Neil Cowley Trio
The Neil Cowley Trio is definitely not a typical jazz trio. The dazzling British composer and pianist Neil Cowley and his bandmates create deeply compelling and haunting music that is at once poetic and fragile, grand and sublime, and unbridled and wild. Referencing Claude Debussy and Steve Reich, as well as Spiritualized and Arcade Fire, it is powerful enough to completely subvert conventional perceptions of the genre. Its sheer emotion and energy will astound lovers of any music. The trio, known for their unique live performances, which are not lacking in exuberance or British sense of humour, have toured the world and appeared at the most respected jazz festivals. (The band played their first ever concert in the Czech Republic in Olomouc a few years ago and have since formed a strong bond with the city and the local audience.)
Both of Neil Cowley’s bandmates – bassist Rex Horan and drummer Evan Jenkins – play an indispensable role. The interplay, connection and vibrant energy clearly reflect the deep musical and human friendship that binds the trio.
Their very first album, Displaced, won the 2007 BBC Jazz Award for Best Album. Five years later, with The Face of Mount Molehill, they won the Jazz FM Award for Best British Jazz Recording of the Year. The concept album Spacebound Apes (2016) garnered rave reviews across prestigious media.
In 2017, Neil Cowley pressed the pause button and the trio went on a long hiatus. The pianist went in the direction of electronic and neoclassical production, materializing musical narratives in his solo project using an arsenal of synthesizers. But after seven years of solo work and four solo recordings, it was time for him to return to the joy of human connection and interaction. So in June 2024, the trio of friends reunited to pick up where they left off seven years ago. The result is Entity, released last September, which brings the trio back to Olomouc.
Pianist and composer Neil Cowley showed his immense talent at the age of ten when he played Shostakovich’s Piano Concerto at the Queen Elizabeth Hall. Later, he even studied at the Royal Academy in London, but gave up on a career in classical music as a teenager. He entered the world of r’n’b, soul and funk and began working with some of the most successful musicians of the time. Among others, he was in the bands Brand New Heavies and Zero 7. He has also established himself as a leading pianist for soul and pop projects that require jazz technique and rhythmic flexibility. It is he who sits at the piano on singer Adele’s tracks on her first two albums, for which she won a total of eight Grammy Awards and made him literally the most listened-to pianist on the planet.
But in 2005 he returned to his first love – the piano – and formed the Neil Cowley Trio. The dynamic and charged music, which blends jazz with rock poetics, immediately propelled the band to the forefront of the new British post-jazz wave. Their music is defined by catchy melodies, powerful riffs and deviously frolicsome passages mixed with sensitively urgent moments, turning the concept of the piano jazz trio on its head.
Born in Kalgoorlie in the Western Australian desert, double bassist Rex Horan became a prominent figure on the Australian music scene in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Sometime in the 90s he went on a world tour with his band but forgot to return home, settling in London and quickly establishing himself as an important figure in the music scene there. He has performed and recorded with a wide range of musicians, including Laura Marling, Eric Clapton, Sir Tom Jones, Van Morrison and Ed Sheeran. He has also composed music for theatre and since 2002 has led collaborative music projects, mostly with people experiencing social exclusion – in prisons, with asylum seekers, in immigration detention centres, with homeless people or in mental health facilities. He has also worked with the Nagaunee Institute at the Chicago Symphony Orchestra on a collaborative project with families who have tragically lost children to gun violence in Chicago. Drummer Evan Jenkins is originally from New Zealand and has been a professional musician since the age of sixteen. He met Rex at the Perth Conservatoire where they studied together. One day he boarded a plane with a bag of cymbals and clothes and flew to London, where he quickly established himself in the music community. Over the course of his career he played with luminaries such as Ronnie Scott, Mick Jagger and Eric Clapton.