Pete Whyman was born in Leicester in 1962. He studied the clarinet with Jona Etlinger and Tony Pay whilst he was at the Guildhall School as well as classical saxophone with Stephen Trier. After completing his diploma he stayed an extra year at the Guildhall as one of the first students enroled on the then new 'Jazz & Rock' course, his mentor Tony Coe was his tutor and guide (Tony's influence is almost immediate on hearing Pete's clarinet sound, a flash back to the style of Jimmy Giuffre.)

Pete was lead alto in the award winning Guildhall big band and it was a BBC documentary on this band which was to fashion Pete's path into the UK's contemporary jazz scene. Unbeknown to Pete, Mike Westbrook's manager of the time, Laurence Aston (now of Unknown Public) had spotted Pete's talent on this very programme, Mike was looking for a young dynamic saxophonist (with Latin looks!) to be part of his next musical theatre project based on DH Lawrence's 'The Ass'. Pete was to spend the next 10 years of his life involved in most of Mike's musical output, touring extensively in Europe with projects as diverse as 'Off Abbey Rd' (tribute to The Beatles), 'Glad Day', 'London Bridge' and 'Westbrook Rossini'.

Inspired by Mike's energy and encouragement Pete put together his own trio, looking back at first to his Guildhall days by inviting the brilliant pianist,composer,accordion player Huw Warren (on the same Jazz course) to join him along with the Westbrook stalwart and composer/band leader, Pete Fairclough on drums and percussion.

The musical input into the trio both compositionally and in direction was shared between the three, often ideas would be developed in a similar way to Mingus, developed by the trio in rehearsal. The trio performed at the 'Outside In' Festival in Crawley plus London's 'Jazz Cafe' receiving rave reviews. Other UK performances have been in Sheffield and Bath. A BBC radio 3 broadcast soon followed. In 1998 the trio went into the studio to record its first album for a new label called '8vo' (graphic designers by trade, famed for its work for Tony Wilson's Factory label). The cd was finished and edited and presented to Pete as a present....8vo had ceased trading!

November 2002 marked a watershed for the group, FMR released this cd, named Pulse. The music is now available via this site and has world wide distribution. Check the spectacular reviews.

Watch out, Whyman, Warren and Fairclough are back!

To book the trio please contact Pete Whyman via this link

"The level of technical certainty was awesome... a fine and under-exposed virtuoso" The Guardian

"Taking his cue from the experiments of the american reeds player Jimmy Giuffre... the trio was the best new band at the Festival" The Independent