Shunya & Friends w/ Dave Walsh

Last year Alan Keary (aka Shunya) began "Shunya & Friends" a curated musical improv event taking place in various small venues around England. This project stems from Keary's passion for improvising and the goal to unite musicians in creating and recording spontaneous music in front of live audiences. Each night showcases a seamless blend of musical styles, influenced by the participating musicians, encompassing electronic, jazz, West African, Irish traditional, Indian Classical to experimental. Notable artists who joined the Shunya & Friends project include Rob Turner (Gogo Penguin), Liviu Gheorghe (Matthew Halsall), Luke Flowers (The Cinematic Orchestra), Seb Rochford, Jason Singh, Dudu Kouate, Sidiki Dembele, Abel Selaocoe, and Ríoghnach Connolly (The Breath).

This 'Shunya & Friends' will feature jazz drummer and musician Dave Walsh. 

Dave Walsh is a busy working drummer in the UK, working at Leeds Conservatoire as a Principal Lecturer for the Jazz pathway.  

He works in many different genres such as being the drummer for singer/songwriter Tom McRae and has completed four tours of Europe in 2010/11/12 & 2015 and several international music festivals including 'The Dranouter Festival' in Belgium, 'Rock Altitude' in Switzerland, Les Ardentes festival in Liege and Kartfestivalen in Norways  He also appeared on French music TV program 'Taratata' with Tom McRae and also backed French international artist Keren Ann. Dave Also played on Tom’s new album titled 'Did I Sleep and Miss The Boarder' (2015), featuring Tom McRae and The Standing Band. And also ‘The Buzzard Tree Sessions' (2015), which also featured The Standing Band. In December 2016 Tom recorded a cover of the Del Amitri hit 'Here and Now' for a charity record and the band performed alongside Justin Currie at a launch show in Glasgow. 

Dave has also been working with international guitarist Stuart McCallum on his studio/live project “Distilled” which came out on record label “Naim” in autumn 2011. They performed a sold out launch gig at The Royal Northern College of Music as part of The Manchester International Jazz Festival. The band has also appeared at some major music festivals in 2010/2011/12/13 including “SoundWave Festival” in Croatia. Stuart and the band also recently supported “Bonovo” in Leeds and Portico Quartet at the London jazz Festival.