Tea Break
A series where musicians and others stop by for an imaginary Tea Break to talk about their music and projects.
Billy Marrows
Guitarist and bandleader Billy Marrows first got heavily into Jazz at the age of 15 after his cousin Jonas introduced him to Weather Report and musicians John Scofield, Allan Holdsworth and Steve Coleman, but before that he was already writing music, going on to attend a composition summer school aged 16 with educator Issie Barratt who encouraged him to write something for the National Youth Jazz Collective (NYJC). A form teacher at his Easingwold school in North Yorkshire was equally encouraging teaching him about jazz and even getting him his first gigs. Then Billy went to the NYJC summer school and perhaps it comes as no surprise that years later he has now been teaching there aswell.
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Billy graduated from the Royal Academy of Music in London with a first class degree in jazz guitar. During his time there he won the 2016 small ensemble prize of the Dankworth Prize for Jazz Composition and wrote a gamelan-inspired suite for the 2016 Lancaster Youth Jazz Commission. Following his graduation he studied with Vince Mendoza on the 2018 Metropole Orkest Arrangers’ Workshop in Holland; again won the Dankworth Prize for Jazz Composition - this time for the big band category, and in 2019 he won the Eddie Harvey Jazz Arranger of the Year Award.
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Based in London since 2013, he leads the Billy Marrows Band and his project Grande Familia, as well as taking part in a wide range of other bands and recordings. His own debut album, Penelope, was recorded in 2023. It was named for his mother who was struggling with cancer and the album was released in January 2024 in her memory with proceeds of over £6,000 going to World Child Cancer. The album was shortlisted for Album Of The Year in the 2025 Parliamentary Jazz Awards. The recording established Billy’s Grande Familia project which performs in a number of different ensembles. An EP Mount Tibidabo was released by a sextet in November 2024 and was followed by a further album The Penelope Album Live in March 2025.
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Now, in 2026, Billy releases a new album Dancing On Bentwood Chairs. He stopped by for a Tea Break to tell us about it and to look back on the past few breath-taking years.
Hi Billy, good to see you. I've managed to bag a booth in this cafe so we can chat, and I've spoken to Ferdinand, the manager, who will play some music from your album if we ask. What can I get you tea, coffee?
Hi Ian, good to see you too! Tea please.
Do you have sugar?
Just milk please, no sugar.
Ferdinand is bringing it over in a minute. So, how are things going with the album? I know you have been pretty busy with the PR.
The new album release has been going well thanks. As with the Penelope album, I did all the PR myself so it was wonderful to receive four lovely reviews in the week around the release. One of them was probably the kindest review I’ve ever received for any of my releases, so I was pleased that people were enjoying the album. It was fun to do a listening party on Bandcamp a few days after the release, there’s something special about listening together and sharing thoughts about the music. It’s always an intense experience releasing music, with a lot to do, including promoting the album launch. You only get one shot at the release, so there’s a feeling of not wanting to miss the chance to get it out there as much as you can. The album was recorded in December 2021, so it feels great to finally have it out in the world, and nice that people don’t seem to care that it was recorded so long ago. I’m happy that there’s been a great response to my dad Tim Morrison’s cover artwork.
It must have been quite different from the 2024 Grande Família 'Penelope' project. That was a wonderful tribute to your mum. There is a nice montage from the launch at the Vortex on YouTube where I particularly responded to Teresa's viola snippet.
Do you have a favourite track from the album?
I think my favourite is possibly ’Nights Are Drawing In’. It’s a setting to music of Robert Frost’s ’Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening’, but with the words removed as his estate wouldn’t let me use them. I like the atmosphere it creates, and particularly love how Dijan Mbanu (flute) and Anna Drysdale (French horn) play the melody, and Chris Williams’ hauntingly melodic alto sax solo (Chris is also on the new quartet album).
I agree. I think the title is appropriate to the atmosphere the three instruments create. For me, probably because I have always loved the tune, I think 'Shenandoah' is absolutely beautiful. You included it in the 'Mount Tibidabo' album as well, but why did you initially split it into two parts?
Ah, yes. On the Penelope album I played Shenandoah solo. I really wanted to include it on the record as my mum had been singing it around the time she first got ill, when her singing voice suddenly came back after losing it for a while after she had Covid in Dec 2020, but there was only time for one short take at the end of the session, and it’s a fairly improvised arrangement, so I was pleased it came out ok. I'd been intending to arrange it for the full Grande Família, but hadn’t had time, so when we did the album launch I arranged it for them, but played a short solo version to start off with, then Angus brings in the full band version (Part 2) when the audience think the song has finished. Before knowing that I was going to release the launch as ’The Penelope Album Live’ on Discus Music, I wanted to record a version of the ensemble version of Shenandoah, so created a sextet arrangement which we recorded for the Mount Tibidabo EP, hence ending up with the three versions of Shenandoah that I’ve released - solo, sextet and 12-piece live.
I guess I should ask why you call the various groups 'Grande Família'?
