Biography
Jamie Stockbridge is a professional performer, composer, arranger and improviser. Primarily as a Saxophonist, Jamie's performing career has taken him across the UK and Europe both as band leader of Manchester's 12-piece ensemble Agbeko and co-leader of freewheeling non-jazz vagabonds Taupe.
Jamie's compositions manifest themselves primarily through Agbeko and Taupe. His work has been featured on BBC Radio 3 (Late Junction, Freeness), BBC Radio 6 (Stuart Maconie's Freak Zone, Introducing Mixtape) Worldwide FM and on international radio as far reaching as Australia, Nigeria, Italy, Czechia, Ghana and Japan.
As the founder, bandleader and sole composer/lyricist of Agbeko, Jamie has been able to lead this ensemble from mountaintops to basements all across the European Continent. He has recently overseen the release of There Must Be Another Way, which was featured on Bandcamp Weekly, BBC Radio 6 and many local radio stations across Europe. Under his leadership, Agbeko have performed at Linecheck Festival in Milan, Dauphine Jazz Festival in Paris, Malta International Arts Festival, Meadows in the Moutains (Bulgaria), Beserlpark (Austria), Soundwave (Croatia) and at venues and festivals across the UK. He also successfully applied for the group to participate in Sage Gateshead’s Foundry Scheme, and developed an ACE-grant supported mid-pandemic music education app AgbekoCreate
With Taupe, Jamie has performed at jazz festivals, punk clubs and new music venues across the UK and Europe. He was responsible for booking their post-lockdown 10th anniversary tour including performances in Germany, Netherlands, Austria, Czechia and UK. They have opened for Deerhoof, Melt Banana and Richard Dawson, been selected for 12 Points! Jazz Festival and Jazz North’s Northern Line and most recently were PRS International Showcase Fund Awardees for their trip to Sharpe Festival in Slovakia. Taupe are composing ahead of a new album to be released in Autumn 2024 and are in discussions with Wesley Stephenson at New Jazz and Improvised Music Recordings about a potential release.
Jamie is also in demand as a collaborator, sideman and session musician. He is an enthusiastic member of John Pope Quartet, whose recent album Citrinitas and accompanying documentary Stepping into the Stream was released with help from the Peter Whittingham Award. His Alto/Bari Sax and Effects feature alongside Eliot Galvin, Catherine Sikora Mingus and Mariam Rezai as part of Adjunt Ensemble’s Sovereign Bodies/Ritual Taxonomy, a Guardian Contemporary Album of the Month.
Other performance highlights include performances with Manchester Camerata, in the touring band for Martha Reeves & The Vandellas and guitar/saxophone for France-based Engish singer Murray Head alongside Phil Palmer (Eric Clapton, Dire Straits) and Geoffrey Richardson (Penguin Cafe Orchestra, Renauld, Caravan). He is a member of the Easy Rollers, and has recently begun composing more ‘Great American Songbook’-style works for the group. He teaches regularly with Olympias Music Foundation, an award-winning charity providing free-at-point-of-service lessons for children on free school meals in deprived areas of central Manchester. He holds a MMus (Distinction) from the Royal Northern College of Music and a First Class BMus (Hons) from Newcastle University, having studied at Utrechts Conservatorium during his undergraduate degree.
Jamie's compositions manifest themselves primarily through Agbeko and Taupe. His work has been featured on BBC Radio 3 (Late Junction, Freeness), BBC Radio 6 (Stuart Maconie's Freak Zone, Introducing Mixtape) Worldwide FM and on international radio as far reaching as Australia, Nigeria, Italy, Czechia, Ghana and Japan.
As the founder, bandleader and sole composer/lyricist of Agbeko, Jamie has been able to lead this ensemble from mountaintops to basements all across the European Continent. He has recently overseen the release of There Must Be Another Way, which was featured on Bandcamp Weekly, BBC Radio 6 and many local radio stations across Europe. Under his leadership, Agbeko have performed at Linecheck Festival in Milan, Dauphine Jazz Festival in Paris, Malta International Arts Festival, Meadows in the Moutains (Bulgaria), Beserlpark (Austria), Soundwave (Croatia) and at venues and festivals across the UK. He also successfully applied for the group to participate in Sage Gateshead’s Foundry Scheme, and developed an ACE-grant supported mid-pandemic music education app AgbekoCreate
With Taupe, Jamie has performed at jazz festivals, punk clubs and new music venues across the UK and Europe. He was responsible for booking their post-lockdown 10th anniversary tour including performances in Germany, Netherlands, Austria, Czechia and UK. They have opened for Deerhoof, Melt Banana and Richard Dawson, been selected for 12 Points! Jazz Festival and Jazz North’s Northern Line and most recently were PRS International Showcase Fund Awardees for their trip to Sharpe Festival in Slovakia. Taupe are composing ahead of a new album to be released in Autumn 2024 and are in discussions with Wesley Stephenson at New Jazz and Improvised Music Recordings about a potential release.
Jamie is also in demand as a collaborator, sideman and session musician. He is an enthusiastic member of John Pope Quartet, whose recent album Citrinitas and accompanying documentary Stepping into the Stream was released with help from the Peter Whittingham Award. His Alto/Bari Sax and Effects feature alongside Eliot Galvin, Catherine Sikora Mingus and Mariam Rezai as part of Adjunt Ensemble’s Sovereign Bodies/Ritual Taxonomy, a Guardian Contemporary Album of the Month.
Other performance highlights include performances with Manchester Camerata, in the touring band for Martha Reeves & The Vandellas and guitar/saxophone for France-based Engish singer Murray Head alongside Phil Palmer (Eric Clapton, Dire Straits) and Geoffrey Richardson (Penguin Cafe Orchestra, Renauld, Caravan). He is a member of the Easy Rollers, and has recently begun composing more ‘Great American Songbook’-style works for the group. He teaches regularly with Olympias Music Foundation, an award-winning charity providing free-at-point-of-service lessons for children on free school meals in deprived areas of central Manchester. He holds a MMus (Distinction) from the Royal Northern College of Music and a First Class BMus (Hons) from Newcastle University, having studied at Utrechts Conservatorium during his undergraduate degree.