Multi-award winning jazz trio with brother Tom Bancroft (drums) and Kevin Mackenzie (Guitar).
Whatever happens in the rest of my career, playing in Trio AAB over nearly 30 years will be one of the highlights of my musical life- a great joy to play with two such brilliant musicians and friends- countless amazing gigs and experiences.
Phil B
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One of the most interesting contemporary small groups…
Tom Bancroft’s words…
A host of influences are discernible here; Ornette Coleman, a taste of drum ‘n’ bass and dance music, a cludge of Celtic melody, a sprinkle of punk and rock, shades of be-bop and jazz, the interplay of Scofield and De Johnette for example, or Lovano and Motian. Many other styles are echoed in the obsession with repetition and rhythmic interplay that abound. A fearless forward-looking statement on the reality of what this music can be at this point in its development.
Hear all 3 Trio AAB albums on Spotify here.
Trio AAB made numerous Festival appearances UK/Europe- Including Bath Festival, London Jazz Festival, Coutances/Grenoble/Munster/Morocco, UK CMN Tour…, they collaborated with Oliver Lake, Ganesh and Kumaresh, Reid Anderson (on his Vastness Of Space Scottish Tour with Laura MacDonald), played in several Big Fests in Newcastle, played an improvised live movie soundtrack, and won over audiences around the world, and picked up a number of major jazz accolades on the way.
CD Releases:
‘Cold Fusion’– Album Of The Year 1999 by BBC Radio 3 Jazz on 3
‘Wherever I Lay My Home That’s My Hat’–
Album of The Year 2001 The Guardian,
100 essential all time jazz albums by Mojo magazine in 2001.
‘Stranger Things Happen at C’–
with guest Brian Finnegan (Flute/Whistles Ireland) Caber 2002.
Recent Highlights:
Played to 10,000 people at Delhi Jazz Festival 2011
Live Improvised Soundtrack to Berlin: Symphony Of A City- Glasgow Film Festival 2012
Collaboration with Carnatic Violin Virtuosi Ganesh and Kumaresh Rajagopalan-
Edinburgh Jazz Festival 2011, Concert in Mumbai 2012,
Alchemy Festival London Southbank 2013, Edinburgh Jazz Festival 2014.
Trio AAB, that excellent free-Celtic ensemble, has come up with another cracker. Though the modus operandi is free jazz, the trio has a very broad appeal- catching ECM fans with Phil Bancrofts Coltrane-and-pipes lilt over MacKenzies spooky chording, Ornette Coleman admirers with its full tilt slewed-bop inventiveness, and plenty of coolly empathetic, one-touch swing dialogue for strict jazzers in between. Phil Bancroft is also an uncannily powerful composer with such restricted resources, as the darkly ruminative Fall confirms.