"Paul Dunmall was born 1953, Welling, Kent; saxophones, clarinets, bagpipes, miscellaneous wind instruments.

As told to Watson (1989), Paul Dunmall was a working class lad from Welling who left school at 15 and spent two years repairing instruments at Bill Lewington's shop in Shaftesbury Avenue, London. He turned professional at 17 and, following two years touring Europe with a progressive rock band (Marsupilami), joined the Divine Light Mission, a spiritual movement led by Guru Maharaj Ji and moved from London to an ashram in America. He told Isham (1997), 'I moved to an ashram full of musicians - a music ashram - but it was still spiritual practice. That gave me a spiritual understanding through meditation, Coltrane's music, and all the rest of it, led me to that, and that's been a fundament in my life ever since - that I can actually sit down and meditate and forget my body. I realise how important meditation is in my life... but I don't do it so much these days.' During the three years he lived in America, Dunmall played with Alice Coltrane (in a big band with the Divine Light Mission) and toured for twelve months with Johnny 'Guitar' Watson.

Back in England, he played with Danny Thompson and John Stevens as well as folk musicians Kevin Dempsey, Martin Jenkins and Polly Bolton and then, in 1979 he became a founder member of Spirit Level (Tim Richards, piano; Paul Anstey, bass; Tony Orrell, drums), staying with the group until 1989. During his time with Spirit Level, Dunmall joined the two-tenor front line group Tenor Tonic with Alan Skidmore (1985), played and broadcast with Dave Alexander and Tony Moore in the DAM trio (1986) and formed the Paul Dunmall Quartet with Alex Maguire, Tony Moore and Steve Noble (1986).

In 1987 Paul Dunmall joined the London Jazz Composers Orchestra, being a constant member and appearing on all their recorded output from that date onward. The following year the improvising collective quartet Mujician was formed by Keith Tippett, Dunmall, Paul Rogers and Tony Levin and has continued to be a regular performing, touring and recording group, sometimes augmented by other musicians. Dunmall has also played in a trio with Keith and Julie Tippetts and in Keith Tippett's big band Tapestry. Two other duos have also sprung out of Mujician: Dunmall with Tony Levin (two CD releases) and Dunmall in folk-influenced outings with Paul Rogers. Another regular playing partner throughout this period and up until the present includes Elton Dean.

In 1995, two trios were formed, the first with Oren Marshall, tuba and Steve Noble, percussion, the second with John Adams, guitar and Mark Sanders, percussion, these sometimes coming together as a quintet. More recently, Dunmall has played in another reeds/guitar/drums trio with Philip Gibbs and Tony Marsh and there appears to be regular crossover between all these players. The Paul Dunmall Octet was founded in 1997."

Dunmall also has released a large number of albums and a box set on the UK FMR label, in various configurations and instrumentation.

"Jim Bashford, who hails from Sutton Coldfield UK started playing drums age 10 and was influenced by the rock/progressive rock and jazz scene worldwide, he was mainly self taught for the first 6 years then he studied drums under Steve Palmer.

The CONSTRUCTION quartet formed by Jim performed a tour in 2010 of original compositions with Icelandic guitarist Hilmar Jensson, Johnny Brierley bass and Robin Fincker sax and clarinet. The quartet was then joined by Tim Harries on bass with a recording to follow called CENTRELINE THEORY which has recently been released on LEO Records 2017.

After 14 years of playing as a sideman in bands covering all genres and also working in construction full time whilst studying on a popular music course, Jim then moved on to study at the Birmingham Conservatoire for the BMus (Hons.) jazz course where he continued under drum tutors such as the great Tony Levin, Gene Calderazzo, Jeff Williams and Malcolm Garrett. He runs Auditions at the Birmingham Conservatoire and organises workshops with highly acclaimed artists on the jazz scene in Europe and the U.S. and also collaborates with Cheltenham Jazz Festival to run a session with the conservatoire students and Trondheim students as well as organising auditions for the course in the U.K. and Singapore and Kuala Lumpur.

Jim is a member of no less than 20 different ensembles and tours extensively throughout the UK and Europe, including appearances at London jazz venues such as the Barbican Centre, The Vortex and Kings Place; and prominent venues in Birmingham. He has also performed in prestigious international jazz festivals including the Cheltenham Jazz Festival, Juan le pins Jazz Festival and future engagements at the London Jazz Festival. Also a short tour with Dave Sinclair from the band Caravan with a recording in Japan to follow and also recently a European tour with Katie Melua."