Flight03 Jul 22
Flight is finally happening... Read on for performance dates and to hear about the myriad...
Propellor is a cross-genre ensemble with an ambitious vision.
Soloists, writers and ensemble players have come together from a diverse range of backgrounds to create immersive live experiences through combined art forms.
Aaron Diaztrumpet / live electronics
Aaron Diaz is a trumpeter whose work explores the meeting point between traditional music and improvisation.
Whilst performing as a jazz musician, Aaron became involved with traditional music at Birmingham Conservatoire as a member of the contemporary folk group The Fair Rain (previously The Old Dance School) playing trumpet with electronic effects, now a nationally acclaimed touring and recording ensemble.
From 2011-2013 Aaron lived and studied in Göteborg, Sweden, studying with such musicians as Arve Henriksen (Supersilent, Trio Medieval), Anders Jormin (Don Cherry, Bobo Stenson) and Jonas Simonson (Groupa). His time there lead to the project Field Work, discovering a place for the trumpet to improvise within the setting of traditional folk influences, as well as appearing in free improvisatory projects such as Gino Robair’s I, Norton opera for improvisers and performing his music at Norldlysfestivalen 2013 in Norway 2013.
He has performed and appeared with, FOOD (Iain Ballamy & Thomas Strōnen), The Neil Yates & Mike McGoldrick Undivided bigband, composer and ‘conductionist’ Sid Peacock’s big band featuring Django Bates and balkan-folk festival favourites The Destroyers.
Aaron's new quartet Drawlight features clarinetist Jack McNeill (Propellor, BCMG, Ensemble 360), harpist Esther Swift (Twelfth Day, The Unthanks), and accordionist Jim Molyneux (Propellor, The Fair Rain, 4Square), playing music composed and arranged by Aaron. The group was formed in the spring of 2017, debuting at at the Surge in Spring festival at Birmingham’s MAC. Influenced by Aaron’s time living and studying in Scandinavia, the groups' original compositions dart between the members shared disciplines and experience within the UK’s classical, folk and improvisational scenes. Incorporating found sounds, whole-group interplay and spontaneity, Drawlight cast improvisation within the timbres of traditional music.
