Jazz Suite Artists

Philip Clouts
Pianist

Philip Clouts was born in South Africa and brought to Britain as a baby. His father, the poet Sydney Clouts, was a great fan of South African music and throughout Philip's childhood the house resounded to the strains of Hugh Masekela, Miriam Makeba and township jazz. It was the pianists who particularly caught Philip's ear, especially Abdullah Ibrahim and Chris McGregor, and that's where it all started. Philip Clouts is founder member, composer and pianist in Zubop 'that spirited, hugely enjoyable jazz outfit, which takes the whole world of music as its home territory' (The Observer). 4 CDs have been released on 33 Records and performances have been in a wide variety of venues and festivals in the UK and Europe, including WOMAD, Glastonbury, Berlin Worldbeat Festival, Brewery Arts Centre, Exeter Phoenix, Frankfurt Sinkkasten, London Vortex. Zubop developed into ZubopGambia, a collaboraton with BBC World Music award winner Juldeh Camara and other West African master musicians, which has done two major UK tours and headlined at festivals. A concert at Ronnie Scott's, London, where they "managed to raise the roof" (fRoots magazine) was released as a live album. Philip has released a trio CD of his compositions entitled " Direction South " which was praised in Jazz UK as "An enormously enjoyable set of accessible but distinctive originals. Like the compositions, Clouts' solos are thoughtful and persuasively structured" More recently, Clouts has concentrated on his composing and on playing in the context of his trio and quartet. The quartet's album 'Sennen Cove' garnered many good reviews and was praised in Musician magazine for "consummate musicianship"; the album 'The Hour of Pearl' was also very well received, with Jazzwise magazine celebrating its "pulsating groove-orientated music... distinctive... spiritual and soul jazz... strongly melodic themes". Most recent release 'Umoya' spent many weeks on the Jazz FM playlist and has been commended by The Guardian for its "precise ebullience and relaxed funkiness.""