Flautist,composer/arranger, teacher (and occasional pianist) Gareth Lockrane started playing at the age of 10 and after raiding his dad’s record collection discovered jazz at 14. In 1994 he enrolled on the jazz course at the Royal Academy of Music in London and in 1997, his band “The Jazz System” formed with Osian Roberts was a finalist in the Vienna Jazz Festival Grande Concours de Jazz. In 1998, he studied on the Lake Placid Jazz Course in New York with Joe Lovano, Dick Oatts and Jim McNeely and in 2000 was a finalist in the Young Jazz Musician of the Year competition. Around this time he also expanded his sonic and expressive range by adding the piccolo, alto and bass flutes to his arsenal.
In 2002, he formed the band Grooveyard with saxophonist Alex Garnett which released a critically acclaimed CD “Put The Cat Out” which went on to win the Best European Jazz Group award in the 2003 Granada Jazz Festival. Grooveyard completed a successful Jazz Services tour of the UK in 2005. After extensive gigging mostly around the London and Uk scenes, they released their album “The Strut” on Whirlwind Recordings in 2012, their most ambitious and stylistically wide-rangeing. This album was very well received critically and was named Jazz album of the Year in Mojo magazine.
In 2006, Gareth enrolled on the prestigious MA course in film composition at the National Film&Television School,graduating with a commendation in 2008.He has composed the music for fiction,documentary and animation films that have gone on to appear and win numerous prizes at many international film festivals. He also leads his own septet,whose debut album “No Messin” won best album in the 2010 Parliamentary Jazz Awards. As a sideman,Gareth has been involved in many diverse projects,most notably as a key member of the late great Bheki Mseleku’s group from 2005 to 2008, and in Phil Robson’s IMS quintet in 2011 with US tenor star Mark Turner. Gareth has also performed and recorded with Jack DeJohnette, Incognito, Heritage Orchestra,The Bays,Georgia Mancio, Patrick Cornelius, Cheryl Bailey, Nia Lynn, Kate Williams, Claudio Passavanti, The James Taylor Quartet, Marti Pellow, Hans Koller New Memories Big Band, Anita Wardell, Natalie Williams,Paul Booth, Gwilym Simcock Nonet / BigBand, Tom Richards Jazz Orchestra as well as many tv and pop sessions. He has also appeared as a Rising Star on Flute in the prestigious Downbeat US critics poll. He is also a notable jazz educator,regularly teaching on the Royal Academy of Music, Guildhall and Trinity College of Music jazz degree courses, and in 2010 was appointed Head of Jazz Studies in the junior department at the Royal Academy of Music.
Fleet Jazz Club 