Southern
Jazz Guitar Society
"Dedicated
to foster the art and craft of the jazz guitar"
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Guest
night : Dierdre Cartwright and Alison Rayner |
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of you may remember Deirdre from the TV 'Rock School'
programme, but she is a fine jazz player too.
Here is some biographical information on Deirdre and bassist
Alison, who will be performing a duo concert and chatting
with us on this evening. |
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'She
is currently the most imaginative guitarist on the
scene' - Highly Strung magazine
' She's a terrific player, but displays of blinding
technique are not her style. Her strength lies
in her ability to absorb the huge variety of modern
approaches to the instrument, without copying any
of them, and produce witty and personal music in the
process.' - Dave Gelly The Observer
'Cartwright is a melodic, funky and hard swinging
guitarist who has learned from a mixture of rock guitar
heroes like Carlos Santana and melodically intricate
bop guitar stars such as Tal Farlow.' - John Fordham
The Guardian
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1983
saw her busking be-bop tunes in Covent Garden with
two other Guest Stars one lunchtime, where she was
spotted by producer Chris Lent, who offered her the
job of guitar presenter on the BBC's ground-breaking
show 'Rockschool'.
The two series of BBC TV's Rockschool attracted audiences
of 2 million viewers every week in this country and
was subsequently shown worldwide. In the US,
the programmes were introduced by Herbie Hancock.
Meanwhile she was also performing and composing for
one of the most successful of the British jazz groups
of the 80's, the internationally acclaimed women's
jazz group, the Guest Stars, with whom she recorded
three albums and toured in 17 countries.
Memorable moments include playing to a capacity crowd
at the Alexandria opera house, cleaning ladies dancing
to an early morning rehearsal in Bagdhad, and being
the first British band to headline at Ronnie Scott's
club in London and the Blue Note Jazz Club in New
York.
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In
1991 she formed her own group, The Deirdre Cartwright
Group, and they have played extensively in the UK
on tours supported by Jazz Services, Jazz Action,
and the Arts Council. Festivals include Brecon,
Newcastle, Bradford, Nottingham, Cardiff Bay, Chard,
Bath, Swanage, and the London Jazz Festival.
As a solo artist she has played with American guitar
legend Tal Farlow, toured with Jamaican composer Marjorie
Whylie, played throughout Europe, has seen the weekly
jazz club she co-runs, Blow the Fuse, become one of
the most popular in London, and has been a regular
presenter for BBC Radio 3.
Her third CD 'Precious Things' released in 2002 reached
no.3 in two jazz charts in this country, and no.5
on KAFM radio in the States. |
Alison
Rayner's background is as follows.
She grew up on a diet of 60's soul and rock music, played bass guitar
and discovered jazz in the 70's.
She toured the world in the 80's with the critically acclaimed jazz-latin
group the Guest Stars, took up double bass in the
nineties, and formed her own jazz quartet. |
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She currently
records and performs both in Britain and internationally
with, amongst others, the Deirdre Cartwright Group,
the Emma Peel Fan Club and the Vortex Foundation Big
Band. She plays with many of the great musicians
on the London jazz scene where she runs the Blow The
Fuse jazz club with her musical cohort Deirdre Cartwright.
Her compositions are featured in the repertoire of
the Deirdre Cartwright group, and the VFBB.
She has also composed pieces for the Rockschool/Trinity graded exam
series. She lectures in music in London, and
on summer schools both here and abroad. She
is an endorsee for Bridge Cetus electric upright basses
and Picato Innovation double bass strings. |
More
information on Deirdre Cartwright can be found via
the links page |
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