Tom Barford Group at The Whiskey Jar

Tom Barford -Saxophone

Billy Marrows – Guitar

Rupert Cox – Piano

Flo Moore – Bass

Dave Storey – Drums

youtube.com/watch?v=4-GLwqMeoTE

tombarford.bandcamp.com/album/bloomer

“…he slips between bop language and modernist abstraction like a true polyglot, his timing and phrasing always impeccable.”- Jazzwise Magazine

“We are witnessing the birth of a new star in the Jazz firmament.” Evan Parker

Bloomer​ is the debut album from Tom Barford, saxophonist, composer and winner of the 2017 Kenny Wheeler Jazz Prize. An instrumentalist of supreme talent and creativity, Tom won the attention of judges, lifelong Wheeler collaborator and friend Evan Parker, Edition boss Dave Stapleton and Nick Smart, Head of Jazz at Royal Academy of Music, for his originality and vision. The resulting album, Bloomer​, is richly vibrant, energetic and melodic; a recording that will launch the career of this future jazz star.

The writing is wonderfully intricate and demanding and yet is exuberantly listenable, imaginative and emotionally gripping. Barford wants his composing to be both thought provoking and beautiful. As he explains, “I want the music to feel as though you’re stepping into another world”​.

DJ J French from 7//Doors at 8//Music