Corrie Dick & Norman Willmore
Biography Corrie Dick & Norman Willmore
Corrie Dick
is the name of a UK-based musician specialising in euphoric, sonically-conscious groove drumming. He is lauded for his touch, uniquely fresh approach to style and melodicism. He is an essential component of any project lead by Laura Jurd including Mercury Prize Shortlisted Dinosaur; provides the intricate and fluent stick work in the Elliot Galvin Trio; brings intense, free colours to Danish powerhouse bassist Jasper Høiby’s exciting Fellow Creatures; writes deep and spiritual music for Blue-Eyed Hawk; and provides the full spectrum of rhythmic elements for guitar wunderkind Rob Luft’s ensemble. He also leads his own joy-inducing supergroup, releasing his debut album with the ensemble in November 2015, selling out concerts across the UK ever since. The album displays Corrie’s striking abilities as composer/lyricist by skilfully fusing Celtic folk and contemporary jazz with new takes on African rhythms.
Since his graduation as a gold medal student from Trinity Laban’s prestigious jazz course, Corrie has honed his playing and composing from his base in South East London’s hub of creativity. The young master of contemporary grooves has studied traditional music in Ghana and Morocco where the rhythm is rich and layered, and also in his home land, Scotland, where rhythm and melody have melded for centuries.
His investigations in rhythm have lead to a series of solo drum and percussion concerts at venues like Vortex and King’s Place. Here he demonstrates untapped perspectives on an instrument that bathes in potential, as Corrie puts it, “here’s an instrument that holds in it a bold combination of cultures - marching bass and snare drum, West-African toms and Turkish cymbals, it’s genius, and it’s healthy to celebrate where these elements came from.”
A winner of no shortage of accolades - Corrie picked up BBC’s ‘Young Scottish Jazz Musician of the Year 2013’ prize, a Mercury Prize 2017 shortlist, Scottish Jazz Awards ‘Up and Coming Artist’ in 2012, countless others during his time at college and has attended countless other award ceremonies as a nominee for the likes of Jazz FM’s ‘Jazz Act of the Year’, and the UK Parliament’s ‘Best Newcomer’ and ‘Album of the Year’ - Corrie owes his talents to the many supportive communities he has himself been crucial to. He is an alumni of both Tommy Smith Youth Jazz Orchestra and the National Youth Orchestra of Scotland and has been mentored by the likes of Mark Guiliana and Kendrick Scott as well as Ghanaian kpanlogo master Saddiq Addy, nephew of the legendary Mustapha Tettey Addy. He has also studied the traditional and modern music of Zimbabwe, Madagascar, Benin and DR Congo alongside his prodigious creative companion, guitarist Rob Luft.
Corrie is an original, open-minded, questing talent who is extending the parameters of what it means to be a drummer.
