Mark Hanslip & Andrew Cheetham
Biography Mark Hanslip & Andrew Cheetham
Mark Hanslip
Tenor saxophonist Mark Hanslip emerged as a key player on the London jazz scene in the mid-2000s, rehearsing, touring and recording with groups such as Outhouse, Nostalgia 77, Jonathan Bratoeff Quartet, Alcyona Mick Quintet and TOM-MIX (featuring the late drummer Tony Marsh), working with major figures including Steve Lacy, Kenny Wheeler and Bob Brookmeyer (as a regular member of Hans Koller’s large ensembles) and freelancing with pop bands. Live work included tours and many festivals in the UK, Europe and the US, radio broadcasts for the BBC and others, and residencies in The Gambia and Canada.
Now based in the north of England, he currently plays regularly with improvising group HTrio with bassist Otto Willberg and Andrew Cheetham. The trio’s performance activities were initially supported by Jazz North’s Northern Line subsidy scheme, and in 2018 they went on to complete an Arts Council-supported tour in quartet with New York-based trumpet innovator Nate Wooley. Mark also plays in HRH (with improv drum legend Paul Hession and laptopist/live coder Federico Reuben), drummer/composer Johnny Hunter’s quartet, organ trio The Revival Room (with keyboardist Adam Fairhall), and David McLean’s group Aging. He has appeared on many releases for labels including Tru Thoughts, Babel Label, Tombed Visions and FMR.
His doctoral research at the University of York examines the relationship between systematic processes and creative outcomes in improvised music through musical practice and computer models of improvisation. The idea of practicing or training is explored in the way both humans and computers learn new musical information. Generative music processes are developed for instrumental practice in improvisation; computers are then used to analyse the recordings of practice sessions, with the results being used as training data for machine learning algorithms with the view of generating new computer models, outcomes and interactions.
Andrew Cheetham
Drummer and drum teacher from Standish, Lancashire based in Manchester since 2004, with a special interest in improvisation. I teach private drum lessons in the Northern Quarter, Manchester and online on Skype or Zoom. I’m available for live or studio work and I am always open to new collaborations - whether free or composed. I perform with Richard Dawson, Jane Weaver, Irma Vep, Waterless Hills, Yerba Mansa, Kiran Leonard, TVAM and others. I previously performed with Lonelady and have guested with Damo Suzuki (CAN), Rhys Chatham, Cian Nugent plus dozens of free improvising musicians including: Nate Wooley, Eugene Chadbourne, Alan Wilkinson, Pat Thomas and Rhodri Davies. I’ve had tours funded by Arts Council England, Jazz Services & Jazz North’s Northern Line scheme. With David Birchall I co-organised Curious Ear, which has been funded by Arts Council England.
