Dave Colebourn

Opportunities to play with luminaries such as Brandon Block and the BBC's Andrew Marston didn't materialise overnight; it's been an amazing rollercoaster to get here! I've been on my music journey since the age of six when I took up the piano, but was powerless to stop myself taking up the saxophone at age fourteen upon discovering funk music, which remains among my favourite genres today. I quickly found affinity with expressing myself on the instrument. During this time I fronted a jazz sextet and played with a couple of district big bands that helped me to start finding my unique voice. Playing a set at the Royal Albert Hall was a serious highlight! While studying at university in south-west England, I managed the university big band for three years, integrated myself for the first time into the improvised music scene there, and moreover took some very influential sax lessons that set me on the path to my future career. As if that wasn’t enough to inspire me to take my saxophone playing further, I was also extremely privileged to meet and receive coaching from the late ‘Pee Wee’ Ellis, arguably one of the greatest saxophonists of his generation. I moved to Bristol in late 2019, and absolutely love it here to this day. Musically speaking, I was just getting started here when a pandemic arrived and cancelled all the gigs! I was thankfully able to use the dark times to my advantage by unleashing… a metric tonne of sax practise! I came out of the pandemic able to achieve feats on the saxophone that I’d only dreamed of just months earlier. In a city like Bristol, the work pays off quickly. Since the reemergence of society I’ve had the privilege of working with an enormous variety of bands, both local and touring, in addition to playing a few different festivals and regularly making my mark on the incredible improvised music scene. Presently, I’m distributing myself between weddings, clubs, parties and corporate events, in addition to local sessions & projects, and also my own solo woodwind project! I'd be extremely hard-pressed to pick a favourite from all of the different styles of music that I play, although I'm in particular demand as an ibiza saxophonist. Why? I live for the energy!!