geoffeales.com "as original as they com e, listening to everyone but beholden to no single influence; Eales demands your attention with the force of his musical personality and keeps it with his musicianship" Budd Kopman (Cadence) GEOFF EALES is regarded as one of Europe's most inspirational pianists and composers. Though he has been proactive in a vast variety of musical situations throughout his long and distinguished career, it is within the realm of jazz and improvised music that the full extent of Geoff's personality is revealed. Geoff is that rare breed of artist the multiple specialist. He is fluent in many musical languages: blues, bebop, swing, ragtime, gospel, latin, fusion, classical, the avantgarde and more. As Jack Kenny puts it in Jazz Views: "Geoff Eales is unique. When you talk to him one word comes up over and over, eclectic... any performance by Geoff will refer to the varied influences of his life so far: a splendid synthesis from Messiaen through Henry Mancini to Bill Evans." Throughout his long and distinguished career Geoff Eales has worked with pop stars, country singers, opera divas, variety artists, and played on countless sound tracks, TV shows and jingles, been a featured soloist with symphony orchestras and has composed chamber music, symphonies and concertos. Geoff loves to take both himself and his listeners on adventures into the unknown. You never quite know what's around the corner but you do know that the trip will be highly eventful, unpredictable and immensely colourful. This is true whether he is reshaping a wellloved standard, emoting on an original ballad or conjuring up an improvisation from a totally blank canvas. Geoff's 60th Birthday Gala Concert at London's South Bank in March 2011 was yet another important landmark in the pianist's everevolving musical story. This is what Bob Weir of Jazz Journal International had to say about the happy occasion: "This highly enjoyable event was a welltimed reminder that Geoff is one of the most creative and musically broad minded pianists playing today... he can still show a thing or two to the talented younger players who enrich the current British jazz scene." Geoff's incredible musical journey began in the late 1950's in the South Wales Valleys, his jazz loving father sowing the seeds for a life in music when he taught him the 12bar blues when he was only eight years old. From that moment on Geoff has never looked back. Having graduated from Cardiff University with a Masters in Music in 1973, Geoff enrolled on a Ph.D course where he specialized in Composition and the music of American composer Aaron Copland. As a career in academia beckoned Geoff decided to broaden his horizons instead. Cruising the world as a ship's musician for a couple of years, Geoff absorbed the musics of many different cultures Greek, Turkish, North African, Spanish, Japanese, Balinese and North and South American. These early musical experiences would have a tremendous impact on his later work. Geoff moved to London in 1977, joining the BBC Big Band a year later. Here he worked with some of the best arrangers in the business including Nelson Riddle, Billy May and Bob Farnon and many fine jazz vocalists such as Norma Winstone, Rosemary Clooney and Marian Montgomery. By the time he had left the organisation in 1983 he had been featured in well over a thousand broadcasts. After the BBC years Geoff quickly became one of the most soughtafter pianists on the London session scene. He remained a top studio musician for over 15 years working alongside a host of musical luminaries, Leonard and Elmer Bernstein, Henry Mancini, Jerry Goldsmith and Lalo Schifrin included. However as the new millennium approached Geoff felt an inner need to return to the music that had inspired him in his youth jazz. In 1999 Geoff released his first jazz album as a leader, Mountains of Fire, to rave reviews. Since then a steady stream of highly acclaimed albums has flowed: Red Letter Days (2001), Facing the Muse (2002), Synergy (2004), The Homecoming (2006), Jazz Piano Legends (2007), Epicentre (2007) and Master of the Game (2009).
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geoffeales.com
"as original as they com e, listening to everyone but beholden to no single influence; Eales demands your attention with the force of his musical personality and keeps it with his musicianship" -‐ Budd Kopman (Cadence)
GEOFF EALES is regarded as one of Europe's most inspirational pianists and composers. Though he has been pro-‐active in a vast variety of musical situations throughout his long and distinguished career, it is within the realm of jazz and improvised music that the full extent of Geoff's personality is revealed.
Geoff is that rare breed of artist -‐ the multiple specialist. He is fluent in many musical languages: blues, bebop, swing, ragtime, gospel, latin, fusion, classical, the avant-‐garde and more. As Jack Kenny puts it in Jazz Views: "Geoff Eales is unique. When you talk to him one word comes up over and over, eclectic... any performance by Geoff will refer to the varied influences of his life so far: a splendid synthesis from Messiaen through Henry Mancini to Bill Evans."
Throughout his long and distinguished career Geoff Eales has worked with pop stars, country singers, opera divas, variety artists, and played on countless sound tracks, TV shows and jingles, been a featured soloist with symphony orchestras and has composed chamber music, symphonies and concertos.
Geoff loves to take both himself and his listeners on adventures into the unknown. You never quite know what's around the corner but you do know that the trip will be highly eventful, unpredictable and immensely colourful. This is true whether he is reshaping a well-‐loved standard, emoting on an original ballad or conjuring up an improvisation from a totally blank canvas.
Geoff's 60th Birthday Gala Concert at London's South Bank in March 2011 was yet another important landmark in the pianist's ever-‐evolving musical story. This is what Bob Weir of Jazz Journal International had to say about the happy occasion: "This highly enjoyable event was a well-timed reminder that Geoff is one of the most creative and musically broad minded pianists playing today... he can still show a thing or two to the talented younger players who enrich the current British jazz scene."
