HOT CLUB GALLOIS

Conjuring up the swirling dance halls of 1940’s Paris with a heady mix of Django Reinhardt classics, swing-flavoured jazz standards and Hot Club Gallois originals. An irresistible mix of fiery violin, lyrical vocals, virtuosic guitar and stomping bass, you won’t want to stay in your seat. Here are short backgrounds in to each of them.

Xenia Porteous                                                                                                             For violinist Xenia, fast and furious improvisation on a knife edge is Xenia’s idea of good fun. In 2013 in a kind of pre-mid-life crisis she resigned from a lucrative finance job and escaped to South America for 6 months where she realised that music was too important not to be the focus of her life. After her stay in Argentina, she developed a love of Tango dancing but returned to Swansea and gypsy jazz became her passion. She has been performing and recording ever since. When she’s not playing she enjoys dancing and raising her family.

Guitarist RICHARD JONES                                                                                       Whilst at The Royal Welsh College Of Music and Dance he co-founded The Jones O’Connor Group with whom he toured nationally, making several radio and TV appearances as well as two critically acclaimed albums. Richard now teaches Jazz guitar at RWCMD on the same course that earned him his degree. He has also lectured in pop/rock and tutored at various Jazz summer schools around the UK.

Guitarist Luke Archard                                                                                                              Luke is a former classical guitarist who developed a passion for the swing style of Gypsy Jazz after a chance encounter with the music during a visit to the New Orleans Jazz festival.  Inspired by the melodic beauty, virtuosity and flamboyancy of the gypsy style, he plays with an intensity that is both authentic and evocative.  Having played with various gypsy jazz line ups in London, he relocated to South Wales.   He now plays full time with Hot Club Galloi

Stick Bass / Vocals Mike Morgan                                                                                Bass player and singer. Artisan and compulsive maker of things including the instruments he plays on stage. Music has been his downfall and continues to provide endless pleasure in his cosmic confusion. Unable to work out what he is going to be when he grows up, he looks on the next few years as a bit of an experiment.

You can hear a sample here https://soundcloud.com/user-669924373

or on Youtube here https://youtu.be/XymZbvzTl_E