Adam Fairhall & Johnny Hunter
Adam: piano
Johnny: snare drum
Adam and Johnny, stalwarts of Manchester’s creative music scene, have established a piano/drums duo to explore early jazz forms through an avant garde lens. The piano/drums format is perfectly suited to this, being a favoured format in both Harlem stride and free music.
Adam’s interest in ragtime, stride, barrelhouse, boogie and blues has been well-documented on previous albums, including The Imaginary Delta (SLAM 2012, named Album of the Year by Bird is the Worm) and his solo album Friendly Ghosts (Efpi 2017). His ability to mix these idioms with contemporary approaches has resulted in a distinctive pianistic voice. Johnny’s versatility and inventiveness as a drummer has resulted in an equally individual musical personality, and as with Adam his vocabulary ranges across eras, from ragtime snare techniques to deft swing brushwork and clattering free textures.
Johnny and Adam have forged a close musical understanding via a number of projects, including their piano trio Fragments (Fragments, Northern Contemporary, 2019) and organ trio Revival Room (Revival Room, Efpi, 2021), and in duo format their communication, quick-thinking and sheer playfulness is fully evident.
Adam and Johnny released their duo album, Winifred Atwell Revisited, on Efpi in 2021, to excellent reviews in Jazzwise magazine and The Wire magazine, and airplay on Radio 3’s J to Z programme. The release was followed by an Arts Council-supported tour.
Two of Manchester’s most creative improvisers – The Wire
A hall of mirrors where ragtime and free jazz mutually morph – Jazzwise
Buy their album here:
https://adamfairhall.bandcamp.com/album/winifred-atwell-revisited