Loz Speyer is a trumpeter, composer, bandleader and teacher working in Jazz and related music. Over the last 25 years he has initiated and led bands ranging from the 11-piece composers’ collective Rare Mix to freely improvising trios. His own Cuban-Jazz sextet Time Zone and his Free Jazz quintet Inner Space, both ongoing since 2003, have toured to Jazz festivals and clubs all around the UK, and released several critically acclaimed albums of original music.

 

In his own groups Speyer‘s long-standing colleagues include Stuart Hall, Chris Biscoe, Martin Hathaway, Tony Bianco, Jason Yarde. And as a freelance musician he has also worked with Sarah Jane Morris, Alex Maguire, Brian Abrahams, John Bennett Band, Mark Lockheart, Hugh Metcalf, London Improvisers Orchestra, Bollywood Brass Band, Simo Lagnawi, Amancio daSilva, Happy End (international tours and two LPs), Michael Rosen (a jazz-poetry project), Test Department, Yann Tiersen, Orquesta Chepín-Chovén… 

 

Living between London and Santiago de Cuba from ­2001 to 2009, Speyer married a Cuban, became fluent in Spanish – and studied percussion, played with Son bands and recorded with local musicians. A collaboration with master percussionist Rafael Cisneros featured in Festival del Caribe and recorded album Roots en Route – Raices en Viaje (2010 Spherical Records). 

 

Cuban music features in Speyer’s teaching repertoire, along with other “world music”. He currently teaches trumpet and runs ensembles in schools in Haringey, and has led workshops based on his own music in settings ranging from a school band at his daughter’s primary school in Hackney, to workshops for degree students at Guildhall School of Music. ​ 

 

Speyer’s arrangements for large ensembles have been performed and recorded by jazz orchestras at the Guildhall School of Music and Morley College, as well as by Rare Mix… and his extended arrangement for Octet of the Bastille Concerto, composed by Clifford Jarvis’ father, formed a centrepiece in the memorial concert at the Spitz in honour of this great jazz drummer.