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"Ashburton Live" is an occasional series of concerts, in the beautiful acoustic of the medieval St Lawrence Chapel, in the ancient Stannary town of Ashburton (recently dubbed "Best town in Dartmoor by the Daily Telegraph") Joanna Eden Quartet Sunday 10 February 2013, at 8pm. St Lawrence Chapel, Ashburton, TQ13 7DD, £10 (£5) Joanna was here this time last year, and performed a stunning set that put a spring in everybody's step, and really lifted the winter gloom. For more about her, see joannaeden.com. Joanna will be joined by Andy Williamson on sax, Al Swainger on double bass, and Keith Russell on drums. Dave Hamblett Group Sunday 17 February 2013, at 8pm. St Lawrence Chapel, Ashburton, TQ13 7DD, £10 (£5) The group was formed at the end of 2009 from some of Londons most exciting players as a compositional outlet for drummer and composer Dave Hamblett whilst still studying at the Royal Academy of Music. Since then, the group has been performing around London regularly, carefully refining and consolidating its material and group sound to create a unified, cohesive unit with an identifiable compositional voice. In 2010 the group expanded from a quintet to a sextet with the addition of guitarist Alex Munk, further widening the textural range of the group, to create the current line up of: Dave Hamblett Ð Drums/ Compositions (Abram Wilson/Budy Greco) Josh Arcoleo Ð Tenor Saxophone (Joss Stone/Jeff Williams) Joe Wright Ð Tenor/Soprano Saxophone (BBC Scotish Young Jazz Musician of the Year) Ivo Neame Ð Piano/Keyboards (Phronesis/Cinematic Orchestra) Alex Munk - Guitar (Stan Sulzmann Big Band) Calum Gourlay Ð Double Bass (Kit Downes Trio/SNJO) The group was featured in the December/January 2010/11 Issue of Jazzwise on the cover-mounted Yamaha Jazz Scholars CD after Dave won the prize on graduating in 2010. They have performed across London at venues including The Forge and the Con Cellar Bar, and at the Greennote as part of the London Jazz Festival. Jon Newey described the group as having “...delivered a sophisticated, impressionistic set that boiled up with hard-hitting solos...” (Jazzwise magazine). At the end of 2011 the group recorded its debut album "Light at Night" at Eastcote studios. It is due to be released in February 2013 on Whirlwind Recordings. This is the online home of Andy Williamson. I'm a musician with various pots on the boil. This site will give you a flavour of them but do give me A Buzz if you'd like to know more about anything you see here that tickles your fancy. I'm a saxophonist, a singer, a bandleader and a teacher. I help programme events and festivals, and have been doing all this for the last 20 years — and still love it as much now as I did when I started. I play in a number of regular bands with some wonderful musicians from all over the country. There's my own small Buzztet, various collaborations from silly jazz and cabaret, to the large and funky Big Buzzard Boogie Band, plus the Brass Volcanoes, The Organ Grinders, Pavlov and The Denbone Walkers. I've also had the chance to play with some of my musical heroes, including Al Casey, Tom Robinson, Suggs and most recently Martha Reeves and the Vandellas. I have an eclectic musical taste and experience that takes in many genres. You may have heard me playing Duke Ellington's Sacred Concerts on Radio 4 or in one of the UK's Cathedrals. I've also set ecological poetry to Gregorian chant style melodies in Plainsong for the Planet, brought together jazz activists to play New Orleans marching tunes at the Climate Camp and protest marches; I sing bass in the choir at the annual St Endellion festival or can be found reprising hep cat funky rude tunes at weddings. I've brought in tabla players, tap and break dancers, I've abseiled during gigs and from enormous towers while playing sax; I've cooked food on stage while the band raged around me; accompanied soul food diva Momma Cherri and all round diva Corliss Randall. I teach sax, singing and jazz improvisation. I do this privately, and have run improvisation classes for tap dancers in London and students at Kindston University. I run the Ashburton Community Choir in St Lawrence Chapel, Ashburton, every Tuesday evening at 8pm. Anyone is welcome to come along any week - no need to commit to being there every week. But do you play at weddings? I love playing at weddings, especially if you want to use music to create something special, during the service or at the reception. This has involved solo sax, duetting with other musicians, creating a ‘jazz service’, getting family and friends to sing ‘Lean on Me’ during a service with no celebrant, and creating new music or new arrangements for the service or for a first dance. For a Indian-Jewish-English wedding, I created a whole day of music which included a performance by tabla maestro Kuljit Bhamra, adding Bangra-style percussion to the Big Buzzard Boogie Band and singing the traditional Simcha Jewish wedding songs while the bride and groom were carried around the room in a frenzy. Big Buzzard Boogie Band This is the official online home of Big Buzzard. Sometimes we're a big band, playing music with as high a swing factor as we can muster. We also play music that could be described as jazz, funk, and soul with some spicy latin flavours in the mix too from a mambo to a bit of Cubano Chant. We do our own arrangements of a few tunes you might already know, and we perform our own material, which is superb! Do have a listen here. We don't take ourselves too seriously, but we're serious enough to have played at Buckingham Palace, or to accompany choral evensong on Radio 3. We've joined up with a great choir to perform Duke Ellington's Sacred Concert. Sometimes we're known as the Big Buzzard Boogie Band, sometimes just a concise Big Buzzard. We're available for festivals and events wherever they may be. If you'd like to know more, read our biography or send us an email. Free MP3 downloads of some Big Buzzard music, recorded LIVE in The Famous Spiegeltent.

