Liam Noble (born 15 November 1968) is a British

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...

pianist, composer, arranger and educator.

Early life

Noble was born in London on 15 November 1968.Chilton, John (ed.) (2004) ''Who's Who of British Jazz'' (2nd ed.). Bloomsbury. p. 264. . He studied music at the

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

and at postgraduate level at the Guildhall School of Music.

Later life and career

After his studies, Noble played with saxophonist

Stan Sulzmann Stanley Ernest Sulzmann (born 30 November 1948) is an English jazz saxophonist. Biography He was born in London, England. Sulzmann began playing the saxophone at age of 13 and played in 1964 Bill Ashton's London Youth Jazz Orchestra, later ...

in duo and quartet performances. He then played in several bands, including those led by

Harry Beckett Harold Winston "Harry" Beckett (30 May 1935 – 22 July 2010) was a British trumpeter and flugelhorn player of Barbadian origin. Biography Born in Bridgetown, Saint Michael, Barbados, Harry Beckett learned to play music in a Salvation Army ...

, John Stevens and

Anita Wardell Anita Wardell (born 23 August 1961) is an English jazz singer, renowned for her scat singing. Wardell was born in Guildford, Surrey, in England and raised in Australia. She won the BBC Best of Jazz Award in 2006, and lives in London. She teac ...

. In 1997, Noble joined

Bobby Wellins Robert Coull Wellins (24 January 1936 – 27 October 2016) was a Scottish tenor saxophonist who collaborated with Stan Tracey on the album '' Jazz Suite Inspired by Dylan Thomas's "Under Milk Wood"'' (1965). Biography Robert Coull Wellins was ...

' band. In 2002, he received a commission from Birmingham Jazz to write a song cycle. Noble's 2004 recording ''Romance Among the Fishes'' was a quartet album, with Phil Robson (guitar),

Drew Gress Drew Gress (born November 20, 1959) is an American jazz double-bassist and composer born in Trenton, New Jersey and raised in the Philadelphia area. Biography Gress studied at Towson State University and Manhattan School of Music. In the late ...

(bass) and

Tom Rainey Tom Rainey (born 1957) is an American jazz drummer. Career After attending Berklee College of Music he moved to New York in 1979. He has played with Tim Berne, Nels Cline, Drew Gress, Mark Helias, Fred Hersch, Tony Malaby, Simon Nabatov, T ...

(drums). Noble and Robson had often played together, but the four had been put together earlier the same year for an appearance at the

Cheltenham Jazz Festival Cheltenham Jazz Festival is one of the UK's leading jazz festivals, and is part of Cheltenham Festivals' annual festival season, also including the Science, Music and Literature Festivals in Cheltenham Spa. Introduction and history The Chelt ...

.Fordham, John (14 October 2005
"Liam Noble, Romance Among the Fishes"
''The Guardian''. Noble's 2009 trio album, ''Brubeck'', was described by the dedicatee,

Dave Brubeck David Warren Brubeck (; December 6, 1920 – December 5, 2012) was an American jazz pianist and composer. Often regarded as a foremost exponent of cool jazz, Brubeck's work is characterized by unusual time signatures and superimposing contrasti ...

, as "an inspiration and a challenge for me to carry on in the avenues that you

oble Oble is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Jadów, within Wołomin County, Masovian Voivodeship, in east-central Poland. It lies approximately north-east of Wołomin and north-east of Warsaw. References Oble Oble is a vil ...

have opened". In 2010, Noble accompanied vocalist

Christine Tobin Christine Tobin (born 7 January 1963, Dublin, Ireland) is an Irish vocalist and composer from Dublin who has been part of the London jazz and improvising scene since the second half of the 1980s. She has been influenced by a diverse range of si ...

on the album ''Tapestry Unravelled'', a reworking of

Carole King Carole King Klein (born Carol Joan Klein; February 9, 1942) is an American singer, songwriter, and musician who has been active since 1958, initially as one of the staff songwriters at 1650 Broadway and later as a solo artist. Regarded as one ...

's ''

Tapestry Tapestry is a form of textile art, traditionally woven by hand on a loom. Tapestry is weft-faced weaving, in which all the warp threads are hidden in the completed work, unlike most woven textiles, where both the warp and the weft threads may ...

'' from four decades earlier. In 2015, Noble will release the solo piano album ''A Room Somewhere''. Noble teaches at the

Royal Academy of Music The Royal Academy of Music (RAM) in London, England, is the oldest conservatoire in the UK, founded in 1822 by John Fane and Nicolas-Charles Bochsa. It received its royal charter in 1830 from King George IV with the support of the first Duke of ...

Trinity Laban Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance is a music and dance conservatoire based in London, England. It was formed in 2005 as a merger of two older institutions – Trinity College of Music and Laban Dance Centre. The conservatoire has ...

, the

Birmingham Conservatoire The Royal Birmingham Conservatoire is a music school, drama school and concert venue in Birmingham, England. It provides professional education in music, acting, and related disciplines up to postgraduate level. It is a centre for scholarly res ...

and the

University of Kent , motto_lang = , mottoeng = Literal translation: 'Whom to serve is to reign'(Book of Common Prayer translation: 'whose service is perfect freedom')Graham Martin, ''From Vision to Reality: the Making of the University of Kent at Canterbury'' ...

."Liam Noble"
University of Kent. Retrieved 27 February 2015.

Compositions

Critic

John Fordham John Fordham (died 1425) was Bishop of Durham and Bishop of Ely. Fordham was keeper of the privy seal of Prince Richard from 1376 to 1377 and Dean of Wells before being named Lord Privy Seal in June 1377. He held that office until December 1381 ...

, writing in 2005, commented that "Noble likes a mixture of staccato, drily witty themes that suggest a collision of

Steve Coleman Steve Coleman (born September 20, 1956) is an American saxophonist, composer, bandleader and music theorist. In 2014, he was named a MacArthur Fellow. Early life Steve Coleman was born and grew up in South Side, Chicago. He started playing al ...

and

Django Bates Django Bates (born Leon Bates, 2 October 1960) is a British jazz musician, composer, multi-instrumentalist, band leader and educator. He plays the piano, keyboards and the tenor horn. Bates has been described as "one of the most talented music ...

with

Wayne Shorter Wayne Shorter (born August 25, 1933) is an American jazz saxophonist and composer. Shorter came to prominence in the late 1950s as a member of, and eventually primary composer for, Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers. In the 1960s, he joined Miles Davi ...

– and with Canadian piano guru

Paul Bley Paul Bley, CM (November 10, 1932 – January 3, 2016) was a jazz pianist known for his contributions to the free jazz movement of the 1960s as well as his innovations and influence on trio playing and his early live performance on the Moog and ...

in the quieter episodes".

Discography

An asterisk (*) indicates that the year is that of release.

As leader/co-leader

As sideman

Main source:Cook, Richard and Morton, Brian (2008) ''The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings'' (9th ed.). Penguin. .

References

External links

Noble's blog.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Noble, Liam 1968 births British jazz pianists Living people 21st-century pianists FMR Records artists Basho Records artists