The Common Rooms
A new project that launched in the summer 2023 supported by the Arts Council England, The Common Rooms is a beautifully curated collection of evening events in Brighton and Eastbourne.
Each evening features a speaker, interview, discussion or idea-sharing of some form, followed by music.
Look out for updates for 2024…
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The Cloggz
The Cloggz
“…a remarkable, genre defying band…”
Fairground jazz folk troubadours, The Cloggz has been described as “a wonderful mix of everything” by BBC Radio 2’s Clare Teal.
The Cloggz weave a rich textured tapestry of modern jazz, Balkan folk, big band, classical, latin and the carnival music of the circus to create a mighty swirl of pan-European celebration. The band deftly combine virtuosic musicianship, detailed ensemble playing and nimble improvisation and their live shows often include elements of circus and visual projections. The Cloggz sound is consistently described as cinematic - not so much in the sense of the grand blockbuster score but more as a spontaneous soundtrack to the nostalgic brilliance of the movies of Keaton, Fellini, Terrence Malick and Wes Anderson.
The Brighton-based Cloggz were formed in 2014 by Mark Edwards (piano, accordion, ukulele) and features some of the U.K.’s leading jazz musicians and multi-instrumentalists. The band have slowly been building a devoted following for both their live shows (including The National Theatre and St. James’ Theatre in London, and both Brighton and Cheltenham Jazz Festivals) and their recordings have been featured on BBC R3’s ‘Jazz Line Up’ and Radio 2’s ‘Clare Teal Big Band show’.
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Sawdust & Spangles, The Cloggs latest album, brings together the sweeping range of the band’s inspirations and influences in a whirling, imaginative panoply of musical celebration. From the effervescent fairground organ of the opener, Szpilman, to the melancholic tenderness of Souvenir, the album takes in East European music hall (Baby Elephant), bossa nova lushness (I Dive Deep), Weillian gipsy folk (Yma) and orchestral jazz filmscore (Gabriel’s Oboe).
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“When The Cloggz play it’s not so much a gig as a musical voyage. The result is mesmerising.”
Brighton Argus
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“Engaging, wonderfully quirky, a coherent bridge between jazz and film music in a swaggering Kurt Weillish ambiance. One evocative mood after another.”
Jazzwise
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"You’ll be charmed, humoured, enticed and tickled! Music executed with accuracy, delicacy, emotional depth and energy.”
BBC Radio 3’s Julian Joseph
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"A wonderful mix of everything…ticks all the boxes for me…celebrating sounds and textures…I love the humour in it, the inventive nature in it.”
Clare Teal
In Deep
Produced by James MacMillan, the album brings together many of Mark’s favourite musicians and singers for deep dive into human connection through original and arranged compositions.
Read a review here.
Ben Castle and the Blah Street Band, first single featuring Matt Berry
Mark is a member of Ben Castle and the Blah Street Band. As long term collaborators, Mark and Ben also have a quartet, “Albuca”, with Darren Beckett (drums) and Arnie Somogyi (bass)
Broken Instruments
Co-written alongside Phil Baggaley, this is a beautiful production about Holocaust survivor, violin restorer and violinist Ari Vander.
The musical will debut at Edinburgh Fringe this summer.