Former city jazzman named narrow Mercury second

Golden, the new album from the Kit Downes trio, is placed as runner-up in Mercury Prize.

Wednesday 8th September 2010

A Norwich jazz musician and son of a local County Court Judge was last night placed as a runner-up in the competition for the prestigious Barclaycard Mercury Music Prize.  The Kit Downes trio, whose namesake heralds from the city, narrowly lost out to indie three-piece The XX, as did Laura Marling, I Am Kloot, Corrine Bailey Rae and others.

The 23 year-old Downes has recently attracted a wealth of attention on the UK Jazz scene with his trio album Golden.  The pianist, and former Norwich School pupil recently featured on the popular Jamie Cullum Radio 2 jazz show, and was named winner of the Rising Star award at the BBC Jazz awards 2008. He has also received praise and critical acclaim from All About Jazz, The Guardian and Selwyn Harris of Jazzwise:

'A very skilled and fluid pianist, Downes is not only bursting with fresh ideas, but has that rare ability to carry them off'.

Despite losing out on the £20,000 Mercury Prize money, nomination alongside such acts as Dizzee Rascal and Paul Weller will ensure that the Kit Downes trio will stay in the public eye for the forseeable future.  

Although he now lives in London, it is occasionally possible to catch Downes at local venues such as the King Of Hearts and The Norwich Playhouse:

"It's nice to come back to what still feels my base," he says.

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