Ant Law is a British guitarist and parliamentary jazz award nominee, who has been described by the Guardian as “a game changer” and “an innovator”. His 8th album ‘Ensconced’ is a collaboration with Milan-born British/Turkish singer Brigitte Beraha and was released (on Ubuntu Music) 16th August 2024. His previous album ‘Same Moon in the Same World’ (Outside in Music) was released on 4th November 2022.

‘Same Moon in the Same World’ is an ongoing collaboration between Ant and the brilliant saxophonist & composer Alex Hitchcock. Recorded in 2020/2021 across multiple continents, bridging the gap between London, Amsterdam and New York, it brings together a stellar cast of guest musicians performing new compositions: vibraphonist Joel Ross, bassists Linda May Han Oh, Ben Williams and Jasper Høiby, and drummers Jeff Ballard, Kendrick Scott, Sun-Mi Hong and Eric Harland.

The Same Moon quartet toured in Europe in December 2022. Ant and Alex Hitchcock (saxophone), were joined by Conor Chaplin (bass) and Jeff Ballard (drums) who appears on the album. In 2023 Ant and Alex toured with Jasper Høiby (bass) and Sun-Mi Hong (drums), both of whom also feature on the album. Tour booking is underway for this lineup throughout 2024 and 2025, and this quartet have recorded a brand new album – stay tuned for more information!

The pandemic hit in the middle of ‘The Sleeper Wakes’ European tour. London was locked-down and Ant began collaborating on a series of remote recordings with a range of artists across the globe. This evolved into weekly livestreams in which he broadcast the collaborative music videos and interviewed the guests. It is entitled “QZ” – which stands for Quarantine Zone. These monthly streams can still be viewed on YouTube, facebook & Twitch.

Ant’s debut ‘Entanglement’ (33Jazz) was released in 2013, followed by ‘Zero Sum World’ (Whirlwind Recordings) in 2015 and then ‘Life I Know’ (Edition Records) in 2018. This release was described as “career-defining”. It achieved 5 star reviews, made numerous “best of 2018″ lists, received airplay in the UK, Europe, Australia, and was added to numerous editorial playlists on Spotify. 2020 saw the release of Ant’s 4th album – the critically acclaimed ‘The Sleeper Wakes’ (Edition).

Ant (the “L”) also coleads Trio HLK who record/tour with Dame Evelyn Glennie. Trio HLK’s ‘Anthropometricks’ was awarded a 9/10 review in the May 2024 issue of Guitar Techniques Magazine. In addition to leading his own projects, Ant has performed extensively with Tim Garland‘s band (with Jason Rebello & Asaf Sirkis), featuring on albums ‘Songs To The North Sky’, ‘Return To The Fire’ & ‘ONE’ which was shortlisted for a Grammy and won the Jazzwise Best Album award.

He has worked with other notables Cory Henry, Thomas Gould and been featured on numerous occasions in “Total Guitar”, “Guitar Techniques” & “Guitarist” magazines. In the latter he was included in a list of “10 Astounding Virtuosos”, and the May 2021 issue of Guitar Techniques features a 2-page spread on Ant, and a 9/10 review of The Sleeper Wakes.

In 2016 Ant formed the Art Of Rhythm Trio featuring Matt Ridley (bass) and Asaf Sirkis (drums & konnakol). In April/May they played a 20-date tour throughout the UK, supported by the Arts Council. Most notable perhaps is the inclusion of Indian classical elements (check out this video) such as konnakol, the South-Indian spoken percussion. This video features the rarely sighted Art Of Rhythm expanded into quintet formation.

Ant was born in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, where he lived until the age of 16. From a young age he was exposed to early blues and rock ‘n’ roll, as well as Arabic music. He began playing classical piano and guitar around the age of 8. Throughout his teens he gravitated towards the guitar. A history teacher gave him a video of Stevie Ray Vaughan playing live at the El Mocambo, which was a huge influence, along with videos of Guns ‘n’ Roses, Queen, and later on Joe Satriani and Steve Vai.

 

Law studied Physics on a scholarship at Edinburgh University. In the summer before his final year there he completed a summer semester at Berklee College Of Music, Boston. This he says was crucial because he heard gospel music and gospel drummers for the first time, and lots of Latin American music. As he continued with the Physics degree he became obsessed with jazz and played his first jazz gigs. By this point he had discovered and started using Perfect 4ths tuning for the guitar. In a case of convergent evolution, other players (like Stanley Jordan, Tom Quayle) had also discovered and were using this same tuning. Allan Holdsworth has said that if he could start again, he would tune this way. Ant wrote a book introducing the tuning entitled “3rd Millenium Guitar” which is published by Mel Bay.

Since 2010 Ant has lived in London, touring across the UK and internationally. He also lived in NYC for a season where he studied with his heroes Ari Hoenig, Ben Monder, Adam Rogers, Lage Lund, Johannes Weidenmueller, Tim Miller and others.