Tom Ford, Music Spoken Here, The Marr’s Bar, Worcester, 25/09/2025.

Tom Ford – guitar, George Johnson – tenor sax, Stan Woodward – electric bass, Nathan Shingler – drums, Simon Jnr. - vocals

Music Spoken Here’s 2025/26 season got off to an excellent, if slightly belated, start with this visit from the Birmingham born guitarist, composer and producer Tom Ford and his band.

The season should have started on September 11th with the London based quartet Zenel, but this event had to be cancelled due to the illness of one of the band members.

Both the Zenel and Ford gigs were part of MSH’s Re; Play Series which sees acts that visited the Marr’s Bar in MSH’s early days being invited back to perform in front of a larger audience than first time round, now that MSH has begun to build a following.

This was certainly the case for the Ford band with the guitarist and his colleagues attracting a pleasingly large and very supportive following to the Marr’s Bar for an evening of high energy jazz rock fusion, with elements of rap and hip hop thrown in. Ford is currently based on the Isle of Wight but a number of his old friends from Birmingham seemed to have swelled the audience. It was good to see so many in the crowd as the Re; Play season finally got off to a great start.

MSH Instigator Dave Fuller’s chat with Ford as part of MSH’s regular Piece Talks series, which goes out on the MSH Youtube channel, revealed that Ford started out on piano before switching to guitar at age six, initially inspired by Oasis.

His father was also a musician and played in a variety of bands on the Birmingham pub rock circuit, working with such Brummie music legends as Trevor Burton and Steve Gibbons. The young Ford got into the guitar more seriously when a leg injury stopped him playing football for a significant period of time, with music now becoming the main focus. As a teenager Ford formed his own band as well as ‘depping’ for his dad at various Birmingham pub gigs.

Ford’s interest in jazz was first piqued by hearing Weather Report. Guitarists such as Pat Metheny, Mike Stern and particularly Allan Holdsworth were also hugely influential on his musical development.

After honing his chops playing in a variety of bands throughout his teens Ford went to study in the US at the famous Berklee College of Music in Boston, but was forced to drop out in 2008 in the wake of the financial crisis. He returned home to Birmingham but had learnt a great deal about jazz during his time at Berklee.

Back home in Brum Ford threw himself into the Birmingham jazz scene and appeared regularly at the much missed Yardbird venue, where he met pianist Reuben James and other students on the Jazz Course at Birmingham Conservatoire, performing regularly with these musicians even though he wasn’t actually studying there himself.

During this period he appeared under the name Thomas Seminar Ford and I recall seeing him perform with pianist Sam Watts and hearing him on albums by pianist Rebecca Nash and drummer Jonathan Silk. He was also a member of the trio Stillefelt, featuring bassist Chris Mapp and trumpeter Percy Pursglove, appearing on that group’s eponymous debut album. He also worked with the electro jazz outfit Autumn, sometimes known as Delta Autumn, which also featured electronic musicians Robbie Moore, and Luke Morrish-Thomas and drummer Ric Yarborough. Others with whom he has worked include trumpeters Sam Wooster and Jay Phelps and the jazz / nu soul outfit Trope.

Ford acted as both musician and producer for Reuben James and as a result began to work more frequently in both London and Los Angeles. His work with James also brought him into the orbit of the renowned jazz and funk drummer Chris ‘Daddy’ Dave. Ford is wary of genre classifications and has also worked extensively with the rock musician Geordie Greep, once of the band Black Midi and now a successful solo artist.

Working under his own name Ford has released music under the group moniker The Tennis Champions, a collective of musicians and vocalists from Birmingham and further afield, a genuinely international collaboration. He has also worked with the Chicago based MC Chase Alex while his 2023 digital album “Mixtape 1” features a host of collaborations with like minded instrumentalists and vocalists.

More recent projects include an Isle of Wight based jazz guitar trio featuring double bassist Jon Thorne and drummer Chris Jones. This line up is due to release an album in 2026.

