Louise Gibbs

CheerSing, Louise Gibbs’ community participation project, has been chosen for the Yorkshire Festival 2014. Supported by the Arts Council, Welcome to Yorkshire and Yorkshire Water, the 100-day arts and culture festival leads the run up to the Tour de France, 4-6 July 2014.

CheerSing aims to engage crowds cheering the Tour de France in Yorkshire to create big, beautiful, locally-distinctive soundscapes along the route. From March to June Louise will be running workshops for communities across Yorkshire to:

• devise ‘signature’ chants/clapping-raps/cheer-songs and actions which identify their particular part of Yorkshire
• sing and shout effectively and safely in the open air

Seven Deadly Sings – my new song cycle based on the seven deadly sins of pride, lust, gluttony, envy, sloth, anger, and greed – is now available on download  and a special-edition CD recording on the 33Xtreme label (via 33Jazz.com, Amazon and iTunes).  The suite’s premiere performance is 6 March at Seven Arts in Leeds.

7DS is a 50 minute jazz song cycle scored for voice and septet and a fabulous line up of musicians is involved with the project: Quentin Collins (trumpet/flugel horn); Tony Kofi (alto/baritone sax); Tim Whitehead (tenor sax/bass clarinet); Tom White (trombone); Sam Leak (piano); …

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It was certainly all Souls night (2 November) at Wakefield Jazz with the soulfully sparkling Tina May, Nikki Iles, Mark Hodgson, and Steve Keogh. Having opened the evening with Mark Donlon’s Departure Down Under tribute (joined by Gavin Barras and Steve Hanley), LG then joined Tina to round off the evening with Cole Porter’s “Just One of Those Things”. It really was fabulous! …

Louise will be taking some time out from composing to run a jazz singing and improvisation workshop on Saturday 17 November, 10.00-17.00 in Leeds. Open to singers with some jazz experience who want to improve their performance, improvisation and confidence directing a live jazz trio. Apply/book directly to louise@jazzmine.co.uk. More details on the EDUCATION pages. …

Gibbs & Iles is an exciting, long-awaited duo partnership between myself and pianist, Nikki Iles. We come together from previous duo associations with artists such as Lynne Arriale, Kirk Lightsey, Tina May and Norma Winstone to refine our reinterpretations of jazz standards from the Great American Songbook. Our project continues the tradition but also features originals and tunes made famous by jazz instrumentalists (Miles Davis, Ellington, Mingus, Monk, Shorter, Wheeler amongst others). Gibbs & Iles are dedicated to song, meaningful lyrics, and making music together in the moment, guaranteeing each performance a one-off jazz experience.

We can also offer pre-concert …