Join us for the very best in jazz improvisation from three powerful musicians as brilliant pianist Robert Mitchell leads an incendiary trio featuring bassist Olie Brice and drummer Johnny Hunter. The title for the band alludes to a quote that playing with John Coltrane was akin to 'stepping into the flames' every night.

One of the most significant voices in UK jazz, an extraordinary pianist, poet, composer, and Steinway Artist, Robert Mitchell has recorded with Greg Osby, Courtney Pine CBE, Daymé Arocena, Jason Rebello, Basement Jaxx, and Jacqui Dankworth MBE. A restlessly creative, imaginative and thoughtful musician, he has recorded fourteen albums of his own projects, as well as publishing three poetry collections and participating in over 100 projects as a sideman and performing in more than 40 countries. A festival creator and curator, as well as a highly respected educator, Robert also leads TRUE THINK, Epiphany3, and has won awards including at the BBC Jazz Awards (Innovation, as part of the F-ire Collective), Best Jazz Album (BBC Gilles Peterson Worldwide Awards), a Paul Hamlyn composition award and has been nominated for many more including 2017 British Jazz Composer Award. The Flame have released two highly acclaimed live albums on the NYC based label 577 Records.

"absolutely transcendental music" by Corey Mwamba

"Robert Mitchell is one of Britain's finest and most versatile pianist-composer-improvisors" The Wire

"There are two poems by Mr. Mitchell included in the liner notes, both of which show him to be a wonderfully thoughtful, articulate and probing poet of the highest order." Bruce Lee Gallanter, DMG NYC

Olie Brice is a bass player at the forefront of UK improvised music, a purposeful, energising and similarly thoughtful musician who's collaborations include Tom Challenger, Alexander Hawkins, Rachel Musson, Jason Yarde, Evan Parker, Tony Malaby, Ingrid Laubrock, Ken Vandermark and Louis Moholo, as well as performing at venues and festivals across Europe. His own quartet featuring Rachel Musson, Alexander Hawkins and Will Glaser releases a debut album in 2025, and he has also led a trio, quintet and octet which can be heard on albums including 'Fire Hills' and 'Day After Day'. You may have caught Olie previously at The Lescar leading his own inspiring ensembles, as well in bands including Dee Byrne's wonderful Outlines project.

"Brice makes the entire body of his bass sing. He has the ability to deliver a fractal line that is as purposeful as any by the great jazz bassists, but to do so within an entirely abstract setting" Brian Morton, Point of Departure

"imaginative and adventurous" London Jazz News

"consistently inspired" The Wire

A regular visitor to The Lescar, with strong links to the Sheffield music scene, enterprising and vibrant drummer and composer Johnny Hunter has featured in so many wonderful line-ups over the years, including leading his own quartet, and with many groups including Revival Room, Misha Gray's Prehistoric Jazz Quintet, Sloth Racket, the John Pope Quintet, Engine Room Favourites, Blind Monk Trio, Swiss-UK collaboration MoonMot. His music has been recorded and broadcast by BBC Radio 3, and performed across the country in notable venues such as London's Ronnie Scott's, the Manchester Jazz Festival, Birmingham Jazzlines at Symphony Hall, Liverpool International Jazz Festival, among many others.

A double bill of music with strong connections to Sheffield.

Bringing his award-winning trio we're delighted to welcome back Jascha Bingham, a pianist with a glowing and nuanced sound, originally from Sheffield and gaining a lot of attention on the vibrant Leeds jazz scene. Winners of the Bucharest International Jazz Competition 2024, his trio also features Sean Blake (bass) and Adam Scott (drums).

Pushing at boundaries with a strong focus on dynamics and interaction, and powerful influences including Keith Jarrett, Bill Evans and Herbie Hancock this is a group with a real sense of direction and a shared aesthetic. Their music is beautiful; thoughtful, melodic and dynamic.

Here's some of their music:
https://youtu.be/b3x8gqoOS-A
https://youtu.be/s055tWLQtOM

Sharing this double bill, we present Wood & Metal, a drum duo featuring two of Sheffield's most expressive and exciting improvising musicians, both making a name individually and in their various projects with tours and gigs across the North and also more widely across the UK.

