FiddleBop People

Jo Davies is the rhythmic powerhouse of FiddleBop: she plays acoustic rhythm guitar and sings.

Joanna (that's her full name) has enjoyed listening to jazz for as long as she can remember. Musically tho', she is from a folky background. Jo began gigging in the 1980s, performing her own songs on guitar and other instruments as one half of the duo JoCa with Cathy Hattam. She also participated in more experimental musical projects such as The Gig For The Curious fronted by the amazing John Cunningham, together with other fine musicians such as the late Steve Harris.

Life outside FiddleBop? Jo is a one-to-one support worker for a charity called Young Dementia UK. She also enjoys painting large pictures, spending time with her son Reuben, and being married to Dave.

Dave Favis-Mortlock jigs about a lot and pulls funny faces whilst playing fiddle (violin) and singing.

Dave is a self-taught violinist (which he regrets sometimes). His musical background is mainly folk-rock. This included playing with folk dance band The Rollright Stones in the late 1970s, and fiddling for Brighton-based folk-punk band Tricks Upon Travellers in the late 1980s and early 1990s. With guitarist Frank Underwood, he was one half of the long-standing (1980 onwards) folk-blues duo Mortlock and Underwood, and also played "mediaeval and renaissance pub music" with trio Westron Wynd.

Dave wanted to play jazz violin ever since his Mum bought him a Stephane Grappelli record, but had no real idea how to begin. With a new century came a new resolution: so firmly believing that "Even the thousand-mile-road has a first step", Dave resolved to learn something of the art of jazz improvisation on the fiddle. He is still learning.

When not making music, Dave is a geomorphologist currently based at Oxford University. He enjoys hypothesising, procrastinating, and being married to Jo.

Roger Davis is cool. He keeps our feet on the ground. He plays double bass.

In 2005, Roger was accosted after a gig by an unlikely pair of people who said that they played jazz, and would he like to play with them? Later, Roger was pleased to discover that this was at least a half truth. So he became FiddleBop's bass player.

Roger has played bass for many years, with several bands and in almost every town in Britain. As well as playing with FiddleBop, he also works with Richard Leach’s 7 Stars of Jazz and Dave Morwood's Rascals of Rhythm.