Nikki, winner of Best Pianist British Jazz Awards 2017, brings together commissions from over the years; new orchestrations of her own small band tunes and new compositions, all played by the remarkable band she has assembled.
The depth and range of the exhilarating writing and arranging suggest this concert will like a well fitted suit and a distinctive voice, with the music bought to vivid life by a top-drawer band.
The band won the “Parliamentary Jazz Award for Best Ensemble 2020.
Well known as a solo pianist, accompanist extraordinaire and arranger, composition and education remains a major part of Nikki Iles musical life. Since her previous performance at Dean Street, Nikki has been appointed Composer in Residence for the outstanding German NDR Jazz Orchestra, with whom she has recorded an outstanding album “Face to Face which Jazz Journal commented “Much to enjoy and much to take in”.
Her commissions include The London Sinfonietta , the UMO jazz orchestra in Helsinki and The National Youth Jazz Orchestra. Nikki is Professor of Jazz Piano at the Royal Academy of Music and Middlesex University as well as giving masterclasses around the world.
In 2020 she won the Seattle Jazz Orchestra Composition Prize, plus The US based International Society of Jazz Composers and Arrangers Best Performance
And here’s the Orchestra, demonstrating the wonders that are Nikki’s original compositions and arrangements, together with great ensemble playing and evocative soloing.
