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Mike Smith is emerging as one Britain’s most versatile and gifted musical talents. He graduated with first class honours in Jazz & Contemporary Music from the Leeds College of Music (1985-88), and went on to attain a post graduate certificate in Jazz & Rock from Guildhall School of Music (1988-89). Mike's most recent TV credit is Phoo Action (BBC3). A 6 part drama series based on characters created by Jamie Hewlett (Gorillaz). It will be showing on BBC3 in the UK from February 2008.
His versatility is illustrated in his many endeavours – as recording artist, TV composer, arranger, musical director, conductor, saxophonist and keyboard player.
He has worked on records and toured extensively with bands such as Blur, Gorillaz, Jamiroquai, The Brand New Heavies and the Itchy Fingers Saxophone Quartet amongst others. Mike is a regular on the London session circuit and has worked for the composer George Fenton on such films as Bread and Roses and Navigators directed by Ken Loach.
For the past three years Mike has worked extensively with Damon Albarn and is musical director for Gorillaz ‘live’; Blur’s 2003 world tour of their album Think Tank; and the Mali Music Project (2002) featuring Afel Bocuum and Toumani Diabate. Mike has also arranged, orchestrated and conducted studio sessions for Marc Almond, David Cassidy and Laura Michelle Kelly.
Most recently Mike has been recording in Nigeria as saxophonist and musical director on a joint album project featuring Damon Albarn and the legendary Nigerian drummer Tony Allen (Fela Kuti). The album is scheduled for release in 2006. Mike is a busy writer as well; as far back as 1993 he had a funk/fusion project called The Whole Thing and released an album on the Acid Jazz label to critical acclaim. He is currently writing with Blur’s drummer Dave Rowntree on a project featuring Icelandic and Bulgarian vocalists and gigging with their band The Ailerons.
The Ailerons were formed in London during the summer of 2005 and are a five-piece band who met via a mutual love of European avant-garde music which quickly saw them rehearsing, recording and playing as a unit within months. Fronted by American-born singer Charity Hair, the band also consists of Girly Grogg on bass guitar and James Nisbett lead guitar.
Mike has written music for the Channel 4 TV documentary Only Human: Primary Instincts and number of programmes for Mentorn TV and Flashback TV. He completed the score on a short film called Corpse for Sentinel Entertainment, this is their first made-for-mobile film. He is also a regular contributor to the KPM music library. |
Austin Wilde - UK A&R
