Upcoming Gigs

Empirical scooped the title of Jazz Ensemble Of The Year last night, as the winners of the 2008 Parliamentary Jazz Awards were announced at the House of Commons in London.

Organised by the All Party Parliamentary Jazz Appreciation Group, the awards are in their fourth year and have always commended the very best that the UK jazz scene has to offer. Empirical add this award to the already long list of accolades they have gained so far, and get ready for a summer of dates both at home and abroad.

Air have now formed an even stronger working relationship with the groundbreaking UK label DUNE by booking some of their leading artists worldwide. The two companies have already enjoyed joint success with Air being responsible for Dune's PR. We look forward to expanding this relationship.
Dune have a number of exciting new projects in the pipeline so keep your eyes peeled for news of these over the coming months ...

Air are delighted to announce the start of a year long apprentice scheme to nurture new booking agents for the company’s Tours department. After completing a twelve month internship at Dune Music, Alex Heng is the first apprentice to join the Air team via this innovative program. The scheme is generously supported by the Jerwood Charitable Foundation and all of us at Air are excited to be able both to play a role in developing new talent for the industry and to offer a fuller service to our agency clients.

Empirical added to their impressive list of awards with a special citation for outstanding musicianship awarded by IAJE at the 2008 conference in Toronto.

Yes! Another award for Empirical! The Peter Whittingham Jazz Award 2007. The award focuses on innovative recording, composition and performance projects in the field of cutting edge jazz. This award tops off a fantastic year for the band, including winning the EBU Jazz Award at the North Sea Jazz Festival, supporting Joshua Redman at the London Jazz Festival and being awarded Album of the Year by Jazzwise magazine. 2008 already looks to be just as exciting with some fantastic dates in the diary, starting off with a showcase event at the IAJE in Toronto in January.

Ingrid Laubrock has been described as ‘the biggest surprise on Sunday’s schedule’ of the Berlin Jazz festival in a recent article from the Jazz Times Magazine. She has been described as ‘inspired,’ working beautifully within the nonet through her adventurous charts such as ‘the multi-moduled “Cracker Barrel.”’ The Berlin Jazz Festival took place between 31st October and 4th November this year. For the full article check http://www.jazztimes.com/reviews/concert_reviews/detail.cfm?article=1049...

Congratulations go to Empirical for their self titled debut album being awarded Top Album of the Year 2007 by Jazzwise magazine. You can see the complete list of praised albums in the December issue which goes on sale Friday 30th November.

To find out where you can see Empirical live, look in our "Upcoming Gigs" section, or check their myspace at http://www.myspace.com/empiricalmusic

We are pleased to report that Tim Garland's Northern Underground Orchestra at the Purcell Room on the 21st November has now sold out. All of us at Air and in the NUO want to say a big thank you to all of you that managed to grab one of these tickets; we look forward to seeing you at the gig.

Will Gresford- manager of the Vortex - mentioned Empirical as one of the bands leading the charge of the new wave in jazz in his recent interview for Time Out magazine.

Anita Wardell
Noted
(Specific)

Born in England, raised in Australia and back in the United Kingdom since 1989, Anita Wardell has been one of the top bop-oriented jazz singers of the past 20 years despite not being all that known in the United States. She has a sweet, cheerful and flexible voice, is a superior scat singer and, like Kurt Elling and just a few others, she writes new vocalese lyrics rather than just merely repeating "Moody's Mood For Love" and "Twisted."