Alexia Gardner Quintet

Alexia Gardner – Vocals
Harry Keeble - Tenor Saxophone
Alan Law – Piano
Jude Murphy - Double Bass
Abbie Finn - Drums

Alexia Gardner, an international jazz vocalist and recording artist, returned to the UK in 2023 after years of performing and recording across South East Asia, Europe and the United States.

Previously Grammy Awards nominated for Best Newcomer and Best Vocal Jazz Album, she now leads a dynamic, swinging quintet based in the North East, earning a reputation for their interpretations of Great American Songbook standards and popular classics.

Harry Keeble is a jazz saxophonist from East Sussex, now based in the North East, known for his strong tone and wide-ranging influences from Joe Henderson and John Coltrane to Chris Potter and Allan Holdsworth. He regularly performs with the Abbie Finn Trio, whose fourth album (January 2024) prompted The Jazz Mann to describe him as “a remarkably versatile and assured musician.” He is also saxophonist for the Finn-Keeble Group, the Finntet and the Russ Morgan Quartet, appears with the Zoe Gilby Quintet and the Strictly Smoking Big Band, and has performed with leading musicians including Alan Barnes, Andrea Vicari, Art Themen and Greg Abate. He also leads the Harry Keeble Quartet, who released the EP The Beacon in 2021 and are currently working on their first full album.

Alan Law is a Sussex-born, Newcastle-based pianist and veteran of the North East scene. After classical studies in Rye, he discovered a natural ability to play by ear and moved into local blues and rock ’n’ roll bands, later turning to jazz through the Friday Night Band at the Newcastle Jazz Café. His current projects include the Ruth Lambert's Quartet, The Chet Set (with Pete Tanton), the Latin outfit The Cuban Heels, and the Tom Waits homage Tom Waits For No Man with Lindsay Hannon. His influences include Monty Alexander, Gene Harris, Rubén González and Ahmad Jamal.

Jude Murphy has been a professional musician since the late 1980s, beginning her career singing and playing flute and saxophone in international hotels across Europe and the Middle East while also researching a PhD in folk and vernacular music. She later moved into bass—volunteering when a band needed someone to cover the low end—and now performs with a wide range of jazz, funk and folk groups across the North East of England, as well as appearing regularly at the Derry Jazz Festival and other venues throughout Northern Ireland.

Abbie Finn is a North East drummer who gained a First Class Jazz degree from Leeds Conservatoire and a Master’s from Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance. She leads the Abbie Finn Trio and also performs with the Finntet and the Finn-Keeble Group, regularly working with visiting artists including Vasilis Xenopoulos, Andrea Vicari, Alan Barnes and Simon Spillett. Featured in Jazzwise as a “one to watch” and praised as a “crucial member of the thriving North-East scene,”she has released four albums with her trio, described as “Exceptional British Jazz” by Chris Phillips of Jazz FM.

Saturday Pass: £30
Purchase tickets for Alexia Gardner Quintet, Celebrating Wes Montgomery and Chris Coull’s Porgy and Bess for £30 (discount applied when tickets for all events are added to basket).

Weekend Pass: £60
Purchase tickets Alexia Gardner Quintet, Celebrating Wes Montgomery and Chris Coull’s Porgy and Bess on Saturday and SwanNek, Threeway At Twenty One, Abbie Finn Quartet and Modern Vikings on Sunday for £60 (discount applied when tickets for all events are added to basket).