Who are The Weave?
Martin Smith
Martin has led a rich, eclectic, and varied musical life centered around original music. His debut album "The Weave" embodies the depth and breadth of his influences and experiences over the years, created alongside some of his most cherished musical colleagues.
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Martin's passion for music was ignited as a schoolboy when he met esteemed British jazz trumpeter Digby Fairweather. Over the past 25 years, he has forged a career as a freelance trumpeter, studying under greats like Ian Carr, Bobby Shew, and Rhys Owens. He also studied improvisation in New York with Marvin Stamm.
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Martin's first jazz quartet Cushfoot saw their debut album "Our Fathers" released by prominent British jazz label Candid Records and championed on national radio. His recording credits include The Coral, Super Furry Animals, Space, The Lightning Seeds, Shack and more. He has toured extensively with The Muffin Men (Frank Zappa tribute) and The BrassHoppers (New Orleans brass band).
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A lifetime member of the cult jazz-punk group The Wizards of Twiddly, Martin has recorded 5 albums and toured with British songsmith Kevin Ayers. Other career highlights include recording on Michael Head & The Red Elastic Band's #1 album "Dear Scott" and performed live with Paul Weller.
Alongside his prolific performing career, Martin has spent the past 15 years as Trumpet Tutor at the prestigious Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts (LIPA), while also leading several longstanding jazz residencies in Liverpool.
Anthony Ormesher
Tony Ormesher is a gifted jazz guitarist from Liverpool. In 1993 at just 12 years old, he won the prestigious Daily Telegraph Young Jazz Musician of the Year award. After becoming a regional finalist again in 1997, Tony went on to study jazz guitar at the renowned Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London.
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At Guildhall, Tony studied under John Parricelli and took masterclasses with jazz legends like Kenny Wheeler, Billy Cobham, and Dave Liebman. Since graduating, he has established himself nationally as an accompanist and soloist alongside top British jazz artists including Henry Lowther, Jim Mullen, Bruce Adams, Roy Williams, Digby Fairweather, and Gary Potter.
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Tony is a core member of the acclaimed Manchester ensemble The Magic Hat Band, extensively touring Britain and Europe with them. Since returning to Liverpool, he regularly performs around the Northwest, as well as annual gigs in Germany where he won the Berlin Jazz and Blues Award in 2006.
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Over the years, Tony has become the go-to guitarist in the North West, backing renowned artists like Dave Newton, Gilad Atzmon, Julian Joseph, Alan Barnes, Michael League, and many more. With his prestigious accolades and wealth of experience, Tony Ormesher continues to be one of Britain's top jazz guitar talents.
Tilo Pirnbaum
Tilo is an accomplished and versatile drummer who has been honing his craft since childhood. He started playing drums at the age of 10 and later studied Jazz in Cologne, Germany before becoming a graduate of the prestigious Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts (LIPA).
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As an in-demand drummer, Tilo has played between 180 and 280 gigs per year. Career highlights include recording and touring Europe with the Muffin Men playing the music of Frank Zappa (2000-2006), collaborating with Ensemble 10:10, and performing at major festivals like Glastonbury, Isle of Wight, and V Festival.
Tilo has recorded and performed with diverse artists and bands including Jimmy Carl Black, Arthur Brown, Ike Willis, Napoleon Murphy Brook, Mike Keneally, John Head, Mickey Jones, Cushfoot, Beatlife, Mick Pini, The Grapes Band, Super Numeri, Benn Clatworthy, The Root Source and many others. He has extensively toured the UK and Europe but has also led percussion workshops in Africa and Asia.
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Tilo has been teaching drums from the age of 16. He is currently drum tutor at the University of Liverpool (since 2005), Liverpool Hope University (since 2023) and the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts LIPA (since 2024). He enjoys creating original music and playing any style - from Punk to Pop, Latin, Jazz or beyond - as long as it comes from an authentic place.
Tony Peers
Tony Peers is an accomplished trumpeter who has honed his craft over many years. He attended music college for 5 years, focusing on Trumpet performance in both the classical and jazz idioms. His studies included music theory, arranging, harmony, and writing for small and large jazz ensembles.
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After graduating, Tony went on to play and tour extensively with various bands across the UK and Europe. He has done studio session work, commercials, and radio performances. Some highlights include live television in France, Germany, Austria and Switzerland, as well as working alongside esteemed artists like Mari Wilson, Albert Lee, John Martyn, Joselyn B Smith, Ricky Tomlinson, Phil Jones and Jessie Green.
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Some of the notable bands Tony has performed with include Supercharge, Brasshoppers, Space, Ministry Of Love, The A Team, and Y Kick A Moo Cow. He currently works on jazz and latin arrangements for various projects at home and abroad.
