Loz Speyer

Inner Space plays Jazz of a rare warmth and immediacy - compositions for improvisers with roots in both jazz and free improv. Loz Speyer’s writing for the band creates space for the group to explore new areas and discover where the music might GO, while drawing deeply on the Jazz tradition, all the way back to New Orleans. The compositions serve as structures for improvisation, with a lot of spontaneous input from all five musicians - each piece does it differently, and people love it! 

Inner Space re-emerged from the pandemic with a new lineup featuring star saxophonists Xhosa Cole and Dee Byrne. Already making waves with their own groups both in the UK and beyond, they bring fresh sounds to this long-standing project, building on a band sound developed through extensive touring in the UK - that live interactive sound captured in the 2017 Leo Records album “Life on the Edge” (with Chris Biscoe and Rachel Musson on saxes, and Olie Brice on double bass).

Along with music from the album, Inner Space is now exploring extended forms in a growing set of Jazz Portrait compositions, with titles such as “Innate Ornette”, “Chimes for Grimes” and “Sun the One Ra the Far” - An audacious attempt maybe to characterise such seminal figures, but one that comes naturally from a lifelong relationship with their music, making sense of their legacy in our own TIME. The pieces inspired by actual encounters come with stories that emerge on stage, drawing on deep sources of inspiration.

Line Up: Loz Speyer - trumpet, flugelhorn, Dee Byrne - alto sax, Xhosa Cole - tenor sax, Larry Bartley - double bass & Gary Willcox – drums

"One of the happiest evenings I've heard in jazz for many a long night... Music as rare as this defies description. Go along and see them!” - Karl Dallas, the Morning Star