Geoff's incredible musical journey began in the late 1950's in the South Wales Valleys, his jazz-‐loving father sowing the seeds for a life in music when he taught him the 12-‐bar blues when he was only eight years old. From that moment on Geoff has never looked back.
Having graduated from Cardiff University with a Masters in Music in 1973, Geoff enrolled on a Ph.D course where he specialized in Composition and the music of American composer Aaron Copland. As a career in academia beckoned Geoff decided to broaden his horizons instead. Cruising the world as a ship's musician for a couple of years, Geoff absorbed the musics of many different cultures -‐ Greek, Turkish, North African, Spanish, Japanese, Balinese and North and South American. These early musical experiences would have a tremendous impact on his later work.
Geoff moved to London in 1977, joining the BBC Big Band a year later. Here he worked with some of the best arrangers in the business including Nelson Riddle, Billy May and Bob Farnon and many fine jazz vocalists such as Norma Winstone, Rosemary Clooney and Marian Montgomery. By the time he had left the organisation in 1983 he had been featured in well over a thousand broadcasts.
After the BBC years Geoff quickly became one of the most sought-‐after pianists on the London session scene. He remained a top studio musician for over 15 years working alongside a host of musical luminaries, Leonard and Elmer Bernstein, Henry Mancini, Jerry Goldsmith and Lalo Schifrin included. However as the new millennium approached Geoff felt an inner need to return to the music that had inspired him in his youth -‐ jazz.
In 1999 Geoff released his first jazz album as a leader, Mountains of Fire, to rave reviews. Since then a steady stream of highly acclaimed albums has flowed: Red Letter Days (2001), Facing the Muse (2002), Synergy (2004), The Homecoming (2006), Jazz Piano Legends (2007), Epicentre (2007) and Master of the Game (2009).
geoffeales.com
Towards the end of 2010 Geoff formed the exciting genre-‐busting band Isorhythm featuring Ben Waghorn (sax es/bass clarinet), Carl Orr (guitar) Fred T Baker (bass guitar) and Asaf Sirkis (drums). Isorhythm's debut album "Shifting Sands" (which includes a guest appearance by the brilliant violinist Chris Garrick) was released in November 2011 and is already attracting some great reviews. This immediately followed the release of "Reflections" with the ELF Trio (Eales, Lee, Findon), a joint collaboration between Geoff, horn player Dave Lee and flautist Andy Findon.
Throughout the period of his jazz renaissance, Geoff has performed at many of the world's leading jazz clubs including the Blue Note Clubs of Japan, New York's Birdland, the Jazz Bakery in Los Angeles, Louisville's Jazz Factory and London's Ronnie Scott's. He has also graced the main stages of many of the major jazz festivals such as Belgrade, Zagreb, Cork and Brecon.
Plans for 2012 include a major UK tour with Isorhythm, a new project entitled "100 Years of Jazz Piano", and the release of a live CD recorded at Cardiff's Dempseys in May 2011 featuring Ben Waghorn once again and the phenomenal young avant-‐garde bassist, Ashley John Long.
Discography
▪ Mountains Of Fire (Black Box, 1999 / Nimbus 2012 re release) ▪ Red Letter Days (Black Box, 2001) ▪ Facing The Muse (Mainstem, 2002) ▪ Synergy (Basho, 2004) ▪ The Homecoming (33 Jazz, 2006) ▪ Jazz Piano Legends (2007) ▪ Epicentre (33 Records, 2007) ▪ Master of the Game (Edition 2009) ▪ Reflections (Nimbus 2011) ▪ Shifting Sands (33 Records 2012) Master of the Game (**** 4 Stars)
"Eales doesn't regard himself as a late bloomer -‐ one early trio he led appeared on Welsh TV when he was still in his teens. All the same, the fiftysomething pianist has only started recording in his own name in the past 10 years, and Master of the Game -‐ which, if there's any justice, should establish him firmly in the jazz premier league -‐ is his first to feature only original compositions. As usual, there's a strong emotional core to the material: this is engaging, stylishly urbane music but with dark, volcanic urges bubbling just under the surface. Bill Evans is an obvious influence -‐ but which contemporary piano trio leader can honestly claim to be without some debt to him ? -‐ while the spirit of Keith Jarrett is in evidence on the haunting "Magister Ludi", inspired by Herman Hesse's magnum opus, The Glass Bead Game. And there's a bit of E.S.T. in "Lachrymosa" -‐ after all, it was written as a tribute to the late Esbjorn Svensson. But the overriding sense on Master of the Game is of a famously "eclectic" pianist who's become a master of his influences and begun to speak in a voice that is distinctively and unmistakably his own." Robert Shore Jazzwise (March 2009)
Shifting Sands
"Geoff Eales' Shifting Sands (33 Jazz) is a departure for one of our most talented pianists, featuring Eales himself on Fender Rhodes as well as acoustic piano and presenting his band, Isorhythm, as close kin to Chick Corea's Return to Forever-‐onwards outfits. The music, all Eales's own, is replete with drama, powerful contrasts, all superbly realised on saxophone, electric violin, electric and acoustic guitar driven by a punchy, exacting rhythm section. Quite a contrast stylistically to his previous albums, although you can hear the same values being applied and a cracking band including saxophonist Nigel Hithchcock applying them to the standard repertoire on the simultaneously re-‐released Mountains of Fire (Nimbus)." Rob Adams Jazz UK 2012
Recording Master of the Game
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