My Iris – Trish Clowes

Saxophonist and composer Trish Clowes leads her quartet MY IRIS, with Chris Montague (guitar), Ross Stanley (piano/Hammond organ), and Joel Barford (drums). With an international reputation for intricate writing and adventurous improvisation, Clowes provides her bandmates with an abundance of space for exploration, spontaneity, and kinetic provocation. A new album with the quartet, ‘Try Me’, came out on June 5th 2026, presenting a new set of vibrant compositions.

Clowes is currently an Associate Artist at Wigmore Hall (London), and her recorded music can be found on US indie label Greenleaf Music, and UK labels Stoney Lane Records & Basho Records. Having been previously commissioned to write for ensembles such as the BBC Concert Orchestra and the London Sinfonietta, Clowes appeared as a guest soloist with the NDR Big Band (Germany) in November 2024, performing a new set of her own music entitled ‘Radiant Resistance’.

MY IRIS have toured internationally and made broadcasts for BBC Radio 3 and Radio Bremen. Notable performances for the band include Wigmore Hall, Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club, Karlsruhe Jazz Festival, LOFT Cologne, Rochester International Jazz Festival (US, Made In The UK showcase), Toronto International Jazz Festival, Galway Jazz Festival, Brilliant Corners Festival (Belfast), and the Barbican (London Jazz Festival). In May 2024 the band were joined by US trumpeter-composer Dave Douglas (who is also the artistic director of Greenleaf Music) for a series of dates at the Pizza Express Jazz Club in London, Cheltenham Jazz Festival, and Bray Jazz Festival in Ireland.

‘Walking’

1st single from new album ‘Try Me’

“The deep levels of understanding Clowes has developed with guitarist Chris Montague, pianist-organist Ross Stanley, and more recent arrival drummer Joel Barford, was keenly felt from the opening salvos of “Walking”—a post-bop burner which brought barnstorming solos from all… Whether ripping it up at medium-fast tempi on contrafacts or steering a ballad, the Shropshire-born saxophonist played with notable authority and melodic invention. Not for nothing is she widely considered as one of the UK’s best jazz musicians.”
Ian Patterson, All About Jazz, Brilliant Corners Festival 2026

“Four top class musicians held the audience’s rapt attention. The theme for the evening was My Iris’ soon to be released album Try Me. On the basis of this live performance it promises to be a must have addition to the library of those seekers of wisdom and truth. As it stands, for me it is to date the Gig of the Year on the contemporary side of modern.”
Lance Liddle, Bebop Spoken Here, live in Newcastle, 2026

MY IRIS at Karlsruhe Jazz Festival 2024, photograph by Paul Needham

EYES UP with Dave Douglas at Bray Festival 2024, photograph by John Cronin

“brilliant”
Gilles Peterson, BBC Radio 6 Music

“an incredible band”
Jamie Cullum, BBC Radio 2

“a rich mix of cinematic landscape evocation, funky guitar grooves, dreamy reveries spun off minimalist patterns and fluently uncliched improv”
Album of the Month & 4 STARS for ‘A View with a Room’ from John Fordham, The Guardian

“A high intensity, mercurial workout”
Downbeat Magazine on ‘Ninety Degrees Gravity’

“a band’s band … high speed melodic chases, punchy avant garde jams, spacey organic textures and even Weather-Report-inspired rock fusion”
New York State Music

‘Truth Teller’ directed by will darkin

“Besides the individual virtuosity, what was most striking was the compositional range of the unflinchingly contemporary material. On one number, (song titles remained mostly under wraps) Ross, on organ, and Montague’s pedal dynamics created swirling psychedelic waves that Douglas and Clowes rode in thrilling overlapping lines… Eyes Up is far too potent a combo to be a one-off project”
Ian Patterson for All About Jazz, live review of EYES UP with Dave Douglas at Bray Jazz Festival 2024

“They road tested some of their new pieces exuberantly in a brisk set, that bristled with energy and invention…their artistic partnership seemed simply a logical extension of earlier work.”
Jon Turney for UK Jazz News, on EYES UP with Dave Douglas, live at Cheltenham Jazz Festival 2024

“A View with a Room confirms Clowes as one of the most interesting voices on the effervescent British scene”
All About Jazz Italia

“a beguilingly inventive mix of shadow and luminosity… lyrical warmth tempered by certain shady spookiness”
4 STARS for ‘A View with a Room’ from Jim Gilchrist, The Scotsman

Abbott & Costello

performed by MY IRIS, directed by Rose Hendry

“A triumph for Clowes and for My Iris”
Live review of MY IRIS at Wigmore Hall, from Andy Robson, Jazzwise

“dizzying heights of lyricism and emotional expression… The level of musicianship and shared intent, leads to a telepathic like interplay within the quartet… Trish Clowes has thus delivered an exceptional album”
Gareth Allen on ‘A View with a Room’, At The Barrier

“The jazz of the future… The time in the townhouse flies by, so moved one is listening to this quartet”
Augsburger Allgemeine, MY IRIS live in Germany

MY IRIS recordings

Clowes has released a series of albums with MY IRIS, ‘Wild Swimming’ (2023), ‘A View with a Room’ (2022), ‘Ninety Degrees Gravity’ (2019) and ‘My Iris’ (2017). Her 2019 music video ‘Abbott & Costello’ – also a track from ‘Ninety Degrees Gravity’ – was directed by film maker Rose Hendry and went on to be screened at the Cannes Lions Festival and shortlisted for The Voice Of A Woman Awards 2019. A new album, ‘Try Me’, is out in June 2026.