Kairos 4tet call it a day

There’s no official word but it’s looking like Kairos 4tet have split up, Marlbank understands from a band source. 

Hardly a surprise as the band have juggled with different line-ups in the last year as both bassist Jasper Høiby and pianist Ivo Neame are often busy on other projects notably Phronesis. 

The Adam Waldmann-led band that also included the additional vocals of Emilia Mårtensson as an important element on some tracks achieved a lot since first emerging in 2009 in a slightly different guise, realising a MOBO jazz act win, a significant achievement, and releasing a range of forward-looking albums at the vanguard of the UK millennials scene.

Live they were state of the art in terms of a sax-led post-bop quartet that embraces vocals and featured complex organic groove-informed original ultimately melodic jazz that allowed for a huge amount of improvisation developing between the quartet members especially beyond the bridge in the more open passages. 

Their last album Everything We Hold was released in 2013 on it the band joined by a number of singers including regular collaborator singer Emilia Mårtensson and soul star Omar. The band story started with Kairos Moment in 2009 (in those days Rob Barron was the pianist) followed up by the MOBO-winning Statement of Intent the first of their albums featuring Ivo Neame and peak of their achievement.

UPDATE 17:25 the band may be back “after a small hiatus.”

So a bit of a mixed message. Hopefully the hiatus won’t be too long. 

Stephen Graham