The Andy Davies Quartet was formed in January 2004 as a platform for promoting original music, with an inaugural tour of South Wales, playing at jazz clubs including Swansea Jazzland, the Cardiff Jazz Café and Jazz at The Riverbank.  In August 2004 they performed in Italy at venues including the Bocabarranca Jazz club, Nord Est Cafe, The Drome and the Varese Open Jazz Fest. In October of the same year the band visited Japan where they performed at the Tokyo Opera House and held workshops at the prestigious Kunitachi Music Academy of Tokyo. The quartet released their debut CD in March 2005, which was promoted during a tour of Italy (sponsored by Trinity College of Music and endorsed by Mark Bass Italia) which included performances in Turin, Milan, Florence, Genoa, Venice and the Chet Baker Jazz Club in Bologna. The quartet received impressive reviews which can be viewed at www.jazzitalia.net  and www.jazzconvention.net .

In September the Andy Davies Quartet received a ‘special mention’ by the jury of Jazz Granada 2005 and the quartet continued to gain an international reputation, performing in Jazz Terrassa, Gerona and the renowned Jamboree Jazz Club in Barcelona in December 2005.  A finalist in the 2005 Peter Whittington Jazz Competition, the Andy Davies quartet was awarded a Musicians Benevolent Fund Development Award because of the ‘exceptional standard’. The quartet was selected as a recipient for Jazz Services Funding for a British tour in November 2005 when the Andy Davies Quartet performed in Wigan, Manchester, Leeds, Aberdeen, London, Bristol, Torquay and Cardiff.

Andy Davies comes from Gower in South Wales and is a jazz graduate of Trinity College of Music in London where he was a student of Steve Waterman. In 2003 he was awarded a Trinity College of Music Silver Medal for Outstanding Performance in Jazz Studies.  While still a student, Andy was the guest trumpet soloist with the singer Ian Shaw and his Trio appearing at Blackheath, Croydon, Grimsby, the 606 club, Brecon Jazz festival and Ronnie Scott’s.  Andy has performed with numerous artists including Gwyneth Herbert and Robin Jones, and is a featured soloist on Iris Festenstien’s CD, ‘One Good Scandal’ (33 Records). He has appeared at all the major venues in London including Ronnie Scott’s, Pizza Express Dean Street, 606 Club, The Vortex, Pizza on the Park, The Crypt and toured Europe playing in jazz festivals and clubs as a sideman and leading his own quartet. 

He has been described as ‘one of the most sensitive and creative trumpeters to emerge on the British jazz scene in recent years’ whose ‘strength is his ability to marry a first-class technique and marvellously clear tone with elegant, emotive phrasing. His compositional style has been called ‘classy, melodic music with unexpected twists’.  

Lorenzo Bassignani was born in Varese in 1978, he studied with Marco Conti, Marco Vaggi at the CIVICA SCUOLA DI JAZZ of MILAN, Steve Watts, Geoff Gascoyne and Paul Bartholomew at TRINITY COLLEGE of MUSIC of LONDON. he started his career in Italy with the Modern Gospel Choirs NO ONE ELSE GOSPEL SINGERS, GREENSLEEVES GOSPEL CHOIR, performing all around Italy (Milano gospel Festival, Padova Christmas Show, Conservatoire Verdi Gospel Show, San remo Gospel Night, Riva Del garda International Gospel Competition) toghether with some geat singers such as Julia St Louis, Barbara Evans Joyce E Yuille and Junior Robinson. After moving to London he started to perform with various jazz artists and together with Andy Davies started the jazz project ANDYDAVIESQUARTET, performing at Tokyo Opera House, Jamboree Jazz Club (Barcelona), Jazz Terrassa (Terrassa), Manchester Jazz Festival, Moleto International Jazz Festival, Varese Open Jazz Ferstival, Chet Baker Jazz Club (Bologna), Scimmie Jazz Club (Milan), National Theatre, and many more. Currently working with the international Jazz project ANDYDAVIESQUARTET (with which I recorded 2 albums) , the SINGER / songwriter Leonardo di Lorenzo and the jazz / groove project KI.