Footshooter ( AKA Barney Whittaker) has been resident at Jazz Stroud for the last 3 years, bringing live acts and DJs to the festival including Sawa Manga, Brother Portrait, Slam the Poet, and many more. Barney himself hails from Stroud but is now based in South-East London; his music blends rhythms of UK dance music with the melodic textures and instrumentation of jazz and soul, alongside vocals, rapping and poetry from some of London’s most compelling new artists.
Vels Trio are Jack Stephenson Oliver, bassist Cameron Dawson and drummer Dougal Taylor. Their live prowess has already propelled them into the live arena to share stages with acts such as Cory Henry and the Funk Apostles, Sons of Kemet, Moses Boyd’s Exodus, Let Spin and two performances at the illustrious Love Supreme Festival. Being almost indistinguishable by any sole genre, the group’s mutual loves and individual fortes across prog, electronic, jazz, funk and hip-hop has paved the collective way for their early sound.
With a keen desire in improvisation, Vels Trio’s sound can be characterised by their heavy grooves, emotionally charged songwriting, coupled alongside expressive, progressive modern musicianship to create an excitingly frenetic, and irresistibly engaging live sound structures.
Maxwell Owin is at the electronic and spiritual heart of so many of London’s brilliant jazz and improvisation based projects – from mixing Where Pathways Meet, to doing the mastering on the We Out Here film, to collaborating with Joe Armon-Jones in their outstanding record IDOM.