Ralph Wyld, Kit Downes, Louis van der Westhuizen Joshua Blackmore, Chris Montague

Troyk-estra album Launch – Purcell Room Saturday 23rd November

Troyka (Chris Montague – guitar , Kit Downes – keyboards , Josh Blackmore -drums) have expanded into the eighteen-piece Troyk-estra (personnel here), and will be launching a new album Live at Cheltenham Jazz Festival (Impossible Ark) at the Purcell Room on 23rd November at 3pm in the EFG London Jazz Festival.

As it says on the Troyka Website:

“Last year we all arranged a bunch of our trio pieces for big band and completely new pieces specially written for Troyk-estra. This year we performed at Cheltenham Jazz festival, it was recorded for BBC Radio 3 (Jazz on 3). We’ve since been editing and mixing this with Alex Killpartrick for a big band album release on Impossible Arc Records. We are all very proud and excited about this record! We will be cutting it onto limited edition vinyl and releasing the album at the London Jazz festival this autumn.”

We spoke to Troyka’s drummer Josh Blackmore today. The pieces are very much written with particular players in mind, such as Ralph Wyld on vibraphone in mind and James Allsopp on saxophones. And the lead trumpet parts are difficult – Blackmore explained – so Troyka consider themselves fortunate to have players such as Reuben Fowler and Noel Langley in the band. The orchestra is directed by Royal Academy of Music Head of Jazz Nick Smart, who has also had a major role in the co-ordination of this complex project.

The Purcell Room concert will have same personnel as played at the Parabola Theatre in Cheltenham in May. The recording has been substantially edited/mixed/mastered from the broadcast tapes made by the team from Jazz on 3, but there is still very much the atmosphere of a live gig.

Release date for the album is December 2nd.

SAMPLE TRACK – ‘GAIN NOTHING SOON: