About the Pete Roth Trio
The Pete Roth Trio, featuring legendary drummer Bill Bruford, will bring its adventurous and highly interactive approach to jazz to The Capstone Theatre in Liverpool on Friday 23rd October 2026, for what is an absolute must for jazz enthusiasts.
Led by guitarist Pete Roth, with Mike Pratt on bass and Bill Bruford on drums, the trio occupies a musical space somewhere between jazz, rock, funk and contemporary classical music. Rather than treating those genres as fixed categories, the musicians use them as starting points for performances built around improvisation, close listening and the interplay between three distinctive musical voices.
Bill Bruford is one of the most influential drummers in British music, known for his work with Yes, Genesis and King Crimson before turning to jazz. His partnership with guitarist Pete Roth and bassist Mike Pratt brings that genre-crossing instinct to a smaller, more spontaneous setting.
Near-Jazz: How the Trio Sounds
The result is what the band describes as “near-jazz”: intimate, relatively unscripted music in which compositions can change shape in the moment and the relationship between the musicians — and between performers and audience — becomes an important part of the experience.
The trio’s live shows are built around conversation between the players rather than a fixed set list, so no two performances follow the same route through the material – a rare chance to see an improvising band of this calibre in an intimate Liverpool venue.
What the Critics Say
“The gig itself was joyous, diverse, intrepid and thoroughly enjoyable” – Edinburgh Music Review
Roth’s compositions range from instantly memorable melodies giving rise to filigree-delicate
acoustic work – Vortex Jazz
“They know the rules and want to break them. Not in order to be perverse or trendy, but so that
they can put something rich, worthwhile and fun back into jazz soil” – Edinburgh Music Review
“The audience might have been predominantly Prog aficionados but they left as Jazz fans” – Darren Walker, The Progressive Aspect
Getting There
The Pete Roth Trio play The Capstone Theatre at 17 Shaw Street, Liverpool L6 1HP, a short walk from Liverpool city centre and well served by buses along Shaw Street and Islington. Doors typically open around 45 minutes before the 7.30pm start.
Tickets & Pricing
Tickets are £22 plus booking fee and can be booked through The Capstone Theatre.
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