Ant Law

British guitarist Ant lives in London and is “a game changer” according to The Guardian. His 5th album ‘Same Moon in the Same World’ (Outside in Music) was released on 4th November 2022. Touring commenced and booking is now underway for 2024.

Same Moon is a collaboration between Ant and the brilliant saxophonist & composer Alex Hitchcock. Recorded in 2020/2021 across multiple continents, bridging the gap between London and Tel-Aviv, and Amsterdam and New York, it brings together a stellar cast of guest musicians performing new compositions: vibraphonist Joel Ross, bassists Linda May Han Oh, Ben Williams and Jasper Høiby, and drummers Jeff Ballard, Kendrick Scott, Sun-Mi Hong and Eric Harland.

The Same Moon quartet is on tour in Europe in December: Ant, Alex Hitchcock (saxophone), Conor Chaplin (bass) and Jeff Ballard (drums) who appears on the album. In February & March 2023 Ant and Alex are touring with Jasper Høiby (bass) and Sun-Mi Hong (drums), both of whom also feature on the album.

The pandemic hit in the middle of The Sleeper Wakes European tour. London was locked-down and Ant began collaborating on a series of remote recordings with a range of artists across the globe. This evolved into weekly livestreams in which he broadcast the collaborative music videos and interviewed the guests. It is entitled “QZ” - which stands for Quarantine Zone. These streams are ongoing on the last Thursday of every month on YouTube, facebook & Twitch simultaneously.

In 2013 his debut 'Entanglement' (33Jazz) was released, followed by 'Zero Sum World' (Whirlwind Recordings) in 2015 and then 'Life I Know' (Edition Records) in 2018. This release was described as “career-defining”. It achieved 5 star reviews, made numerous “best of 2018" lists, received airplay in the UK, Europe, Australia, and was added to numerous editorial playlists on Spotify. 2020 saw the release of Ant’s 4th album - the critically acclaimed ‘The Sleeper Wakes’ (Edition).

In addition to leading his own projects, Ant plays in Tim Garland's band with Jason Rebello & Asaf Sirkis, featuring on albums 'Songs To The North Sky', 'Return To The Fire' & 'ONE' which was shortlisted for a Grammy and won the Jazzwise Best Album award. 

Ant is also the “L” in Trio HLK who record/tour with Dame Evelyn Glennie. He has worked with other notables Cory Henry, Thomas Gould and is featured in “Total Guitar", “Guitar Techniques" & “Guitarist” magazines. In the latter he was included in a list of “10 Astounding Virtuosos”, and the May 2021 issue of Guitar Techniques features a 2-page spread on Ant, and a 9/10 review of The Sleeper Wakes.

2016 saw the emergence of the Art Of Rhythm Trio featuring Matt Ridley (bass) and Asaf Sirkis (drums & konnakol). In April/May they played a 20-date tour all over the UK, supported by the Arts Council. They had played together in a different ensembles but the tour allowed them to consolidate their musical relationships and develop the trio dynamic. Most notable perhaps is the inclusion of Indian classical elements (check out this video) such as konnakol, the South-Indian spoken percussion, amidst all the jazz. This video features the rarely sighted Art Of Rhythm expanded into quintet formation.

Ant was born in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, where he lived until the age of 16. From a young age he was exposed to early blues and rock 'n' roll, as well as Arabic music. He began playing classical piano and guitar around the age of 8. Throughout his teens he gravitated towards the guitar. A history teacher gave him a video of Stevie Ray Vaughan playing live at the El Mocambo, which was a huge influence, along with videos of Guns 'n' Roses, Queen, and later on Joe Satriani and Steve Vai.

Law studied Physics on a scholarship at Edinburgh University. In the summer before his final year there he completed a summer semester at Berklee College Of Music, Boston. This he says was crucial because he heard gospel music and gospel drummers for the first time, and lots of Latin American music. As he continued with the Physics degree he became obsessed with jazz and played his first jazz gigs. By this point he had discovered and started using Perfect 4ths tuning for the guitar. In a case of convergent evolution, other players (like Stanley Jordan, Tom Quayle) had also discovered and were using this same tuning. Allan Holdsworth has said that if he could start again, he would tune this way. Ant wrote a book introducing the tuning entitled “3rd Millenium Guitar" which is published by Mel Bay.

Since 2010 Ant has concentrated on make a living playing guitar, eventually moving to London and immersing himself in the scene there and touring internationally. He has also lived in NYC for a season where he studied with his heroes Ari Hoenig, Ben Monder, Adam Rogers, Lage Lund, Johannes Weidenmueller, Tim Miller and others.

Awards

2023 Parliamentary Jazz Award Nominee

Gear

Ibanez AM93ME-NT & Ibanez AF95 (electric guitars)

Lowden O23 RC/WL (acoustic guitar)

Fender '68 Custom Twin Reverb (amp)

Laney Lionheart L20T-112 20W 1x12 (amp)

Polytone MiniBrute 15' (amp)

Voodoolab Sparkledrive/RAT (pedal)

Strymon Big Sky (pedal)