Gareth Lockrane is one of a kind – a human dynamo of improvisation and composition, the UK's top flautist, playing all the flutes from bass to piccolo. He rarely ventures this far West and we are delighted to put him on as part of a mini tour of the South West.

First coming to prominence in the National Youth Jazz Orchestra in the 1990s, Gareth graduated from the Royal Academy of Music, where he now teaches permanently. He is an extremely busy session player on anything from hip hop tracks to James Taylor Quartet festival gigs, and last year featured in the Arethra Franklin prom and in a special Quincy Jones commemorative concert, playing the iconic Soul Bossa Nova piccolo riff. This year he played Glastonbury with US talent and youtube sensation Louis Cole, and recently joined the Matt Carter octet (most of them being his ex students) at the end of their tour at Pizza Express jazz club in Soho.

But Gareth really comes into his own when leading his own groups – whether it be his septet, or Grooveyard his organ-based quintet, or his eponymous big band. A prolific composer with a Masters in cinematic music, Gareth has many albums out with these groups, all with original compositions (and all on your favourite music streaming service if you want to check him out). His album Put the Cat out won Album of the Year at Mojo magazine and his big band album, Fistfight at the Barndance, won many plaudits and coveted places on popular Spotify playlists.

Among musicians Gareth has a fearsome reputation for being the most practised and inventive improviser, always relentlessly pursuing new heights of virtuosity while keeping uppermost his sense of melody and fun, with subtle quotes from the thousands of tunes in his head. His ability to take a three or four note motif, toy with it, turn it on its head and make it into an epic 5 minute solo, has to be seen to be believed. Despite regularly "roasting" other players he is an incredibly nice guy with a patience brought from years of hosting "Junior Academy" with London's budding teenage players.

It is difficult to put into words just how good a performer Gareth Lockrane is, but you probably get the picture – he is special, and it will be well worth coming down for this one off appearance.

Gary Evans (drums), Tom Ball  (piano) and Kevin Sanders (bass) will have their work cut out keeping pace with this London legend!

A bass flute solo on “Body and Soul” – youtube

Stutterfunk – Gareth Lockrane big band