Mark de Clive-Lowe

This young New Zealand pianist makes snappy, witty Post Bop for a new generation of jazz heads. His melodies are full of quick shifts and unexpected turns of phrase; the solo sections take off at blistering tempos. De Clive-Lowe solos in a quirky, blues-inflected idiom that could be described as a melding of Thelonious Monk's unorthodox phrasing and Herbie Hancock's lush, spacious chord voicings and spidery melodic lines. And like Hancock, de Clive-Lowe has made numerous forays into the world of dance music, working with top-flight DJs to produce jazz-inflected Breakbeat, House and Drum 'n' Bass tunes sure to light up the dance floor.