Ford has also performed live shows paying tribute to the music of the late, great Allan Holdsworth, the line up including tonight’s bassist Stan Woodward and the Swiss musician Anataol Muster on midi accordion.

Woodward is a member of Knats, a band with a cult following that originated in Newcastle but is now based in London. Ford guests with Knats on a regular basis and he and Woodward have established an impressive musical rapport.

Tonight’s line up also included Staffordshire based drummer Nathan Shingler, a long time collaborator. Ford’s groups have previously included the in demand Jas Kayser, a previous MSH visitor, but Shingler now appears to have the drum chair full time.

The regular line up usually includes trumpeter Christos Stylianides, who was unavailable this evening. He was replaced by the twenty year old tenor saxophonist George Johnson, a student at the Royal Academy of Music and a finalist in the 2024 BBC Young Jazz Musician of the Year competition. He has also performed regularly with Knats but this was his first time playing Ford’s music. He gave a great account of himself with some fluent and fiery playing. 

This was very much in evidence on the opening “Big Money”, a Ford original introduced by the composer with a passage of unaccompanied guitar, quickly joined by the hip hop influenced drum grooves of Shingler. Woodward added funky electric bass lines as Johnson stepped out of the shadows to deliver the first solo, quickly making his mark. A series of powerful sax and guitar exchanges, fuelled by Shingler’s dynamic drumming, paved the way for Ford’s own stratospheric guitar solo. I choose the adjective carefully, as Ford was wielding a Fender Stratocaster throughout tonight’s show. Woodward was next to feature on electric bass, displaying great dexterity and effecting a high register, guitar like sound. In his interview Ford had praised Woodward’s shredding ability, and this was very much in evidence here. Finally we heard from the hard hitting Shingler as he circumnavigated his kit, underpinned by Ford’s circling guitar motif.

The high octane opener was followed by the Allan Holdsworth composition “Looking Glass”, the composition that gave keyboard player Sam Leak’s band, MSH visitors in 2024, its name. Woodward took the first solo on electric bass, followed by Johnson on tenor. Ford’s guitar solo was appropriately Holdsworth-esque and drummer Shingler was again featured towards the close.

Birmingham based vocalist Simon Jnr. joined the band for the Ford composed song “Love Cadet”, his vocalising a mix of straight ahead singing and confident rapping. It was difficult to pick up too much with regard to the lyrics and for me the highlights were Ford’s fleet fingered guitar solo, Johnson’s powerful sax and Shingler’s dynamic drumming.

Simon remained on stage for the following “Magnetic”, like “Love Cadet” a song from the Tennis Champions repertoire. This was a second song to feature Simon’s undeniably impressive rapping skills. The featured instrumental soloists here were Woodward on electric bass and Johnson on tenor sax.

An energetic and enjoyable first set concluded with the all instrumental “The Troops”,  a Ford composition that the band loves to play. Powered by a driving Ford guitar riff the tune featured solos from Johnson on tenor and the leader on guitar. The audience loved it too and gave the band a rousing reception.

There was to be no letting up in terms of pace and energy during the course of a second set that commenced with “Arc is Enough”, a composition by the American keyboard player and vocalist Sean Wayland, sourced from Wayland’s album “Pistachio”. Ushered in by Shingler at the drums this featured some tight interplay between the core trio of guitar, bass and drums with Johnson later added to share the soloing with Ford. The leader then motioned to Shingler to take a feature before the close.

Next up was “I’m Too Hype”, composed by the Brazilian bassist Frederico Heliodoro. This was introduced by a passage of unaccompanied guitar and later featured a stunning electric bass solo from Woodward that sometimes reminded me of Steve Swallow. Johnson then took over on tenor, followed by the leader on guitar.

Simon returned for “When The Day Comes”, another Tennis Champions song. This featured Ford’s harmony vocals and also incorporated a rap episode from Simon. A lengthy instrumental section featured a tenor solo from Johnson and further features from Ford and Shingler as the group went into power trio mode. Simon later returned for a reprise of the verses.

