International Concert Series 2024-25

"Recorded during a gap between the various lockdowns of 2020, you can sense the release from the musicians as they combine after enforced isolation with a telepathic sense of where to push each other: Noble interjecting both chaos and order from the drums; Edwards the rocket fuel propelling the unit on; and Golding soaring and cutting through on sax. You will not find a better showcase of these musicians’ phenomenal abilities. This is free jazz at its most compelling and most engaging." We are excited to welcome these leading jazz musicians - Golding, Edwards, and Noble - to host a jazz session at Royal Holloway this season.

This event is presented as part of the International Concert Series 2024-25 at Royal Holloway.

About the performers

Binker Golding (born 1985) is a British jazz musician, who has released solo albums on Gearbox Records and is one half of the MOBO award-winning jazz duo Binker and Moses. He is a former member of Tomorrow's Warriors.

"He has the ability, with a new note, to transport you somewhere delightful... the results are dazzling. Empathy, and respect, swell from the speakers." – God is in the TV

"Binker Golding marches to the beat of his own drum, a couple of giant steps ahead of everyone else." – London Jazz News

John Edwards is a true virtuoso whose staggering range of techniques and boundless musical imagination have redefined the possibility of the double bass and dramatically expanded its role, whether playing solo or with others. Perpetually in demand, he has played with Evan Parker, Sunny Murray, Derek Bailey, Joe McPhee, Lol Coxhill, Peter Brötzmann, Mulatu Astatke and many others.

Steve Noble is London's leading drummer, a fearless and constantly inventive improviser whose super-precise, ultra-propulsive and hyper-detailed playing has galvanized encounters with Derek Bailey, Matthew Shipp, Ishmael Wadada Leo Smith, Stephen O'Malley, Joe McPhee, Alex Ward, Rhodri Davies and many, many more. 

In the early eighties, Noble played with the Nigerian master drummer Elkan Ogunde, Rip Rig and Panic, Brion Gysin and the Bow Gamelan Ensemble, before going on to work with the pianist Alex Maguire and with Derek Bailey (including Company Weeks 1987, 89 and 90). He was featured in the Bailey's excellent TV series on Improvisation for Channel 4 based on his book ‘Improvisation; its nature and practise’. He has toured and performed throughout Europe, Africa and America and currently leads the groups N.E.W (with John Edwards and Alex Ward) and DECOY (with John Edwards and Alexander Hawkins). 

Binker Golding