june 2011, 17 / 25

Concertos. Neil Cowley Trio

Pianist Neil Cowley (London, 1972) describes himself as an outsider. His frantic activity and his musical success over the last few years, however, place him in a central position as one of the leading figures of current jazz trends. Or perhaps of pop music, since Neil Cowley makes a very special reading of the popular music of the latest decades in terms of jazz. The energy of this pianist −who claims to be “on the margins”− seems to be inexhaustible: He collaborates with icons of pop music, such as the group Stereophonics, writes music for a publicity campaign of mobile phones on TV, wins prizes and awards, and even has the opportunity to have been developing for the last six years a solid project leading his own trio.
Cowley is not, of course, inventing the encounter between jazz and the vibrant British pop-rock tradition. However, he is providing a new strength to it. Cowley comes from the realms of pop-rock and since the 1990s he has been a member of bands such as Brand New Heavies and Zero 7. Later on, he established his own project, Fragile State, where he explored the potentialities of electronics. At some point, however, the project lost sense for the musician, and he, then, initiated a process leading to a rediscovery of the piano and the trio formation. Since then, the Neil Cowley may participate one day in the pop and rock Glanstonbury and Itunes festivals, and, then, the following day in the major British and European jazz venues.