Originally from Lincolnshire, Josh was part of a musical family, with his first musical inspiration coming from his father, who is also a trombonist. He first took lessons on the trombone at the age of 12 when he attended secondary school. Playing in the school orchestra and local brass bands, he soon progressed into the county youth orchestras and Big bands, and Boston Youth Jazz Orchestra, fuelling his love for big band and later, jazz music. Josh joined Birmingham Conservatoire in 2013 and is currently studying with Ashley Horton, Jeremy Price and Percy Pursglove. He has also received tuition from other coaching staff including Mike Williams, Jean Toussaint, Hans Koller, Clark Tracey and Arnie Somogyi. Josh takes regular coaching lessons with these tutors to help fine tune his own bands; his quintet, who have supported Donny McCaslin at the CBSO Centre in Birmingham, and his sextet, which he has recently released an E.P with. Josh can be heard regularly playing with ensembles in Birmingham and around the UK. He is in high demand as a section player within Big Bands and Jazz Orchestras and has a seat in the Midlands Youth Jazz Orchestra. He performs regularly with the National Youth Jazz Orchestra and Birmingham Jazz Orchestra, along with a range of other ensembles as a freelance musician.
I got in touch with StraightFIRE after a recommendation from a long-standing friend but didn't really know what we wanted to do in terms of entertainment for a large family gathering. Sam was so helpful on the phone, listened to all of my thoughts and put together the most perfect performance. They played all of my favorite Motown songs and also some new music that the children enjoyed - everyone thought they were amazing and danced the night away. Thank you so much - I will definitely be in touch again for any future family events.
StraightFIRE made our wedding a night to never forget! They learned our first dance request and played all of our requests - even the Ska tunes. They were great at working with the DJ to make sure songs weren’t duplicated and coordinated brilliantly with the venue to make sure the evening went as smoothly as possible. Thank you so much.