Maya shows how albums such as Kind of Blue by Miles Davis and Brubeck’s Time Out shaped the development of modern jazz and still resonate today. The idea of a performance focusing on the music of this seminal year was in part due to his interest in the music of Dave Brubeck. His love of 50s jazz naturally led to 1959 because it represented a turning point for different approaches to improvisation. It was, he says “the year that changed jazz”.
1959 was also on the cusp of other social and political changes. The explosion of these innovative jazz recordings provides a musical backdrop to struggles for de-segregation and civil rights in the United States, the Cuban missile crisis and the start of the Vietnam war.
Featuring Neil Maya on saxophones, Gav Martin on piano, Kev Sanders on double bass and Gary Evans at the drums, the musicians of the quartet have clocked up playing credits with Alan Barnes, Art Themen, Clare Teal and Tina May as well as many TV and radio sessions.
Expect some of the greatest jazz from this iconic year including, Take Five, So What, All Blues, Moanin’, Chega De Saudade, Fables of Faubus and many more.