Biography

Fergus Quill won the Musicians’ Company Tina May Jazz Award in 2022.

He formed the Fergus Quill Trio in 2020 with Theo Goss (Slow Loris) on drums and Nico Widdowson (The Mabgate Organ Trio) on piano. They released their debut album ‘Zoop Zoop’ on Tight Lines Records in 2021, which was greeted with critical acclaim. The album received radio play on Radio 6 and Worldwide FM by Giles Peterson, as well as being featured on BBC Radio Scotland, Radio 3 and Jazz FM. It received a review in Jazzwise magazine and featured on the front page of Bandcamp as part of Bandcamp Weekly. The Trio have just completed their second album second album ¡Blamo! on Tight Lines Records, which is influenced by the spaghetti westerns of the 60s and 70s and the music of Ennio Morricone.

Fergus has also been involved with NYJO for several years, arranging and performing with their Jazz Orchestra, as well as being involved with their new ensemble ‘The Jazz Exchange’ which focuses on performing new and original music. Other members of this band include Saxophonist Emma Rawicz and drummer Mathew Holmes. Multi instrumentalist Orphy Robinson mentors the band. With NYJO he has played such venues as Ronnie Scott’s, the Barbican, and NYJO’s new home Woolwich Works. He recently finished a short tour with the NYJO Jazz Orchestra with one of the giants of Brazilian music Hermeto Pascal.

Outside of his personal music projects Fergus is one of the co-founders of Independent Record Label and community interest company Tight Lines who have released records since 2016 with bands such Têtes de Pois, Jasmine Myra and The Mabgate Organ Trio. Tight Lines also puts on regular nights in and around Leeds such as ‘Chill Withers’ as well as organizing the arts festival ‘Salemango’ every June at Hyde Park Book Club.

Fergus played on James Mainwaring’s 2021 Album ‘Mycorrhiza’ Inspired by the destruction caused by the HS2 project to Northern England. He is toured the album in spring 2022.  Other projects have included ‘Fergus Quill’s Electric Noise Ensemble’ which was a project influenced by the work of Glenn Branca and Pauline Oliveros and consisted of an album of music written for five electric guitars, four electric basses and and four drummers recorded in the reverberant main room of Eiger Studio in Leeds.  Leeds label HPBC Records released it on cassette tape in 2019 followed by a digital release in 2020.

Musicians’ Company Award: Tina May Jazz Award 2022

Page Updated: Dec 2022

Photo credit: Catherine Jablonski