Jazz At Karamel: A Tribute to Miles

Henry Lowther trumpet
Simon Picard tenor
John Critchinson piano
Dave Green bass
Stu Butterfield drums

Trumpeter Henry Lowther is widely regarded as the best among British brass players, whilst pianist John Critchinson, bassist Dave Green and drummer Stu Butterfield complete the rhythm sections. They are joined by Simon Picard on sax who has performed, broadcast and recorded with some of the most renowned musicians on the British and European jazz scene.

As well as the links with Miles Davis, Henry’s career has spanned jazz, rock and fusion including playing the key Miles trumpet parts in music such as Sketches of Spain and Birth of the Cool.

Interviewed in Jazzwise magazine ahead of the JQJAZZ15 festival, Henry recalled how he first met Miles Davis back in 1969: “I was introduced to Miles Davis in 1969 by Dave Holland, the Wolverhampton-born bass player who was in Miles’s band at the time. I was in Los Angeles on an American tour with the Keef Hartley Band, a rock band, and we were playing a week in the most trendy rock club in L.A. in those days, the Whisky A Go-Go.

“At the end of that week Miles commenced a week at Shelly’s Manne Hole, a jazz club in Hollywood, and so I went there to hear Miles’s band. Dave introduced me to Miles as a trumpet player from England and despite Miles’s reputation as a hostile and difficult person he was warm and friendly to me and in fact showed some interest in what I was doing. This was undoubtedly because my band was playing to about a thousand people nightly and he was only playing to 50 or so – I’m sure he would rather have been playing the Whisky A Go-Go.”