Styled heading

Jazz in the House
Byron Wallen Quintet

Award winning composer and musician Bryon Wallen promises an evening of powerful, evocative music inspired by the climate crisis.

The band will perform music which was commissioned in response to the artist Peter Shenai’s ‘Hurricane Bells’, following the tragic Hurricane Katrina. Byron states: "My piece is an exploration of the socio-political economic climate where their sound resonates. The reason "Hurricane Katrina" incurred such a huge loss of life and destruction was not because of the winds, but because of the subsequent flooding, due to insufficient levy infrastructure and the pathetic response of the US federal government.”

Widely recognised as a seminal figure in world jazz, trumpeter and composer Byron has travelled the world recording, teaching and performing alongside legendary musicians such as George Benson, Andrew Hill, Chaka Khan, Ingrid Laubrock. His work draws inspiration from contemporary and indigenous cultures. His passionate musical knowledge and his fascination with the human spirit is evident in this new music which is breath-taking in its excitement and depth.

Byron's original scores have been commissioned by a plethora of highly-regarded organisations, from the BBC, Southbank Centre, National Theatre and Science Museum and he’s also worked for Universal Pictures, Warner Bros and Game of Thrones.

In 2003, Byron received the BBC’s ‘Innovation in Jazz’ award, and subsequently he’s been nominated for BBC Jazz, MOBO & Parliamentary Jazz Awards while winning the prestigious Paul Hamlyn Award for Artists in 2017. In 2020 his band Four Corners was nominated for the best band category at the Parliamentary Jazz Awards.