Cath Roberts photograph by Palma Fiacco
There was no dramatic epiphany jazz moment for saxophonist Cath Roberts. Sorry about that, dear expectant reader. She did not discover a John Coltrane album tucked away in a relative’s collection of LPs; she did not go by chance to a gig and get swept away by a life changing performance, nor was there a double-shot espresso blinding light on the road to the Monmouth Coffee Company where she works. So how come this young musician is involved in running jazz nights at London venues, playing impressive alto and baritone saxophone, composing good original music and leading a seven-piece band? Good question.
Cath Roberts was born in Leicester and then moved to Northamptonshire with her family. Her parents are not musicians, although her mother loves music, and there are several instrumentalists/teachers on her side of the family.
The first inkling of an answer to our question comes when Cath was nine. She decided she wanted to play the saxophone. Her teacher suggested that she should try the clarinet – easier to handle for a nine-year old. Cath dug in her heels and insisted on the saxophone. She took lessons part time from a teacher who at one point introduced her to Charlie Parker’s music, but there was no particular focus on jazz. She worked her way up to grade 8 in classical saxophone and oboe. She no longer has the oboe, but it raises an interesting idea about the role of the instrument in a jazz setting.
‘There is an amazing county music service in Northamptonshire,’ says Cath. ‘At fourteen or so I joined the county music groups, but I wasn't listening to jazz, it was more rock, metal and hip hop. It was at the music service that I first became involved in big bands, and I continued to pursue playing with a big band at Warwick University while studying English Literature. At Warwick I also got into playing in small jazz groups connected with the Uni. big band.’
Leaving Warwick, Cath took a place at Goldsmith’s College to read Cultural Studies for her MA. During her time at Goldsmith’s she continued to play for function gigs with soul bands and some jazz groups, and by the time her course finished, she knew that she wanted to pursue music and so applied to the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Prompt the second clue to the answer to our earlier question about Cath:
‘I wanted to get in to Guildhall,’ she says. ‘I was living in North London, and so I went to as many gigs as I could and practised intensively for a year. I didn’t have a teacher.’ As a result of this determination, she was accepted on the Guildhall MMus jazz course as a part-time student in 2009. ‘Although I had a part scholarship, I also had to work to fund the place,’ 
she explains. ‘I did admin and accounts work part-time for The Monmouth Coffee Company. They were extremely supportive and flexible all the way through. ’
From 2008, Cath was also co-running, writing music for and playing with the Hackney Colliery Band, a live ensemble that plays marching tunes with drums, horns and sousaphone. ‘I was interested in how hip hop could be translated onto a live brass band,’ she says. The band has had radio play from Gilles Peterson on Radio 1, Jamie Cullum on Radio 2 and Huey Morgan on BBC 6Music. The Observer newspaper wrote about them: “I can’t imagine any of this lot down a mine, but…this is the most enjoyable, fun, live music I know of.” Cath left HCB in 2011 as she moved on from her Guildhall course and decided to focus on new projects.
Cath had started writing her own music for Guildhall classes as well as for HCB (composition is a strong feature at the college) and by the time her final recital came along, she knew she wanted to lead her own band. For her final recital she was supported by Dave Orchard (trumpet), Magnus Dearness (trombone), Kit Massey (keyboards), Dave O’Brien (bass) and Luke Christie (drums).
In the summer of 2011, Cath applied for funding from the PRS Foundation. She had lined up a number of gigs with members of her recital band and when the application proved unsuccessful, Cath was determined to fulfil her commitment to the bookings anyway. The band needed a name. ‘I brainstormed over the weekend before I had to send some promo material to a venue,’ says Cath. ‘I went down the dinosaur route for some reason and came up with this fictitious name of Quadraceratops. There are, after all, four horns in the band!’
The band played their gigs through 2012, including travelling to Manchester to play for Efpi Records' night Freedom Principle. Cath had met Ben Cottrell from Beats and Pieces Big Band on a F-IRE Collective workshop and he'd kindly offered her the gig. Thanks to Cath's friend, the DJ Dom Servini, Quadraceratops were booked to play a twenty-minute support set to the Get The Blessing gig at the 2012 London Jazz Festival.
In early 2013 Cath teamed up with saxophonist Dee Byrne to start LUME, a weekly original and improvised music night running every Thursday in London.
‘I had met Dee at a jam session soon after I moved to London in 2005 or 2006,’ recalls Cath. ‘I came across her by chance again
in 2012 when I was looking for gigs for the band. Dee was running her own night in Dalston at that point - 'Jazz At The Waterline'. She went on to set up 'Jazz At The Hackney Cut', but both sessions ended up closing'.
Cath and Dee found that they had a lot in common, so decided to work together and set up a new night. This time, they wouldn’t chance their luck by calling it ‘Jazz at the ...’ and they went for the name ‘LUME’. They currently have gigs booked until November. Venues vary, but click here for details of LUME and the current listings.
