Exceptional pianist/composer and long-term Kyle Eastwood Band member Andrew McCormack has built a diverse international career with many appearances at major festivals and concert halls all over the globe.
McCormack has toured as a solo pianist giving concerts at various venues across the UK most notably at a sold-out Hall One Kings Place in London opening for Michael Wollny in 2017.
The release of his latest trio album, 'Terra Firma,' is scheduled for October 2022, with a UK release tour in October and a follow-up UK/Europe tour in spring 2023. The first single has already received a positive response, with over 150k streams in the first month alone, and Jazz FM's Dinner Jazz show naming 'Fragile' their track of the week.
Andrew has toured, recorded and collaborated with an impressive array of internationally established musicians, including Randy Brecker, Quincy Jones, Jamie Cullum, Jean Toussaint, Jason Yarde and most recently Kyle Eastwood, which has seen him contribute to the scores and orchestrations of several Clint Eastwood films. As a leader, his debut album Telescope in 2005 received universal acclaim and earned him a BBC jazz award for rising star the following year, with the pianist later returning to the trio format with a series of critically acclaimed albums including Live In London in 2012 and First Light in 2014. The latter includes a New York rhythm section as evidence of his three-year stay in the city.
The pianist teamed up with composer/saxophonist Jason Yarde to form the McCormack & Yarde Duo with their first album release together, MY DUO in 2009. The duo has since gone on to firmly establish itself with international tours and further album releases that have garnered widespread critical recognition for their developments in the genre. Places And Other Spaces was released in 2011 and they followed up in 2013 to feature the Elysian String Quartet on the eclectic, Juntos.
McCormack also has a keen interest in classical composition. Having studied with British composer, Mark-Anthony Turnage, he has gone on to receive commissions from various ensembles including the London Symphony Orchestra. Andrew’s eight-minute overture, Incentive was premiered by the orchestra at the Barbican in London and included on their Panufnik Legacies CD in 2013.
In 2017, Andrew launched a new band project, Graviton which saw him in a more groove-based setting including vocals and a wider sound world closer to what might be described as Prog-Jazz. The latest album in 2019, Graviton: The Calling is a fully conceived work that follows the classic hero’s journey.
In 2020, he released SOLO to across-the-board 4/5 star reviews, adding yet another strength to his already diverse portfolio. Using a mixture of originals, standard and not-so-standard repertoire, the pianist demonstrates his compelling ideas, composing, and thrilling performances in the stripped-down intimate setting of solo piano.
Andrew McCormack has managed to consistently demonstrate a compelling setting for his musical ideas, a platform for virtuosic improvisation and a constant revivifying and adaptive embodiment of the jazz tradition.
Award-winning UK saxophonist
Denys Baptiste joined Andrew's trio as a special guest for a series of live shows in 2023, recapturing some of the magic of Denys' epic "Let Freedom Ring" project and his ‘Be where you are’ album, which won two of the UK music industry's most prestigious awards in 1999: a Mercury Music Prize Award for An Album Of The Year plus the MOBO Award for Best Jazz Act.
Andrew will perform a run of shows with his trio in 2024 with Kyle Eastwood as special guest.
Main image courtesy @anatholie.musicphotography