Enemy

Please note that the Fred Frith Trio concert has been cancelled. The purchased tickets are valid for the Enemy concert. Ticketholders preferring to claim a refund may do so by notifying vstopnice@cd-cc.si no later than Monday, 20 March.

Kit Downes, piano; Petter Eldh, bass; James Maddren, drums

A British rising-star jazz pianist, Kit Downes’s artistry bears comparison only to that of Alexander Hawkins. A recording artist for ECM Records, Downes’s Enemy Trio ranks among some of the greatest small groups in jazz. In Slovenia, he played in the Emilia Martensson Trio at the 58thJazz Festival Ljubljana. 
After his widely acclaimed ECM leader-debut Obsidian saw Kit Downes exploring a broad spectrum of organ timbres and the chamber-toned follow-up Dreamlife Of Debris substantially expanded the instrumental pallet, Vermillion now introduces us to Kit’s exceptional pianistic qualities in a trio context with collaborators Petter Eldh on bass and James Maddren on drums. 

The Guardian has praised Kit for his “uncanny ability to make difficult music sound natural” and Vermillion provides proof of that, capturing the trio in a carefully assorted piano trio programme that treads gentle lyricism and bold creative outbursts in equal measures and with a strong penchant for melody. 

Kit Downes was an organ scholar at St Peter Mancroft in Norwich before going on to study piano, organ and composition at the Purcell School and the Royal Academy of Music. He recorded and toured widely with the band Empirical while also working with – among others Django Bates and Lee Konitz. Besides Petter Eldh and James Maddren, over the years Kit has frequently collaborated with drummer Sebastian Rochford, saxophonist Tom Challenger and cellist Lucy Railton, who all appear on his last ECM outing Dreamlife Of Debris.