Courtney Pine has been announced as the fourth high-profile instrumentalist … Videos

Multi-award winning saxophonist and composer Courtney Pine has been announced as the fourth high-profile instrumentalist to lead the Inner City Ensemble touring project in February 2018 as part of the ongoing Jazz Directors series.

Previous musicians involved have included US stars Terence Blanchard and Chris Potter, while this year saw Pine collaborator and Mercury Prize nominated pianist Zoe Rahman lead a specially convened group of young emerging musicians from the north of England.

The Jazz Directors Series is a two-year residency and touring project which brings together emerging UK professional jazz musicians with an internationally revered Jazz Director. Each edition comprises of a four-day residency produced by Brighter Sound and a corresponding tour of live concerts produced by Band on the Wall in collaboration with local regional promoters. The musicians for the Inner City Ensemble will be announced soon and will play music written by Pine for the project.

Courtney Pine and Inner City Ensemble dates are: Band on the Wall, Manchester (22 Feb); Brudenell Social Club, Leeds (23 Feb); The Grand, Clitheroe (24 Feb) and Grand Theatre, Lancaster (25 Feb).

Jazz-influenced experimental musician, composer, conceptualist and now political protester Matthew Herbert is among 12 musicians receiving a grant from the UK Department for International Trade (DFID) to help export musical talent overseas. Herbert will receive a £5,000 grant to help his (anti!) Brexit Big Band complete its ambition of releasing an album on the day Britain is expected to leave the EU in March 2019. It’s ironic that the DIT is headed by pro-Brexit MP Liam Fox.

Other artists sharing the £181,944 grant money, awarded via the Music Export Growth Scheme, include Mercury-nominated rapper-songwriter Ghostpoet and Public Service Broadcasting. DFID, which aims to promote international trade and will seek free-trade agreements after Brexit, has so far awarded grants totalling £2.4m to support musicians who could “become the next Adele or Ed Sheeran”. Contrary to these export plans, the Musicians Union and The Guardian have reported that there are big issues with UK and European musicians continuing to work as freely as they do now. An example of this is the European Union Youth Orchestra leaving its base in London, “in part due to concerns over restricted freedom of movement for working musicians”.

Herbert performed with his Brexit Big Band at the Barbican in October, with the concert featuring numerous UK jazz musicians as well as percussive sounds created by copies of the pro-Brexit Daily Mail being torn up on-stage. Herbert stated on his website that: “The message from parts of the Brexit campaign were that as a nation we are better off alone. I refute that idea entirely and wanted to create a project that embodies the idea of collaboration from start to finish.” The composer has already set Article 50 to music and will conduct a series of Brexit-related concerts and workshops right up until March 2019. Commenting on the project he said: “I want to create something that’s the opposite of Brexit – about collaboration, about creativity, about love rather than hate.”