Ollie Howell - Sutures and Stitches (2013)

“An unbelievable drummer. So creative I couldn’t believe it. This kid really is a 360-degree beautiful young cat that I believe has what it takes to make a life out of music.”
- Quincy Jones

Sutures and Stitches is the debut solo album from drummer, composer and bandleader Ollie Howell, a young man (mid-twenties at the time of this recording) who has overcome life-threatening obstacles and used these events to compose a program of inspired music. Currently based in London, he's been establishing a name for himself both in the UK and abroad. Ollie’s main focus as a composer and bandleader has been his own quintet who won the Peter Whittingham Development Award, administered by the Musician’s Benevolent Fund.

Howell's debut chronicles a life changing and defining period that had both dramatic highs (including the befriending and mentorship of Quincy Jones and of the legendary drummer Jimmy Cobb) and also dramatic lows. In 2009 Ollie was suddenly diagnosed with a brain malformation which resulted in a series of mandatory neurosurgeries, the last one taking place in April 2012. The scars from Ollie’s surgeries (and their sutures and stitches) stand as reminders, not of his pain and anguish during that time, but of his recovery and determination to heal and forge something positive from the ordeal. Along with a full recovery, one of the big positives from Ollie's experience has resulted in many of the compositions that appear on Sutures and Stitches, as most of the music was written from his hospital bed.

Recorded in London by Derek Nash and mixed and mastered by the New York-based, 5-time Grammy nominee Tyler McDiarmid, the album features a standout sound quality and collection of original compositions that draw inspiration from both the contemporary London and NYC improv scenes, a strong dedication to melodic and memorable themes and driving grooves.

Ollie Howell - drums, compositions
Duncan Eagles - tenor saxophone
Mark Perry - trumpet
Matt Robinson - piano
Max Luthert - double bass