Interesting question. Well, I decided on that name shortly after booking the recording session for the Penelope album. It’s Portuguese for "big family”. The initial spark for the project was when me, my girlfriend Teresa, one of my cousins, Jonas, and one of his nieces, Dijan, played a couple of pieces for my mum. It was when her sister’s family were staying in the village where I grew up, to visit my mum over Easter weekend, about a month after her terminal cancer diagnosis. There was about 25 of us there in total, and it was the first time Teresa met any of my family! Teresa is Portuguese, and I had just started trying to learn the language, hence the Portuguese band name. Jonas, Dijan and Teresa are all in Grande Família, so the name reflects that, my big extended family, and the musical family that you get in a band or community of musicians and those who support the music.
It seems quite a 'family' of musicians, going back to that montage video, there seems to be an understanding between them. How did you bring them together, and was there that camaraderie?
It was after playing with Teresa, Jonas and Dijan for my family in April 2023 that I decided to make the Penelope charity album, and originally to be the four of us. I quite quickly decided to add some more of my favourite musicians/people to make a large ensemble. It was all organised quite quickly, with the recording set for 27th June 2023, so I was very fortunate to get such a wonderful line up. There was definitely a sense of camaraderie and it really felt like everyone came together to make it happen in the studio; we’d only had one rehearsal which none of the brass could attend, and had to get all the large ensemble pieces recorded by 2.30pm on the recording day … so I was very happy with how it worked out.
So now there's your Quartet with Chris Williams, sax; Huw V Williams, bass; and Jay Davis, drums; and a new album 'Dancing On Bentwood Chairs'. Initially I read that as 'Brentwood' chairs and expected a reference to a place in Essex, but it is actually a quote from artwork by your dad - what is that all about?
Haha yes! It has nothing to do with Essex, though the album was recorded on Essex Road in Leyton - I also know Brentwood pretty well as I play in a big band that does a project with Brentwood School Big Band every year. I’ll tell you how I arrived at the album name. When I was writing the title track towards the end of 2018 I was visiting my parents and noticed a line at the bottom of one of my dad’s artworks: “My days of dancing on bentwood chairs were over... until now!”. I asked him about this and he told me the story of when he was an art student in 1970's Edinburgh, he and his friends planned a flash-mob dance on bentwood chairs in a cafe … and that now, many years later he's back to creating the art he really wants to, without any commercial or fashionability concerns. I took the phrase for the track and album name, as well as being encouraged to do whatever I wanted to do musically.
Can I get you another tea/coffee? And how about one of their fine cakes and pastries - carrot cake, croissant, cookies, brownies .....
Another tea would be great, and some carrot cake, why not?
Ferdinand, can we have a top up and some carrot cake please? How did the launch at the Vortex go, Billy?
It was really fun thanks. I love playing with Jay, Chris and Huw, you really feel like you can take risks and they'll go with you, and they always bring so much vibe and commitment to everything they play. As a band we had a long hiatus whilst I’ve been focusing on the Grande Família project. The launch was the second gig since we restarted in November 2025, but it immediately felt very natural to play together again. This is both thanks to their musicianship, and that me, Jay and Huw have been playing together a lot in the last few years with his band Di-Cysgodion, and I’ve kept playing with Chris in Grande Família. So coming back to the Dancing On Bentwood Chairs material after a break has been really exciting now our musical relationships have developed further. Huw and Jay also play together in a fair few other projects, including the new trio record with Mark Lockheart ‘Shapeshifter’, and are an incredible rhythm section unit.
It seems to be harder than ever to sell tickets for gigs these days, and I was a bit worried as we’d only sold 25 tickets a couple of days before the gig, but the Vortex was packed in the end. It felt like a really special evening to celebrate the album being finally out, especially as everyone involved in all the different aspects of making the album were there too. People have been really supportive of my gigs recently, particularly since the start of the Grande Família project, so that is hugely appreciated. I was a bit anxious before the gig as I’d spent so much time promoting the album and gig, and not enough time practicing the music. The use of the Blooper loop pedal makes things quite complicated for me, so I printed out a spreadsheet of everything I had to remember, which seemed to work as it all went really well. The only bad things about the launch were that I put quite a big dent in the front of my favourite acoustic guitar when rushing out the house for the soundcheck, then dropped my baritone guitar just after I left the Vortex, so have an even bigger dent in that one. They’ll serve as memories of a special evening at least.
That's tough on the guitars, it sounds as though they are still OK though. By the way, I like the construction of 'Great Ball At Satan's' - subtitled 'Step into a stately party for the inmates of the underworld, hosted by the Devil himself.'! It seems full of surprise twists and turns. I'll get Ferdinand to play it for us. Where did the idea come from?
Thanks Ian. Great Ball At Satan’s is connected to the second track, Woland Blues, which is named after the Devil character in Mikhail Bulgakov’s novel ‘The Master and Margarita’, which I was reading at the time I wrote that in 2019. In 2021 I composed some new pieces specifically with the album recording in mind, and inspired by Darcy James Argue’s album ‘Brooklyn Babylon’ I wanted some of the pieces to be connected thematically. I’d also just bought the Blooper Looper pedal, which is essentially like having a little tape machine on your pedal board. I tried putting one of the lines from Woland Blues backwards and it sounded even better than forwards, so I decided to use that for Great Ball At Satan’s, thinking it would make a good coda for the album.
