Jazz breaking news: Phil Meadows wins Peter Whittingham Award 2013
Monday, December 9, 2013
Saxophonist Phil Meadows has been announced as the winner of this year’s Peter Whittingham Award, having performed in front of a high-calibre judging panel that included Soweto Kinch, Norma Winstone MBE, Gwilym Simcock and the 606 Club’s Steve Rubie who unanimously agreed on him as the winner.
Graduating from Trinity Laban last year the London-based saxophonist has been a busy freelance musician as lead saxophonist with the National Youth Jazz Orchestra, shining as an exciting soloist at NYJO’s concert at the BBC Proms 2012, while his own Phil Meadows Group showcases his penchant for energetic yet angular compositions, snaking melodies and wide-angle harmonically rich solos on their debut album, Engines of Creation. He’s in fine company too as the group’s line up also includes hotly tipped trumpeter Laura Jurd, fellow Chaos Collective member/pianist Elliot Galvin, and the hard-firing bass and drum pairing of Conor Chaplin and Simon Roth.
Meadows plans to use the £4,000 prize money to help develop the band into a larger ensemble recording project in 2014. Pianist Galvin, also on many jazz critic’s radars as another name to watch, has been offered a Musicians Benevolent Fund Development Award to support their plans to develop a new multimedia collaboration combining live music with film. Meadows commented on his win: “I am very excited to have been offered the Peter Whittingham Jazz Award 2013. It comes at a crucial moment in my career and will enable me to develop my creative ambitions and profile as a musician, composer and bandleader in a way that would not otherwise have been possible.”
The Peter Whittingham Award has, over its 20-year existence, been a significant milestone for many rising and current stars of the current UK jazz scene with past winners including likes of Roller Trio, Led Bib, Soweto Kinch, Gwilym Simcock and Empirical who have all been nominated or won both Mercury Music Prize and MOBO Jazz Awards and gone on to wider international acclaim. Trumpeter Reuben Fowler, last year’s winner, used the prize money to record his widely acclaimed Between Shadows for leading UK jazz label Edition Records.
– Mike Flynn
Click here to listen to the Phil Meadows Group’s Engines Of Creation