Biography
Jonathan Bratoëff doesn’t like to rest on his laurels, he is always in search of new inspiration and challenges, his music reflects a desire to move ahead while respecting and following a certain tradition. The influences found in his music are multiple but he has managed to retain a strong individual voice to convey his ideas.
He moved to London in 1998 and has since be an important part of the UK jazz scene. Indeed he is a founding member of the award winning F-IRE collective and has been part of a certain revival of the UK jazz scene playing alongside jazz luminaries Seb Rochford (Polar bear), Pete Wareham (Acoustic ladyland), Ingrid Laubrock, Tom Arthurs, Ben Davis (Basquiat strings), Nick Ramm (Clown Revisited) and many others including Julian Siegel, Martin Speake, Soweto Kinch, Orphy Robinson, Shabaka Hutchings.
He currently plays with award winning combo Porpoise Corpus and the F-IRE COLLECTIVE large ensemble for whom he has composed several scores.
Jonathan Bratoëff has recorded five albums his debut Episode (2001) featuring F-IRE collective members Seb Rochford and Ben Davis amongst others, the critically acclaimed album Between Lines (2005) featuring Seb Rochford, Pete Wareham and Tom Mason, the more electric and electronic sounding album Points of Perception (2006) produced by Wampa and featuring the above plus invited guest Nick Ramm and Tom Arthurs, an experimental duo with NY drummer Chris Vatalaro (Ralph Alessis, Michael Cain, Antibalas) entitled Chapters (2009) and finally his last Quartet album entitled Mindscapes (2010) and featuring Tom Mason again plus new members Mark Hanslip and James Maddren.
He has toured nationally and internationally with various projects, notably the Jonathan Bratoëff Quartet. He has as well written for theatre notably the plays 'Five Kinds of Silence' (2001), 'Urban Stories' (2003) '4ever' (2005) and Velvet Scratch (2007).
Creativity is at the core of Jonathan Bratoëff's quest to produce music which is emotionally yet intellectually rewarding in equal terms. He doesn’t believe in genre and prefers to consider music as an open dialogue with the listener without preconception or prejudgement, it is the moment that counts and you never know what the future has in store! He likes traveling and has found inspiration in places such as Zimbabwe, Morroco, Croatia, Bulgaria, Colombia, Norway, Greece, Sicily, Poland, Egypt, Romania, Mexico, Turkey and New York.
"Great versatility while holding a strong personal identity, isn’t that what modern jazz is all about?"
Birmingham post
“Bratoeff’s use of harmonic tension and release is sublime both in composition and improvisation.”
Joseph Kassman Tod, Jazzwise
