Gilad Atzmon and The Orient House Ensemble March 14, 2013

The thrilling Israeli-born British saxophonist and Blockheads member brings his Orient House Ensemble to Manchester presenting his unique blend of bebop jazz and Middle Eastern music for what promises to be a stunning night at Band on the Wall.

Led by fiery saxophonist and award-winning composer Gilad Atzmon, The Orient House Ensemble was founded in London in 2000 and is renowned as one of the world’s most brilliant and inspirational jazz groups. Drawing on the music of Coltrane and Bird as well as the beautiful music of the Middle East to create something new and wonderful the Ensemble has been touring constantly all over Europe and the UK and recorded six albums to date, have won many awards and received constant worldwide critical acclaim. The musical history of the OHE is a story of a relentless attempt to cross the divide, blending East and West and forming a new improvisational language out of Jazz and ethic music.

For Atzmon, artistic freedom is the true meaning of cultural resistance. He insists that that this is the exact quality that transformed Black American music from beauty into spirit. For Atzmon the true meaning of being a musician is a constant attempt to keep reminding yourself why you decided to play music in the first place.

Though the Ensemble blends many musical ideas and styles it is always within the Jazz idiom: the energy, the subliminal communication, the poetic pain and ecstatic laughter. The Orient House Ensemble is there to keep Jazz as a spirit of resistance: a struggle against musical stagnation and oppression of any kind.

"..as perfect a jazz marriage as you could wish for" Phil Jonson, Independent on Sunday

"Atzmon is an astonishing musican" John Lewis, Metro

"A revelation, a multi-reed man of enormous talent" Tony Richards, Musician Magazine

Official Website: http://crd.fm/20H