Saxophonist Trish Clowes and pianist Ross Stanley have been carefully crafting their unique sound world over a number of years, performing their own material, arrangements of music from jazz, folk and church organ traditions, and free improvisations. The duo’s appearances include Wigmore Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Drogheda Classical Music, Galway Jazz Festival, Symphony Hall (Birmingham), Buxton International Festival, Manchester Jazz Festival, St George’s Bristol, and as saxophone and pipe organ duo, at Royal Festival Hall and Temple Church. In March 2024, Clowes and Stanley released their album ‘Journey to Where’ to wide critical acclaim, out on Stoney Lane Records.
The duo enjoy working with material from anywhere. Their concerts often include music by Duke Ellington, Geri Allen, Osvaldo Farrés, Lili Boulanger, Nikki Iles, Antonio Carlos Jobim, as well as original compositions, two of which are dedicated to Clowes and Stanley’s respective heroes, Wayne Shorter and John Taylor. At the heart of their ever-evolving programme of music lies interpretations of a Marcel Dupré prelude (Prelude III from Trois Preludes et Fugues) and Herbert Howells’s Gloucester Service – two beloved works from Stanley’s time as an organ scholar at Marlborough College.
“Two of the absolute masters we have in this country … so deeply devoted to their craft as improvisers.”
Jamie Cullum, BBC Radio 2
” … vital music full of swing, emotion and atmosphere … a deep understanding, a musical bond, a little bit of magic perhaps.”
★★★★½ from Philip Watson for The Irish Times
“…it’s a thing of rare beauty, indeed…”
Ellen Cranitch, RTÉ Lyric FM
“… chockablock with paired back yet infectiously joyful and emotional compositions, including her take on Duke Ellington’s ‘Prelude to a Kiss’, which is stunning”
David Mouriquand, Euronews.culture
“…the sense of home [Clowes] has playing [at Wigmore Hall] gives this release an intimacy that befits the richness of the relationship between these stellar performers… what will be one of the best releases of the year.”
★★★★ from Andy Robson, Jazzwise
“This is just sublime… it conveys the complexity of meaning, the intricacy of emotion”
Dave Sumner, The Best Jazz on Bandcamp, March 2024
“a sublime partnership of which UK jazz fans out to be proud…”
Presto Music
“magnifico”
Marco Boccitto, L’idealista, Rai Radio 3
“…music that is always warm, close, as if in a whisper without fuss we were welcomed to the comfort of home.”
★★★★ – Caravan Jazz
“… clearly the duo is a meeting of minds and prodigious ability, the past learning and absorptions etched evocatively worn lightly.”
★★★★ from Marlbank
“Blurring the lines between improvisation and composition, this intuitive duo artfully muddies the waters of jazz and classical, traditional and contemporary vocabulary.”
★★★★ from Ian Patterson, All About Jazz
Photography by Jenny Callanan
photograph by Zoé Casas
photographs by Alice Phillips
“The absorbing and seamless eclecticism of Journey to Where is a record worth going back to, the moods and atmosphere it conjures seem to evolve on each subsequent listen.”
★★★★★ – UK Vibe
“These two musicians are a formidable partnership… Both players are gifted with an extraordinary musical intelligence allied to a prodigious technical ability… It was a fascinating evening… There really was something for everybody.” – Andrew Petch, The Shropshire Star
“an impressive duo set… interacting brilliantly with both energy and delicacy” – Tony Dudley Evans, promoter & writer
Stanley:
Pianist and organist Ross Stanley is a Yamaha artist, Hammond endorsee and two times winner of a British Jazz Award in the organ category. Philip Watson of The Irish Times remarked “there are echoes in [Stanley’s] singular playing of the quiet virtuosity of John Taylor, the harmonic sophistication of Bill Evans and the lyrical fluency of Wynton Kelly.” After being awarded an organ scholarship to Marlborough College, Stanley studied at The Guildhall School of Music and Drama, and since then his musical skills have kept him in high demand, seeing him work with musicians and ensembles such as Eddie Gomez, Dick Oatts, Gary Smulyan, Seamus Blake, Will Vinson, Nigel Hitchcock, Phil Robson, Gareth Lockrane, Dennis Rollins, Guy Barker, Ian Shaw, Jamie Cullum, Liane Carroll, Norma Winstone, Stan Sulzman, Steve Arguelles, John Paracelli, as well as being a regular member of the Hamish Stuart Band, Nigel Price Organ Trio, Jim Mullen Organ Trio and the Jacqui Dankworth band and performing in many small and large ensembles – Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Metropole Orkest, BBC Concert Orchestra, Nostalgia 77 Octet, Heritage Orchestra. Ross has also toured with Tom Jones, Alfie Boe, Maceo Parker, Zigaboo Modeliste, Robben Ford, James Torme, Steve Howe, Rebecca Ferguson and has worked with Steve Winwood, Steve Ferrone, Pino Palladino, Omar, Paloma Faith, Antonio Forcione, Deodato and has recorded for Michael Buble, Goldie, US3, Ghost Poet, Trevor Horn and Simply Red among others, including film / tv work.
Clowes:
Saxophonist and composer Trish Clowes has been described as “an improviser to be reckoned with” (Downbeat Magazine) and “one of the brightest stars to have emerged during the so-called British jazz boom” (The Irish Times). Notable career performances include the NDR Concert Hall in Hanover, Wigmore Hall (as Associate Artist), Drogheda Classical Music concert series, Cheltenham Jazz Festival, Bray Jazz Festival, Barbican, Toronto Jazz Festival, Rochester International Jazz Festival (US), Royal Festival Hall, Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club, Celtic Connections (with BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra), Galway Jazz Festival, Karlsruhe Jazz Festival. Recent collaborations include a quintet with US trumpeter-composer Dave Douglas (2024), and a songs project with Norma Winstone. A regularly commissioned composer, Clowes has written for BBC Concert Orchestra, London Sinfonietta, NDR Big Band (project entitled ‘Radiant Resistance’), and Riot Ensemble (supported by the Vaughan Williams Foundation). Clowes has recorded a number of critically acclaimed albums as leader, including ‘A View with a Room’ (2022) on Dave Douglas’s label Greenleaf Music, and ‘Try Me’ (2026) on Stoney Lane Records. Both of these records feature her longstanding quartet ‘My Iris’, described by Jazzwise magazine as “simply one of Europe’s best bands”. In 2019, Clowes premiered Joe Cutler’s saxophone concerto ‘Hawaii Hawaii Hawaii’ with the BBC Concert Orchestra, the recording of which is released on Cutler’s album of the same name on NMC Recordings. Clowes is also a featured soloist with the London Symphony Orchestra on Cevanne Horrocks-Hopayian’s album for NMC Recordings, ‘Welcome Party’.
