Nikki Iles
Nikki Iles ( born May 16, 1963 in Dunstable, Bedfordshire ) is a British jazz pianist, accordionist and composer.
Life and work
Nikki Iles ' father was a drummer, her mother a pianist. They first learned accordion and clarinet. At age eleven, she won a competition for young people at the Royal Academy of Music; where she studied then 1974-1981 Clarinet and Piano. During this time she was a member of the Bedfordshire Youth Jazz Orchestra. After she had come into contact with jazz, she studied from 1981 to 1984 alto saxophone and piano at Leeds College of Music.
With her then-husband, trumpeter Richard Iles, she founded the formation Emanon, were among the more Mike Walker ( guitar) and Iain Dixon ( saxophone); the other members all came from the Creative Jazz Orchestra or had worked with Vince Mendoza, Anthony Braxton, Michael Gibbs, Kenny Wheeler. In addition Iles with various London bands like the Steve Argüelles band, Mick Hutton's Straight Face, Stan Sulzmann quartet and with the Tina May 1996 Iles played at BT Jazz Festival was awarded the John Dankworth Special Award. Iles worked on recordings by Sylvan Richardson, the Mike Gibbs Orchestra (Ah Hum, 1994), Stan Sulzmann, Martin Speake, Geoff Simkins, Ingrid Laubrock and Scott Hamilton. Performances at Pizza Express Steinway Piano Festival 2011 2- ( Kate Williams) were broadcast on radio with her.
Iles taught at Middlesex University; previously she was at the University of York, Leeds College of Music, the Guildhall School of Music and worked in Bulgaria, Holland, France and Finland.
Disco Graphical Notes
- Veils ( Icon, 2003)
- Everything I Love ( Basho Records 2004)
- Hush ( Basho, 2012), with Rufus Reid, Jeff Williams