Wood & Metal features improvising Sheffield-based drummers Sarah Heneghan (Power Out, Nishla Smith, Paint or Pollen) and Will Shaw (balo, Assembly Trio, Life Aquatic Band), with music that creates a trance-like atmosphere of patterns, soundscapes and meditation. Using just their acoustic kits, Wood & Metal explores how creativity and possibilities can flourish when, paradoxically, limitations are placed upon us.

Thrilling and dynamic new music from one of the most accomplished saxophonists on the jazz scene, and a truly all-star band of the brightest stars from across the UK featuring Ivo Neame (Phronesis/Marius Neset) on piano, Tom Farmer (Empirical) on bass and Jon Scott (GoGo Penguin) on drums. They'll be playing music from their new album 'Friday the Thirteenth' released last year, music alive with energising sharp corners, polyrhythms and addictive ear-worms.

Saxophonist Mike Chillingworth has been at the forefront of the creative jazz scene in the UK for over a decade, collaborating with the likes of Stan Sulzmann, Julian Siegel, Kit Downes, Orlando le Fleming and many others, as well as recording four albums as a member of guitarist Ant Law's quintet. His first album released in 2016 'Scratch and Sift' featured Tom Challenger, Josh Arcoleo, George Crowley, Lewis Wright, Sam Lasserson and Jon Scott.

"Chillingworth is emblematic of this generation of jazz musician: a sculptor and architect with a keen sense of form, flow, colour and texture - The resulting music is exactly as great as it should be" cellarsandlofts.blogspot.co.uk

"Really special ... Very complicated but full of wit and melody too. Clever Sod." Liam Noble

"shrewdly melodic alto saxist Mike Chillingworth is central to the band's power, building smouldering intensity without bravura." John Fordham

Here's some music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-NnUg3OMIY

A multi-award winning pianist and composer Ivo Neame has achieved international recognition as one of the most innovative and dynamic figures on the contemporary jazz scene. His collaborations include the Frankfurt Radio Big Band and the London Sinfonietta, however he is perhaps best known for his work with the award-winning Phronesis and the Marius Neset Quintet, as well as collaborations with Hermeto Pascoal, Kenny Wheeler and Gilad Hekselman. A stunning pianist mixing virtuosity, sophistication and playfulness with dynamic energy and emotional depth.

"Ivo Neame is one of the very best jazz pianists on the UK scene" BANDCAMP DAILY

"That Neame is one of the most interesting jazz pianists of his generation may be clear. That he is getting better and better is too. The 10 years of almost constant touring has given him a prominent role in the front line of British jazz" WRITTEN IN JAZZ

Tom Farmer on bass is best known for his work with the long standing and award winning Empirical, with whom he has won multiple awards, including MOBO awards Best Jazz Act 2010, and Best Jazz Ensemble in the 2016 Parliamentary Jazz Awards, as well as touring extensively in UK, Europe and North America. He also plays in bands led by Ivo Neame and guitarist Ant Law, and in the group Dice Factory, with Tom Challenger and Jon Scott. A resonant, probing and thoughtful presence in every band.

One of the most creative drummers on the UK and European jazz scene, Jon Scott currently tours the world with Mercury-nominated GoGo Penguin and Ethio-Jazz legend Mulatu Astatke, as well as performing with Shabaka Hutchings' Sons of Kemet, Dice Factory (with Tom Challenger and Tom Farmer), and over many years working with the likes of Alexander Hawkins, Henry Lowther, Jim Mullen, Dwight Trible, Kairos 4Tet, Jasper Høiby, George Crowley, Hannes Riepler, Rory Simmons, Alice Zawadzki and more. His playing features on over 40 recordings.

Two of the UKs leading string improvisers, Shirley Smart (cello) and Tobie Medland (violin) with virtuoso and dynamic improvisations on 20th century music by Bartok, de Falla and others, combined with original works, jazz standards and free improvisations. Music alive with grooves, humour, wit and imagination, as well as a few stories!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vmfc3Wtkc_Q

Violinist Tobie Medland founded and curates the Gypsy Jazz Festival of London, and has performed with many of Europe's leading figures in the Gypsy Jazz world, including Fapy Lafertin, Olli Soikelli and Dave Kelbie. Tobie also leads their own trio, Skylark, and larger band The Aviary, which launched its first album at the Vortex jazz club in 2023.

