ALEX PAXTON
Composer. Jazz-trombonist.
“Operatic Game Boy music played by a virtuosic motley crew that’s inexplicably been hired to provide live jingles for a primetime TV show sometime in the recent past that never quite was . . .We hear the trombone run the gamut from furious chatter to muffled screams, sorrowful sighs into searing growls and back. “Virtuosic” doesn’t really cover it.” Point of Departure
Paxton is a monster improviser …connects his garrulous attack to the most extroverted playing of George Lewis & Roswell Rudd..."
Bandcamp Daily Best Contemporary Classical. Peter Margasak
Bandcamp Daily Best Contemporary Classical. Peter Margasak
Album: MUSIC for BOSCH PEOPLE
Discography
Calender
Art
“In a dark, time this music will make you smile...antic experimentalism...This is the most joyous sound I’ve heard in ages!”
New York Times
New York Times
Harpy Days
Trombone, Keys, Drums
Elliot Galvin, Jay Davis, Alex Paxton
Rescue Jam
Trombone, Keys, Drums
Elliot Galvin, Jay Davis, Alex Paxton
Candyfolk Space-Drum (30mins)
flute, clarinet, trumpet, 2 keys, violin
Jazz Drum Kit
improvising soloist
Children’s Chorus
Meany (8 mins)
flute, Clarinet trumpet Keys jazz drums, Violin, Cello
Jazz Vox, Jazz soloist. London Jazz Festival
Lauren Kinsella
(Alex Paxton with Nevis ensemble)
puplished by Non Classical label
“The turbulent and joyful spirit of his music bubbles up irrepressibly in his trombone playing, and courses torrentially though his flamboyantly unpredictable compositions.” The Wire
Big Gay Cartoon Machine
Trombone, Keys, Drums
Elliot Galvin, Jay Davis, Alex Paxton (also Martin Lee Thomson and Pippa Ovenden)
Prayer in the Darkness
“What none of the litriture says is that his music is completely bonkers. The tittle track is 15 minutes long & I loved the whole thing, it grabs your attention all the way through…I highly recommend this album it is great fun” Peter Slavid on European Modern Jazz
Levels of Affection
Chamber Orchestra + Jazz Trombone soloist
1.1.1.0 0.1.0.0 Perc. 2Pno 1.1.1.1.1
Philharmonia Orchestra
SOLO TORMBONE
Mouth Song Take 1
"Unique, inventive, brave and arresting”
Worshipful Company of Musicians (WCOM) Jazz Prize
Worshipful Company of Musicians (WCOM) Jazz Prize
puplished by Delphian
“A Magician of Sound.
classical-jazz sonic blasts ...violently overwhelming...I was seduced, and am not the only one
...digesting Louis Armstrong’s Hot Five band recordings, John Zorn’s Downtown experimentalism, Harrison Birtwistle’s brash blocks of sound, music of the Celtic oral tradition, Hildegard von Bingen’s medieval chants — and it all comes out, sometimes at once...carefully constructed ...forbiddingly dense it is balanced by its playfulness... hyperkinetic rainbow-hued...its joy and freedom.”
Financial Times (Happy Music for Orchestra Feature)
“Paxton will Make your ears ping..brings brightly coloured, loopy joy to our ears..sweet energy & frantic humour...It’s jazzy & noisy & oddly serious.” The Guardian (Fiona Maddocks- Happy Music for Orchestra Review)
“A Magician of Sound.
classical-jazz sonic blasts ...violently overwhelming...I was seduced, and am not the only one
...digesting Louis Armstrong’s Hot Five band recordings, John Zorn’s Downtown experimentalism, Harrison Birtwistle’s brash blocks of sound, music of the Celtic oral tradition, Hildegard von Bingen’s medieval chants — and it all comes out, sometimes at once...carefully constructed ...forbiddingly dense it is balanced by its playfulness... hyperkinetic rainbow-hued...its joy and freedom.”
Financial Times (Happy Music for Orchestra Feature)
“Paxton will Make your ears ping..brings brightly coloured, loopy joy to our ears..sweet energy & frantic humour...It’s jazzy & noisy & oddly serious.” The Guardian (Fiona Maddocks- Happy Music for Orchestra Review)
LIGHTHOUSEMAN big band and vox
words and music ALEX PAXTON
The fantastic Chaos Collective Orchestra Big Band!!! with Jessica Dowdeswell.
premier the Spice of Life jazz club. 2012
Lonely on the bladder-wrack stands,
Nobly soused in Brine,
A shinning foe of night’s command,
Half lighthouse and half-man,
Dancing to his droll sarabande,
Songs time’s doused in sand and
Sad lamenting tears,
The only lighthouse man,
Mostly the churning,
Others misunderstand,
Turning his head,
He longs for instead,
Another lighthouse-man,
Shimmrin’ in the bladder-wrack strands
Glistnin’ under sea and sand,
Stands, nearing tearful glee,
The other lighthouse-man.
copyright©alexpaxton
Jazz film score from FISH BONE 2013
words and music ALEX PAXTONOut in the air I go,
Adorning where I know so well
The old scorning spite
Of cold morning light
Out in the air alone.
