Patrick Wood started playing guitar and bass on London's Alternative
Cabaret scene in the early 1980s, working with singers such as Ian Shaw and
Sarah Jane Morris.
He formed his own band Woodworks with Soft Machine guitarist John Etheridge in
1986, playing mainly keyboards and writing all the band's material. Saxophonist
Tim Whitehead joined in 1988, staying for the next five years while the band
continued to number other highly respected musicians as members: drummers Frank
Tontoh then Andy Gangadeen, bassist Geoff Gascoyne, guitarists John Parricelli and then Tony Remy.
Woodworks made festival appearances, broadcast live on JazzFM and played at major venues nationally such
as London's Jazz Cafe.
Time Out wrote: "and rather than an endless stream of solos, the emphasis is
put on the compositions supplied by Patrick Wood exhilarating, inspired sounds.
A must."
Starting with music for theatre, he has composed for a string of BBC TV
documentaries, commercial projects, TV drama series, and a Ghanain/U.S. feature
film. Recently he composed and recorded the title music for President Obama: The Inauguration on BBC1.
His collaboration with experimental bassist Steve Lawson and
drummer/percussionist Roy Dodds (Fairground Attraction) has led to the formation
of a new band Lawson/Dodds/Wood, whose music is entirely improvised. Their debut
album 'Numbers' (which also features guest performances from the Works' saxophonist
Mark Lockheart and vocalist Gwyn Jay Allen) has been released in 2009.
“Mark Lockheart is a consummate saxophonist, and an original and versatile
compose” The Rough Guide to Jazz
“An improviser of real character” The Guardian
Mark has remained prominent in the U.K. and internationally since his work in the groundbreaking
big band Loose Tubes during the 1980s. He has led various groups of his own since then and performed
at major venues and festivals worldwide.
Perfect Houseplants, a band Mark has co-led since 1992, has so far released six
albums and performed and broadcast throughout Europe. He also leads his own
semi-orchestral 11 piece group The Scratch Band, whose first album was voted by
Time Out as one of the top ten albums of 1998, and he has received a significant
number of awards and bursaries as a composer. His latest band The Mark Lockheart
Group is releasing its debut album in 2009.
A musician "at the cutting edge of contemporary jazz music" (The
Guardian), Mark also has a versatility and range that have enabled him to record
and tour in a wide variety of other contexts, from Radiohead and Prefab Sprout
to June Tabor, Django Bates and Robert Wyatt. He is a member of Mercury Music
Prize nominees Polar Bear, and widely regarded as amongst the most distinctive
and creative saxophonists in Britain.
'Level' Neville Malcolm is an understated star on both acoustic and
electric bass.
Coming from a background in Gospel music, he started out playing organ and guitar
but soon switched to bass, turning professional in the early 1990s. He was involved in the development
of London's 'Acid Jazz' scene, working with Philip Bent and Steve Williamson.
fHe has since performed all over the world and recorded with major artists such as
Billy Cobham, Gabrielle, Tom Jones, Jack DeJohnette, Incognito, Us3 and Joss
Stone.
Nic France is an exceptional drummer, who brings a free-flowing creativity
and excitement into the Works music. He is Co-Producer of 'Beware of the Dog'.
After arriving in London in 1980 Nic started working with top musicians almost
immediately: Allan Holdsworth, Jim Mullen, Ronnie Scott, Ian Carr's Nucleus,
Loose Tubes (he was a founder member along with Mark Lockheart), Kenny Wheeler,
John Taylor, Andy Sheppard, Hank Crawford, David 'Fathead' Newman, Mose Aathllison,
L. Shankar and many more.
He then started working in the Rock, Soul and Pop music worlds as well, touring
the U.K. and Europe twice with the great Bill Withers, and has since worked with
many other high profile artists. He has recorded with Pete Townsend, Jools
Holland and Annie Lennox, appeared on a TV drum clinic with Billy Cobham and in
the bands of U.S. soul/jazz legend Terry Callier and Pink Floyd's David Gilmour
('David Gilmour Live' DVD).
Bosco de Oliveira has long been one of the very finest percussionists
working in Britain. Born in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, Bosco came to live in the UK
in 1978, having already been working as a musician in Africa and Spain.
He has toured and recorded with Milton Nascimento and Duran Duran, McCoy Tyner,
Victor Bailey, Loose Tubes, Sade, Terry Callier, Madness, Kate Bush, June Tabor,
Charlie Palmieri, Paulo Moura, Toninho Horta and Airto Moreira, among many
others.
He has performed many times at major international jazz festivals (Nice, Vienna,
Montreux, North Sea, Montreux-Detroit), as well as at Glastonbury, Reading,
Womad and festivals and major venues across the world - from the U.S. to Japan,
Australia and South America.
He was co-founder of The London School of Samba and Guest Tutor at The Royal
College of Music.
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