Wed 6 February

Tam de Villiers' Paris-London Quartet

• Tam de Villiers - guitar
• Josephine Davies - tenor sax
• Bruno Schorp - double bass
• Nick Smalley - drums/percussion

Tam de Villiers - Guitarist, Composer.

Tam de Villiers was born in England in 1979 and spent his childhood partly in South Africa, partly in England and mostly in Scotland. He first became involved with music at age 4 playing the violin and then piano a few years later. At 15 he began learning guitar and initially took classes with saxophonist Tommy Smith and went on to study at Leeds College of Music, in the north of England, receiving tuition from Mike Walker, Jez Franks, Steve Berry, and Pete Churchill. He attained his Masters Diploma in 2001.

He went on to teach and give workshops at the College during which time he toured with his group Tam de Villiers Quartet and worked as a side man in Tommy Smith's big bands including the SNJO. In 2003, Tam moved to Paris. Since then he has had several influential meetings with musicians such as Marc Ducret, Stephane Payen and Malo Vallois which have inspired his new repertoire of pieces he has composed during the last 3 years. In 2005 he received a medaille d'or l'unanimité (gold medal with distinction) for his Diploma at the Conservatoire of Montreuil. He has now recently finished recording an album with a Paris based quartet featuring tenor saxophonist David Prez (Fresh Sound Label), Canadian drummer Karl Jannuska (leader on Effendi records and highly demanded side man in Paris), and bassist Bruno Schorp (see biography below). Played with: Tommy Smith, Matthew Bourne, Marc Ducret, Stephane Payen, Gilles Coronado, Rob Barron, Jamil Sherif, Christophe Lavergne, Hubert Dupont, Paul Brousseau, Antonin Rayon, Nikki Yeoh, Julian Arguelles, Nicolas Stephan, Sebastian Brun, Issam Krimi, Christophe Panzani, Pierre-Yves Desoyer, Karl Jannuska, David Prez, Bruno Schorp, David Georgelet, Yoni Zelnick, Matthieu Chazarenc, Antoine Hervé….

He names Wayne Krantz, Marc Ducret, Ben Monder, Sco, Jim Black, Uri Caine, among his influences.

He led a group which appeared at Hull Jazz Festival in 2003

"Guitarist Tam de Villiers is one of the most exciting musicians to come out of Scotland in years." Tommy Smith

Josephine Davies - Tenor Saxophone

Josephine studied classical and jazz saxophone at the Guildhall school of Music and Drama, whilst there winning the 1999 Perrier Young Jazz Award with a quintet led by trumpeter Tom Allan. She has since performed and recorded with the London Jazz Orchestra, Ronnie Scott's Vanguard Band (led by Gerard Presencer), The Laurence Cottle Big Band, Sax Appeal, Vortex Foundation Band, Matt Wates sextet, Gareth Lockrane's GrooveYard aswell as a two year stint in the National Youth Jazz Orchestra. She also runs and composes for her own quintet – for band details, gig dates and tracks go to http://www.myspace.com/josephinedaviesquintet

Bruno Schorp - Double bass

After beginning with studies in classical music at the Conservatoire of Nancy, he went on to learn jazz first in Nancy, then in Metz Conservatoire and finally in the reputed Conservatoire Nationale Superiere de Paris where he was taught by Riccardo Del Fra, Dré Pallemaertz, Glen Ferris and Daniel Humair. At the same time he became one of the most in demand bassists on the Paris scene. He is now a bass teacher in the Jazz department at the Conservatoire of Malakoff and at the Ecole Nationale de Musique in Auxerre. He is also a leader of his own award winning « Colors Sextet » who received the Ile-de-France Jazz Prize in 2005.

Nick Smalley - Drums/Percussion

He studied percussion with Dave Hassell in his native Manchester, before going on to graduate from Leeds College of Music in 2002. In April 2005 he relocated to the London where he continued to combine performing professionally with giving tuition. His recent work has involved gigs at the Pizza Express in Soho, 606 club, the Vortex and Koko and also performances on television music shows with singer songwriter Richard Hawley. He has played with many prominent jazz musicians over the years including Phil Robson, Guy Barker, Tina May, Alan Barnes, Bruce Adams, Julian Joseph, Lynne Arialle, Steve Davies, Malcolm Creese, Al Wood and Andy Scott. He now is working in several projects featuring original music with Mike Outram,Gareth Lockrane, Alex Garnett, Brandon Allen and Jim Hart.