 Buster Birch b.mus (hons), lgsm, p.g.dip
Playing professionally since his teens, Buster is a very experienced musician in many fields of music (having clocked up well over 1000 gigs). He has a degree in music from the University of London and a post-graduate diploma in jazz performance from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama (where he was able to meet and play with Branford Marsalis, Randy Brecker, Billy Cobham and Dave Liebman, not to mention most of London's top jazz musicians who tutor at the college). Whilst living in New York, he also studied at the Drummers Collective in Manhattan and privately with Jim Chapin and Joe Morello (of The Dave Brubeck Quartet).He has travelled extensively as a musician and has now played in over 30 countries with various jazz ensembles, orchestras and shows.
His experience in playing jazz is considerable and includes big-bands to small groups. He regularly plays with many of the up-coming "young lions" on the London jazz scene, but particularly enjoys working with the "more mature" generation of British jazz veterans, who he finds very inspiring.
His experience of orchestral playing is quite substantial for someone who has chosen not to specialise in that field and includes playing for The Sarum Chamber Orchestra and The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.
He also has extensive experience in musical theatre, having played for countless shows in various theatre pits in the uk and abroad. These include West Side Story, Chess, South Pacific, A Chorus Line, Annie, Five Guys Named Mo, La Cage Aux Folles, Little Shop of Horrors, Les Miserables, Chicago, The King and I, My Fair Lady, Oliver and many more!
He also enjoys playing in two successful world music groups, Terza Rima and The Branco Stoysin Trio, and has toured and played at many festivals with these, including a recent performance at the SPB concert hall in St Petersburg to over 4000 people. These groups give him the opportunity to show his percussion skills using a multi-percussion/drum kit hybrid set up which one reveiwer described... "He looked at times as if he were working a one man multi-gym rather than a drum kit with perhaps ten or more additional instruments surrounding him!" (Mark Lello-Salisbury Journal)
Recording credits include several jazz albums as well as pop and film score sessions.
He cites the following as some of the many musicians who have influenced his playing and musical approach...
Miles Davis, Jimmy Smith, Clifford Brown, Lee Morgan, Charles Mingus, John Coltrane, Roland Kirk, Branford Marsalis, Dr John, Trilok Gurtu, Airto Moreira, Tania Maria, Aretha Franklin and Stevie Wonder.
www.busterbirch.com |