I rode into the forming night
And called as she drew near,
Smoke upon my breath and in my eye,
I saw the stormy pearls of fright
Beneath her angry tears
And I awoke, still bereft of her goodbye.
copyright©alexpaxton
Into the bare, dark below,
Without a stark prayer to show
The scars of another who taught me how to sing
and holler in the wind,
Fleeing the gilded smile of the gloamin’,
Feeling the gloomy cry of night
I said goodbye to my lover who taught me how to sing
And holler in the wind,
I said goodbye to my lover who listened to me sing
And holler in the wind.
copyright©alexpaxton
David Ingamells- drums
Flo Moore - Bass
Rob Luft - Guitar
Ronan Perret - Bari. Sax
Richard Blake - Trumpet
Alex Paxton - Trombone
Jacob Collier - Vox
Cristina Rubio - Vox
PURLPLE TREE TAPESTRY (12 mins)
for 11 players and singer
DADD’S FAIRIES. (3mins.)
Chamber Orchestra and Jazz Musician(1.1.1.1. 1.1.1.1 Perc 4.3.2.2.1 + soloist)
Recording DADD’S FAIRIES. Alex Paxton with the Royal Scotish National Orchestra (RSNO)
Music for Bosch People (April 2021)
puplished by Birmingham Record company and NMC label“Alex is both a marvel and a terror to any
trombonists wanting to play his music”
Scot Stroman
(2sax. 2trb. kit. 2 Egtr. + electronics)
ROSY FINGURED DAWN for big band
Matthew Herd - Reeds (SOLO)
Jonathan Chung - Reeds
David Zucchi - Reeds
Alexander Roberts - Reeds
Mike Soper - Trumpets
Alex Paxton - Trombones (SOLO)
David Ingamells - Drums
Rob Brockway - Pianos
Joe Downard - Bass
OD ODY PINK’d (10 mins)
Symphony Orchestra and Jazz Musician.(2.2.2.2 4.2.3.1 T+2Perc Hp Strings 12.10.8.6.4 + soloist)
Recorded by Purple-Tree Tapstry Orchestra
& Alex Paxton
BYE (10 mins)
For wind, brass and improvisers.
Alto Flute, Clarinets, Saxophones, Trombones, Wurlitza
Taylor Maclennan, Lloyd Coleman, David Zucchi, Alex Paxton
WALRUS (20 mins)
(Choirs, string orchestra, trombone)
rh excerpt:
POOR WAYFARING STRANGERTrombone, kazoos, samba-whistle, duck-call. 2 drum kits with improvisers.
Bow-Bones Trombone Unit.
Feat. David Ingamells - drums.
PRAYER with Strings (5min)
Alex Paxton with Ensemble X.Y
live at Kammer Klang, Cafe Oto
Corpse/Trapeze.
Mayah Kadish - Violin Alex Paxton - TrombonePRAYER with Night Pictures (3 mins)
Alex Paxton with Ensemble X.Y
live at Kammer Klang, Cafe Oto
SCARECROW’s FOWL
for big band and narrator
words and music ALEX PAXTON
Andrew Hall's "Mirror of Hall Big Band"premier the Forge Camden
Shean Aqualia, Tommy Adrews, Richard Perks, Andrew Linham.
PREACH
Arpeggiator and improvisers (Drum kit & trombone)
DAVID INGAMELLS - DRUMS
ALEX PAXTON - TROMBONE
Ecerinis by Albertini Mussatidirector Douglas R Dunn.
conjunction with King’s College London University (KCL) and the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts (RADA)
BUTCHERS GAIT IMPROV.
(flim score excerpts from Butchers and Sons 2013)
76 Trombones March Into the River Royal academy of Music Trombones
with Jay Davis, Misha Mullov-Abbado, Jacob Collier
Feat. Simon Minshall, Tom Green and Owen Dawson!!
LIGHTHOUSEMAN rhythm section, strings and vox
Emma Smith
Sam Watts
Sandy Suchodolski
Scott Chapman
Sue Paterson
Dan Oats
Chloé van Soeterstède
Laura May Hammonds
Swart Of the Orchid for big bandfeat. Kieran McLeod, Tom Dennis, Jay Davis
Jim Davidson
Adam Chatterten
James Copus
Tom Dennis
Kieran McLeod
Tom Green
Owen Dawson
Courtney Bizzle
Ru Pattison
Sam Glaser
Sam Miles
Greg Barker
Jonathan Chung
Nathon Morson
Jay Davis
Sandy Sandy Suchodolski
Felix Jozsa
More available recordings can be found in Alex’s sound diary here...
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