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Mike Flynn is an award-winnging London based bassist and music journalist playing jazz, funk, leftfield pop and African influenced music as well as writing for leading music magazines Jazzwise and Time Out London. 'Homespun' is the new album from his URB collective - mixing funk, jazz and dance music with fusion and drum and bass.
Born in London in 1972, via-Stroud, Oxford, Brighton and now living in Brixton, Mike initially studied Fine Art Printmaking at Falmouth College Of Art (graduating with a 2:1 BA Hons Degree), but subsiquently followed a career as both a musician and music journalist. Playing bass guitar for 24 years he's mainly self-taught though he has studied privately with great bass players Mike Mondesir, Steve Lawson, John Goldsby, and Rob Statham. All this has helped him play music from across the spectrum of styles; from full-on rock bands to piano jazz trios, even a little classical opera group. Playing countless live gigs and numerous recording sessions, has made him a very versatile bassist.
Mike has played with some amazing musical talent that includes live performances with members of Oxford dance band legends The Egg (playing live on MTV and Channel 5), opera singer Heather Cairncross, jazz musicians Soweto Kinch, Robert Mitchell, Tom Pilling, Roy Dodds, Robin Banerjee (Amy Winehouse), Lauren Dalrymple (Jazz Warriors), Mamadee Kamara (Courtney Pine, Andy Sheppard) Dylan Howe, Shannon Harris (Wheatus, Lilly Allen), Ben Sarfas (Lou Rhodes). Mike also perfomed a week of concerts with London funk band Jasco at the 2005 Koh Samui Music Festival in Thailand on the bill with bands Da Lata, Laurence Cottle's Big Band, UB40 and Jerry Lee Lewis. In June 2009 he performed at the Jazz au Chellah festival in Rabat, Morocco in a quartet Paula Rae Gibson, Sophie Alloway and Tom Pilling.
More recently Mike has performed with top London-based funk band Groove Digger, and is a longstanding member of cutting edge London Rai rock/funk band Ludomix, while he will release a new solo bass-led project that will span jazz, funk and left field dance music and feature many of the fine musicians he knows and works with in and around London later this year. Mike is also now working with amazing Indian solo artist and music producer Niraj Chag - playing two sold out shows at London's prestigious LSO St Lukes and the CBSO Centre in Birmingham.
