On Wednesday February 6th 2019,  Bears n Tales will resume their monthly Jazz & Cocktail evening with The Mark Hale Trio. 

Mark Hale is a Jazz Drummer from Bedford whose been running Jazz events around the town over the past four years, most notably at The Bedford Arms and over the past year continuing his weekly events at The White Horse on Newnham Avenue.

He is now adding to the list of regular Jazz events in Bedford at the most popular Cocktail Bar in Town 'The Bears & Tales' located on St. Cuthbert's Street.

This exciting new venture brings a host of Jazz talent up from London to combine with BnT's extraordinary drinks menu plus an opportunity to try the special Jazz drinks menu from Hennessy.

There are limited numbers of spaces available for this monthly event so be sure to book early to avoid disappointment.

Featured guests joining Mark on February 6th will be Riley Stone-Lonergan on Tenor Saxophone & Liam Dunachie on Hammond Organ.

Riley Stone-Lonergan – Tenor Saxophone

UK-based Irishman Riley Stone-Lonergan started working as a professional musician in Ireland at the age of 16. After two years working with local big bands and ensembles, Riley moved to the UK to study at Leeds College of Music, the longest running jazz course in Europe. In 2011, he graduated with 1st Class Honours and was the recipient of a number of awards including the Dave Cooper Memorial Prize for Jazz Saxophone, John Scheerer Prize for Woodwind and David Hoult Prize for Outstanding Performance.

Selected as a Yamaha Jazz Scholar in 2011, Riley’s quartet was featured in Jazzwise Magazine as well as performing at the 606 Club in London. Shortly after, Riley moved to London and began to work with the prestigious National Youth Jazz Orchestra. His tenure with the band included a tour of Germany, a televised performance at the Royal Albert Hall as part of the BBC Proms (including special guest Tim Garland) and the recording of the 2012 album, The Change.

In recent years, Riley has made two extended trips to New York City. Here, he studied with Seamus Blake, Chris Cheek, Rich Perry and Joel Frahm and recorded his original material at Tedesco Studios, as well as performing in Washington DC. In addition to this, Riley has worked overseas as a featured soloist at Bergamo Jazz Festival in Italy and has toured in Ireland, Germany, Poland and the UK.

His work with small groups have led to tours and performances at a number of major jazz festivals. Sextet LOCUS (Leah Gough-Cooper, Kim Macari, Sam Leak, Jay Davis, Tom Wheatley) have performed at London Jazz Festival, Manchester Jazz Festival and Edinburgh Jazz Festivals and in 2015, Riley was part of a commissioned project led by Kim Macari which featured the Rome-based Enrico Zanisi trio and shared a bill with Thelonious Monk Award winner Melissa Aldana.

Currently, Riley maintains a busy performance schedule. One of his main projects is Family Band, a chordless quartet featuring Kim Macari, Tom Riviere and Steve Hanley. Recording their debut album in 2015, the band have received airplay on BBC Radio and were selected to be one of 10 Ambassador groups on the Northern Line scheme by Jazz North. Recently, he was nominated for the Rising Star Award at the London Music Awards 2015.

Liam Dunachie – Hammond Organ

Originally from Shropshire, he began his musical training as a treble chorister in Hereford Cathedral Choir and later studied music at Trinity College, Cambridge where he was a choral scholar in its world-renowned choir under Stephen Layton. At Cambridge he studied composition with Robin Holloway and Richard Marlow and co-directed the Cambridge University Jazz Orchestra.

After graduating from Cambridge, Liam won a scholarship to study jazz piano and arranging at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama where he studied with Malcolm Edmonstone, Nikki Iles and Scott Stroman among others. He has since gone on to play piano and Hammond organ in groups led by Jim Mullen, Dennis Rollins, Derek Nash, Nigel Price and the London Jazz Orchestra among others. He has performed at most of the London's major jazz and commercial venues and many others across the UK, including Ronnie Scott's, Pizza Express Dean St, Royal Albert Hall, Glastonbury Festival's Pyramid Stage, Wembley Arena, The Vortex and The Savoy among many more.   

Liam also works in musical theatre, and was Musical Director for the acclaimed 2015-16 UK No. 1 Tour of "Hairspray", the musical. He is also currently the Associate Musical Director for the London production of Tony and Olivier Award-winning musical "In The Heights".  As an accompanist and session pianist he has worked in a wide variety of contexts, including BBC2’s series “The Choir” with Gareth Malone and is featured as both a pianist and arranger on the 2015 UK Official Charts Christmas No.1 Single with the NHS Choir.

As a composer and arranger he has also written pieces and arrangements in for the City of London Sinfonia, English Chamber Orchestra, violinist Charlie Siem, London Chamber Orchestra and Trinity College Choir, Cambridge.