Powerful, boisterous and energising music from an all-star band drawn from the vibrant Leeds jazz scene, celebrating the anarchic spirit of a true legend of UK jazz Xero Slingsby, a gifted sax player who developed his music on the streets of Leeds in the 1980s, arrested many times for busking, and earning a reputation as a local hero, emblematic of a rebellious spirit in UK jazz, and about whom a film was eventually produced ‘Shove It – the Xero Slingsby Story’ which premiered at the Leeds International Film Festival.
This tribute is led by inspirational Leeds musician and bandleader, bass player Fergus Quill (Ferg’s Imaginary Big Band), and it’s brilliant, really capturing the spirit of Xero Slingsby.
With an album called ‘¡Up Yours! Fergus Quill Plays Xero Slingsby’ (created with the support of Slingsby’s widow Sally Coe, who provided some of his original homemade instruments for the project (including the ‘Bikepumpaphone’ and the ‘Bikewheelatron’), this performance is guaranteed to lift the roof off The Lescar back room.
