The Jim Mullen Organ Trio bring together three of the leading jazz exponents in the UK. Led by legendary Jazz Guitar Uber Statesman Jim Mullen, with Mike Gorman on organ and Matt Skelton on drums.
Performing a richly dynamic set of originals and Mullenised standards, expect a hard swinging evening of melodic, blues drenched modern Jazz. Excitingly and uniquely, Jim’s band has elements of the old and the new. It’s a mixture of “tradition and transition” as he puts it. Contemporary knowledge applied to a basic determination to swing.
Jim's musical approach encompasses not only a thorough knowledge of jazz, but a wellspring of experience which nods towards blues, soul, funk, rock and traditional Scottish music.
Jim Mullen is a Glasgow-born jazz guitarist with a distinctive style, like Wes Montgomery before him, picking with the thumb rather than a plectrum. Having played with Brian Auger's Oblivion Express, appearing on the band's first three albums together with future Average White Band drummer Robbie MacIntosh, Mullen then joined Kokomo and later toured with the Average White Band.
It was while both musicians were touring the U.S. with Average White Band in the mid-70s that Mullen met up with tenor saxophone player Dick Morrissey, and throughout the 1980s, he found considerable critical acclaim as joint leader of the pioneering British jazz funk band Morrissey-Mullen.
Mullen has also played and recorded with, among others, Pete Brown & Piblokto!, Mose Allison, Hamish Stuart, Jonna Eden, Tam White, Claire Martin, Mike Carr, Jimmy Whitherspoon and Georgie Fame. He has won many British music awards including "Best Guitar" in the British Jazz Awards (1994, 1996, 2000 & 2002).Most recently, Jim Mullen has recorded as part of The Allstars, a collective of session musicians on their Paul McCartney produced album All About the Music, alongside special guests Jocelyn Brown, Hamish Stuart and Angelo Starr.
Mike Gorman was born in Sheffield, South Yorkshire. After studying in Manchester, he moved to London in 1995. Since then he has established himself as one of the UK's leading jazz pianists and organists, working with UK musicians such as Don Weller, Bobby Wellins, Alan Skidmore, Georgie Fame, Peter King, Alan Barnes, Dave Cliff, Stacey Kent, Guy Barker and Danny Moss, amongst others. He has also worked with many US artists, including Jimmy Witherspoon, Ken Peplowski, Bill Watrous, Lanny Morgan, Gwen McCrae and Marlena Shaw, as well as touring and recording with major international acts Incognito and Us3.
The jazz drummer Matt Skelton graduated from the Royal Academy of Music in 1994. Since then his career has encompassed a diverse range of music. He has accompanied Harry Sweets Edison, Scott Hamilton, Conte Candoli, Nick Brignola, Harry Allen, Warren Vache, Michael Moore and both Bucky and John Pizzarelli. He has also played with Dave O'Higgins, Alan Barnes, Don Weller and Stacey Kent, and regularly appears with the Halle, The BBC Concert Orchestra and The Britten Symphonia accompanying soloists such as Maria Ewing, Claire Martin, and Sir Richard Rodney Bennet.
'' Lovers of the Hammond trios of yore should rush to hear this ferociously swinging super group'' …… Jazz Wise magazine
