Julian Joseph

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Julian Joseph (* 1966 in Hammersmith, London ) is a British jazz pianist, composer, arranger, band leader and music journalist for radio and TV.

Life

Joseph's parents came from the Caribbean and he grew up in London (Wandsworth). His three brothers are also musicians. He received a classical music education (piano, according to his own words he started composing at the age of 12), but attended jazz courses at the "Weekends Arts College" as a schoolboy. In 1985 he went to the Berklee College of Music in Boston . He then played in the bands of Branford Marsalis and Courtney Pine . Since the 1990s, he has been performing in trio or quartet with his own groups in addition to solo concerts. Since 1994 he has also directed a big band that played for example at the "Late Night at the Proms" in 1995 and opened the London Jazz Festival in 2002 with Joseph's three-movement composition "The Great Sage" ( dedicated to Wayne Shorter and the film composer Patrick Gowers ) . For the “City of London Festival” 2003 he arranged George Gershwin's “Rhapsody in Blue” for big band. As a composer, he incorporates a wide variety of musical influences on a jazz basis (film music, English folklore, West Indian music, classical music). As a pianist, he also accompanies singers such as Mica Paris and Emilíana Torrini .

In addition to his jazz activities, he also occasionally plays classical music in concerts (for example Bartók , Prokofiev , and George Gershwin's " Rhapsody in Blue " 1993 with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra) and is involved in projects that combine classical music with jazz music, for example with the classical violinist Viktoria Mullova ("Through the looking glass"). In a concert tour “Imaginary Line” with the pianist Marcelo Bratke , they juxtaposed classical music ( Darius Milhaud , Francis Poulenc , Igor Stravinsky ) and jazz ( Thelonious Monk , Duke Ellington , Chick Corea , Bill Evans , George Gershwin) on two grand pianos in 2005 .

From April 2000 to February 2007 he had the one-hour program “Jazz Legends” on the BBC 3 weekly on Fridays, each dedicated to one aspect of jazz history and in which he interviewed many famous jazz musicians. Since 2007 he has been part of the “Jazz Line Up” team at BBC 3. He has also created TV series on the subject of jazz. a. “Jazz with Julian Joseph” on Meridian TV and a series for Artworld Channel on Sky TV.

In 1992 he wrote the soundtrack for the film "Tale of a Vampire" (with Julian Sands ). July 2007 his jazz opera "Bridgetower - a London Fable" premiered at the City of London Festival, which is about the Polish violinist George Bridgetower, who before the British King George III. played and inspired Beethoven to write the Kreutzer Sonata. Since Bridgetower's father came from Barbados, the subject of slave trade and the relationship between Europeans and black citizens are addressed (Joseph himself belongs to the “black community” of London).

He is an important figure in London's cultural scene, which is why Mayor Ken Livingstone dubbed him “Creative Industries Luminary for London”. His compositions are even part of the jazz examination standards at music schools in England, on whose advisory committee "Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music" he sits.

Discographic notes

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Joseph, Julian
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British jazz pianist, composer and band leader
DATE OF BIRTH 1966
PLACE OF BIRTH London