020 8279 1080
https://stratford-circus.com/event/e15-sessions/#data-sc-tabs-alt-index%3D%220%22=overview
17/05/2019
8:00 PM / 10:30 PM
Trailblazing cellist and composer Shirley Smart releases Long Story Short her debut trio album on 33 Records.
The album showcases the vast array of Smart’s musical influences, and draws on her unique background gained from ten years living in Jerusalem and working with the overlapping worlds of jazz, Arabic, Turkish and North African music, and with artists such as Avishai Cohen, Omer Avital and Yasmin Levy.
It features two of the UK’s leading lights in world-influenced jazz – John Crawford on piano, and Demi Garcia Sabat on percussion, as well as guest artists Nikki Iles on accordion, Orphy Robinson MBE on vibraphone and Nicolas Meier on guitar.
Smart has established herself firmly on both the jazz and world music scenes since moving back to London, working with artists including Neil Cowley, Mulatu Astatke, Robert Mitchell, Misha Mullov-Abaddo Maciek Pysz and Alice Zawadzki. She is also founder member of Issie Barratt’s Interchange Dectet, which has just recorded its debut album ‘Donna’s Secret’ for release in 2019, and has appeared at numerous festivals in the UK and abroad.
She is also a keen educator, and has given workshops for the National Youth Jazz Collective, Jazzlines, Trinity Laban and Kent University as well as teaching Jazz and Improvisation for the RCMJD and City University.
” Shirley Smart can now be considered on of the best improvising cellists in the UK” The Jazzmann
“…some of the most inventive use of the cello I have heard for some time..” Kind of Jazz
“Smarts playing is particularly remarkable..she readily demonstrates a wide range of techniques incorporating an understanding of improvisation drawn from a jazz background and her extensive knowledge of Arabic maqam…” Songlines
” A fascinating melting pot of musical influences” World Music Central
Live : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQsH0A_D3jI
Wesbite : https://www.shirleysmart.com/
Line-Up
Shirley Smart – Cello
John Crawford – Keyboard
Demi Garcia Sabat – Drums