilkinson/Fell), Termite Festival (Descension), Arts
Council national tours of Descension and Something Else,
national tour with Lol Coxhill Trio. Second performance
(London) of Music For 10(0). First performances with IST (1995)
1996-2000:
Performances at Stakkato, Berlin (with Thomas Borgmann & Willi
Kellers), East Coast Jazz Festival (with Dave Pullin Trio), Unsung
Music Festival, South Bank Centre, London (Simon Fell Septet),
Camfest, Cambridge (Su Lyn), Norfolk & Norwich Festival (Graham
Halliwell Trio), Termite Festival (Hession/Wilkinson/Fell +
Bailey), London Jazz Festival (Brötzmann/Wilkinson Quartet),
Southampton Jazz Festival (Buckley/Batchelor Quartet)
Jazzgalerie, Nickelsdorff & W.I.M., Zurich (Something Else)
British Music Information Centre, The Barbican & Cambridge
Conference of Contemporary Poetry (IST), Leicester Jazz
Festival (Badland). Stadtgarten, Köln (Hession/Wilkinson/Fell
+ Jaworzyn), Le Weekend, Stirling & Manchester New Music Festival (VHF)
Manchester Jazz Festival (amere3), Out To Lunch Weekend
Festival and Clerkenwell Literary Festival. Plus performances with Derek
Bailey's Company at the Groupe de Recherche d'Improvisation
Musicale 20th anniversary series of concerts in Marseille.
The Frakture Big Band present a concert of Fell compositions and
conductions, at the Frakture Festival 1999.
Arts Council national tours of Brötzmann/Wilkinson
Quartet, Butch Morris' London Skyscraper, IST, Badland;
Jazz Services national tours of Hession/Wilkinson/Fell + Morris,
The Arc. Atomic Jam at Jazz Cafe, London, with Thurston
Moore, Lee Ranaldo, Pat Thomas, Lol Coxhill, Stefan Jaworzyn
etc. Descension support Sonic Youth at The Forum,
London. Formation of The Arc with Orphy Robinson, Pat Thomas,
John Bisset and Mark Sanders. Formation of SFQ, who give the
first performances of Thirteen Rectangles (Termite Festival)
and Six Bells Pieces (Haverhill Festival). Recording session
for BBC Radio 3 'Mixing It' (Hession/Wilkinson/Fell + Morris). IST
appear on S4C television. Fell scripts and present two 1-hour
programmes on Resonance FM about Compilation III and
its realisation and is the subject of feature interviews in Jazziz,
The Sound Projector, Improjazz, JazzLive and The Wire.
He's also a featured guest on the LMC's London Underground
radio programme.
Compilation III recorded and released on
double CD. Collaborative electro-acoustic CD with Martin Archer, duo
CDs with Graham Halliwell and Charles Wharf plus Ghost Notes by
IST. First performance of Kaleidozyklen at Leeds University. London
Improvisers Orchestra première several works, incl. Papers,
Three Mondrians, Köln Klang, Ellington 100
(Strayhorn 85) and Morton's Mobile. These last two are
also recorded by the orchestra for Emanem.
2001-2005: Appearance on BBC Radio 3's Music Matters in conversation with Ivan Hewett and James Dillon. Performances at Music & Poetry Conference, Liège; Company Week at Tonic, New York (with Derek Bailey, John Zorn and others); Cambridge Conference On Contemporary Poetry; Freedom Of The City Festival (with Hession/Wilkinson/Fell and conducting the London Improvisers Orchestra); Liverpool Frakture Festival (with Hession/Wilkinson/Fell); Porto European City Of Culture Festival (duo with Carlos Zingaro); Total Music Meeting, Berlin (with IST). SFQ record Thirteen Rectangles Version 2 for broadcast on Radio 3's Jazz On 3; it is broadcast in November to tie in with a UK tour of this and other Fell compositions. (The broadcast is subsequently repeated and the recording nominated in the 'new work' category at the 2002 BBC Jazz Awards.) First performances with London Bass Trio. First performance with ZFP Quartet (at Guimaraes Jazz Festival, Portugal). Too Busy broadcast by BBC Radio 3 in 2002, and three extended compositions for quintet (Köln Klang, Trapped By Formalism 2 and Gruppen Modulor 2) recorded for and broadcast by 'Jazz On 3' in August 2003. Badland Jazz On 3 session, April 2003. Mancini Project (w. Pat Thomas, Steve Noble, Han Bennink) at Stirling Le Weekend 2003. First performance with SFQ2. Compilation IV completed & released, including the first live performance of Three Set Pieces. First appearance with the Steve Reid Ensemble, including UK tour with Gilles Peterson and a BBC Radio 1 session with Stefe and Kieran Hebden (Fourtet). Badland UK tour and third album (2005).
2005- : yes, I definitely need to update this page - it's getting beyond a joke .......... In the meantime, check the main biography page.
photo © Jo Fell 2000
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