Dennis Rollins
A passionate performer and educator, British trombone player Dennis Rollins MBE has established a reputation as an artist of excellence, and has lent his unique and stylish talents to some of this country's, and indeed the world's top jazz and pop personalities such as Courtney Pine, Maceo Parker, Jamiroquai, US3, The Brand New Heavies, Blur, Monty Alexander, Pee Wee Ellis and Jean Toussaint, amongst others.
As a bandleader, in 2006 his jazz/funk outfit Badbone & Co won a prestigious BBC Jazz Award in the Best Band category. In the following year he picked up both Trombonist of the Year at the British Jazz Awards and Ronnie Scott's Jazz Awards. Dennis was nominated twice in the 2008 Parliamentary Jazz Awards for Jazz Musician of the Year and for Jazz Education; he won the latter.
In his hometown of Doncaster UK, Dennis was given Honorary Freedom of the Borough in recognition of his successful musical career and for his constant inspiration to the regions musical youth. As part of Her Majesty the Queen’s Birthday Honours 2018, Dennis was honoured with an MBE for Services to music. Most recently in June 2022, he was awarded an Honorary Fellowship from the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, Wales, UK.
A sought after jazz educationalist, Dennis has worked in collaboration with many of the UK's university and colleges delivering a wide range of music programmes and performance workshops.
Dennis says "Growing up, I was extremely fortunate to have had the most inspiring and dedicated teachers. The skills and compassion I acquired were a result of that education. Teaching feels very natural to me. I feel it's a duty to pass on my musical knowledge to the next generation."
As a recording artist he's currently recorded 5 critically acclaimed albums. Three with his award-winning band Badbone & Co, and two with his progressive jazz organ-trio, Velocity Trio.
He's proud to be an exclusive endorsee of UK brass instrument maker, Michael Rath Trombones and Argentinian mouthpiece maker Boqar Baro Mouthpieces.
Ross Stanley
Pianist and organist Ross Stanley is a Yamaha artist, Hammond endorsee and two times winner of a British Jazz Award in the organ category. After being awarded an organ scholarship to Marlborough College, Stanley studied at The Guildhall School of Music and Drama, and since then his musical skills have kept him in high demand, seeing him work with musicians and ensembles such as Eddie Gomez, Seamus Blake, the Hamish Stuart Band, BBC Concert Orchestra, Nostalgia 77 Octet, Tom Jones, Alfie Boe, Maceo Parker, and Pino Palladino.
Corrie Dick
Corrie Dick is the name of a UK-based musician specialising in euphoric, sonically-conscious groove drumming. He is lauded for his touch, uniquely fresh approach to style and melodicism. He is an essential component of any project lead by Laura Jurd including Mercury Prize Shortlisted Dinosaur; provides the intricate and fluent stick work in the Elliot Galvin Trio; brings intense, free colours to Danish powerhouse bassist Jasper Høiby’s exciting Fellow Creatures; writes deep and spiritual music for Blue-Eyed Hawk; and provides the full spectrum of rhythmic elements for guitar wunderkind Rob Luft’s ensemble. He also leads his own joy-inducing supergroup, releasing his debut album with the ensemble in November 2015, selling out concerts across the UK ever since. The album displays Corrie’s striking abilities as composer/lyricist by skilfully fusing Celtic folk and contemporary jazz with new takes on African rhythms.
Since his graduation as a gold medal student from Trinity Laban’s prestigious jazz course, Corrie has honed his playing and composing from his base in South East London’s hub of creativity. The young master of contemporary grooves has studied traditional music in Ghana and Morocco where the rhythm is rich and layered, and also in his home land, Scotland, where rhythm and melody have melded for centuries.
His investigations in rhythm have lead to a series of solo drum and percussion concerts at venues like Vortex and King’s Place. Here he demonstrates untapped perspectives on an instrument that bathes in potential, as Corrie puts it, “here’s an instrument that holds in it a bold combination of cultures - marching bass and snare drum, West-African toms and Turkish cymbals, it’s genius, and it’s healthy to celebrate where these elements came from.”
A winner of no shortage of accolades - Corrie picked up BBC’s ‘Young Scottish Jazz Musician of the Year 2013’ prize, a Mercury Prize 2017 shortlist, Scottish Jazz Awards ‘Up and Coming Artist’ in 2012, countless others during his time at college and has attended countless other award ceremonies as a nominee for the likes of Jazz FM’s ‘Jazz Act of the Year’, and the UK Parliament’s ‘Best Newcomer’ and ‘Album of the Year’ - Corrie owes his talents to the many supportive communities he has himself been crucial to. He is an alumni of both Tommy Smith Youth Jazz Orchestra and the National Youth Orchestra of Scotland and has been mentored by the likes of Mark Guiliana and Kendrick Scott as well as Ghanaian kpanlogo master Saddiq Addy, nephew of the legendary Mustapha Tettey Addy. He has also studied the traditional and modern music of Zimbabwe, Madagascar, Benin and DR Congo alongside his prodigious creative companion, guitarist Rob Luft.
