Current Projects

Unfurl

Olivia Moore – Violin

Jim Faulkner — Elec­tric Guitar

Gavin Barras – Bass

John Ball – Indian San­toor and Tabla

Jack McCarthy — Percussion

Unfurl is a quar­tet whose music expands across con­tin­ents, com­bin­ing Indian Ragas with Jazz impro­visa­tion to create an ori­gin­al sound ran­ging from the dra­mat­ic to the sublime.

Unfurl have been enthu­si­ast­ic­ally received at numer­ous Jazz fest­ivals across the coun­try, includ­ing Manchester, Marsden, Marl­bor­ough, Brecon, Gateshead and London Jazz Fest­ivals as well as in numer­ous clubs and theatre venues across the country.

In 2013 they were awar­ded a tour­ing grant from “Jazz North” and an Arts Coun­cil Eng­land R&D Grant which allowed them to devel­op their mater­i­al. https://​www​.you​tube​.com/​w​a​t​c​h​?​v​=​V​B​2​y​t​8​W​Z​VhM

The aim of the band is to bring togeth­er all our indi­vidu­al influ­ences to create music which is original.

“This group has a very per­son­al sound that is truly unique…each member brings a vast array of global influ­ences to the table, but this is not world music or ethnic music; it is simply music — a fusion in the truest sense. Enrich­ing and full of life.” Chris Ack­er­ley the​soun​dofnow​.com

“Dif­fer­ent” and “Refresh­ing”, Tony Dudley-Evans Birm­ing­ham Sym­phony Hall Foyer “Won­der­fully Eclect­ic Music” Scar­bor­ough Jazz

“Unfurl are a won­der­ful group of musi­cians who com­bine incred­ible music­al sub­tlety and refine­ment with a real sense of music­al adven­ture and explor­a­tion”, Cap­stone Theatre

Jim Faulkner is an extremely accom­plished gui­tar­ist, having stud­ied con­tem­por­ary clas­sic­al music, world music, min­im­al­ism and free impro­visa­tion and played with many renowned musi­cians. Jim brings his extens­ive exper­i­ence of per­form­ing modern Jazz and improvisation.

Gavin Barras is one of the most in demand bass play­ers in the North West and one of the most exper­i­enced bass play­ers, reg­u­larly tour­ing inter­na­tion­ally with his own groups. Gavin brings he infec­tious enthu­si­asm to the band. He is the long stand­ing bassist for Manchester based spir­itu­al jazz Trum­peter Mat­thew Halsall.

John Ball has been per­form­ing Indian music for the last twenty five years play­ing the tabla and the 100 stringed san­toor accom­pa­ny­ing sit­ar­ists, vocal­ists and dan­cers from the UK and abroad.

Jack McCarthy, our new per­cus­sion­ist spent his form­at­ive years study­ing with master musi­cians in West Africa and Cuba and his drive to fur­ther his know­ledge has led him, more recently to South­ern Spain to explore fla­menco and Arabic per­cus­sion tech­niques. He has per­formed all over Europe with vari­ous artists, most not­ably the Drum and Bass legend ‘London Elektri­city’ and trum­peter Mat­thew Halsall. He cur­rently tours with The Lion King in the UK and Ireland.