The Descendants
Helen McDonald and The Descendants (formerly the London Bridge Ensemble) was formed in 2004 as a result of the writing partnership of Helen McDonald and Vladimir Miller.
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African Landscape |
Life Direction |
Helen McDonald and Vladimir Miller met during jam session evenings in London’s West End and gradually cemented what is now Helen McDonald and the Descendants. They have written many songs and pieces together and have collaborated on a multi-media jazz suite called ‘Pushkin in Africa’ which describes the life of the celebrated Russian poet Alexander Pushkin, and focuses on his African ancestral roots.
Their music draws on inspirations from Western Africa and Eastern Europe. These two widely different cultures have come together in a stangely unifying manner; there is a natural fusion that sees, for example, Vitus Pilibavicius playing the ragus, a Lithuanian folk instrument, and Helen singing in the Nigerian language Yoruba. Helen McDonald and the Descendants symbolises the meeting of these cultures, propelling the music into an exciting array of vocal textures and jazz rhythms with passages of creative instrumental interaction.
To date they have toured in the Baltics, including an appearence at Kaunas and Birstenas jazz festivals, and in Germany, which entailed a residency at the Bayerischer hop nightclub in Munich. They have also toured in England and performed in many cities including Derby, Birmingham, Cardiff, Brighton, Nottingham, Eastbourne and London.
Two CDs, Picking Up and Descendants, have been released on the British label ASC records.
Helen McDonald began her performing career in the Midlands, England, forming her own groups singing blues and jazz. In the 1990s she moved to London where she now lives and soon began performing with musicians such as Dave Murrey, Keith Whaite and Roy Ayres playing in prestigious venues and festivals, including Ronnie Scotts club. Helen also works in theatre and in this area has created a life story perfomance of Billie Holliday which was particularly well received to critical acclaim.
Helen has been hugely influenced from a wide range of experiences of performing and travelling in Africa, notably Ghana, Senegal and Sudan. She has also worked in Colombia, where she took a deep interest in capoeira, the Brazilian martial art.
Leslee Booth became a professional musician in 1982 after studying at ‘The Musicians Institute’ in Los Angeles. The Madras-born bassist’s subtle Indian nuances have lent support to some of the best American jazz names such as the legendary singer Billy Eckstine, with whom he toured extentively in the British Isles. He has also collaborated with Gloria Gaynor, Freda Payne, George Williams and Beatrice Reading. He currently plays a six-string contra-bass. He is also a important member of the guitar based Branco Stoysin Trio, who perform regularly on the British jazz circuit scene.
Vytautas Pilibavicius is a member of the Lithuanian Union of Composers and graduated in trombone, performance and composition at the Lithuanian conservatoire of music. Soon after he became the music director of Ex Temore, a group specialising in comtemporary music. From 1981 he also began to perform jazz and has been involved in numerous projects including collaborations with Barry Guy, Marcus Stockhausen, Louis Sclavis and Christian Muthspiel. He has established a reputation as a leading exponent of the Ragas - a Lithuanian folk instrument - and has performed pieces written especially for him.
Luciano Ciccotelli began drumming as a child in Chicago. In his teens he studied with the city’s legendary Dave Bloom at his jazz school.
His interest in exploring the world brought him to London in 1989 where he immersed himself in Britain’s diverse and often eccentric music scene and played and recorded with a wide range of bands - rock, jazz, Afro-groove and funk. He has performed in many countries including Switzerland, Lithuania, Latvia, Russia, USA, and recorded with musicians such as Gary Smith on the prestigious ‘Paratactile’ record label.
Trevor Antonio studied percussion in Brazil and Cuba and is a freelance percussionist who has performed with many groups and ensembles at numerous venues in Europe. These have included the World Music Festival in Porto, Portugal and the Big Band Festival, Paleis Voor Schone Kunsten Brussels, Belgium, with Airto Moreira and Nana Vasconcelos (1997). His current projects include: Banda Ere, a 15 piece percussion ensemble with vocals playing Brazilian music exclusively from Bahia and Verde Vai, a 20 piece Rio Samba style group very popular in London. Trevor also performs with various poets and has played percussion on two tracks from the forthcoming album from one the Uk's best spoken word artist, TY.
Adrian Northover has toured extensively in Europe and North America, with B Shops for the Poor, The Remote Viewers and Sonicphonics. He has released a Remote Viewers 5 CD set, ‘ Control Room’, including ‘Situations’, a CD of solo saxophone. Adrian can currently be heard playing on the London club scene with a wide range of musicians, as well as solo saxophone performances. He has just completed (2008) a Jazz Services funded tour of the UK, doing solo saxophone, and duo performances with John Edwards (CD ‘Winter’ available). Adrian also plays North Indian Classical music, and works with Hanif Khan (table and sax duo), Mehboob Nadeem (sitar, sax and kora trio), as well as the Indo-jazz fusion band Dha.