Beautiful Storm

Scottish saxophone titan Phil Bancroft brings over three decades of experience to this latest project, bringing together the internationally revered talents of the consistently inventive guitarist, Graeme Stephen and Delhi-based percussionist and tabla master, Gyan Singh.

A major figure on the Scottish music scene for over 30 years, Phil Bancroft emerged in the late 1980’s as saxophonist and main composer for the trailblazing John Rae Collective, which heralded a new generation of Scottish jazz musicians. He went on to forge a reputation in influential Scottish bands including Celtic Feet, the award-winning Trio AAB, Colin Steele’s Stramash, and the Scottish National Jazz Orchestra. In demand for other musicians' projects, as well as leading his own groups, Bancroft has since performed with musicians from across the pop, jazz, classical and Celtic music scenes. He is the featured soloist with the Grit Orchestra, a ninety-strong ensemble dedicated to the music of ground-breaking piper and multi-instrumentalist Martyn Bennett, works with keyboardist Paul Harrison’s Sugarwork, and leads Phil Bancroft's Standards Trio in tribute to great saxophonists including Sonny Rollins and Joe Henderson in parallel with his Beautiful Storm trio. He has performed with jazz luminaries Sun Ra, Kenny Wheeler, Oliver Lake, Ernst Reisinger and Joe Lovano and he has composed music and developed multi-media for his own small and large ensemble projects, including the multi-media show Small as The World. In the early 200s he led his International Quartet, with Bad Plus bassist Reid Anderson, Norwegian drummer-percussionist Thomas Stronen and English guitar hero Mike Walker, to considerable acclaim. He has also worked with musicians from the Indian, African and Scottish traditions and has taught saxophone and improvisation at undergraduate and postgraduate levels at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and at Napier and Newcastle Universities. Bancroft formed The Beautiful Storm with fellow Scot, Aberdeen-born guitarist Graeme Stephen and Delhi-based percussionist Gyan Singh in 2022. The trio's first album, Finding Hope (When All Seems Lost), was released in December 2024 and has been warmly received internationally, with radio plays in the U.S., Canada, Australia, Poland, the UK and Ireland and enthusiastic reviews including "so versatile and expressive" (UK Jazz News) and "beautiful music" (The Ileach).