About

The Jazz Sanctuary are excited to present Helena Debono and Charlie Bates with their quartet to perform a mix of songs from their new album "A Thousand Nights" (Jazz FM Record of The Week). After a string of sell-out shows in the West End of London, they are embarking on a UK tour promoting this extraordinary album which features a 55-piece orchestra, all orchestrated by Bates and sung effortlessly by Debono. Expect swinging arrangements of jazz classics, emotional renditions of their favourite ballads and some original songs they have penned together. This promises to be a night not to miss!

Charlie Bates is a multi-award-winning composer, arranger and pianist based in London. After graduating from the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire with first class honours and as a multiple prize-winner, he released his debut album for big band 'Silhouettes'. This went on to be dubbed 'impressive and inventive' by The Guardian. He went on to work with the National Youth Jazz Orchestra as composer-in-residence, whom he conducted at Air Studios and Ronnie Scotts Jazz Club. He has since been awarded the Dankworth Award, the Eddie Harvey Award and an Ivor Novello award for composition. He has performed live on BBC2 and his music has been broadcast on BBC TV and Radio, as well as Jazz FM. More recently, he has been working with the world famous NDR Big Band in Germany as a guest composer, arranger and conductor.

"Impressive and Inventive, Teeming with melodic inventiveness" John Fordham, The Guardian

From South West London comes Helena Debono, a young jazz vocalist. She has been captivating audiences with her emotional renditions of Jazz standards and her own original music since she was a teenager. Her natural, effortless vocals have already received acclaim amongst the UK Jazz scene and leaves audiences wanting to hear more. She has performed at many venues including Ronnie Scotts, PizzaExpress Soho and Holborn, Cheltenham Jazz Festival, Manchester Jazz Festival and many more. In July 2021 Helena released her debut album called 'Right Here' which is a mix of Jazz standards and her own originals. The album received great reviews and has over 30K streams on Spotify. She performed a Sold-Out Album Launch show at PizzaExpress Holborn and her band were invited to perform a livestream from Ronnie Scotts which has over 5k streams.