Through his long-standing association with The Brasshoppers, Tony has had the opportunity to perform at numerous prestigious jazz festivals across Europe, including Haugesund, Stavanger, Cognac, Bourges, Carcassonne, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Valladolid, Cork, and London. This has allowed him to share the stage with legendary artists such as the great New Orleans trumpeter Leroy Jones, Bill Laurence of Snarky Puppy, and esteemed British trumpeter Bruce Adams.
Rob Stringer
An in-demand singer and pianist, Rob's performing work began in childhood as head chorister with Worcester Cathedral Choir, featuring on many recordings and performing in live concert tours to the USA, Europe and also South Africa, where he performed Mendelssohn’s ‘Hear My Prayer’ with Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra at Cape Town Cathedral, aged 13.
Rob has performed extensively at many major venues across the world over the past ten years, including the Royal Albert Hall, Radio City Music Hall, Moscow Concert Hall, Paris Palais des Congrès, Montreal Bell Centre and Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Colorado.
In addition to his touring work, Rob has worked professionally as a session musician for two decades, both in the studio and live TV and Radio work, including appearances on Later with Jools Holland and BBC prime time show Peaky Blinders.
Rob is a great lover of jazz music, renowned as a performer on the UK jazz circuit, his style influenced heavily by Harry Connick Jr, Ray Charles and Nat King Cole. Early in his professional piano career, Rob studied piano technique under the tutelage of Eleanor Hancock in New York City at The Taubman Institute.
A real highlight in Rob's career was performing at Stella McCartney’s 2008 Fashion Show to an audience including Sir Paul McCartney, Yoko Ono, Olivia Harrison and Sir George Martin all seated together in the front row!
Hugo Harrison
Based in Liverpool for the last 20 years Hugo has worked as a professorial jazz musician playing at and organizing numerous events. Performance is at the hart of Hugo’s life with improvisation at its core.
You can find Hugo in Liverpool venues every week playing in bands such as: Blind monk trio, the Grapes band, Marley Chingus, The Secret Improvisers, Misha Gray's Prehistoric Jazz Quintet, The 'Thursday Night Hard Bop Extravaganza!'.
Hugo produces records every year! you can find him on the common streaming platforms with: The Prehistoric Jazz Quintet, Blind Monk Trio and The Weave.
Hugo has toured up and down the country playing most major British festivals (and some European ones) including: Glastonbury, Latitude, Secret Garden Party, The Innocent Smoothie Festival, Harvest at Jimmy’s, T in the park and many more. Hugo has been part of bands such as Edgar Jones and the Joneses, The Cuckolds, The Bobby Swing Trio, Peter and the Wolf, John Smith, Jez Wing, Lizzie Nunnery.
A hugely in demand Bass player in the North West Hugo is frequently called upon to back visiting big hitters such as Martin Taylor, Gary Potter and Enrico Tomasso.
He has supported: James Brown, The Coral, Kate Nash, Paul Heaton from The Beautiful South, The Zutons, Eddie Floyd (or ‘Mr. Knock on wood’) and many more.
Ismael Aasgaard
Trombonist, Ismael has had an extremely musical upbringing with both parents being working musicians. Heralding from a long tradition of trombonists with his Grandfather and Great Grandfather being busy professionals in Oslo, Ismael began playing at the age of 4 and took to it with prodigious flare.
He cut his teeth as a young boy in Greenhalls Brass Band and later, as his interest in Jazz music increased, graduated to playing lead trombone and being featured soloist in The Wigan Youth Jazz Orchestra where he got the chance to play with the likes of Louis Dowdswell, Mike Vax & Gordon Vernig.
Ismael has a very broad and open musical appreciation and has wholeheartedly immersed himself in the rich and varied life in Liverpool. As soon as he was able he was out sitting in at all the Jazz gigs (equally invested and comfortable playing Jelly Roll Morton as Wayne Shorter) , playing and recording with numerous Pop bands, including co-leading and writing for his own project Cassette Theory (Somewhere between Weather Report, Arctic Monkeys and The Fall) and performing with Mamadou and the Libador Band (Senegalese Mbalakh/Afro Beat)). Jazz wise he cites Bob Brookmeyer, Wynton Marsalis, Charlie Parker and Wycliff Gordon as some of his most profound influences to date.
Ismael currently studies at The Royal Academy of Music where he enjoys the privilege of participating in projects led by luminaries such as Dave Holland, Gwilym Simcock and Giacomo Smith.
In terms of instrumental tuition Ismael studied for 10 years with Simon Cowan (principal trombone with the Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra), and now at RACM under the great British maestro Gordon Campbell.
He declares that despite having a brilliant time experiencing London, the authenticity of the Liverpool music scene will always have such a strong influence on his personality and his music, and he aims to bring the Liverpool spirit into the London jazz and music scene as a whole.