Andy
Stamatakis-brown

Manchester Jazz Collective

Andy is a member of the Manchester Jazz Collective, a 10-piece instrumental jazz ensemble, performing music written mainly by band members, including Andy. They have been part of Jazz North’s Northern Line artist scheme, and formed the backbone of the ensemble for Cottonopolis, Andy’s Irwin Mitchell mjf originals 2017 commission for Manchester Jazz Festival.

(Video: Manchester Jazz Collective performing Catchphrase, composed by Andy).

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Andy Stamatakis-Brown Trio

Andy’s own trio debuted at the Manchester Jazz Festival, with Pete Turner on double bass and Marek Dorcik on drums. Other performers in the trio include Matt Owens and Gavin Barras on double bass, and Sam Draper and Jonny Hunter on drums.

This trio is mainly an outlet for Andy’s own small-scale jazz compositions, which draw inspiration from contemporary American pianists such as Gerald Clayton and Robert Glasper, along with a nod to the great Abdullah Ibrahim, all framed within a more European sensibility.

(Video: Andy Stamatakis-Brown Trio performing Parts Have Tumbled Away).

Cottonopolis

(Irwin Mitchell mjf originals)

The Irwin Mitchell mjf originals composition, Cottononopolis, was composed by Andy for the Manchester Jazz Festival 2017. 

The piece was inspired by a video he saw of the looms operating in Queen Street Mill in Burnley – the last surviving steam-powered mill in the world, now threatened with closure. The relationship between mechanised beats and industrial sounds was turned on its head. What the music really captured was the way that daily grind and repetition of work could be dissolved into ecstasy and rapture by walking through the doors of a nightclub like Manchester’s Hacienda.

(Video: full performance of Cottonopolis with Andy and members of the Manchester Jazz Collective).

Click here to read review by theskinny.co.uk.

Hacienda Classical

Andy programmes synths and performs in Hacienda Classical, a collaborative project involving Manchester Camerata, DJs (principally Graham Park), the AMC Gospel Choir and a host of other performers including Peter Hook (New Order), performing club classics popular during the infamous club’s heyday. This large-scale show consistently performs to sell-out crowds and has provided Andy with the opportunity to perform on the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury Festival, Castlefield Bowl, the Dubai Opera house and the Royal Albert Hall.

(Video: Hacienda Classical 2021 Tour promo).

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Gypsies of Bohemia

For the past 10 years, Andy has worked in Manchester-based manouche non-purists, Gypsies of Bohemia. Whilst cutting their teeth playing Django Reinhardt tunes, the Gypsies of Bohemia found their sound re-arranging pop tracks – ‘Django with an iPod’. The Gypsies of Bohemia have performed at jazz clubs across the country, as well as festivals including Shambala, Festival No.6 and Beatherder.

(Video: Gypsies of Bohemia performing Outerspace).

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Other notable performance work includes as a founding member of 6pac Jazz Sextet, with whom Andy recorded 2 albums and received the Peter Whittingham Award for an Innovative Jazz Project in 2004. Oslo Jazz Festival with Beats and Pieces Big Band and Ronnie Scott’s with genre-defying singer/violinist Alice Zawadzki.

If you would like to book or commission Andy for an event or musical project, please get in touch via the contact form below.

Andy has composed and arranged music since he was a teenager. He studied composition at the Royal Northern College of Music with Gary Carpenter and Ian Vine, graduating with a GRNCM with distinction in 2004. His main output since then has been jazz compositions, but he has also written for theatre, dance and education projects.

As a composer, his works have been performed in Europe, Australia and the USA, having worked with Linda Merrick (now Principal of the RNCM) during his time as a student, and writing for fellow students.

As well as composing for his own trio and the Manchester Jazz Collective, Andy has received commissions from ABRSM, Andy Scott, Music for life Big Band, and most notably from Manchester Jazz Festival for Cottonopolis (see above).

More recently Andy has produced string arrangements for Nishla Smith, and bespoke arrangements for a collaboration between Manchester Camerata and Alice Zawadzki.

Andy’s arrangements for education settings include several years’ worth of big band arrangements for the Dartington Plus Jazz Summer school, adapting songs for youth choir, and producing countless small band arrangements and transcriptions.

Lead sheets coming soon…

Andy’s original lead sheets will be available soon to download for free from this website. In the meantime, if you would like to discuss bespoke arrangements or to purchase big band arrangements please get in contact using the contact form below.

Andy taught Advanced General Musicianship for Yorkshire Young Musicians from its inception in 2005 until 2021. Over the years he has developed his own unique approach to Aural training, combining elements of Kodaly training, physical movement, Jazz and Pop theory as well as more traditional elements of Western Classical Aural training and music history/analysis.

In 2008 he co-ordinated YYM’s contribution to ‘Excellent’, a celebration to mark the 10 year anniversary of the Music and Dance scheme. ‘From Roots to Wings’ involved facilitating and collating student compositions into a coherent whole, which was then choreographed by Sharon Watson and subsequently performed by YYM musicians and dancers from the Northern School of Contemporary Dance and Northern Ballet at Sadler’s Wells, with Andy directing.

Andy has a breadth of experience teaching in schools. He currently teaches composition to A-level music students at Loreto Sixth Form College in Manchester, where he has also spent a year teaching A-level classes.

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