Early works.

For my first solo albums, “Playing With No Friends” and the follow up “Proud To Be A Failed Waiter”, I wanted to come up with a  new name, partly in an effort to reinvent myself but also because I’d heard there was someone else releasing music as Michael Jackson, though I’ve no idea what became of that guy.  The first name Kerry I chose partly in homage to Slayer’s guitarist Kerry King, then Samson was pretty much a random surname I chose to go with it.  Kerry stuck, Samson did not.

These albums got a decent reception at the time and I sold enough copies to keep my CD burner, printer and scissors busy  (for those who’ve grown up with CDBaby and Bandcamp, that’s how we did self releases back then).

Cockroach Blues (1997)

Motorway Enui (1998)

Anarchic big band jazz adventures.

Formed in 1996 while I was doing the jazz degree at Leeds College of Music, the Great Escape Big Band was an 18-piece jazz orchestra made up of students on the course, many of whom went on to international careers.  I set myself the task of writing a new chart and preparing all the parts for the band every week – inspired as much by Django Bates and Frank Zappa as Duke Ellington and Stan Kenton, so the band’s sound included some unique quirks, including a six-piece sax section and liberal use of collective improvisation and BGN (Bloody Great Noise).

The below recordings were taped from a 1997 concert in the college recital room at Leeds Civic Theatre) and is still one of my favourite things to have done in music.