ABOUT THE BAND

Annabelle South – Saxophone

Annabelle South plays tenor sax and sings (not at the same time) for Going South. A classically trained flautist, she fell in love with jazz and the saxophone at the age of 16, eventually falling in love with saxophonist Chris while studying music at the University of Surrey. Her favourite saxophonists are Sonny Rollins, Joshua Redman and Branford Marsalis, and her favourite singers are Ella Fitzgerald, Nina Simone and Gregory Porter. She plays Yamaha saxes, with Lebayle mouthpieces. Her ambition is one day to find a reed as good as the one she had in 2014.

Chris South – Saxophone

Dr Chris South conforms to the general rule that all physicists would rather be musicians. He discovered at the age of 16 that the alto saxophone is both lighter and more fun than the euphonium, and never looked back. When he’s not busy killing cancer cells with death-rays, he enjoys playing, writing and listening to music. His favourite artists include Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock, Nina Simone, Medeski Martin and Wood, Gregory Porter, Maceo Parker, Brad Mehldau anyone whose name ends in Marsalis, Snarky Puppy, Thelonius Monk… He has previously played with bands such as The Monks of Funk and Heimlich & The Manoeuvres.

Grant Harrison – Drums

Grant has been playing drums for way too many years. He is a member of The Prognosis, a prog rock band, but likes the chilled diversion of playing some jazz, not to mention that he can set up his jazz kit in 10 minutes opposed to the 1+ hours set up for prog! His favourite artists include Art Blakey, Bill Bruford, Max Roach, Jeff Hamilton, Buddy Rich, Joe Morello, Steve Gadd and all those other drummers who do things he would like to do himself. Grant runs his own website design agency in Dorking and spends far too much time on eBay.

John Menlove – Keyboards

John was found as a feral child on Box Hill at the age of seven. He had been raisied by ravens during that time. Not much more is known about John at present, but we don’t care because he is such a fab keyboard player and makes a great cup of tea!

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Lawrence Comber – Guitar

Lawrence has been playing guitar since the age of 11, starting with classical guitar, then rock and blues and is now focussing on jazz. His guitar hero is Django Reinhardt and his ambition is to play half as well as Django did with just two fingers of his left hand! Other jazz influences include Martin Taylor, Pat Metheny, Dave Brubeck, Oscar Peterson, Gary Burton, Stan Tracey and Ben Webster. Amongst his favourite pieces of music is Oscar Peterson’s Hymn to Freedom.

Lawrence recently acquired a 1957 Hofner Senator archtop guitar and also plays a Gibson Les Paul.

Richard Flanders – Bass

Richard has been involved in music since childhood and inherited a love for jazz and swing from his father – also a double-bass player. He has been playing both double-bass and electric bass guitar for over 30 years and has worked with a number of well-known artists. He has a particular love of the work of bassists Ray Brown and Christian McBride. He mostly plays an electric upright bass whilst some of the band’s repertoire is rendered on bass guitar. His favourite quote from the Jazz world is from George Gershwin “Life is a lot like jazz – it’s best when you improvise”.