Ted Nash Quartet

b. 28 December 1959, Hollywood, California, USA. Born into a highly musical family (his father is Dick Nash and his uncle is Ted Nash Snr. ) Ted took up the tenor saxophone as a youth and now is equally adept on bass clarinet and clarinet. He played with Louie Bellson in the 70s, and also toured and recorded with Don Ellis in 1977. While occasionally displaying the influence of John Coltrane in his earlier work, Nash has a strong personal sound and constantly and consistently displays elegant lyricism in his playing of ballads. In 1994, Nash was commissioned by the Davos Musik Festival in Switzerland which led to the formation of his group, Double Quartet, a string quartet in a jazz setting. His loose unit Odeon features Bill Schimmel playing accordion, which is the dominating instrument. This eclectic group also contains a tuba (Wycliffe Gordon) and violin (Miri Ben-Ari).