LIJF 2025: Neil Cowley Trio
Saturday, 22 February 2025 Time: 7.30pm
Neil Cowley – composer, pianist
Rex Horan – bass
Evan Jenkins – Drums
As a young boy, Neil Cowley studied classical music and by the age of 10 had performed a Shostakovich piano concerto to a full house at London’s Queen Elizabeth Hall. By his mid-teens he had turned his back on his classical career entering the world of old-school R’n’B, soul and funk and working with some of the most successful bands of the day including the Brand New Heavies and Zero 7 alongside his own chill-out production duo, Fragile State.
In 2005 Cowley returned to his first love, the piano, and formed the Neil Cowley Trio. His dynamic sound and jazz-meets-rock ethic placed him and his trio at the forefront of a new British post-jazz movement. Defined by hook laden melodies, stadium-sized piano riffs and whimsical romps alongside poignant, delicate passages, the trio turned the concept of the jazz piano trio on its head.
NCT went on to record six highly acclaimed studio albums - Displaced (2006) winner of the 2007 BBC Jazz Award for Best Album; Loud... Louder... Stop (2008) hailed by Mojo as a “Modern Classic”; Radio Silence (2010), cementing Cowley’s credentials as a brilliant, dazzling composer; The Face of Mount Molehill (2012) with a string ensemble that earned them the 2013 Jazz FM award for Best UK Jazz Act and Touch and Flee (2014), described by Cowley as his ‘concert hall album’. In 2016, they released Spacebound Apes, a richly imaginative concept album augmented with electronics, dubbed a ‘post-rock jazz masterpiece’ and the trio’s magnum opus.
During this time, the trio earned a reputation for their captivating live performances with Cowley’s marvellously English wit and remarkable rapport with his audience at its heart. They kept busy. A TV appearance on Later with Jools, inclusion on two Mojo cover- mounted CDs (re-workings of tracks by the Beatles and The Beach Boys), a year as Musician in Residence in Derry, Ireland. ‘Neil n’ Dud’, celebrated Cowley’s idol, Dudley Moore spanning a live show and a companion radio programme which Cowley wrote and presented for Jazz FM, subsequently nominated for an Arqiva Commercial Radio Award. More radio followed with Cowley creating two further documentaries for the BBC.
Aside from his trio recordings, Cowley became the ‘go-to’ pianist for acts that required a jazz technique and rhythmic suppleness to include in their artful pop hits. He famously contributed to global chart-topping albums by multi Grammy-winner Adele, including the stomping piano on Rolling in the Deep (which made him, quite literally, 2011’s most listened to pianist on the planet!). He also lent his golden piano touch to artists such as Emile Sandé, Birdy and Michael Kiwanuka.
In 2017 Neil pressed ‘pause’ on the trio to step out as a solo artist. Introducing elements of ambient, electronic and neoclassical music into his sound, he collaborated with artists such as Maribou State, Jacana People, Rival Consoles, Christian Loffler and others. 2019 saw the release of Grains & Motes with electronic composer Ben Lukas Boysen followed by Building Blocks, a series of successful EP’s in 2020. He then released his acclaimed debut solo album, Hall of Mirrors in 2021 and its follow-up Battery Life in 2023. Despite Neil’s direction into more electronic realms, his solo work reflected his unending love affair with the piano and his enduring affinity with rhythm.
In 2024, prompted by Cowley’s extended time of solitary music making, the Neil Cowley Trio reunited after a long seven-year hiatus. The joyous reunion gives rise to their 7th studio album, Entity.