NICO WIDDOWSON
NICO WIDDOWSON
@trashcityrecords_
@nicowiddowson
nicowiddowson@gmail.com
trashcityrecords1@gmail.com
I am a London-based piano player whose original music mixes the noisy emotional energy of the avant-garde with an appetite for old swinging styles.
My trio features bass player Joe MacLaren (Finn Carter, Tedd Maul, Cool Quiet), and a shared drumming chair between Jordan Hadfield (Wulu, Yazmin Lacey, Jungle, Oska T, Maddy Coombs) and Charlie Hutchinson (Pyjaen). We have a philosophy in this band: to care a little less about making mistakes and a little more about being ourselves, as well as the deep importance of both earnestness and comedy in music. Our music embraces imperfection, pairing ugliness and beauty side by side, so they become one in the same.
This September I’ll be releasing an 11 track album called ‘On Fools and Clowns’ through Trash City Records.
It’s the culmination of everything I love, from the finesse of 1920s Harlem stride piano to the grit of free improvisation. I’ve been writing it over the last three years, after my move from Leeds to London, and it’s been shaped by navigating life as a musician through the cost-of-living crisis while holding onto music that feels honest and authentic to me. It features songs about my landlord, a friend who got fired, Duke Ellington, and my mum. It’s a deeply personal set of music documenting the ups and downs of my life.
Selection of recent albums I’ve been a part of:
Live at Lancaster Jazz Festival (2024) - Fergs Imaginary Big Band
MABGATE (2023) - MABGATE
¡Blamo! (2022) - Fergus Quill Trio
Last year I won the Tina May Jazz Award for young Jazz Musician of the Year, and through Ferg’s Imaginary Big Band we won the Peter Whittingham award and were nominated for the Innovation Award at the Jazz FM awards.
‘one of the most staggeringly beautiful and emotional compositions I've ever heard.’
- Hilary Seabrook (Harmonious World)
On Fools and Clowns will be released on Trash City Records on 18.09.26