An amazing, fun week for ‘Sax In The City’. Sell out performances at the Mulberry Rooms at the Shelley Theatre and Dean street Pizza Express and a buzzing audience at Toulouse Lautrec Saturday evening (15th Feb) when joined by karl Charity on vocals. stunning guitar from Jo Caleb, masses of energy from Nick Cooper on Piano, Double bass virtuoso Pete Maxfield and sensitive drumming by Killian Madden….me noodling on something or other 🙂

Shelley Theatre

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Aug 10 · 3 min read

Not Just Sax play at Shelley Theatre on Thursday 22nd August.

Saxophonist, flutist and lead vocalist, Sarah Bolter shares how their love of music has kept the four piece together for nearly 20 years.

Sarah is a lady of many talents. She teaches music at four schools in Dorset as well as working on six studio albums.

Their sixth album, Ticket to Everywhere, was produced by well known saxophonist and band leader, Derek Nash. You may be aware of Derek from the Jools Holland Rhythm and Blues Orchestra. Sarah looks at this album as their strongest to date, “We have played together for 18 years, so with every album, we get stronger. For instance, this album I have taken the lead as vocalist.”

How would Sarah define the Not Just Sax sound? Sarah says, “It is melodic, rhythmic jazz and we enjoy pushing the boundaries of the genre with a variety of well known jazz favourites and beautiful originals composed by pianist, Ray Shea. We like to vary our styles from latin, swing and funk.”

A sense of togetherness has kept the band together for many years. As well as Sarah and Ray, Pete Maxfield, who plays double bass and Johnny Eyden, who plays drums, completes the line-up. Sarah comments, “By being together for nearly 20 years means we are very much part of the local music scene. We recently played at the Swanage Jazz Festival, during July, this was our ninth year of participating. This years event was even more special as Derek Nash joined us to play.”

The August evening at Shelley Theatre brings Not Just Sax to familiar surroundings where they have played before.

Sarah enjoys the club like feel to the Mulberry Room at Shelley Theatre. Sarah explains, “The room set-up where any band plays is so important. What is great about Shelley Theatre is the arrangement. It feels very relaxed. For instance, no one is fighting over any noise from another room and the acoustics are superb.”

“I want people to come along and just be able to switch off for the evening. We’re here to make sure everyone has a fantastic time and we’ll make sure the audience is absorbed in the music. We cannot wait to play at a venue we love.”

To book your tickets for Sarah Bolter & Not Just Sax, click here, or call the box office on 01202 413600

Excerpt from an article in London Jazz News by Brian Blain:

Friday evening, for example, at a free fringe show in the rear of our favourite watering hole The Red Lion, about 200 people sat in silence in beautiful warm summer weather to hear that was the perfect platform for  provided Sarah Bolter‘s terrific saxophone, flute and vocals with a great trio who were masters of groove and swing; Summertimeand Cantaloupe Island both had that lazy, subtle backbeat feel that was the perfect platform for her strong voice on alto and tenor. They were back again on Sunday morning in the same place with the addition of the magnificently ebullient Derek Nash, surely the most ‘up’ player on the London scene. Their jousting on a succession of familiar tunes, like Besame Mucho for example, was easy and comfortable; probably something to do with the fact that Nash has been recording Sarah’s group at his excellent Clowns Pocket studios. Pity though that his opening sets of the Festival proper with altoist Tom Waters‘ band were stymied by ferry disruption, but the inevitable jams at least revealed a young player with a biting, urgent sound that sounded really strong.

See the full article here.

A memorable one for me!! Derek Nash guesting with Not Just Sax and my first ‘singing’ gig with Subb Zero

Please be patient while we get to grips with the new website. We’ll be including all the latest news and events here to keep you up to date on Sarah and what she’s up to.

2018 is already seeing plenty of bookings coming in for Sarah in the form of duo, trio and band gigs. Also, the new-look website is now online and will keep you updated with all the latest news and gigs and also a place to purchase Sarahs CDs. Watch this space for the new CD coming soon!