Founded in 2007, Empirical is ‘still a reliable touchstone of contemporary British jazz at its most sophisticated’ today (Jazzwise 2022).

Featuring Nathaniel Facey (alto sax), Tom Farmer (double bass), Lewis Wright (vibraphone) and Shaney Forbes (drums), the band settled on its line-up in 2008 following the departure of three of the original college-friends quintet.

The quartet bonded through a sense of common purpose: “I’d never met guys who took it so seriously. The process of studying together is really what brought us together, and we just carried on doing it” recalls Tom Farmer.

Collective study and exploration has remained the bedrock of Empirical’s creative process and has seen the band assimilate influences from right across the rich history of jazz. While oblique harmonies, translucent textures and jagged, quick shifting rhythms are the signposts of Empirical’s musical territory, the band has not been afraid to explore other musical realms: a collaboration with the string ensemble Benyounes Quartet, and the attendant challenge of making strings an integral part of the Empirical sound, brought out some of the band’s most complex and lyrical writing.

With their most recent recordings, ‘they have continued to refresh their progressive brand of jazz that weaves together intricate contemporary grooves, unfamiliar compositional forms and open-minded post-bop improvisations’ that tend to feel more part of the compositional development than solos (Jazzwise).  

Alongside their ceaselessly fearless creative fervour, Empirical have succeeded in establishing an instantly recognisable group sound that is rife with raw energy and roiling emotion.

‘Empirical are among the most admired and individual-sounding bands in contemporary jazz. […] As anyone who has heard the band live will know, their approach is so fresh and their sound so appealing that there’s never a dull moment. Much of this is down to the instrumentation of alto saxophone, vibraphone, bass and drums, which has the lightness and clarity to convey quite adventurous ideas without losing the listener along the way.’ (The Observer)

Empirical’s knack for pushing boundaries is not limited to their music: in an effort to win new audiences for jazz, in February 2016, the band took their music directly into people’s daily lives by setting up a ‘now legendary Pop-up Jazz Lounge’ (Time Out London) at Old Street Underground station in central London. Performing more than twenty live sets over the course of six days, including an 8am gig for surprised morning commuters, their risk-taking approach paid off amply by attracting close to 3,000 listeners, many of them new to jazz.

Since then the band has twice has returned to Old Street Underground station (2017 and 2018 as part of EFG London Jazz Festival) and has taken their Pop-up Jazz Lounge to shopping centres in Birmingham, Cheltenham (as part of Cheltenham Jazz Festival 2018) and Berlin (as part of the JazzFest Berlin 2017) and most recently to Bath as part of Bath Festival 2022.

Playing intense runs of gigs, such as their six-day residency at Foyles bookshop or their pop-up projects, has also been a way of fulfilling the band’s continued ambition to develop music through experimentation during live performance. “We’ve always had huge respect for all those great bands that played together night after night.” notes Shaney Forbes. “It was pivotal to how their music developed and being able to do that ourselves allowed us to be in the mindset of improvising and composing on the spot.’

Coming together in an environment that treats jazz as a search rather than a destination, jazz’s heyday isn’t just a musical inspiration: “That constant search for meaning in the early avant garde was really powerful and it’s essential to our band.”

Despite the intellectualism often ascribed to jazz, for Empirical, it’s ultimately all about moving, rather than impressing, their audience. As Nathaniel Facey sums it up: “It’s nice having people realise that they don’t have to ‘understand’ what we’re doing. That it’s really about what the music is communicating. Can I hear some honesty and some depth? Does it mean something to me? Does it move me?”

Awards

2016 Urban Music Awards – BEST JAZZ ACT

2016 Parliamentary Jazz Awards - BEST JAZZ ENSEMBLE

2010 MOBO awards – BEST JAZZ ACT

2008 Parliamentary Jazz Awards - BEST JAZZ ENSEMBLE

2007 EBU/European Jazz Competition – WINNER

2007 Peter Whittingham Award – WINNER

2007 Jazzwise – ALBUM OF THE YEAR

2007 Mojo – JAZZ ALBUM OF THE YEAR