Pianist and composer Basil Hodge brings his all-star Jazz Africa band to Off the Rails in September, performing a range of music from Africa, featuring jazz fused with a mixture of Afrobeat, Township and Funk rhythms from artists such as Abdullah Ibrahim, Manu Dibango, and Fela Kuti. Expect breathtaking musicianship, including exceptional djembe and percussion skills from these talented players.
Basil's professional career started in the summer of 1993 as a freelance musician and he steadily rose up the ranks to play with some of the leading UK players such as Jim Mullen, Tony Kofi, Dave O’Higgins and Renato D’Aiello. In November 2003 Basil produced and released his debut CD My Guardian Angel featuring his original compositions, which led to a distribution deal with New Note Records. The CD received critical acclaim and air play. His second album Sound Reasoning was released in October 2009 and received rave reviews including a 4-star rating from Jack Massarik in the Evening Standard. Basil also appeared on Claire Martin’s Jazz Line Up show on BBC Radio 3 to talk about his album and musical influences. Jazz FM's Helen Mayhew, Mike Chadwick and Sarah Ward have all played his music.
Basil has been leading his bands (trio, quartet and quintet) since 1995 and has performed in such venues as Ronnie Scott’s, Pizza Express (Soho), Royal Festival Hall, Queen Elizabeth and National Theatre Foyers, the Swanage and Ealing Jazz Festivals, The Vortex Jazz Club, The Crypt, The Hideaway, The Fleece, Watermills Jazz, The Bonington Theatre and The Verdict Jazz Club. He has also performed at The Savoy, The Rochester and Claridges hotels.
In the Autumn of 2015 Basil completed a successful UK tour with his brilliant band (Tony Kofi or Ed Jones – Saxophone, Quentin Collins or Steve Fishwick – Trumpet, Larry Bartley- Double bass and Winston Clifford or Rod Youngs – Drums) in a tribute to one of the most influential composers and pianists in jazz, the late, great Horace Silver, who passed a year earlier.
A new album A Point of Reference was released in November 2021 and was again featured on Jazz FM. In 2022 Basil took part in some filming work for The Crown Series 6 (Netflix) and for Steve McQueen’s film Blitz. In both cases, Basil was the pianist as part of a 1930’s/40’s Big Band.
At Off the Rails he is joined by Tony Kofi on saxophones and djembe, Stuart Fiddler on guitar, Neville Malcolm on bass and Winston Clifford on drums.
