This is my compositional outlet for odd meter Jazz Fusion. Probably only a few bars in 4/4 in the repertoire!! Lots of 17/8, 11/8, 19/8 etc whatever happens to present it self really.
I’ve played a lot of African music and have always enjoyed the trance like repetition and poly-rhythmic structure of some of that music. In particular the West African drum ensembles from Ghana and Benin. So some of that has seeped into my music as well. I use poly-rhythms like 3:5 and 3:7 as structural elements in some tunes. Add to that extended Jazz harmony and occasionally drawing on non-jazz influences eg the Music of Olivier Messiaen and other 20 century composers as well as non western rhythmic ideas.
Here’s and excerpt form a tune called Bodhisattva
A recent gig featuring Chris Hale on Bass, Ryan Menezes on Drums and Andrew James on Keyboards ‘Bedford Avenue’
