Formed from a busking band in 1983, the HQ rapidly graduated to playing clubs and festivals throughout the UK and Europe. Crowd pleasing favorites at their local Brecon Jazz Festival, they have the distinction of being the only band to have performed every year since the festivals inception 25 years ago. Membership of the band which has fluctuated over the years, currently stands at 8 musicians.
"Excellent po-faced music" - The Gaurdian
A group that shuns the common labels, the HQ represent vibrant musical irreverance and unpredictable eclecticism. Although their roots are in jazz and the focus is on original compositions, their electrically propelled grooves are just as likely to incorporate ska, reggae and klezma as any jazz style. Live, they have had a tendency towards radical reworkings of such major composers as Sidney Bechet, Dudu Pukwana, Miles Davis, Jimi Hendrix, Kurt Cobain and KC and the Sunshine band.
"A post-modernist experience." - Worldbeat
Constantly evolving the HQ have released a number of critically acclaimed albums, their latest, MACHINE ,recorded in 2004, finds the band in its larger incarnation with 12 players mixing up a big band sound with intricate improvisation. A funky collection of grooves, it's big-sound jazz, ska, funk and dub, with a few african rhythms and the occaisional electronic wild card thrown in.
"The HQ are that rare thing, a modern jazz group committed to a non-elitist popular culture and insisting on communication with their audience, try and see them!" - Venue
2008 will find the band back in the studio to record the new and 14th album for which they are currently writing and playing in new material.
"Their is a controlled abandon about their approach, the Heavies transcend brilliance traversing the fine line between the serious and the psychotic with infinite ease." - Gair Rhydd
Discography
Hammer and Sickle (1986)
Bomb (1987)
Poum (1988)
A Screaming Tradition (1989)
Short Stories (1991)
Carnivore (1995)
Bootleg Vol.1 (1995)
Live at the FBI (1998)
Hung, Drawn & Quartetted (live at Brecon Jazz Festival) (1999)
Delete Memory (2002)
Tales from the Riverbank Vols. 1 & 2 (2004)
MACHINE (2004)
We are dealing with an entity that both mocks and embraces its source and thus creates something which defies comparison" - Impact.
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