A night of Contemporary Latin Jazz Guitar

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For questions or further details, please email SOAS Concert Series coordinator Georgie Pope on musicevents@soas.ac.uk

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Neff Irizarry

A highly talented composer, guitarist, author and educator specializing in Latin and  contemporary jazz, Neff Irizarry follows in the footsteps of Jim Hall, Pat Metheny, and Steve  Khan. His unique blend of progressive Latin jazz is a display of Puerto Rican “Sabor” and a  Nordic cool called “Sisu.” 

Featured in The European Real Book (Sher Music Co., 2007), Neff has joined the  ranks of the most esteemed European composers of jazz. And, with his new work,  “Contemporary Latin Jazz Guitar”, Neff has provided the most comprehensive book on Latin  Jazz Guitar ever written. 

His critically acclaimed debut CD Nepenthe in 2000, which was produced by  Grammy Award-winning bassist Jimmy Haslip, features the guitar in a Latin jazz context  without the piano. 

Neff ’s creativity, dedication, and solid groove as a guitarist have also enabled him to  perform with Eddie Henderson, Jimmy Haslip, Lonnie Liston Smith, Victor Mendoza, Brian  Melvin, Anders Bergcrantz and Deniss Pashkevich, among others at numerous international  clubs and festivals. 

A B.M. and M.M. graduate from the Berklee College of Music, Neff believes in the  power of education and self-development. As a result, Neff has been an in-demand educator  with over twenty years of experience in Northern Europe as a teacher and clinician. 

Graeme Flowers, Trumpet

Trumpet player Graeme Flowers has performed live on TV and in concert with  Quincy Jones, Taylor Swift, Paul Weller, Harry Styles, Robbie Williams, and The Heritage  Orchestra with Pete Tong.  

In 2008/09 Graeme performed on a world tour with Kylie Minogue, playing at all the  major arenas globally, including the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles. Graeme also played on  Gary Barlow’s UK tour at the end of 2021.  

In the studio, Graeme has recorded on the albums of Leona Lewis, John Newman and  Tom Walker, plays the main theme tune to the BBC kids TV shows the Go Jetters, and can be  heard on the soundtracks for movies such as Early Man, Shaun the Sheep, and The Amazing  Maurice, and also the Netflix Documentary ‘Our National Parks’.  

Graeme has toured extensively with Kyle Eastwood, Clint Eastwood’s bass playing  son. He has performed on, and written music for three Clint Eastwood movie soundtracks  (Flags Of Our Fathers, Letters From Iwo Jima, Grace is Gone), and played at all the major  Jazz festivals and clubs in America, Japan, Europe, Indonesia and South Africa. 

Within Jazz and World Music, Graeme has played live with Tom Scott, Charlie  Hunter, Deodato, Gregory Porter, Cubafrobeat, Justin Thurgur, Hexagonal, Saravah Soul,  Lokkhi Terra, Snowboy, Dele Sosimi, Wara, and Juanuta Euka. 

Davide Mantovani, acoustic and electric bass: 

Davide was born in Ferrara, Italy in 1965. His interest in music started at four with the  piano. He then progressed on to the guitar, and from there to the electric and acoustic bass.  His father was one of the founders of the Ferrara Jazz Club (now a major Italian venue). That  enabled him to meet, and sometimes jam with, some of the greatest Jazz legends including Al  Grey, Phil Woods, Chet Baker. 

Since his arrival in London in 1991, he has explored several other genres and built up  a solid experience on both live and studio scenes, playing with some illustrious Jazz, World  and Pop artists including Lisa Stansfield, Baaba Maal, Seckou Keita, Zoe Rahman, Andy  Sheppard, Jason Rebello, Natacha Atlas, Mulatu Astatke, Joao Donato and many more. 

He is also a renowned composer and band leader. He recorded and produced six  albums, one of which, “Choices”, was voted “Jazz album of the Week” on the Evening  Standard. 

Some of his compositions have been broadcast on BBC Radio 3 (Late Junction),  BBC Radio 4 (Loose Ends), Channel 4 (Three Minutes Wonder), CNN (Kuwait  documentary), JazzFM. 

Davide Giovannini: drums: 

Davide is a composer, drummer, percussionist, vocalist and studio producer. He was  part of the afro-cuban percussion duo Afroshock. He leads his brazilian-jazz group Minas  Project and with Master Tabla Drummer/ Producer Kuljit Bhamra he recently formed Spiders  Tango. He worked with Paul McCartney, Steve Winwood, Bjork, Lisa Stansfield, James  Galway, Vanessa Mae, Marcos Valle, Roy Ayers, Toninho Horta, Bebel Gilberto, Marlena  Shaw, Cubanismo, Snowboy, Herman Olivera, Alex Wilson, Down To The Bone and many  more.