The Squid's Ear Magazine


Grew, Stephen: Pianoply (Discus)

Stephen Grew performs a completely improvised solo piano session on Sansom Studios' bright-toned Yamaha, recorded in three unedited sections divided only by tea breaks, using the studio setting to explore a different acoustic focus from his church and concert recordings, balancing clarity, momentum, lyric fracture and spontaneous structure, with the closing piece offered in tribute to drummer Tony Bianco.
 

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Stephen Grew-piano

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UPC: 5051078024820

Label: Discus
Catalog ID: DISCUS209CD
Squidco Product Code: 37269

Format: CD
Condition: New
Released: 2026
Country: UK
Packaging: Cardboard Gatefold 3 Panels
Recorded at Sansom Studios, in Birmingham, UK, by Olly Sansom.
Descriptions, Reviews, &c.

Artist Biographies

"Stephen Grew has been playing piano and electronic keyboards for 25 years. His music is completely improvised. He creates spontaneous compositions with other musicians in the heat of the moment. He also performs as a soloist. He is based in Lancaster, UK, and has toured extensively, touring and recording with many musicians from the free improvised scene here in Britain and abroad. Performing in Grutronic, a four piece electronic band, and Grew Trio, Grew Quartet and Grew & Grew. He has also performed with Evan Parker, Keith Tippett, Graham Clark, Pat Thomas, Howard Riley and many others. Long standing collaborators are his brother, Nicholas Grew, Richard Scott, David Ross and Philip Marks.

"I have devote all of my energies to making music, completely made in the moment, improvised. I play with some great musicians, Gulliver Maxwell an alto saxophone player and other Lancastrian players. My first band was with Steve Lewis and George McKay (Charivari) in 1995. I have toured consistently since 1996, in Grew Trio with the great Mancunian players, drummer Phillip Marks and sax/electronics player Richard Scott who I met through Steve Lewis in 1995. We have mainly performed in Britain but also performed in prestigious Modern music festivals in Germany, Austria, Belgium, Latvia and Canada. In 2000 Richard Scott left Grew trio and after a duo collaboration with Sheffield based sax/bassoon player Mick Beck, Mick joined Grew trio to form Grew Quartet in 2006, with Oxford based bass player Dominic Lash. At times I have had to work as a shop keeper, assembler of golf trolleys, gardener and fisherman. My current work takes me to working in Grutronic, (Myspace.com/grutronicmusic) with guests Evan Parker, Orphy Robinson, Paul Obermayer and Grew quartet, a recent Orchestral project with Nicholas Grew and duos featuring violinist Graham Clark, drummer Tony Bianco, Phillip Marks, and drummer / electronics musician David Ross all of whom are based outside of Lancaster. Our music comes out of a need to play music and communicate with sound at the moments of creating it, this process becomes very refined over many years. The long periods of time devoting the workman like instrumentalists approach to making this kind of music, creates a greater clarity of playing and composing, until a bit of magic conversation appears!"-Stephen Grew"

-Stephen Grew Website (http://stepgrew.wixsite.com/stephengrewpianist/biography)
6/16/2026

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Track Listing:
Related Categories of Interest:

June 2026
Improvised Music
Jazz
Free Improvisation
Melodic and Lyrical Jazz
London & UK Improv & Related Scenes
Piano & Keyboards
Solo Artist Recordings
New in Improvised Music
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