Marc Hadley

Marc’s professional career started as a busker in Paris, in the summer of 1986. Tenor sax legend Dexter Gordon was around for the production of the film “Round Midnight”, and encounters with him profoundly influenced the direction that Marc’s playing subsequently took. In 1987 he returned to London to take a diploma in Jazz at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, where he studied under Don Rendell, Jean Toussaint and John Harle.

Marc’s twenty-year career in London included studio session work for various record labels, advertising agencies and TV production companies including Chrysalis, Virgin Records, Channel 4, BBC 2, Granada, Kudos and Diverse. As well as playing in jazz/fusion bands in the UK, France, Belgium and The Netherlands, he also spent eight years with Brazilian/Latino dance band “Viramundo” and worked with many West African musicians, including Fela Kuti sidemen Emmanuel and Arroga.

Since his arrival in Cornwall in 2004 he has worked with the Knee High Theatre and Jim Carey’s “Bombrassa” at The Eden Project winter seasons; and featured as a soloist on “8am”, the acclaimed 2008 album release by Kris Gayle and Viv Rodd. In 2010 he was appointed associate lecturer in performance at Dartington College of Arts- since merged with Falmouth University.

In 2013 he completed a Masters degree in Ethnomusicology at SOAS, London University with Merit, and  released  “Virtually”, an  album of songs and pieces in collaboration with guitarist Phill Miller  (Robert/Wyatt/Hatfield & the North) and Richard Sinclair ( Caravan/Hatfield & the North/Camel) which attracted glowing reviews in the UK, the USA, Holland, Italy and Japan. He directs the salsa band ‘Kabasa’, who have toured Devon & Cornwall via the Carn to Cove & Villages in Action networks.

In 2014, one of his past saxophone pupils, Nick Seymour, became the woodwind category finalist in the BBC Young Musician of the Year competition- the first contestant ever to achieve this on saxophone.