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The Blooper Looper sounds like a character from The Wizard Of Oz - I think I shall imagine Satan as a little fellow overseeing the ball from behind an enormous devlish mask! The Blooper was quite effective then?
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Yes, imagining the ball hosted by Woland, I made it a waltz in 3/4, under which I add the bass movement from the chorus of Dancing On Bentwood Chairs on the baritone guitar, creating a pretty undefinable chord sequence, with the 18 beat line phasing over the 4 bar chord sequence. Once Chris starts soloing over it I switched the loop to the reverse of just the line's reverb, which sounds like constantly evolving synth chords but with the ghost of the line still there. At the beginning I use the filter on the Blooper to try to make it sound like your outside the room and hearing just the low frequencies of the music, then Chris’s entry is the moment you enter the party.
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Ferdinand - Please can you play track 12, Great Ball At Satan's, for us? Thank you.
'Great Ball' is the last track on the album. 'Cock-Eared Optimist' is the first track with some nice guitar work and bass playing going on with Jay Davis's drums, and it is dedicated to Milly - who is Milly and is her character reflected in the music? And is that your dad's artwork with the track? I think you put that track out as the first single - why pick that one?
Milly was my cat from aged 12-25 who had a folded over ear towards the end of her life in 2019. She was such a character and always very lively and upbeat despite the later setbacks. I’d come up with the initial ideas for The Cock-Eared Optimist and felt that it reflected Milly’s personality. It was actually my dad who came up with the title, a play on the old song “A Cockeyed Optimist” from South Pacific. He also did the artwork yes, along with the other artworks for the album. I love his art and it was wonderful to see what he came up with when I asked him to do the drawings. I put this track out as the first single as it’s quite catchy, and on the advice of the rest of the band.
Some of the soundscapes on the album are very striking; take the second part of 'Anthem For W.O.' (Wilfred Owen the war poet). How far is that down to you, Callum Albrow for the initial engineering, and Alex Bonney for the mastering and mixing?
Thanks Ian, on Anthem for W.O. - Part 2 I’m using the Strymon Big Sky reverb pedal and a volume pedal, and I think we added some extra reverb for the whole band on both parts of this track. Similarly across the rest of the album, most of the soundscapes come from things I’m doing live with pedals, either the Blooper looper, the Strymon for the huge reverb, or the EHX Freeze pedal to sustain chords (used on the final chord of Anthem for W.O., in The Cock-Eared Optimist and Capel Fawnog).
The loop pedal is used both texturally (for example in Capel Fawnog or Anthem for W.O. - Part 1, where I loop the tremolo chord strumming), and as loops we play along with live on the recording/gigs (eg The Protagonist and Great Ball At Satan’s). I also used it to create Woland Returns, and in Dancing On Bentwood Chairs I loop my solo intro in reverse and fade it in and out at various places in the track, creating an interesting extra layer in the music to interact with. When mixing Woland Returns, Alex managed to make it sound bigger and more stereo that the mono output of the Blooper. I also added a few overdubs in places, at home after the session.
So, what else have you got going on? And do you have other ideas and plans for the coming year?
Last month Teresa and I played a duo concert in York for the opening of an exhibition of my mum Penny Marrows’ artworks that my dad curated. I’d love to perform more with Teresa and we might be playing at the World Child Cancer gala dinner in July. I also have some Arts Council funding to write a viola concerto for Teresa which I’m currently working on, so I’m excited about that too.
I’m working on a collaboration with the wonderful singer-songwriter Beth Aggett who’s based in Amsterdam. She performed with Teresa and the Grande Família Quartet on the Puppet Theatre Barge last October, including a couple of fantastic arrangements she did of her songs - here’s one from that gig: ). We’re currently writing music and planning a recording session.
I see that you sometimes play in Jimi Hendrix's room - is that inspiring?
Yes, I play regularly in Hendrix’s bedroom at the Handel Hendrix House museum near Bond Street in London, either solo or duo. In January it was very inspiring to do it with John Parricelli, and on Sunday 15th March I’m playing with Tom Ridout on various recorders, 2-4pm. It’s really special to play there, particularly as I was completely obsessed with Hendrix when I was around 14-15.
I’m also looking forward to the rest of the Dancing On Bentwood Chairs album launch tour, and a trip to Leeds with the 12-piece Grande Família, playing at Seven Arts on the 16th April and Leeds Conservatoire on the 17th April.
Thanks for meeting up, Billy. I see it is raining again outside, did you bring a brolly? Lots of good wishes for the album and the tour. Perhaps I'll just get Ferdinand to play 'Shenandoah' again before I go.
Thanks Ian, it’s been great to chat. I’ve actually never owned a brolly, I’m more of a raincoat kind of person. Farewell to you and thank you Ferdinand. Take care.
Billy Marrow's website, including upcoming gigs, is here.
The album Dancing On Chairs, and other albums by Billy, are available to sample and buy here.
© Sandy Brown Jazz 2026.4