Musician and composer
If there were a prize for forming bands with instantly distinctive sounds, Bristol-based saxophonist Jake McMurchie would surely carry it off. As a key driving force behind the award-winning quartet Get The Blessing, McMurchie has moved from bass-groove to live-wire industrial loopy without dropping a beat.
London Jazz News
Where has he been? … a very, very good saxophonist. Very original, very passionate… a very sexy sound.
Radio 3 Jazz Lineup
…the inventive McMurchie, his sensual tone falling somewhere between early Sonny Rollins and Pink-Panther tenorist Plas Johnson, was a revelation.
London Evening Standard
In 2022 I was surprised and delighted to be included in the Marlbank feature “UK Saxophone: 30 leading the way”
Michelson Morley
Featuring Mark Whitlam on drums and electronics, Will Harris on bass, and Dan Messore on guitar, Michelson Morley released “Aether Drift” on the F-IRE Presents label on 28th April 2014. This was followed in 2016 by “Strange Courage” released on the seminal Babel Label.
It’s really imaginative contemporary music, with a hot free-jazz core.
Review of Strange Courage, John Fordham, The Guardian ****
They’ve lost none of the inventiveness they displayed on their first album … really unique
Nick Luscombe, Late Junction
… the sparse textures and nu-groove-with-loops aspects link to post-rock aesthetic as much as they do contemporary UK jazz … more than good enough to get the blessing from Jazzwise.
Jazzwise Magazine ****
…liberating flexibilities of time and space certainly characterise McMurchie’s fine first album as a composer/leader
Review of Aether Drift, The Guardian
There is really nothing like it, especially by a saxophonist … a testament to the extraordinary cohesion of the three musicians.
Live review, Charley Dunlap, Listomania
Get The Blessing
Previously named The Blessing, the band I share with Pete Judge, Jim Barr and Clive Deamer.
the heavyweights of the contemporary jazz scene.
The Independent
GTB’s debut album All Is Yes won Album of the Year 2008 in the BBC Jazz Awards. Bugs In Amber was released in May 2009, and in March 2012 we released OCDC, followed by Lope And Antilope in January 2014. October 2015 saw the release of our 5th record Astronautilus and, in 2018, we released Bristopia. In 2019 we celebrated our 20th birthday, and supplemented our anniversary gig with Rarer Teas, a compilation of gems that never made it onto an album.
Other projects
Jake McMurchie Quartet
I have my own acoustic quartet featuring Riaan Vosloo, Dan Moore, and Matt Brown.
I also play with :
Out Front
led by Nick Malcolm and featuring Olie Brice, Dave Smith, and Jason Yarde.
The Jazz Defenders
led by George Cooper and featuring Nick Malcolm, Will Harris, and Ian Matthews.
6 1 6 1
led by Matt Brown and featuring Sophie Stockham, Pete Judge, Tom Taylor, and Dan Moore.
Tony Orrell’s Big Top
led by the mighty Tony Orrell and featuring Matt Brown, Dan Moore, and Riann Vosloo.
Uphill Game
led by Riann Vosloo and featuring Matt Brown, and Pete Judge.
At the beginning of 2020 Keith Tippett called me and asked me to join his band as a replacement for Paul Dunmall. My debut gig with the band was due to take place on the day he died. I was very proud to take part in the memorial concert in St Georges, Bristol in September 2021.
I have played with Bobby Shew, Pee Wee Ellis, Fred Wesley, Portishead, Massive Attack, Super Furry Animals, Nadine Khouri, The Invisible Pair of Hands, the National Youth Jazz Orchestra and with the great Portuguese singer Fernando Tordo at the National Theatre in Lisbon.
Past projects include What Four and Ultrasound. What Four was one of the first jazz groups to be accepted onto Yehudi Menuhin’s outreach organisation “Live Music Now!” What Four was commissioned by the Bath Festival to collaborate with contemporary dance choreographer Yael Flexer in 1997, and in 1998 was awarded the New Technology Commission by Birmingham Jazz resulting in a project entitled Synergy combining live improvisation with popular dance music, electronics, and sampling, one of the first such projects in the UK jazz scene. This was performed at Cheltenham Jazz Festival 2000 alongside the Courtney Pine Group.