Starting at the Warwick Arts Centre in Coventry on March 4th the MBM tour visits Brighton, Poole, Basingstoke, Leicester, Gateshead, Manchester, Edinburgh, Liverpool, Bristol and Northampton. Full listings details are attached.

It should come as no surprise that at a time when many of his musical contemporaries are intent on, and content with, paying tribute to their own pasts, Mr. Dammers, a hater of predictability, had already taken a different route, paying tribute to someone else’s futuristic vision. His latest musical exploration had the unlikely starting point of a “tribute band” to the funkier side of cult spacejazz maverick Sun Ra, although the content is already moving onward and outward to some extent.

Dammers’ music has always been “aimed at everyone” and , although further into space musically, this is actually not a million miles, in concept at least, from his original audacious punkblending update of ska. Dammers has taken elements from the past and put them into his own 21st century rhythmic settings. His arrangements mix the jazz with funk, reggae and rock, or more recent styles such as hip hop, jungle or dubstep .

The tour will give people around the country an opportunity to see most of the recent, massively acclaimed London concert, with some new material. Dammers will take the repertoire even further beyond Sun Ra with his own updates on music from Tommy Mc Cook’s deep jazzy ska and Cedric “Im” Brookes spiritual reggae, to Alice Coltrane’s eastern mysticism, or Martin Denny’s dark exotica, from European influences like library music and beyond, to one or two of Dammers’ own compositions. He describes the orchestra not as “old school” or “new school” but as “back to school”… a learning process where his mixture of humour and seriousness can be seen, not just in the performance itself, but in the way he describes it : “nostalgia , not for the past, but for a future…at least we can try and remind people that there was once a time when musicians and artists were trying to invent a better world “.

Dammers came at playing live again from this unexpected angle , by drawing mainly on his years as a D.J., exploring neglected music on vinyl. His other underground activities have remained similarly undocumented: “I used to hold Hip Hop jazz jams at The Wag Club more than ten years ago, with some of the musicians who are in my orchestra today, and briefly I had a band called Tone Productions or Jazz Odyssey (after Spinal Tap), which did Sun Ra covers amongst other things, including original material . Being asked to take part in a “Space Art” week , which reopened the Roundhouse, gave me the chance to put this orchestra together.” There is a strong visual and theatrical element, influenced by Sun Ra’s Arkestra and designed by Dammers, which he intends will gradually mutate into the future, along with the music .

By keeping his ear to the (under)ground all these years, Dammers has been able to assemble some of the best jazz and other musicians, and vocalists in the country. He says: “It still feels completely unreal that such brilliant musicians are willing to play in this orchestra with me, I can’t thank them enough.”

JERRY DAMMERS’ SPATIAL A.K.A. ORCHESTRA are:

Jerry Dammers (Musical Director, Selecta and keyboards), Jason Yarde, Nathaniel Facey, Larry Stabbins Terry Edwards & Denys Baptiste (saxophones), Finn Peters (flute), Robin Hopcraft (trumpet), Harry Brown (trombone), Zoe Rahman (piano), Roger Beaujolais (vibraphone), Patrick Illingworth (drums), Crispin “Spry” Robinson & Steve Gibson (percussion), tbc (double-bass), Ollie Bayley (electric bass), Guy Clark/Patrick Hatchett (guitar) and Francine Luce and Anthony Jospeh (vocals)

JERRY DAMMERS’ SPATIAL A.K.A. ORCHESTRA
2010 tour dates

4 Mar COVENTRY Warwick Arts Centre 024 7652 4524 warwickartscentre.co.uk
5 Mar BRIGHTON Dome 01273 709709 brightondome.org
7 Mar POOLE Lighthouse 0844 406 8666 lighthousepoole.co.uk
10 Mar BASINGSTOKE The Anvil 01256 844244 anvilarts.org.uk
26 Mar GATESHEAD The Sage Gateshead 0191 443 4661 thesagegateshead.org
30 Mar MANCHESTER Bridgewater Hall 0161 907 9000 bridgewater-hall.co.uk
31 Mar EDINBURGH Usher Hall 0131 228 1155 usherhall.co.uk
01 Apr LIVERPOOL Philharmonic Hall 0151 709 3789 liverpoolphil.com
07 Apr BRISTOL Colston Hall 0117 922 3686 colstonhall.org
09 Apr NORTHAMPTON Royal & Derngate 01604 624811 royalandderngate.co.uk