Line-up:
Tom Ridout – saxes and recorder
Will Barry – piano
Flo Moore – bass
Rod Oughton – drums
About
Award winning saxophonist and recorder player Tom Ridout was predicted by Jazzwise Magazine in 2012 as an upcoming jazz musician to watch out for. A finalist in the 2016 BBC Young Musician Jazz Award, graduate from the prestigious Royal Academy of Music, winner of the Lancaster Jazz Festival Youth Jazz Commission 2018 and a recent member of NYJO (the National Youth Jazz Orchestra), Tom is a prolific composer who fronts his own bands playing his original compositions.
Tom has performed at many venues across the country including Ronnie Scott’s (both with his own Quintet and NYJO), The 606, Barbican Centre, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Buckingham Palace, Sage Theatre in Gateshead and many others. He is also on NYJO’s latest album, ‘NYJO Fifty’.
As an in demand saxophonist, performing with many different musicians and bands, recent highlights have included; various Clark Tracey ensembles, Patchwork Jazz Orchestra tour and the ‘Tribute to Jon Hiseman’ gig at Shepherds Bush Empire followed by the ‘In Memory of Jon Hiseman’ gig in Hamburg, both with the iconic prog rock band Colosseum.
In 2018 Tom released his debut album “No Excuses”, which features a 13 piece band including traditional jazz instrumentation with a string quartet and brass trio.
The album had a fantastic launch at The Vortex Jazz Club, London to a sold out audience on Jan 2nd 2018 which was followed later in the year with a successful small tour of the country. Tracks from the album have been played on Jazz FM many times, as well as on The Jazz Report, TNGC Radio, Sennhesier Sunday Jazz Session and Radio 3’s ‘Jazz Record Requests’ and ‘Jazz Now’ show accompanying an interview with Tom. The album has a 4 star review in allaboutjazz.com, and Tom was featured in a 3 page interview in Recorder Magazine in the Dec 2017/Jan 2018 issue; “His debut album is a fantastic showcase of the versatility of his writing, ability and imagination”.
Whilst at RAM, Tom studied with revered musicians such as Stan Sulzmann, Martin Speake, Iain Ballamy, Jean Toussaint and Gareth Lockrane, and through being at the Academy and in NYJO has had the opportunity to perform with the likes of Gregory Porter, Nikki Iles, Gwilym Simcock and Dave Holland.
Tom has been the recipient of The Craig Ball Award, the Richard Turner Jazz Fund Award, Lancaster Jazz Festival Youth Commission and the Essentially Ellington Outstanding Soloist Award.
“If you get a chance just go and see this band: their repertoire is rich in textures, complexity and virtuoso performances -you won’t be disappointed” – John Morrow (Riff Magazine)
“Names to note: … the very persuasive Tom Ridout on tenor” – Peter Vacher (London Jazz News)
“Tom Ridout on virtuosic recorder” – Mike Collins (London Jazz News)
“fiery, focussed soloing by impressive tenor saxophonist Tom Ridout” Selwyn Harris (Jazzwise)
INSTRUCTIONS FOR AUDIENCE MEMBERS – PLEASE READ
Welcome back to the Vortex. Please note that we’ve implemented the following changes to our systems to make the club as Covid-safe as we can:
- Please buy tickets in advance as there will be no door sales. There will be twenty tickets only on sale for each gig.
- If you want to sit together with other people as a group we would ask that one person books all the tickets for the group, so that we are aware that you want to sit together.
- Up to six people may sit together as a group (unless the group consists of two households only in which case more than six may sit together).
- We ask you not to attend gigs if you have or think you may have any Covid-19 symptoms.
- We will ask you on entry to sign in for NHS Test and Trace using the NHS Covid app (or, if you do not have a smartphone. we will ask you to sign in manually)
- There will be no standing at gigs. Everyone who books a ticket will be allocated a seat, but we cannot guarantee that you will have a table.
- Orders for drinks and snacks will be taken and paid for using the Butlr app which you can download on arrival. (If you do not have a smartphone then your order will be taken at the table and you can make a contactless payment. We do not accept cash.)
- We ask that everyone wears a mask when moving around inside the building.
- We ask everyone to observe social distancing at all times.
- Automatic hand sanitiser stations are provided at various places within the building and we encourage regular use of hand sanitiser.
- Full details of the measures that we are taking to prevent transmission of Covid are set out in our risk assessment and management plan which can be found on our website.