Billy Marrows

Press

Press and features for Billy's live album The Penelope Album Live, released 28th March 2025:

"It's Marrows' skill as a writer and arranger to move between lustrous big band orchestrations and intimate duo and trio episodes with ease...A celebration of life"

★★★★ Jazzwise

"This live album magnifies the invention, charm and compositional strength of the original while being different enough and strong enough to stand on its own"

★★★★ All About Jazz

"Billy’s guitar when heard solo also holds a melancholy and poignancy that affects the listener"

Mr Olivetti, FREQ Magazine

"Maybe one of the answers is to do what’s going on here, totally ignore the trap those six strings present. Surround yourself with multiple colours, simply sing off the strings. Watch out for Billy Marrows"

Steve Day

"I love its creative use of dissonance and heavy rhythmical interaction"

Soweto Kinch describing 'Be Right Bold' on BBC Radio 3 'Round Midnight

Press and features for Billy's EP Mount Tibidabo, released 29th November 2024:

"Marrows plays with such lyrical melodicism...you can't help but be seduced into his charmed world"

★★★★ Jazzwise

"A superb follow-up to his debut album ‘Penelope’, the EP features some of the UK’s finest up-and-coming talent”

Ruth Fisher, Jazz FM

"You get drawn into the way he uses space, letting each chord and sound resonate for emotional effect”

Soweto Kinch, BBC Radio 3 Boxing Day 2024 'Round Midnight episode

'Mount Tibidabo' Song of the Day

All About Jazz

'Mount Tibidabo' Video of the Day

Jazzwise

JAZZWISE review of Grande Família playing Penelope live at a sold-out Vortex Jazz Club, 13th Sept 2024:

"An intensely personal insight into Marrows’ unique musical mind"

"Marrows’ guitar playing is full of subtlety and harmonic depth – much like the colourful impressionistic brushstrokes featured on his album art"

"Whether playing solo, leading a small instrument grouping, or accompanying the larger ensemble, Marrows’ melodic intuition always shone through"

"The wider band was comprised of big characters and full of improvisational flair"

"These impassioned moments of improvisation were the high points of the gig, bringing a sense of spontaneity that elevated Marrows’ nuanced arrangements. The overall result was raw and emotionally engaging"

Press and features for Billy's debut album Penelope, released 26th January 2024:

"An exhilaratingly original sound, at once intimate and expansive"

★★★★ Editor's Choice JAZZWISE (UK)

Taking Off Feature | Review | Editor's Choice best albums of February 2024

"The album is a triumph...with his Grande Família project, Marrows has created a spectacular new ensemble" Jazz Views (UK)

"A highly successful fund raising venture the album is also an impressive musical achievement in its own right. The music coheres remarkably effectively with Marrows himself the unifying force"

★★★★ The Jazz Mann (UK)

"What I really like about the album is how its 10 separate pieces, for all their variety of means and approach, behave as though they belong together, like a family"

Richard Williams, The Blue Moment

"Melodic and distinctive...an album of inventive and contemporary chamber-jazz that serves as a worthy tribute and aids a worthy cause"

★★★★ All About Jazz

"Gorgeous chamber jazz LP"

Bandcamp (US) New and Notable feature

"Arranged by Marrows, the chamber-esque piece utilizes flute (Dijan Mbanu) and trombone (Olli Martin) to great effect, as well as sighing group vocals, which conjure classic bossa nova antecedents"

JAZZIZ Magazine (US)

"UK jazz artists whose creativity was aired last Thursday included dazzling guitarist Bill Marrows on L’Heroisme"

UK Jazz News review of the first week of BBC Radio 3's 'Round Midnight

"A really evocative and almost cinematic piece with so many twists and turns, and he paints so many colours I almost forgot the absence of drums"

Soweto Kinch, BBC Radio 3's 'Round Midnight 'Round Midnight episode

"Billy Marrows and Grande Família Pizza Express Jazz Club, London Monday 13 May. Playing music from guitarist Billy Marrows' poignant album, Penelope"

Marlbank top UK and Irish gigs this week (13th May 2024)

JAZZWISE Taking Off feature February 2024

JAZZWISE "A Grande Família" single/video premiere September 2023

All About Jazz - Song of the Day "L'Heroïsme"

UK Jazz News interview about the Penelope album

Jazz Views Take Five Q&A

JAZZIZ podcast episode about the Penelope album

Live interview and performance on BBC Radio York

Interview | Performance

Jazz at Morley podcast episode about the Penelope album

"L'Heroïsme" closed BBC Radio 3 JRR's New Year New Music 2024 episode

"L'Heroïsme" played on Jazzurekcje by Rafał Bryndal on Polish radiojazz.fm

VerhoovensJazz Jazz Albums February 2024

1hr show about the Penelope album on Catalunya Música's Via Jazz

The Press, York - print interview about the Penelope album

Gazette and Herald, Ryedale - front page feature on weekly paper