A shorter, but no less intense, second set concluded with the instrumentalists romping through the Allan Holdsworth tune “Fred”, one of his simpler compositions and something of a jam band favourite. Almost metallic at times this featured blistering solos from Ford, Woodward and Johnson with Shingler, the 2019 ‘Young Drummer of the Year’, weighing in powerfully at the close.

This was a great way to kick off the new MSH season. Despite the changes to the advertised line up the band gelled very quickly and played with youthful energy and a high degree of skill with the leader subtly directing things and impressing hugely as a guitar soloist. It was an intense and powerful set with little light and shade in terms of dynamics, although the addition of Simon’s vocals added stylistic variety as the band embraced elements of rap and hip hop in addition to the fusion of jazz and rock. I have to admit that I preferred the instrumentals but Ford is a songwriter and these other elements represent an important aspect of his work. I have to admit that I didn’t here much of the advertised Smiths, Police or Milton Nascimento though, but I was happy to hear plenty of Holdsworth in addition to Ford’s own impressive compositions.

My thanks to Tom for speaking with me after the show and for verifying the set list”. His forthcoming trio album will be keenly anticipated, but this multi-faceted musician and producer is sure to have so much more waiting in the pipeline.

DAVE FULLER of MUSIC SPOKEN HERE also reviewed tonight’s gig for the weekly MSH newsletter. His thoughts appear below;

What an incredible start to our new season from Tom Ford on Thursday, marking the start of our short Re:play series featuring artists and bands that we had right at the beginning of Music Spoken Here when we touched down in Worcester!

Tom was the third artist to perform on our nascent program back in September 2022, playing to little more than a dozen people. Despite many of our regulars being away last week, Worcester (and further afield) showed up for this one and we had good crowd in with plenty of new faces, which is always heartening!

A last minute change to the line-up resulted in 2024 BBC Young Jazz Musician of the Year finalist George Johnson (aged 20) jumping on a train from London, arriving just as the band were getting on stage and blowing the socks off tunes he’d learned in the previous 48 hours! As it happens, George is the third of last year’s finalists to have appeared on our program, including the winning bassist Ursula Harrison who appeared with the Eddie Gripper Trio in February 2024 and trumpeter Klara Devlin who appeared with Miranda Radford’s quartet in February this year.

The line-up also saw the return of Nathan Shingler (2019 Young Drummer of the Year), who was with Tom last time round, but bassist Stan Woodward (of Newcastle band Knats) replaced Daisy George for this gig. Vocalist and MC Simon Jnr, who moved to Worcester from Birmingham a couple of years ago, completed the band.

The set opened with ‘Big Money’, a new tune by Tom performed by this band for the first time, but you’d never have known. We also got some Allan Holdsworth (‘Looking Glass’), as a nod to Tom’s other project ALLAN, dedicated to the music of the late, phenomenal jazz guitarist from Bradford.

Simon joined the band for a couple of Tom’s older songs - ‘Love Cadet’ from his 2023 EP ‘The Return of the Tennis Champions’ and ‘Magnetic’ from his previous 2022 debut ‘The Tennis Champions’ and another new piece ‘The Troops’ to end the fist set.

The second set included a couple of covers - ‘Arc Is Enough’ by Australian pianist Shaun Wayland and ‘I’m Tired of Being So Hype’ by Tom’s Brazilian friend Frederico Heliodoro, who may appear on our program at some point in the future. ‘When The Day Comes’ is one of Tom’s originals from The Return of The Tennis Champions that had Simon rapping, masterfully switching between French and English (he speaks several languages fluently). The set closed with some more Allan Holdsworth in the form of ‘Fred’ before the band set off to Foregate Street Station for the train back to London.

A full and detailed review has been published by our resident, award-winning journalist Ian Mann on The JazzMann. You can also watch our ‘Piece Talks’ video interview with Tom recorded ahead of the gig on YouTube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DUTas9NpvF8

 

 

 

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