Liam Noble (musician)

Noble was born in London on 15 November 1968.[1] He studied music at the University of Oxford and the postgraduate level at the Guildhall School of Music.[1]

After his studies, Noble played with saxophonist Stan Sulzmann in duo and quartet performances.[1] He then played in several bands, including those led by Harry Beckett, John Stevens and Anita Wardell.[1] In 1997, Noble joined Bobby Wellins' band.[1] In 2002, he received a commission from Birmingham Jazz to write a song cycle.[1]

Noble's 2004 recording Romance Among the Fishes was a quartet album, with Phil Robson (guitar), Drew Gress (bass) and Tom Rainey (drums).[2] Noble and Robson had often played together, but the four had been put together earlier the same year for an appearance at the Cheltenham Jazz Festival.[2] Noble's 2009 trio album, Brubeck, was described by the dedicatee, Dave Brubeck, as "an inspiration and a challenge for me to carry on in the avenues that you [Noble] have opened".[3] In 2010, Noble accompanied vocalist Christine Tobin on the album Tapestry Unravelled, a reworking of Carole King's Tapestry from four decades earlier.[4] In 2015, Noble will release the solo piano album A Room Somewhere.[5]

Noble teaches at the Royal Academy of Music,[6] Trinity Laban,[7] the Birmingham Conservatoire[8] and the University of Kent.[9]

Critic John Fordham, writing in 2005, commented that "Noble likes a mixture of staccato, drily witty themes that suggest a collision of Steve Coleman and Django Bates with Wayne Shorter – and with Canadian piano guru Paul Bley in the quieter episodes".[2]

An asterisk (*) indicates that the year is that of release.

• Noble's blog.