The contemporary jazz orchestra Voice Of The North was formed in the autumn of 1996 with the help of grants from Northern Arts. The purpose of forming the orchestra was to enable the regions professional and semi professional musicians to rehearse and perform with the worlds leading jazz performers and composers. To this end John Warren was invited to become the orchestras first musical director. Canadian born Warren is one of the most individual arrangers and composers working today in the field of contemporary jazz. His recent collaboration with John Surman on the ‘Brass Project’ is a perfect example of his creative and adventurous writing and arranging.
Rehearsing with John from its base in Darlington the orchestra soon gained a high level of competence and following two memorable performances at Hartlepool & York decided to invite Andy Sheppard & Steve Lodder to collaborate with them on a major project that would feature music from Andy’s albums ‘The Delivery Suite ‘ & ‘Soft On The Inside’. This project featured 21 musicians including guest trombonist Mark Nightingale and has proved to be extremely popular with the musicians as well as venue promoters, playing to full houses in Sunderland, Newcastle upon Tyne, Whitehaven, Darlington, Hartlepool & the Marsden Jazz Festival.
The next project featured internationally renowned saxophonist Tommy Smith playing and directing music by Duke Ellington. The programme featured three suites by Ellington, ‘Such Sweet Thunder’ ‘The Queens Suite’ and the ‘Far East Suite’. A project with Michael Garrick followed that showcased his music past & present, with concerts at Darlington Arts Centre on May 19th 2000 followed by Marsden Jazz Festival on October 15th.
VOTN commissioned John Warren to write a special new work (Chain Reaction) for his long time associate John Surman and the orchestra. This was premiered at the Hull International Jazz Festival on August 6th 2000. A recording of the piece was made and a CD produced for demonstration purposes by Jazzaction. John Surman and VOTN have since performed the Chain Reaction suite at many venues including the Live Theatre, Newcastle upon Tyne, Marsden Jazz Festival, Darlington Arts Centre, Bishop Auckland Town Hall and the Assembly Rooms Derby.
In 2004 Tim Garland was invited to take part in a project featuring new music to celebrate the twenty fifth anniversary of jazz promotions at the Corner House in Heaton, Newcastle upon Tyne. A commission from Jazz North East Ltd and Jazzaction with funds from Arts Council England - North East was given to Tim to write a suite that would feature Tim and Voice Of The North. The new work 'Identity Parade' was given its first performance at the Corner House on May 18th 2004 with further performances at Appleby Jazz Festival, ARC in Stockton on Tees, Darlington Arts Centre and the Sage Gateshead Jazz Festival.
The orchestra has also given performances in the region with Steve Waterman, Mark Nightingale, Pete Beechill, Alan Barnes.
Recent projects have included a new CD highlighting the work of its resident musical director John Warren, a new suite by Steve Waterman and a concert at Sage Gateshead as part of the 2008 Jazz festival with USA composer/arranger Bob Mintzer. Forthcoming concerts are an appearance at Scarborough Jazz Festival with Steve Waterman & Mark Nightingale on September 29th and the premier of a new work by John Warren featuring Andy Sheppard on October 5th at the Darlington Arts centre.