THIRD AWARD FOR DENNIS ROLLINS

On Monday 9 October, trombonist Dennis Rollins picked up his third award of the year. Following on from his BBC Jazz Award for Best Band and his Marston¹s Pedigree British Jazz Award, Dennis' Rhythms of Fire project won the 2006 Arts & Kids Award, part of the regional Arts & Business Awards. Arts & Business is a national charity dedicated to encouraging new and sustainable arts and business relationships.

Rhythms of Fire was a commission from Doncaster¹s first annual HotHouse Festival and involved 180 children from Doncaster primary schools working with Liverpudlian poet Levi Tafari to produce an anthology of poems on the theme of 'hot'. The poems were then used by Dennis to inspire a suite of compositions.

Rhythms of Fire was premiered in February 2005. Says Rollins "It's been an amazing year for me,- winning three awards in a year is wonderful, and I'm especially pleased to win one for work in my home town. It was a wonderful project. Levi and the children produced some good poetry. They clearly got a lot out of doing it -and so did." Three of the Rhythms of Fire tunes were re-worked and now appear on Rollins' new album Big Night Out!

Dennis is also a nominee at the Urban Music Awards 2006. The premier urban and dance music awards take place at New Connaught Hotel, London WC2 on Friday 10 November 2006. Dennis is nominated alongside Soweto Kinch, Courtney Pine, Jamie Cullum and The Jazz Collective in the Best Jazz Act category.

Born in 1964 in the Midlands to Jamaican parents, and raised in South Yorkshire, he cut his teeth at the age of 14 studying and performing with The Doncaster Youth Jazz Association. After years of study, Dennis moved to London and began playing with the National Youth Jazz Orchestra (NYJO) and the legendary all-black jazz big band The Jazz Warriors. Over the years, Dennis, now based in Doncaster, has established a reputation as an artist of excellence and has lent his unique and stylish talents to some
of this country's top jazz and pop personalities such as Courtney Pine, Baba Maal, Jamiroquai, US3, Brand New Heavies and Blur.

www.dennisrollins.com

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