Kit Downes: Southern Bodies

With Bill Frisell and Musicians of The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra

Kit Downes, BBC Jazz Award winner and Mercury Music Award nominee, is a master keyboardist whose boundless musical curiosity has led to genre-defying collaborations with performers and composers around the world. Legendary jazz guitarist Bill Frisell joins him for the world premiere of Southern Bodies featuring Northrop's historic Aeolian-Skinner pipe organ. Rounding out the group is a small ensemble of virtuoso string players from The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra for a one-night only performance that tests what the organ can and should be.

"One of the UK jazz scene's foremost talents on multiple keyboard instruments...[Downes] straddles the line between gestural jazz improvisation and the gravitas of a classical orchestration."—Downbeat

"[Frisell] is one of the most important and pioneering musicians at work today"—Irish Times

“Long hailed as one of the most distinctive and original improvising guitarists of our time, [Frisell] has also earned a reputation for teasing out thematic connections with his music...There’s a reason that Jazz at Lincoln Center had him program a series called Roots of Americana."—The New York Times

Related Links

• Kit Downes website
• Bill Frisell website
• The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra
• Learn more about Liquid Music