Meraki - Meraki (2020)

Ubuntu Music is proud to announce the signing of the innovative piano trio Meraki, to release their eponymous debut album worldwide on 28th August 2020.Meraki is led by multi-award-winning pianist and composer Jacky Naylor, double bassist Nick Jurd and drummer Jonathan Silk. The trio effortlessly travel through the various moods, emotions and complexities of Naylor's original contemporary music, whilst dynamically interacting. They completed an Arts Council funded tour in April 2019, and subsequently recorded their debut album at Real World Studios. The album has been mixed by August Wanngren (Phronesis, Marius Neset, Kenny Wheeler) and mastered by Peter Beckmann (The Printmakers, Julian Arguelles, Gregory Porter)."Jacky Naylor is a fantastic creative musician, both as a player and as a composer, leading his own exciting and dynamic trio" -- Kit Downes Jacky Naylor grew up in the Yorkshire Dales, where the worlds of jazz and professional music were remote. He started studying with Mark Donlon, towards the end of his time at secondary school. In 2012 he received a Leverhulme scholarship to study a BMus (Hons) at Birmingham Conservatoire. During years one and two, Jacky was lucky to receive 1-1 tuition from John Taylor, a gold-standard role model both inside and outside the teaching room. In his third year, Jacky won the Conservatoire's Composition and Arranging prize, judged by Judy Niemack (New York/Berlin), and was awarded a lesson with Maria Schneider. This interest in big band composition led to his debut album, Rough Boundaries, which sought to capture the characters of five contrasting cities through the diverse sounds and moods of a jazz orchestra. The album received four-star reviews from major jazz publications as well as being featured on Radio 3 and Jazz FM. The album was launched, subsequently, at Symphony Hall, Birmingham, and The Vortex, London. For one piece in particular, 'Bilbao', Jacky won the Dankworth Composition Prize in 2016. It was part of a formative year as Jacky made a significant.