Portico Tickets

About Portico

“Portico Quartet”

As to the name, everything is easy, as one rainy evening in Italy they had to play under the portico. The ensemble from South London started playing jazz in the streets and giving away the discs that they recorded themselves. Then their first album was nominated for the Mercury Music Prize in 2007, and TimeOut London named it the best jazz album of the year. The next record the band made with Peter Gabriel's label Real World Records.

Uniqueness

The unique sound of the ensemble is due to the use of unusual percussion instrument. It was invented in Switzerland in 2000, after years of research of the properties of steel drums and similar percussion instruments from around the world. “Portico” is a stunningly unusual and not only because the 3 young London musicians build their music on the sound of the rare percussion instrument hang. 2 of them are completely devoid of formal music education: the drummer Duncan Bellamy – is an artist and the soprano saxophonist Jack Wyllie – is a pro in political economy. Only the bassist Milo Fitzpatrick can call himself a professional musician. They listen to everything – from Led Zeppelin and Jimi Hendrix to Horace Silver and John Zorn. Furthermore, “Knee Deep In The North Sea” is as qualitative and uncommon that it is difficult to believe that this is their debut disc. Their latest album “Living Fields” appeared in 2015.