Ashley John Long
Ashley John Long is an award-winning virtuoso double bassist and composer active in a diverse range of musical idioms including jazz and improvisation, early and contemporary chamber music, and as a soloist.
He has performed and recorded internationally with some of the UK’s leading Jazz musicians, as well as accompanying visiting international artists, whilst his work as a soloist has seen the premiers of numerous new works for solo bass. He toured in 2008 with French double bassist Louis-Michel Marion in a series of recitals featuring music by Xenakis, Bussotti, Scelsi and Barry Guy. Over 20 composers have written new works for him and has had performances broadcast on television and radio throughout the U.K and Europe.
A virtuoso improviser, Ash has developed a unique approach to the instrument, creating innovative new performance techniques including methods of preparing the bass and performed and recorded with some of the genre’s leading players and released a solo disc Psi on FMR in 2017.
His work in the orchestral world has taken in everything from Gabrielli to Stockhausen and he has performed as principal double bass with various ensembles, as well as playing a great deal of chamber music.
From 2012-14 Ash toured the world with NoFit State Circus’ critically acclaimed show Bianco out of which grew his collaboration with Gareth Jones, resulting in the A Place to Start EP by Fireproof Giant.
As a composer, Ash has carved a reputation as a creator of innovative scores that balance fine detail with freedom and flexibility whilst retaining a strong melodic sense. Recent commissions have been acclaimed for their original and inventive writing including: Flux (2006) and Hevelspending (2010) for the Lunar Saxophone Quartet, Songs of the Night (2007) for Joel Garthwaite, XAS(2008) for himself and Louis-Michel Marion, Dance Miniatures (2013) for the Syzygy Saxophone Quartet, Natasha (2015-2018) for Asking4It, Etiäinen (2020) and Shadow Play (2021) for UPROAR, my way is in the sand flowing (2020) for Matthew Featherstone and Somewhere Becoming Rain (2021) for Trio Anima.
He has also taught composition workshops for Arts Active in jazz and classical composition and led schools-based composition projects which have resulted in a series of orchestral works for children. 2018-2019 saw him participating in the London Philharmonic Orchestra’s young composers scheme which culminated in the orchestral work Lunea (2019).
He also works as an educator and is a lecturer in musicology, composition and performance at Cardiff University. He has also taught at The University of Glamorgan and given masterclasses at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, County Wexford School of Music (Ireland) and MusicTime School (Milan, Italy) and acted as an orchestra sectional and Mini Bass project tutor for Gwent Music.
He studied at RWCMD (BMus) and Cardiff University (PhD) where he undertook research into contemporary performance practice and composition.