Tony Heiberg - Guitar

featured, as a member of the Jake Fryer Quintet, in the new British Film Comedy, Nativity, starring Rick from the Royal Family and Martin Freedman from The Office.

Guitarist/composer/tutor Tony Heiberg is from a family of professional classical musicians based in Chicago Illinois. He studied jazz improvisation under David Baker at Indiana University where he played with a couple of the school's big bands and gigged in the local bars and coffee houses playing jazz and classical music. While at IU Heiberg managed to jam with Carlos Santana as well as the guitar duo of Ralph Tower and John Abercrombie. He also played with Frankie Laine and his band opened for Jack Dejohnett and Muddy Waters.

Heiberg moved to New York where his bands performed regularly at Danceteria, Pizza A Go Go, The Pyramid, Club 57, 8BC, Kamakazie and the Kat Club. Heiberg also got good notices from The East Village Eye, The New York Paper and Details Magazine. Author Steve Hager described him as "talented" in his book Art After Midnight.

Heiberg emigrated to London in 1986 and met French singer/songwriter Anne Pigalle through the auspices of British friends he made in New York: Gee Street Record's Jon Baker and Ken Crosland. Gigs at the Cafe de Paris and tours of Europe and Japan followed. Heiberg also worked with other artists associated with Gee Street including Youth, PM Dawn, the Tiger Lillies and Leroi Quentin.

He then commenced playing inumberable jazz gigs and residencies throughout London in clubs such as Ronnie Scott's, The Embargo, The Groucho, The National Theatre, Zanzibar, Fred's, The DNA Bar, The First Floor Restaurant, Andrew Edmund's, Blacks, Bar Cuba, Bar Madrid, Morten's, Wall Street, China Jazz, Brown's, The Ram Jam, The Grey Horse, All Bar One, the Naked Turtle, The Epsom Jazz Club and the Kingston Jazz Club. Heiberg is a founding member of the Way Out West jazz collective which also features such artists as Tony Woods, Matt Wates, Chris Biscoe and Eddie Harvey.

Over the last couple of years the Tony Heiberg Quartet with Meredith White piano, Max Luthert bass and Chris Nickolls drums, has held weekly residencies in west London featuring many of the UK's top musicians including, in no particular order: Dave O'Higgins, Martin Shaw, Tony Kofi, Jim Mullen, Laurence Cottle, Duncan Eagles, Kenrick Rowe, Paul Jordanous, Pete Whittaker, Pete Billington, Simon Allen, Mike Outram, Kate Williams, Christian Brewer, Rod Youngs, Frank Griffith, Steve Fishwick,Tom Law, Jimmy Hastings, Andy Gibson, Bob Mckay, Chris Allard, David Frankel, Jake Fyer, James Hayes, Steve Riddle, Robert Rickenberg, Will Hyland, Vasili Xenopoulos, Nick Hayward and Bill Mudge.

The band, which plays a mixture of modern jazz, bebop, standards, latin and funk, has an avid following from the music students and graduates of Kingston University and performs every Sunday at the Kingston Gate, 204 London Road, Kingston upon Thames, KT2 6QQR. Tel: 020 8546 64840 from 8pm . Admission is free and the colspan="2" gig runs from 8pm - midnight.

Tony Heiberg has held residencies as a classical guitarist at the Canbury Arms in Kingston and at the English Maid Boat in Vauxhall. He has also performed in this capacity at numerous weddings held in such places as Amberly Castle, York House and Orlean's House.

Tony Heiberg is a composer of catchy, hummable and dancable tunes based on jazz but drawn from a variety of souces. His first CD, In Vino Veritas, got an excellent review from John Bungey of the Times. His next CD, The Rythym Method, featuring prize-winning tenor saxophonist Duncan Eagles is due in December.