Next... Past events The band appears regularly in various incarnations. Here are a few highlights over the years... 2010 Denbone Walkers @ Ashburton Blues Festival Sun 30 May 2010. 5pm – 11.45pm The greatest little blues festival in the world, in this tiny Devon 'stannary' town. We're on a bill with Mike Sanchez, among others. Sacred Concert in London Weds 16 June, 8pm, St Giles in the Fields With Tina May, Steve Waterman featuring tap dancer Junior Laniyan, and opera star Roderick Williams plus the Vox Cordis choir under the baton of Jamie Burton. This should be an extraordinary night. More info... Sacred Concert in Bristol A return visit to Westbury on Trym church with the glorious voices of the Exultate Singers. Denbone Walkers at the Edinburgh Fringe Tue 10 - Mon 16 August, 11.30pm We're on at the Pleasance's spectacular new Fringe Venue "Ghillie Dhu", in the heart of the city, dripping with chandeliers, red velvet, intimate booths, and everything you could wish for in a late night Edinburgh Jazz Den. Booking details coming soon. 2009 On 12 March, 2009, The Andy Williamson Buzztet went to Bristol to record a jazz version of Songs of Praise, for BBC1. The band featured Zoe Rahman on piano, Charlie Stratford on drums, Dan Farrant on bass and Ben Cummings on trumpet and flugelhorn. Ned Bennett managed to create a wonderfully fresh arrangement of one of the oldest tunes in the book, 'O When the Saints". Andy chose a tune he'd first heard Eric Bibb perform in the tiny Ain't Nothin' But... THe programme was broadcast on Sunday 3 May. 2008 Bewdley Festival with Scott Stroman The Andy Williamson Buzztet returned to bewdley to perform Scott Stroman's Jazz Mass on Sunday morning with the choir of St Anne's Church as part of their festival service. As Scott was busy at another concert, Andy spent the previous day with pianist Robin Holloway in Bewdley rehearsing the choir. Scott arrived on Sunday morning to direct the choir and the band. 2007 Duke Ellington Sacred Concert, Bristol 24 Feb 2007 The Big Buzzard band joined with the Exultate Singers of Bristol to perform this wonderful music by Duke Ellington, with it's theme of 'Freedom' to commemorate the bicentenary of the abolition of slavery. The concert featured the exquisite talents of Jacqui Dankworth (left) on vocals, and Zoe Rahman (right) on piano. 2006 "I'm a Believer" - Trafalgar Square On 3 & 4 March 2006, the Big Buzzard Horns performed in Trafalgar Square as part of a piece of performance art by Reza Aramesh. He based it on the Changing of the Guard ceremony, with the soldiers replaced by a group of 2nd generation immigrants to the UK. 2005 The Andy Williamson Buzztet and Jonathan Cairney appeared for two nights at London's Pizza on The Park. 2004 Duke Ellington's Sacred Concert, Radio 4 Thursday 20th May 2004 - Duke Ellington's Sacred Concert live on BBC Radio 4 The Big Buzzard Boogie Band expanded to 18 musicians, and were joined by the Exultate Singers and members of the BBC Daily Service singers for the broadcast, live from St Martin-in-the-Fields in London. The Buzzards at the Famous Spiegeltent The Big Buzzard Boogie Band returned to one o the most amazing venues in the world, the 'Famous Spiegeltent' for performances at the Brighton Festival during May, and the Edinburgh Festival Fringe during August. Here's a snatch of one of the performances: 2002 Prom at the Palace On Saturday 1 June 2002, the Big Buzzard Boogie Band were among the performers at Buckingham Palace for the Queen's Golden Jubilee Celebrations.