Jazz Services - A voice for jazz

Over the past few years the Dorian Ford Trio has been making a significant contribution to the London jazz scene, working in a range of venues and with a broad jazz repertoire. In addition they have created several unique concert series at The Space and at Map Café where they performed piano trio music ranging from country-gospel and be-bop to Bill Evans and original material, to capacity audiences, helping to establish Map as a viable, ongoing jazz venue. Dorian Ford has performed in trio format with a long list of well known musicians on the London scene. The present trio, Mick Hutton and Tom Skinner, came about via Dorian's long personal and musical association with drummer Tom Skinner. Whilst on a recording session together, Tom mentioned Mick Hutton's interest in playing the music of Bill Evans. Tom and Mick's association goes back to the Martin Speake band which on occasion would also invite Paul Motian, drummer with Bill Evans' 60's trio, to play. The current format have played Boisdale Canary Wharf for JazzFM, and Ronnie Scott's as part of the Everybody Digs Piano Trios festival amongst other London venues.

Chick Corea Jazz Masters award winner Dorian Ford is a Berklee and WAC alumnus. Performing at major London and UK venues and being broadcast on JazzFM, BBC Radio. He was the featured pianist in Stephen Frears' film Mrs Henderson Presents. Dorian is a mainstay of Carol Grimes' band, directing and composing for her quintet and most recently arranging and composing for Carol's 8 piece band which featured at the Margate Festival and will be performing again at the Vortex in March. Work with amongst many others: Tom Arthurs, Jeff Beck, Jim Black, Igor Butman, Ian Carr, Renato D'Aiello, Alex Garnett, Gary Husband, Courtney Pine, Seb Rochford, Tim Whitehead, Steve Williamson, Christian Brewer, Damon Brown and many more.

Professional since 1981, Mick Hutton has performed over 6,000 gigs worldwide, recorded over 40 jazz albums and 200 radio broadcasts and worked in film, television and West End shows. Artists played with include Nigel Kennedy, John Surman, K. Wheeler, Humphrey Lyttleton and Bill Bruford. Other musicians that he has worked with include Joe Henderson, Andy Sheppard and Pharoah Sanders. He is one of the finest bassists in Europe and has been a stalwart of many great British bands and has recently been recording for ECM Records.

Tom Skinner started playing drums at the age of 9 and was gigging by the time he was 13. He was a member of Gary Crosby's Tomorrow's Warriors, along with Soweto Kinch, Andrew McCormack, Dave Okumu and Tom Herbert, for 4 years, doing gigs and workshops up and down the country as well as their incredibly popular residency at the Jazz Café in London. He has toured and recorded with an impressive array of top names - from Denys Baptiste, Jean Toussaint and Stanley Turrentine to Zimbabwean master mbira player Chartwell Dutiro, UK Hip-Hop outfit Task Force, Branford Marsalis and many more. He co-leads the co-op band Jade Fox with Dave Okumu and Tom Herbert and is currently working on a solo project. He is also a member of the F-IRE collective and Raw Dog production team.