Matthew Bourne was born on October 6th, 1977 in the Red Lion Pub, Avebury, Wiltshire. His parents are not musical. By the age of 9 he had moved house four times and wound up living in a small village situated amongst the Cotswold Hills. Bourne took up trombone at the age of 9, much to the pleasure of his next-door neighbour. He started his secondary education at Kingham Hill School in 1989 - again miles from anywhere amongst more Cotswold surroundings.

Bourne began playing 'cello in 1990, and, after seeing Frank Sinatra play on television in 1993, he began to teach himself the piano - assimilating the music of Debussy, Ravel, and Gershwin. The rapid progress on 'cello and piano lead to the elbowing-out of the trombone altogether, leaving Brass teacher Garry Page to impart some very important knowledge about harmony, space and the use of the whole piano. 'Cello teacher George Sidebottom is the man responsible for teaching Bourne nearly everything about music. (This is a very large subject).

Bourne commenced to tackle the language of Jazz in 1995, with his parents forking-out much cash to support this passion. It was also in this year that Bourne raised £1500 for the Hawksley Romania Trust by improvising at the piano for 24 hours (This was done twice due to some of the teachers insisting that Bourne should attempt a trial run to see if he could do it or not - thanks lads - the first in a series of painful attacks of tendonitis/RSI followed.

In 1996 Bourne purchased a Fender Rhodes and was accepted into Leeds College of Music (or Leeds College of Men - judging by the overwhelming ratio of men/women - Circa 1000:3). After the realisation that many of Bourne's colleagues still wanted to play jazz music as it was 50 years ago and were passionately against all things new (e.g. jazz music as it was 30 years ago), Bourne began to develop a 'fuck you' attitude to all of this and instead discovered a passion for the work of British Jazz musicians; particularly from the 1970's.

Figures such as John Surman, Mike Osborne, Mike Taylor and Mike Westbrook remain constant sources of inspiration, and Westbrook's album 'Metropolis' is still Bourne's favourite album of all time. Much cash was and still is spent on collecting rare 70's British Jazz vinyl. Throughout the following years at Leeds, Bourne began to conform less and less to the mainstream approach to jazz and explored instead the world of contemporary composition and the avant-garde. This period was also plagued by severe attacks of tendonitis.

Bourne was also involved in the College's contemporary music ensemble playing Cage, Feldman and Andrissen and was the soloist in Michael Daugherty's Piano concerto 'Tombeau de Liberace' and Cage's 'Concerto for Prepared Piano and Orchestra'. At his last year at college Bourne received guidance from Jonty Stockdale, who managed to convince him that he wasn't crazy, and that it was ok to scream and play the piano with his feet if he wanted to.

Since leaving the college, Bourne has developed a working relationship with organisations such as The British Council, Serious International Music Producers and Luxton Cultural Associates and has been commissioned to write works for Bath International Music Festival and Leeds Fuse Festival. Bourne's work has often been broadcast on BBC Radio 3's Jazz on 3 and Late Junction. Currently, Bourne is employed as a Very part-time lecturer at Leeds College of Music and is undertaking a PhD in performance at the University of Leeds.

Steve "Dakiz" Davis is a professional percussionist and composer and has been active in such fields for the last 10 years. Steve, who was born in Bekfast in 1974, started having a strange interest in hitting things around the age of 12 and he has continued this obsession ever since. He gained a BA Contemporary Music, (for hitting things!), from Leeds University in 2000, and a Post Graduate Diploma in Jazz from Trinity School of Music London 2003.

Last year he toured with the European Jazz Orchestra, playing 25 dates throughout all the member states: Denmark, Switzerland, Italy, Germany and so on.
Living in London for the last three years he has been playing drums with the cream of London's jazz community, players such as, Django Bates, Julien Seigal, Dylan Bates, Annie Whitehead, Ben Castle, Tom Arthurs, Martin Speak, Mark Lockheart, Paul Dunmall, Jaqui Dankworth, Mike Walker, and has also performed with many European and American musicians: Dick Oats, Curtis Fuller, Alan Vache, Bruno Tomasso, Brian Irvine etc.
He continues to concentrate on these and many other projects with the likes of Matthew Bourne, Dave Kane, Paul Dunmall, Django Bates and his own London based band "Hypnotoad" who just finished touring Ireland this year.

Dave Kane is an extremely versatile bassist and composer who is able to work within many different contexts, from fierce improvised music to contemporary jazz and chamber music.

Since graduating in 2000, Kane has worked extensively throughout the UK - performing and recording with many leading British artists on the improvised music scene: Keith Tippett, Paul Dunmall, Alex Maguire, Mark Sanders, Elton Dean, Simon Picard, Paul Hession, Jim Dvorjak, Gail Brand, Mick Beck and Matthew Bourne. As a composer and bandleader, Kane has written music for various contemporary dance and theatre productions.

Current projects include the improvising trio 'Bourne Davis Kane' and Kane's own octet - 'Klubbeduppe' - an incredibly powerful ensemble made up of some of Europe's finest up and coming improvisers...

Press bites

Bourne Davis Kane
"Mindless Provocation? Contrived Novelty? Strangely, no and no again…Bourne's actual piano playing had a wild, unschooled quality and at times he attacked the keyboard with such ferocity that he was lifted off his stool with the colossal physical effort expended, his whole body a hyper-kinetic blur. But at other times his playing surprised with its lyricism and sense of beauty… They even tackled 'Autumn Leaves', but, frankly, only to give the much-loved standard a damn good kicking. "You're out of your fu***** mind" intoned a voice on one of the samples utilised…if the comment was aimed at Bourne himself, then the 150 captivated punters begged to differ".

Trevor Hodgett, Belfast 2002 Festival Review, Jazzwise, Issue 62, March 2003.

"The energy that the trio took from repetition of this phrase ("Stress related burn-out") was a prime example of their ability to pick up on an idea collectively and create spontaneous music. In this case the sheer energy rush made it exciting. In other, less hectic instances, their instant compositions were gentler or atmospheric. Was for example 'Don't look at me, I'm a beautiful girl' something Bourne had up his sleeve, or can they really deliver to order? I don't care, it was a lovely piece of tranquillity in a set that variously rumbled to Kane's hyperactive bass playing, rocked to Davis's assertive drumming…The level of invention and madness in their encore of 'I Got Rhythm' alone ensured that everyone left smiling".

Rob Adams, Review of Glasgow Jazz Festival, Glasgow Herald, 7th July 2003.

© Jūratė Kučinskaitė