Composer, improviser & guitarist working in contemporary music, improvised music and the space in-between.
Birmingham-based composer, improviser and guitarist Steve Saunders has worked on commissions from the UK and US, including the recent premiere of his solo piano piece, Assimilation (or a failure in the art thereof), written for ‘Contemporary Arts Jazz Ensemble’, as well as the premiere of his work TIMEBEING (for two improvisers), which was commissioned by Birmingham-based art gallery ‘Centrala’ and aims to explore and manipulate the listener’s perception of time. He led a performance of his six-movement, large ensemble work Abstract Visions of a Foreign Land on the prestigious Birmingham Symphony Hall Stage, a work which merges the techniques of contemporary composers, most notably ‘spectral’ composers Tristan Murail and Gérard Grisey, with the language of modern jazz circles. In 2022 Steve received the ‘B:Music Jazz Commission’, premiering compositions for a trio with Berlin-based saxophonist Asger Nissen and New York jazz drummer Jeff Williams, again on the Symphony Hall Stage.
Steve’s ensemble work includes regular performances as a core member of the Xhosa Cole Quartet, performing at venues such as Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club, PizzaExpress Jazz Club (Soho) and Edinburgh Jazz Festival. He also performs and records in various bands led by saxophonist Paul Dunmall, including on the albums Cosmic Dream Projection (featuring Percy Pursglove) released by FMR Records (2021), and Yes Tomorrow released by Discus Music (2022).
““Dominated by the self-assured yet distinctively brittle sound of guitarist Steven Saunders, who sets the album’s tone right from the opening riff; indeed, Dunmall has commented that this is ‘a guitarist’s album’ ”
