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


SHF info:
bibliography
biography
compositions list with performance & discographical details
discography
photos for download
selected press quotes
thumbnail biography

back to main Bruce's Fingers index page