6-4-2 – sextet-quartet-duo

 

Quartet:
Késia Decoté - piano
Noel Taylor - clarinet
Julie Kjaer - flute
James Barralet - cello

 

Duo:
Olie Brice - bass
Alec Harper – tenor sax

 

The second in a series which very carefully blends together the sounds and personalities of 6 musicians who will perform as a duo, a quartet and a combined sextet.  

 

Késia Decoté trained as a classical pianist in Brazil. Her passion for improvisation evolved whilst studying for her Masters in Contemporary Arts and Music at Oxford Brookes. For her the performative side of her playing - her relation to the audience - is an important part of the process. This small chamber group features another classically trained musician, James Barralet on cello. James – a member of Wigmore Hall’s ‘Ignite’ project -  can mix it with the best of them, but his pure bowed sound is so rich and deliciously lush. Julie Kjaer – on flute – is a deeply sympathetic musician with a wonderful and natural sense of pitch and tonality and an immaculately instant response to the shifting currents of improvised music.  

As soon as you hear Alec Harper play you realise he is something special. Supremely gifted technically, and festooned with early career awards, he posseses a very personal and interior musical voice. Olie Brice’s bass provides Alec with the kind of intuitive musical space in which his understated, and slightly mournful jazz inflected lines can speak with great simplicity and impact.