ABOUT
BLUE HAZE
Simon Deeley - Piano/Keyboards
Ian Cooper - Bass
Charlie Russell - Drums
The Band's History
In 2014 Simon moved from the West Midlands to the Welsh Borders, UK.
Now living in a new area, he had to forge new playing links, and the new partnerships he formed led to the formation of the Simon Deeley Quartet in 2015.
One of the main reasons that Simon formed the quartet was, that he wanted to have a group that would perform his own compositions. Certainly, in the last few years, composing has come to be the most important area of his career.
At the beginning of 2016 the quartet recorded the album CROSSING BORDERS (nine tracks of original compositions by Simon) and toured it through the Spring and Summer.
By the beginning of 2017 two members of the band had to drop out due to logistical reasons, and so Simon formed another band, this time with the brilliant, dynamic saxophonist from Abervergavenny Martha Skilton and bassist Ian Cooper, a stalwart of the Brecon jazz scene and Brecon Festival regular. They joined the Hereford based drummer Charlie Russell from the original quartet. With Simon in the piano chair, this then was the line-up of the new quartet. Simon Deeley's Blue Haze Quartet was born.
The choice of the name Blue Haze came from Simon's observation of the hazy-blue colouring of the distant hills of his new border home, a place, which he feels has had a strong, positive effect on his creative output.
The new band began rehearsing in the Spring of 2017 , and then in the August, they recorded the album FROM THE BLUE HILLS. This album is made up of eleven tracks, again all originals composed by Simon.
The beginning of 2019 saw the band change once again, becoming now, a dynamic trio due to Martha having to bow out to become a new mother.
The band, now in its new close knit trio format, went straight into rehearsing a set of new compositions by Simon, which culminated in them recording their latest album AFAN'S DANCE in the autumn of 2019. Since then the band have been on the road playing and promoting the music from the album, that is, up until March of last year, when the present situation halted live performance.
The band are currently planning gigs for the start up of live performance again. Hopefully back on the road some point in the second half of 2021, conditions permitting.