LUME
It is this proactive, determined quality in Cath that seems to make her the person she is. As well as setting up LUME with Dee, she is also involved with drummer Daniel Paton in running In League With Robots, a gig-promoting duo who organise Collisions, a double bills night of cross-genre music that takes place monthly at the Albany in Great Portland Street..
You will also find Cath playing with tenor saxophonist Tom Ward in the Madwort Sax Quartet. Click here for more information. Click here for a video of the Madwort Sax Quartet playing Islands In the Green with Cath on baritone sax.
Quadraceratops continues to evolve as an impressive band that gives Cath the opportunity to develop her writing and arrangements and is well worth hearing. The current line up includes Cath on alto sax, Tom Ward (tenor sax), Chris Snead (trumpet), Magnus Dearness (trombone), Kit Massey (keyboards), Dave O’Brien (bass) and Olly Blackman (drums).
In June 2013, the band played at Jazz In The Round at the Cockpit Theatre in London. Cath says: ‘The music is inspired by 
insects, fairground rides, the underground tunnelling machines that are being used to build Crossrail, and what it would be like having dinner with serial killer Patrick Bateman from American Psycho. At the end of the gig, Jez Nelson called our set ‘suitably psychotic ...’
Quadraceratops playing Jazz In the Round
Photograph by Andy Sheppard
In September 2013, Quaraceratops played at the Vortex Jazz Club in London alongside Matthew Jacobson’s Dublin based band ReDiViDerR. Their versatility was demonstrated when Magus Dearness depped with ReDeViDeR on trombone, as Quadraceratops bass player Dave O’Brien (who had played a great solo on Calico) joined the Dublin musicians on keyboards, and when the two bands played together at the end of the gig – they had only met that afternoon.
October 2014 saw the release of Quadraceratops debut album. Here is our review.
This is a very impressive debut album from Cath Roberts’s band Quadraceratops on the Efpi label. Where to start? Well, hats off to Fish Factory Studios where it was recorded in April and to Alex Bonney for the mix – the album is clear and well-balanced.
Cath Roberts’s compositions are enjoyable and varied and the arrangements nicely considered, allowing for good ensemble work and
plenty of space for individual journeys outside the circle. I am reminded of Bix Beiderbecke once saying, many years ago: ‘One of the things I like about jazz, kid, is I don't know what's going to happen next. Do you?’
Including a trombone in the band brings added depth, the drums hold things together beautifully and the Fender Rhodes is used imaginatively to bring a feeling of vibraphone to colour some of the tracks.
Quadraceratops brings together Cath Roberts (alto saxophone), Tom Ward (tenor saxophone), Magnus Dearness (trombone), Henry Spencer (trumpet), Dave O’Brien (Fender Rhodes, piano), Jason Simpson (double bass) and Olly Blackman (drums). Originally formed in 2011, the band has seen some changes in personnel along the way, and this current line-up clearly has a bundle of talent.
Dinner With Patrick is inspired by a character in the Bret Easton Ellis novel American Psycho and the arrangement reflects the concept with varied changes of mood before the saxophone emerges from the melee followed with a calming period led by trombone and keys before the others come back in. Song For The Worker Bee has the Fender Rhodes, drums and bass taking over from the theme and Dave O’Brien sets out to see where his keyboard will take him with Henry Spencer along for the ride. It all settles down lyrically for the coda.
Chair-O-Planes is one of the band’s original tunes written when Cath Roberts was at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. It has a really nice interplay between the horns followed by some pleasing and imaginative saxophone before Magnus Dearness shows us why a 
good trombone player can make a difference to a band.
Open Sandwich was, apparently, ‘conceived as something controlled and stripped-down’, but this is a fine piece of funk with the rhythm laid down by the bass, drums and keys from the beginning. Enter the horns and then the Rhodes, bass and drums put down a groove for the saxophone. Spiderling has a simple, repeated harmonised motif and this time Dave O’Brien is on piano with a delicate short solo before dropping back behind the horns.
I want to mention Calico in particular as Henry Spencer’s brilliant trumpet solo really moved me. The feeling he squeezes from his trumpet in this piece is, I think, especially memorable. The piece is named after Cath Roberts’s cat and the chaotic playing towards the end broken by gentle piano pieces make me wonder about the character of this particular feline.
Listen to Calico:
Flying South closes the album with Magnus Dearness’s trombone taking a pleasing solo before Jason Simpson solos on bass, slowing everything down ready for the Fender Rhodes and the saxophone to quietly surface in a gentle improvisation that leads to lovely ensemble and keyboard playing before the piece fades.
I think this is a great album. You order it here. My advice - save up your pocket money and form an orderly queue.
Listen to Open Sandwich from the album.
Samples of the recording are available here..This is an excellent band. Check them out – they are certainly not dinosaurs!
Click here for Cath Roberts’s website where you can also find contact details and samples of her music.
© Cath Roberts and Ian Maund 2013-2015