Jan Steele studied music at King's College (London), and York University, and ethnomusicology at Queen's University, Belfast. He is a saxophonist, flautist, composer and arranger.

From 1977-85, Jan was the co-musical director (with Melvyn Poore) of Birmingham Arts Lab (later the Triangle Arts Centre at the University of Aston) and later Musician-in-Residence. Whilst there he organized contempo...
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Jan Steele studied music at King's College (London), and York University, and ethnomusicology at Queen's University, Belfast. He is a saxophonist, flautist, composer and arranger.

From 1977-85, Jan was the co-musical director (with Melvyn Poore) of Birmingham Arts Lab (later the Triangle Arts Centre at the University of Aston) and later Musician-in-Residence. Whilst there he organized contemporary music concerts, set up an access recording studio, ran jazz and improvization workshops, formed the contemporary music group ida and the jazz group Big, and the pop-group The Copy. He wrote the music for 2 Channel 4 documentaries (Family Fragments, 1984 and Property Rites,1985) and was a founder member of the saxophone quartet Saxtet.

In 1979 Jan founded and ran (with Dr Neil Sorell as Music Director, the English Gamelan Orchestra, the first Javanese Gamelan group to be formed in this country. Subsequently he performed with the contemporary gamelan group Metalworks (www.metalworks.org).

In 1982 Jan was Composer-in-Residence at the Spectro Arts Workshop, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, where he developed in their studio a number of compositions which were subsequently released on the French DSA label (“Desert Island Dusks: Jan Steele Ensemble”).

From 1986 Jan became involved with the nascent Asian (i.e. Hindi/Punjabi) music scene in Great Britain, becoming well-known as a saxophone and flute-player in Punjabi folk/pop groups during the “Bhangra Boom”, and then recording, performing and arranging for Hindi and Punjabi musicians and singers, appearing on some 25 albums of these genres.

From 1990-94 he trained in Oxford as a teacher of the Alexander Technique. He teaches the technique at the Royal Academy of Music in London, and in private practise in Reading.

Jan leads a busy life as a performer in mainstream and modern jazz, leading his own jazz quartet and a salsa/Latin jazz group Jan y su Salsa, playing in Cafecito - an Afro-cuban quintet playing Cuban music of the 30’s – 50’s– and as a composer..

Discography

1976 Jan Steele/John Cage: Voices & Instruments Editions EG (as composer and performer).
1981 Nobody But You Practical (as composer and jazz soloist).
1982 Albanian Summer Practical (as soloist throughout album).
1987 Desert Island Dusks DSA Records, France (as composer, arranger, producer and soloist).
1988- About 25 Asian pop-music albums, appearing variously as composer, arranger, soloist, particularly (1993) Sangeeta: Arrow of Love and Kuljit Bhamra: Confusion.
1993 Temporary Farewell on Silence Spiral Editions, Tokyo. (Composer and soloist.)
1993 Gamelan Disco on Unknown Public Vol 3 (CD magazine). (Composer and performer.)
2010 Strictly Latin, composer, performer. Library album of various genres of Latin Music
2022 Distant Saxophones. Community Library CL18. www.community-library.net.



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