Pizza Express Jazz Club, Dean Street, Soho, London
It’s a welcome return to Pizza Express for another concert by the Callum Au Big Band. Whilst no stranger to Dean Street audiences as an ace trombone player in small groups and with his quartet the Trombafonics, it was only in the 2024 EFG London Jazz Festival we welcomed the Callum Au Big Band, playing new band arrangements of Bernstein’s “West Side Story, that Dean Street experienced first hand, the Callum Au Big Band, for what was a sensational Sold-out experience.
Born in London to a Scottish mother and a Chinese father, Callum spent most of his formative years in Blackpool before moving to London, where he now lives and works.
Over the past fifteen years, Callum has established himself as one of the busiest arrangers and orchestrators in Europe. He has had the privilege of writing music for many international artists, including the late Quincy Jones, Jamie Cullum, Randy Brecker, and ensembles including the SWR Big Band, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and the Britten Sinfonia. In 2019, he was commissioned to arrange the big band songs in the Hollywood movie adaptation of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s ‘Cats’. More recently, he had the pleasure of writing two new arrangements for Michael Bublé’s album ‘Higher’, and conducting the BBC Concert Orchestra in a special episode of ‘Sunday Night Is Music Night’ for BBC Radio 2.
Callum is increasingly in demand as a composer for classical ensembles, with his flair for arresting melodies and lush complex harmony proving popular with audiences and musicians alike. Recent commissions include works for Inner City Brass at the Spitalfields and Ryedale Festivals and pieces recorded and performed by the Metropole Orkest and the Tippett Quartet.
Callum has been the jazz trombonist with the Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Orchestra since 2012, one of the UK’s premier large jazz ensembles, with a performance schedule to match. He has also composed or arranged a substantial proportion of the band’s current working repertoire.
Here’s Callum with a tribute to Urbie Green - "Going Green"
“…the remarkable young arranger Callum Au is already a master of the mysterious art of orchestration and arranging.”
– Dave Gelly - The Observer
Doors Noon
Music 1pm
Tickets £45
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The Weekend Starts Here” series
Thursday 1pm Lunchtime Concerts at Pizza Express Jazz Club, Dean Street, Soho.
75 minutes of wonderful music, from UK Jazz greats, for happy jazz lovers,whether in between your work,
or making a special London return daytime trip, across February to June 2025.
A short walk from Oxford Street bus routes and the Tottenham Court Road stations on Elizabeth and Northern lines
Featuring :-
Callum Au, Alan Barnes, Joanna Eden, Nikki Iles, Chris Ingham,
Derek Nash, David Newton, Simon Spillett, Tom Smith, Simon Thorpe, Norma Winstone and many more.
