JAZZ PIANO SUMMIT: Gwilym Simcock, Michael Wollny, John Taylor, Richard Fairhurst

Four of the leading voices in European jazz piano go keyboard to keyboard at this Southbank Centre summit.
Topping the bill are British virtuoso and multi-award winner Gwilym Simcock and his ACT label-mate Michael Wollny, a German jazz giant who has been taking the international scene by storm with a series of technically astonishing albums, including Weltentraum Live, which stormed to the top of Jazzwise Magazine’s coveted critics’ poll last year.
Sublimely lyrical and curiously undersung keys master Richard Fairhurst will also be appearing, duetting with brit-jazz legend John Taylor, long-time musical partner to the late trumpeter Kenny Wheeler and one of Simcock’s key influences. Fairhurst and Taylor have been performing together since 2010 and will be drawing on material from their latest album, Duets, which explores the music of piano great Bill Evans by way of original compositions, and includes a composition by Wheeler, Sly Eyes, along with a poignant tribute to him, Epitaph To Kenny.
Special guest contributions come from innovative British saxophonist and former BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist, Trish Clowes whose star-studded Tangent quintet and latest release Pocket Compass feature Simcock.
Summer 2015 has plenty to offer jazz piano fans, with the second Ronnie Scott’s International Piano Trio Festival taking place this August, but this Southbank summit has the makings of something special too. Not to be missed.