Julian Joseph Solo

We are beyond excited to be welcoming the masterful pianist Julian Joseph to Wolverhampton for a rare solo gig, marking his upcoming 60th birthday.

Acclaimed as one of the finest jazz musicians to emerge this side of the Atlantic, Julian has devoted his long career to championing the music across the British Isles and into the far corners of the globe.

He has forged a reputation beyond his formidable skills as a composer and performer, and is universally recognised as a highly knowledgeable and engaging broadcaster, musical ambassador and cultural advocate. His charitable work and generous skills as an educator have made a major contribution to Britain’s cultural landscape and heritage.

He is a greatly admired and respected figure in British Jazz, celebrated for his service to others and for sharing all the benefits of his life in music to inspire the musicians of the future. A member of Courtney Pine’s hugely successful band in the 80s and 90s, he made four high-profile albums of his own for East West, beginning in 1991 with The Language Of Truth.

While a 19-year-old scholarship student at Berklee College in New York, he also had a real baptism of fire, comprehensively rising to the challenge of playing in Branford Marsalis’s quartet in front of five-figure audiences.

Over the past 35 years, Julian has made ground-breaking advances for jazz in the UK. He was the first Black British jazz musician to host a series at London’s Wigmore Hall, and the first to headline a late-night concert at the BBC Proms with his All-Star Big Band.

As a composer Julian has written original works for symphony orchestra, big band and chamber ensemble, and received major commissions from the BBC, the Hackney Music Development Trust, the City of London Festival and the London Jazz Festival. Meanwhile, a new operatic work based on the legend of Tristan and Isolde was premiered at London’s Southbank Centre in the October of 2018.

As well as performing, recording, teaching and broadcasting (both on radio and TV), Julian has also recently turned to writing, publishing his first book, Music of Initiative, in 2018, in which he shares unique insights into the philosophy and practice of jazz performance.
His work has been recognised by many major cultural organisations, including the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors, which awarded him a Gold Badge in 2010. In 2019 he was awarded an OBE for his contribution to music. In 2025 the University of Southampton gave him an Honorary Doctorate (Doctor of Music) for his extraordinary contributions to music, education, and cultural life.

This year Julian releases Voyage Of The Faithful, his first studio album since 1996 with his beloved trio of Mark Hodgson and Mark Mondesir on bass and drums. Over the last 30 years much of Julian’s focus has been on performing new music on the live stage, but now he crystallises his hallmark sparkle, originality, and the wonderful pulsating swing he is so famous for in this set of original compositions and prized standards from the jazz canon. His Caribbean interpretation of the Duke Ellington/ Juan Tizol staple, Caravan, and his extended, emotive reading of Wayne Shorter’s mighty Footprints express both his love for jazz and his desire to always push himself, and the expectations of the listener.

Voyage Of The Faithful honours both the jazz legacy and Joseph’s ever forward-facing music. Its collection of stunning originals demonstrates just how present and relevant a composer he continues to be, shining a light on his own uniqueness and onto his new audiences and the many that have missed him. He’s back! Don’t miss him!

“Julian Joseph is something of a jazz master of all trades” – All About Jazz
“Unafraid to plug away at a groove while adding fascinating detail… absorbing” – Jazzwise
“Julian Joseph proves to be a very impressive pianist on this first release under his own name. His thick-textured harmonic style occasionally reminds the listener of his early influences, Herbie Hancock and McCoy Tyner, but mostly Julian is his own man; his dense chords enrich both his own solos and the work of his musicians” – Jazz Journal on The Language Of Truth, 1991

More information: https://www.julianjoseph.com/