Shivraj Singh

Shivraj Singh is an established double and electric bass player from Smethwick in Birmingham, UK. His first experience playing was at a very young age through the outreach programme ran by Symphony Hall called the Jazzlines Summer School. Where he performed and studied with some of Britain’s Jazz giants. The likes of Nikki Isle, Shabaka Hutchings, Reuben James and Kit Downes were all part of the programme. He later went on to study at the decorated Royal Birmingham Conservatoire (2015-2019) where he was taught by Mike Williams, Mark Hodgson, John O’Gallagher, Arnie Somogyi, Hans Koller and classical bassist Thomas Martin. Over the course of his short career he has performed with Soweto Kinch, Clark Tracey, Percy Pursglove, Sara Coleman, Denys Baptiste, Nikki Yeoh, Liam Noble, Jean Toussaint, Phil Robson, Xhosa Cole and the Black Voices to name but a few. He has played at many notable venues around the UK and abroad such as the Spotted Dog (Birmingham), Jazz Cafe (London), Cheltenham Jazz Festival (Cheltenham), A Love Supreme Festival (London), JAZZFEST (Trondheim) and Pizza Express (London) He was a notable sideman in some current bands in Birmingham; one of these being the BBC Young Jazz Musician of the year's band, the Xhosa Cole Quartet. Shivraj and Xhosa have had a long standing relationship, having grown up playing together in the Jazzlines Ensemble. This band mixes the styles of Hard Bop, Post-Bop and Modal music effortlessly drawing on influences such as John Coltrane, Thelonious Monk and Sonny Rollins. Shivraj helped produce Xhosa’s last album Ibeji which was received with critical acclaim. Shivraj is also part of David Austin-Grey's project A Hologram Maze: All Songs are Love Songs which is a blend of classic Jazz Standards and more contemporary Jazz music. Projects include The King’s New Clothes (TKNC) is an exciting six piece band led by established electric and double bassist Shivraj Singh. It blends together seamlessly the influences of Jazz, Hip-Hop, R ‘n’ B and House to create new and exciting concoctions of musical styles. The band will be playing a blend of covers and original music ranging from Mos Def, James Blake, A Tribe Called Quest and Solange. The band features experienced and established musicians from around the Birmingham scene including Sam Wooster on Trumpet, David Austin-Grey on Piano, Steve Saunders on Guitar, James Romaine on Flute and Alto and Luke D’Aulerio on Drums. Another project, Loophole, is about finding a way to break a cycle. Constantly, in music, the feeling of being in a loop or cycle is strong so being free to break barriers is what this band's aim is. The directions of the music experiments with the boundaries of Jazz music incorporating influences from ambient sounds of Aphex Twin to the fast free form swing of Amok Amor. The trio has been working closely to develop music and is different and something new for the genre of Jazz. Loophole features Steve Saunders on Guitar (Xhosa Cole, Paul Dunmall and John O’Gallagher) and Luke D’Aulerio on drums (Jamil Sheriff, Xhosa Cole and Declan Forde) with special guest Soweto Kinch.