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Rob Cope's Joyride with Gwilym Simcock!
Friday 16 January 2026
Bar 7 pm / music 8 pm
Tickets £17 on the door and Eventbrite: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/rob-copes-joyride-with-gwilym-simcock-tickets-1976346321048?aff=oddtdtcreator
Rob Cope’s Joyride with Gwilym Simcock will play two sets of joyful and melodic original music - a very special night to remember of soaring melodies and exciting improvisations!
Line up:
Rob Cope – saxophone
Gwilym Simcock – piano
Nick Smart – trumpet
Flo Moore – double bass
Sophie Alloway – drums
Rob Cope is a freelance teacher and performer.
Rob studied saxophone for most of his life, culminating in a master’s in music
performance and Royal Academy of Music (2010-2012). He has released two albums,
Gods of Apollo and more recently the critically acclaimed Gemini on Ubuntu
Music, both feature giants of British jazz and his new band, Joy Ride continues
this tradition. Rob curates and produces The Jazz Podcast in his spare time.
Gwilym Simcock has carved out a career as one
of the most gifted pianists and imaginative composers on the European scene. He
moves effortlessly between jazz and classical music, with a ‘harmonic
sophistication and subtle dovetailing of musical traditions’. Gwilym has been
hailed as a pianist of ‘exceptional’, ‘brilliant’ and ‘dazzling’ ability, and
his music has been widely acclaimed as ‘engaging, exciting, often unexpected,
melodically enthralling, complex yet hugely accessible’, and above all
‘wonderfully optimistic’.
Nick Smart - Head of Jazz Programmes at the
Royal Academy of Music, Nick Smart is an internationally renowned jazz
trumpeter, educator and conductor who has given guest masterclasses and
performances around the world.
Flo Moore has performed with many established
artists, such as Jordan Rakei and Jason Rebello (Sting). Her current live
projects include Jordan Rakei, Quinn Oulton, Lokki (Drew MacFarlane), The
Lovers of Invention, Sam Leak’s Looking Glass, the Tom Ridout Quintet,
Tomorrow’s New Quartet and Jeremy Sassoon’s MOJO. She was previously a member
of award-winning bands Ezra Collective and Nerija.
Sophie Alloway is in demand on the London jazz
scene where she has played with the likes of Jason Rebello, Mornington Lockett,
Yazz Ahmed, Laurence Cottle, George Melly, Guthrie Govan, Shez Raja, Vimala
Rowe, Geoff Eales, Nigel Price, Tony Allen, Wild Card, Tony Kofi, Jay Rayner,
US actor/comedian Jason Kravits, among many others. She played for Prince
Charles in Buckingham Palace shortly before he became King.
www.ram.ac.uk/people/nick-smart
www.ram.ac.uk/people/flo-moore
Video 1 (Gwilym Simcock - "These Are the Good
Days"): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w2Q9nQg4JmM
Vide 2 (Claire and Rob Cope - "Every Journey Has a Beginning") : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eU84CrHxcE8&t=58s