SAROST (Mark Sanders – Drums, Paul Rogers – Double Bass, Larry Stabbins – Saxophones)
We are totally delighted that SAROST will be coming to Malmesbury. This trio has an astonishing combined legacy having shaped and been a part of and still shaping the Bristish Free Jazz/Improv scene.
Mark Sanders is a drummer/percussionist who has played with countless renowned improvising musicians in concerts and festivals all over the world, including Roscoe Mitchell, Wadada Leo Smith, Derek Bailey, Roswell Rudd and Evan Parker, with Larry in a quartet with Howard Riley and as a trio with pianist Pat Thomas and played on over 200 vinyl and CD releases.
He is Visiting Lecturer at The Royal Academy of Music and was a Lecturer at Leeds Conservatoire teaching his own improvisation module for seven years He has also been a guest tutor running Masterclasses at Guildhall School of Music and Theatre , Trinity Laban and Dartington Music and Summer School.
Larry Stabbins was born in Bristol where he started learning clarinet at the age of eight then soprano saxophone at nine and graduating to tenor sax at ten. He did his first paid gig in his father’s dance band at twelve and started a long association with pianist Keith Tippett when he was sixteen and Keith eighteen at the legendary Dugout Club in Bristol. At the same time he served his musical apprenticeship in local dancehall resident bands and countless soul bands. He later contributed to many of Tippett’s projects such as Centipede, Ark, Tapestry and the Septet. In addition to occasional duo performances, in the mid-eighties they also worked for a several years as a trio with percussionist Louis Moholo recording the album “Tern” on FMP, while Tippett was himself involved in various Working Week and Weekend activities and Keith’s wife Julie sang on the fourth Working Week album. In London in the early 70’s after a short spell in the Brotherhood of Breath, he met many of the `second generation` of British improvisors such as Terry Day, Marcio Mattos, Ken Hyder, Paul Burwell, Maggie Nicholls and particularly Roy Ashbury with whom he formed a regular duo, recording Fire Without Bricks for Bead Records in 1976. During this period in London he also worked as a freelance commercial musician, playing studio sessions, nightclubs and West End shows as well as playing in more jazz based situations such as Mike Westbrook’s Solid Gold Cadillac.
Alongside this he played in the seminal pop group Weekend and formed a key writing partnership with its guitarist Simon Booth. This became the basis for Working Week, a project that took a melange of latin, soul and jazz into the world of pop and dance music. Born out of the burgeoning Latin Jazz Dance scene in London clubs such as the Electric Ballroom and the Wag, the new band mixed jazz with modish Latin dance rhythms and vocals by singers such as Juliet Roberts, Julie Tippetts, Robert Wyatt and Tracy Thorn (Everything But The Girl, Massive Attack).
Following a period away from music during the mid nineties,he formed a trio with with Pat Thomas and Mark Sanders ” Game Theory” playing what was described by BBC Radio 3 as “Free Jazz Techno Funk”. During this period he also worked with Keith Tippett’s Tapestry, in a quartet with Howard Riley Tony Wren and Mark Sanders, in Louis Moholo’s Dedication Ochestra, in Soupsongs, playing the music of Robert Wyatt, and in Jerry Dammers Spatial AKA Orchestra.
This was followed by “Stonephace” a project with rave producer and DJ Krzysztof Oktalski,which featured Portishead guitarist Adrian Utley and bass player Jim Barr together with live visuals from VJ Stella Marina. The 2009 album on Tru Thoughts Recordings also features a guest appearance from legendary trumpet player Guy Barker.
Then came “Stonephace Stabbins” a quintet featuring pianist Zoe Rahman, Karl Raschied Abel on Bass, Pat Illingworth Dmas and Spry Robinson percussion.
The album “Transcendental” was released on Stabbins own Record Label Noetic Records.After another long break away from music he is curremntly working with film artist Roger Thorp, solo and with the new band “137” with Adrain Utley (Portishead) guitar, Jim Barr bass, and Sebastian Rochford drums.
Paul Rogers plays an AAL 7 string bass of his own design. In addition to solo concert performances he has played with countless major musicians on the European and US Jazz and Improvised Music scenes for over 40 years including many combinations with Mark, with whom he recently recorded with Paul Dunmall and was a member of the influential group Mujician with Keith Tippett, Paul Dunmall and Tony Levin. He also played with Larry in many groupings over the years, most notably the Keith Tippett Septet and Tapestry Orchestra and Louis Moholo’s Dedication Orchestra.
“The improvised music threesome then reaped the benefit of decades of experience in a seamless flow of musical ideas exchanged, shared and evolved in a perfect balance. Storms were whipped up and clarities discovered, looping riffs eventually devolved, anthemic melodies rose out of formless haziness … it was a joy to behold.” – JazzWise Magazine.
SAROST
Thursday 11th December 2025
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