On cello Shirley Smart is recognised as one of the UK's most versatile and creative cellists, equally at home and well versed in jazz and Middle Eastern music, as well as classical music and has worked with artists including Avishai Cohen, Omer Avital and Yasmin Levy, Mulatu Astatke, Maya Youssef, Neil Cowley, and Robert Mitchell. You may have seen her before at The Lescar in her wonderful duo with Robert Mitchell, or with Alice Zawadzki and Misha Mullov-Abbado, both unforgettable nights. She also leads her own projects and released her first trio album 'Long Story Short' in 2018 to critical acclaim.

An evening of unexpected musical delights and brilliantly expressive musicianship. We can't wait to welcome Shirley and Tobie to The Lescar.

Australian harpist, vocalist and composer Tara Minton (Björk, Tony Kofi) and a brilliant band including David Ingamells (drums) and Emilio Yáñez Ruíz (percussion) perform the poised yet dramatic music from a new suite inspired by her trip to México City in 2023. Music that dances with shadows through themes of desire, truth, self-expression, and fierce, defiant joy. Weaving together Latin American music traditions, language and mythology with contemporary jazz, beautifully expressive music fully of humanity. Have a listen!:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vgrzz_ij5p8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UjG41m1mJoI

Internationally acclaimed harpist, vocalist and composer Tara Minton has sold out concerts across the UK and Europe, as well as in her home town of Melbourne, Australia. In 2018 she accompanied Björk on 'Later. with Jools Holland' and toured with her to headline Primavera Sounds in Barcelona. Tara has also collaborated with Miranda Mulholland, Kitty, Daisy & Lewis, Tom Walker, SuRie, Tony Kofi, and Paul Lee. Joined for this gig by a vibrant and experienced hand-picked line-up bringing Tara's wonderful original music to life, this is certain to be a really special evening at The Lescar.

"There is a palpable joy in her harp-playing, and her singing, and how she combines them." - UK Jazz News

"Ethereal... and free-spirited" - Mojo

"Irresistibly seductive" - Jazzwise

"Puts the harp centre stage" - The Sunday Times

Solo sets from two like-minded artists from opposite ends of the country coming together for a double bill of cutting-edge music featuring solo instruments, live looping and electronic manipulation. Saxophonist Samuel Sharp and cellist Liz Hanks blur the lines between jazz, contemporary classical, folk and electronic music.

London-based saxophonist and composer Samuel Sharp will be performing music from 'Consequential', his second solo album recently released on Scottish label Blackford Hill. Playful, mellifluous and sometimes dizzying, he layers and weaves intriguing, soporific and occasionally slapstick patterns, with effects pedals. Samuel has worked with the likes of Hackney Colliery Band, Augustines, Hollie McNish, Philip Selway (Radiohead) and Beverley Knight.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rk6HedUFmm8

"One of the great sax innovators of our time" - Louder Than War

"Beautiful" - Jamie Cullum, BBC Radio 2

"I love the way he plays the saxophone" - Elizabeth Alker, BBC Radio 3

Performing music from her debut and acclaimed album 'Land', Liz Hanks is a Sheffield-based cellist, composer, and collaborator with a rich and varied career. A longtime cellist for Richard Hawley, Thea Gilmore, and Martin Simpson, she has recorded and toured with an array of artists, including Liam Gallagher, Pulp, Smokey Robinson, Cara Dillon, Paul Heaton, and Real World Records sitarist Jasdeep Singh Degun. A beautiful mix of minimalism, folk, Indian classical music and improvisation her music is heavily rooted in her local landscape, weaving together cello, looped field recordings, and storytelling to transport audiences into the lost landscapes that inspired her work.

https://youtu.be/YLNaThEc1UM?si=-p7H3kB4s8nVFRHL

"Stunning" - Elizabeth Alker, BBC Radio 2

"An immersive album of depth and subtlety" - Folk Radio UK

"A beautiful meditative work" - Duncan Seaman, Yorkshire Post

Unique and compelling, a vibrant and unmissable gig.