Chris Garrick

"This young man has revitalised jazz violin playing so that it has been rejuvenated for the 21st century. Whilst still able to play in the tradition established by Stephane Grappelli Chris has forged his own style, which reflects his contemporary interests."

"Chris meltingly beautiful, light as air playing, his imaginative variety of sounds, and his impeccable taste, make him a very serious rival to Stephane Grappelli"

Chris began violin in 1976 at the age of five. He covered the technical and traditional side of his instrument at school through the Suzuki Method with teachers Joan Penrose and later Bernard Blay, and progressed through the Associated Board exams, reaching Grade 8 by his early teens and winning a Silver Medal in Grade 6 along the way. He regularly attended Music camps at The Stables, Wavendon, which resulted in a life-long friendship with Sir John Dankworth and Dame Cleo Laine. At home, his jazz pianist father introduced the colours, flavours and rudiments of improvising music, and gave him a starter-repertoire of tunes. He was to meet many influential musicians in these early years, including Jaco Pastorius, Olivier Messiaen and Nigel Kennedy. At the age of 8 he met Stephane Grappelli at The Stables, who influenced him and his playing enormously.

Chris studied at London's Royal Academy of Music between 1989 and 1994 gaining first-class honours in his Performers' Degree also winning the DipRAM in his post-graduate year. His tutors and mentors included the unsung hero of British jazz violinists, John Van Derrick. Among the resident and visiting staff were Hugh Fraser, Martin Speake, Nick Ingam, Steve Coleman, Jack Dejohnette, Huw Warren, Chucho Valdez, Arturo Sandoval, Gary Peacock and Kenny Wheeler. He attained his teaching diploma (LRAM) and was later made an Associate of the Royal Academy.

Chris has worked with many different artists including Julian Joseph, Bireli Lagrene, Dolly Parton, All About Eve, Simon Mulligan, Luka Bloom, Van Morrison, Brian Ferry & Marina Laslo. He has made tours of the Far East and Australia with guitarist John Etheridge in a tribute to Stephane Grappelli and in 2001 he toured Israel with Dame Cleo Laine and the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. His performance at the Genius of the Violin Festival in 2004 led to invitations to perform Piazzolla's Seasons with Barry Wordsworth in Brighton and then in London, at the Royal Festival Hall. He tours regularly with Parisian guitar virtuoso Angelo Debarre, Alec Dankworth's 'Spanish Accents' and his own 'Homage to Grappelli'. He is active in the world of commercial session music and his violin can be heard on many film soundtracks including amongst others, The Imaginarium of Dr Parnasus, Brideshead Revisited, Chocolat, Moulin Rouge, Chicago, The Edge of Love, Borat, An Ideal Husband, Tomorrow Never Dies and Big Fish.

Chris has recorded six solo albums of which Different Strokes was called "The outstanding British album of the year" in the Sunday Times. He has won the Benjamin Doniger Jazz Scolarship, Lansdowne Studios Award, Modena Prize, and the Cleo Johnson Composition Award, and in1992 won admission to the International Association of the Schools of Jazz headed by Dave Liebman in Siena, Italy. His Quartet, with David Gordon on piano, Tom Hooper on drums and Jeremy Brown on double bass, were winners of the Special Award for Best Ensemble at 1999's BT Jazz Oscars. Chris has since been nominated for 'Best Rising Star' and for 'Best Miscellaneous Instrument'

In 1987 he formed the group Nobody's Quartet with Jon Noyce, bass (ex-Jethro Tull), James Pearson (house pianist at Ronnie Scott's), and Allan Simpson, guitar. In 1989 they were joint winners of the Daily Telegraph Young Jazz Competition. He played drums in a high school rock band covering David Bowie, Lou Reed and Saxon!

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"Chris Garrick is the best young violinist in jazz today."
OBSERVER

"I want to learn to play like Chris Garrick"
MAXIM VENGEROV

"The Versace of the violin"
JOHN ETHERIDGE

"He could easily emerge as one of the great jazz violinists of all time"
JOHN DANKWORTH OBE

"Chris Garrick is simply the most accomplished and expressive jazz violinist on today's jazz scene... consistently inventive."
CHARLES ALEXANDER

"Chris Garrick is amazing"
JOSHUA BELL

"Garrick plays marvellously bringing his own stamp to Grappelli's relaxed lyricism, without losing the maestro's sense of vibrancy... "
THE GUARDIAN

"The wonderful violin playing of Chris Garrick lifted the performance to even greater heights...who was in no way overawed by Bireli Lagrene and is probably the most versatile violinist around."
NORTH WALES INTERNATIONAL GUITAR FESTIVAL 2003

"The field of jazz violin, never overcrowded, is blessed with the emergence of a world-class talent in Britain's Chris Garrick"
RAY COMISKEY IRISH TIMES

"Garrick tends to play jazz rather than gypsy jazz as, of course, did Stephane Grappelli"
ANON. RE JOHN ETHERIDGE'S CHASING SHADOWS DISC

"we think that Song In the Key of Knife/Pull The Plug is the first d&b tune to feature a live jazz-violin solo (!) - we got Chris Garrick in, who is a mad genius. He plays faster than that fastest thing you could ever imagine; he is faster than Linford Christie with the runs after a dodgy curry."
LONDON ELEKTRICITY & HOSPITAL RECORDS

"Chris Garrick is a breath of fresh air on the British jazz scene"
JULIAN JOSEPH

"Garrick leaps across the genres with all the aplomb of a master...the outstanding British album of the year so far."
CLIVE DAVIS/SUNDAY TIMES

"Chris Garrick's violin playing was a stunning display of musicianship, whether lightly dancing, delicately teasing or producing pyrotechnics that scorched the very timbers of the building".
JAZZ JOURNAL

"That was great, maestro!..Do you play any viola?".
NIGEL KENNEDY

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