Shirley Smart - Newsletter, January 2025.
Thursday, January 02, 2025
Cellist, composer, improviser, bandleader & educator Shirley Smart has forwarded her latest newsletter including news of forthcoming live appearances with a variety of different line ups.
Shirley Smart writes;
Dear friends,
Happy New Year!!
It is, of course, semi-obligatory to send out a New Year Updates mailout, so here we are….
I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and New Year, and the start of 2025 finds you suitably rested / raring to go / hungover (delete as appropriate).
I have a few nice upcoming gigs in January with my main projects, and would be lovely to see you there if you are around!
11th Jan
Shirley Smart Trio
Toulouse Lautrec
19:30
Book Tickets
https://www.toulouselautrec.co.uk/etn/shirley-smart-trio-2/
23rd Jan
Quanta Piano Trio
Lauderdale House
19:00
Book Tickets
https://www.lauderdalehouse.org.uk/quanta
30th Jan
Shirley Smart Sextet
Vortex Jazz Club
19:30
Book Tickets
https://www.vortexjazz.co.uk/event/shirley-smart-sextet-3/
Plans for 2025
I’m hoping to develop them all of these projects in 2025 with new material amd recordings coming up.
I’m also wending my way through my PhD project- an autoethnography based on my 10 years in Jersualem - which I hope to complete this year. I’m also developing some creative writing ideas which have been stuffed away in my brain for yearsand I have decided its time to get them out, so new things may be coming soon!
I wish you all the very best for 2025, and hope to see you around somewhere soon!
Sx
Shirley Smart Trio
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_y7KnRAX6ok
My longstanding project with John Crawford on piano and Demi Garcia Sabat on drums will hopefully be recording a new album this year.
Our first album ‘Long Story Short’ drew on my years in Jersualem, and has evvoled as a trio through our many erpformances together over the past few years.
My years in Jerusalem were a huge factor in my life, but I have been seeking other inspirations for the development of our sound and this year a trip to Barcelona and a visit to the buildings of Antoni Gaudi, especially the epic Basicila de la Sagrada Familia, and the rood garedn at the Pedrera had a very strong impact on me. Demi, who has played drums and percussionin my trio for many years, is also from Barccelona so this is a nice completing of a circle, and I am now working on our second album, which I hope will be released during 2025.
In the meantime, our current dates can be found here:
https://www.shirleysmart.com/gig-diary
Quanta
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGbpIuogKRw
Quanta is a new piano trio, combining classical repertoire with improvised material, drawing on jazz, folk and free improvisation.
This is a very special project, that I look forward to developing further in 2025, and hope that we will also record our first album during the year.
https://www.shirleysmart.com/gig-diary
Shirley Smart Sextet
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QGWpPby3fE0
This project is an extension of my trio for which I wrote a set of music in 2024.
It features some amazing musicians - in addtiion of Demi and John, is James Arben on tenor sax, Alistair Martin on trumpet and Marcus Penrose on bass.
Sextet Dates
https://www.shirleysmart.com/gig-diary
FULL CONCERT SCHEDULE:
2025
11.01 Shirley Smart Trio Toulouse Lautrec 20:30
23.01 Quanta Lauderdale House 20:00
26.01 Quanta Mill Hill Libary 17:00
30.01 Shirley Smart Sextet Vortex Jazz Club 20:30
02.02 Medland/Smart Duo Green Note 20:00
13.02 Stories Trio Sound Bureau 20:00
@ The Hamlet, Streatham
23.04 Medland/Smart Duo The Lescar, Sheffield 20:00
07.05 Shirley Smart Trio Klaipeda Festival, Lithuania tbc
12.05 Quanta Luton Music 19:30
15.05 Shirley Smart Trio Haslemere Festival 20:00
17.05 Medland/Smart Duo Penge Music 13:00
18.05 Quanta Egham Music Society 20:00
17.07 Bezique Lichfield Festival 20:00
23.08 Bezique South Hill Arts Centre 20:00
14.09 Bezique The Music Mix, Wivenhoe 20:00