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John
Donaldson
 John
Donaldson started played keyboards and piano in various bands in the
70's including a stint with Viv Stanshall's 'Big Grunt'. Jazz gigs
started when he was a student in 1978, being part of the Cambridge
Modern Jazz Club’s resident trio along with Chucho Merchan and Nic
France and backed visiting guest soloists in the city.
In 1980 he won the
prize for best soloist at the San Sebastian International Jazz
Competition In 1982 he moved to California. He studied with Joe
Henderson, played with Paul Contos, Stan Poplin, Kenny Stahl, Tim
Jackson, Randy Masters, Larry Grenadier, Jeff Ballard, Donny McCaslin,
Eddie Marshall, Kenny Wolleson, Ben Goldberg, Daniel Sabanovich and
gigged with notables including Eddie Henderson, Red Holloway, John
Handy, Richie Cole, Paul Jackson, David Baker, Steve Turre, Laurindo
Almeida.
Since returning to
London in 1993 he has been active on the UK scene playing in groups led
by Iain Ballamy, Art Themen, Clark Tracy, Alan Barnes, Don Weller, John
Etheridge, Dick Pearce and Norma Winstone. He has also accompanied
visiting soloists, Art Farmer, Conte Condoli, Freddie Hubbard, Buddy de
Franco/Terry Gibbs, Scott Hamilton, Ingrid Jensen, Jon Gordon and
co-lead the band 'Septpiece' with Dave Mattacks and Andrew Cleyndert.
In 2006 he was the
winner of the piano catagory at the Marstons Pedigree British Jazz
Awards. 'Live at the Appleby Jazz Festival' was on the Irish Times list
of essential CD's of 2006.
He currently leads a
trio featuring drummer Asaf Sirkis, has a piano duo with Mark Edwards
and also a two keyboard/percussion trio with Mark Edwards and Asaf
Sirkis.
Mark
Edwards and John Donaldson Duo
"This music was
recorded live at the Appleby Jazz Festival where there is an occasional
policy of taking musicians out of their comfort zone and asking them to
do something they have never done before. One of these risk taking
exercises is to put two pianos on stage and ask some of the great jazz
pianists we have in Britain today to choose their partner and take the
stage. In 2005 Mark Edwards and John Donaldson took up the challenge to
sit down opposite each other for the first time in front of an audience
of around 500 people. The result was one of the most outstanding hours
of music in the festival’s long history.
Such is the
experience and skill of these two world class pianists that not for one
second would you imagine that they had never played this music together
before, and with the acoustically matched pair of Bechstein pianos it is
nearly impossible to separate out who plays what. Released from the
confines of a standard jazz trio, and the well learnt ways of
accompanying drums, bass and saxophone, they seem to enter the
unfamiliar musical landscape provided by two keyboards with a sense of
freedom and a simple joy in making music together. Totally absorbing
themselves and everybody else in the magic of what was happening, they
produced a spell binding hour of music that set the whole festival
audience talking for the rest of the festival and for weeks after.
There is no formula
for producing this sort of musical experience, it usually happens in a
live performance and is lost forever. Luckily this time, state of the
art recording equipment was at hand to capture it, and the result is
this very, very special CD. (Neil Ferber)"
This very special duo is
an absolutely unique and stunning musical experience perfect for
festivals and intimate concert venues. For further information please
contact 07939 058112.
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