The Callum Au Big Band plays West Side Story: Remixed
Pizza Express Jazz Club, Dean Street, Soho, London
Part of the EFG London Jazz Festival
Another concert in our successful Big Band Sunday lunchtimes at Dean Street, sees the venue debut of the outstanding Callum Au Big Band, playing loads of material from Callum’s inspiring arrangements in his original 2013 album of the music from Leonard Bernstein’s revolutionary musical, West Side Story.
Callum Au is a British composer, arranger, orchestrator, and trombonist. He writes music across a wide range of genres, with a particular passion for big band and large jazz ensemble music. He is highly regarded for his stylistic awareness and versatility and has worked with some of the world’s biggest artists.
Born in London to a Scottish mother and a Chinese father, Callum spent most of his formative years in Blackpool before moving to London, where he now lives and works.
Over the past fifteen years, Callum has established himself as one of the busiest arrangers and orchestrators in Europe. He has had the privilege of writing music for many international artists, including Quincy Jones, Jamie Cullum, Randy Brecker, and ensembles including the SWR Big Band, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and the Britten Sinfonia. In 2019, he was commissioned to arrange the big band songs in the Hollywood movie adaptation of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s ‘Cats’. More recently, he had the pleasure of writing two new arrangements for Michael Bublé’s album ‘Higher’, and conducting the BBC Concert Orchestra in a special episode of ‘Sunday Night Is Music Night’ for BBC Radio 2.
Callum is increasingly in demand as a composer for classical ensembles, with his flair for arresting melodies and lush complex harmony proving popular with audiences and musicians alike. Recent commissions include works for Inner City Brass at the Spitalfields and Ryedale Festivals and pieces recorded and performed by the Metropole Orkest and the Tippett Quartet.
Leonard Bernstein was a titan of music creativity in the 20th Century. Among his litany of great writing is the score for his ground breaking stage show West Side Story. This music features highly in the repertoire of today’s greatest musicians. Callum brings his own creativity and imagination to this marvellous music which will dominate this LJF concert along with arrangements from his repertoire of big band writing.
Callum has been the jazz trombonist with the Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Orchestra since 2012, one of the UK’s premier large jazz ensembles, with a performance schedule to match. He has also composed or arranged a substantial proportion of the band’s current working repertoire.
Here’s a remarkable example of Callum’s creativity with his arrangement of “Sing, Sing, Sing” played by the Louis Dowdeswell Big Band
This will be an outstanding musical feast in the EFG London Jazz Festival programme at Pizza Express Jazz ClubDean Street.
“The remarkable young arranger Callum Au is already a master of the mysterious art of orchestration and arranging” – Dave Gelly – The Observer
