Author Archives: cath

Sax quartet goes into the studio…

I spent Monday and Tuesday this week recording with Tom Ward’s sax quartet (which might be called ‘The Madwort Saxophone Quartet’). The session was at House of Strange, a fantastical studio run by Ash Gardner, complete with extra-colourful wall art and a full costume department….although, sadly, the only two photos I took feature neither of these elements.

Tom had seven original tunes ready to record, so the two days was plenty of time to get stuck in. We even had time to record some group improvisations, which was a first for the band and something that will definitely be featuring in future activities. It was a heavy two days of playing for me on baritone sax, with several takes of each tune plus rehearsing, but I had a great time and felt like I could have gone for another day by the end.

Tom is currently listening through the many hours of music we produced, and will be putting it all together into some kind of record. Originally this was going to be a short EP, but with the amount we ended up getting done, who knows….

The Magic Trio’s first gig! And some indie/folk library larks…

What a week! It’s taken me a few days to get around to updating the blog, but last week saw me running around like a mad woman brandishing a toy glockenspiel…well, no ‘like’ about it really, as that’s exactly what I was doing some of the time.

Before we get onto that though, last week also saw the first ever Magic Trio gig. We played at the Wenlock and Essex in Islington as part of a night hosted by Edge Music, a lovely bunch who have started putting on new music nights around town. We shared the bill with a jazz quartet and an avant garde recorder group – a first for me! Our set was lots of fun and the audience seemed to like it too. Jeff was on serpent and ophicleide, Tom played bass clarinet and I was on baritone sax. The set was mainly my compositions, with one from Tom (more like a suite really – ‘The Birds of Stoke Newington’ – soon to be heard in a slightly different form played by his sax quartet). The night had a really nice, relaxed vibe, which was perfect for trying out new music in a new ensemble. Our next gig is hopefully at a street party hosted by Jeff’s neighbours (yay!)…more on that soon. I look forward to more trio activity later in the year too!

So, back to the toy glockenspiel. It was played very beautifully by Quadraceratops keys player Kit, as part of a recording for an album of library music I’ve been working on over the past few months for JW Media Music. They wanted a kind of ‘indie/folk’ sound, so I rounded up a band featuring brass, accordion, mandolin, ukulele, violin, piano, bass and drums. It was the first time I’ve done something like this, and it was interesting to get my teeth into the writing, thinking about how genre is constructed through rhythm, tonalities and instrumentation etc….plus, the session was a good laugh and it was fun to play with an ensemble featuring some cool instruments I don’t usually work with. Accordion in Quadraceratops anyone?!

Ceratopsians head North! And a homebrew EP emerges.

Last night the members of Quadraceratops converged in Manchester (from various other gigs around the country) for a really nice gig at Sandbar. We were hosted by Efpi Records at their Freedom Principle night, which I thoroughly recommend you check out if you ever find yourself in Manchester on the first or third Tuesday of the month. Everyone from Efpi and Sandbar were super friendly, and a lovely audience turned out to hear the band. It was a perfect second outing for the Quad and a great night all round!

Over the bank holiday weekend I also decided it would be a good idea to make a live EP from some of the tunes we played at the Forge gig, and so with the help of a team of ‘volunteers’ (read: unsuspecting family members) I made a short run of CDs to take to Manchester. They went down really well, with six out of the ten copies (I was short on materials!) snapped up at the gig. More are now available, along with downloads, at our new Quadraceratops Bandcamp page…head over and see what you think.

All in all, a thoroughly good long weekend without a river pageant in sight. I look forward to a return trip sometime, perhaps as some kind of northern mini-tour…*schemes*.

 

A lovely night at the Forge…

I don’t think I’ve ever booked a gig in so far in advance. It was actually August 2011 when the Forge gig was confirmed, at which point I was just starting to entertain the idea of getting a new set of tunes together and seeing if the band from my final Guildhall exam fancied reforming. When we played on Thursday night, it felt simultaneously like it had been a long time coming and like it had been booked only a few days ago!

Warning: this next paragraph will gush a bit. Essentially, I had a fantastic evening! After a long (self-inflicted) Winter of Writing that ended up extending into a Spring of Still-Haven’t-Finished-Writing, it was so good to actually play the music. On top of that, it felt brilliant to play the music to such a friendly and receptive audience. Plus, the evening itself was extremely smooth-running and I found I was able to relax and chat to friends who’d come along – a situation I don’t think I’ve been in for ages. In summary, here’s to many more gigs like it!

The recording is on its way, but in the mean time here’s an audience-eye-view photo by Darren McCarthy. We’re off to Manchester next week, and I’ve also just confirmed a date with The Jazz Meet, who are going to host us on July 29th at their lovely weekly event in East London. See you out there!

Getting a bit Mardi….and Quad minus two weeks(ish)!

Checking in with a bit of composition news today: I’ve been asked to write a piece for the brass quintet ‘Mardi Brass’. They are doing an album this year featuring compositions from a few different people. Exciting! The theme is ‘blue’, but a very broad blue, thankfully. I have a pretty wonky idea up my sleeve so I hope they like it…this will be my first time writing for that lineup. Mardi Brass has as its tuba player my good friend (and Magic collaborator) Jeff Miller.

In other news, the Magic Trio has started rehearsing for our June gig – I’ll try and grab some rehearsal recordings to put up on Soundcloud soon. Also, the Quadraceratops gig at the Forge is now only TWO WEEKS away tomorrow. Perhaps strangely for a band with a prehistoric name, we’ll be playing a set composed entirely of brand new music. And maybe *one* cheeky arrangement. 24th May. Come and listen. Info and tickets can be found over on the Forge website…

Some more sounds from the sax quartet, and a general update…

Tom’s sax quartet rehearsed again last week, so I thought I’d post up some more tracks. His tunes are sounding lovely I think! There’s more sax quartet happening later this week, and some recording and gigging coming up in the next few months.

In other band news, Quadraceratops have a bunch of rehearsals coming up too, and we’re looking forward to the Forge gig on 24th May. It would be great to see you there! Grab your slightly cheaper ticket by buying it on the Forge website.

The Magic Trio will be convening next week to get working on our set ready for our debut gig in June, start plotting more magical activity for later in the year, decide who should get chopped in half, etc.

While all this is going on, I’m also working on some library music and enjoying meeting up each month with a new composition collective made up of some college friends. Busy busy…

The Magic Trio

I have an unexpected gig with my (other) exciting new project The Magic Trio! We will be playing on June 21st at Edge Music, a new music night at the Wenlock and Essex, near Angel. Expect a set of new compositions from all three members…

Cath Roberts – Alto and baritone sax

Tom Ward – Clarinet, bass clarinet

Jeff Miller – Assorted low brass instruments

The Quad ventures North…

Latest news from Quadratowers is that we have a gig in Manchester! We’ll be heading up there on June 5th to play at Sandbar for the lovely Efpi Records at their night ‘Freedom Principle’. Should be lots of fun, and I’ve also heard that the beer there is particularly nice. If you’re around the area, come down and say hi…info here.

Quadrehearsal snippets…

We’re rehearsing! It’s true. We had the first session with the full band last night, and I was really pleased with how the tunes sounded. I even managed to record it this time, so here are a few edited highlights…

‘I could make it myself for less’

‘Song for the worker bee’

‘Palindrome day’

‘Bumble bee collision’

‘Rabbit feet’

There’s a bit more writing to do, and we have some exciting gig news in the pipeline…more on this soon…