In 2006 Graeme Stephen's sextet was one of the first winners of the prestigious 'Promoters Choice' awards, with a CD and a national tour winning them hosts of fans outside their native Scotland. The presence in the line-up of folk star Chris Stout gave an intriguingly different dimension to their music, although the overall sound and approach is indisputably that of a top flight jazz group. Now they have added a further dimension through collaboration with the great improvising cello player Ben Davis, leader of the Mercury nominated Basquiat Strings. Added to Stout's fiddle playing, Mario Caribe's rock solid bass, and the superb guitar work of Graeme Stephen himself, this gives the band a range of colours and rhythmic complexity that makes it one of the most exciting and unpredictable units around. Add the brilliant sax playing of Martin Kershaw & Phil Bancroft, and the driving intensity of Stu Ritchie's drums, and this is a band that must surely be destined for even further acclaim.