Celebrating Xero Slingsby

About

The last night of Jazz Leeds Festival 2018 is also an evening of jubilation to celebrate the music of Leeds’ iconic punk-jazz saxman Xero Slingsby. Xero is part of Leeds’ popular folklore and the evening will be of interest to those who were there, as well as today’s jazz enthusiasts, players and tune writers.
A meteorite in his own life time, and with an apocryphal number of arrests from busking, Xero blazed a punkjazz trail from Leeds to the ‘main land.’ His titles, including the first album ‘Shove it,’ reveal a punchy, humorous but also a soulful style where the influence of major players such as Monk, Kirk, Dolphy, Shepp and Ornette Coleman are evident. The night will commence with reworkings of Slingsby tunes by a collection of musicians who performed with Xero including Alan Wilkinson (sax) Paul Hession (percussion) Richard Bostok (alto sax) Louis Colan (bass) Gene Vellocette (drums) Tony Burkhill (tenor sax) and Maggie Somers (vocals). All these musicians are joined for this one night only celebration by a young group from Ghent – Den Hoed and The Shuffle Demons a high energy Canadian band that blends virtuosic jazz and funk playing with eye-rattling stage costumes and over the top stage antics to produce an incredible show. Tickets are available on line at https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/event/FGDJMH more info can be found by clicking here http://www.touchwoodaudio.com/Xero_Slingsby/Celebration.html