Madi Stimpson Trio
Big Top, Saturday 2016
Madi Stimpson is an exciting and original guitarist and singer-songwriter. Leaving home at 16, Madi learned to play by busking and playing small pub gigs before taking off round Europe with his guitar in the late 80s. Spending time in Belgium, Holland and Ireland, Madi learnt from many great local folk and jazz musicians.
Settling in Cardiff in the year 2000 he ran his own band The MadIntentions, playing a mix of original, Irish, folk, bluegrass and jazz. They were popular performers in the South Wales area for five years. Moving back to the Midlands at the end of the Noughties Madi started his own trio, again playing a diverse mix of guitar music, ranging from original compositions, to versions of great classics and contemporary pieces.
Madi has also been commissioned a number of times to compose music for plays, films and animations, puppet shows and experimental theatre. Influences range from Chet Atkins and Les Paul, to Frank Zappa and Tarraf de Hadouks, bebop virtuosos Charlie Parker and Wes Montgomery, to the gypsy jazz guitar masters Django Reinhardt and Bireli Lagrene and the British and Celtic folk legends of John Martyn, Pentangle and Moving Hearts. Madi draws on an astoundingly rich and varied range of styles.