The next installment of my gig recordings Bandcamp site is up: a duo with Andrew Cheetham from last year at BRÅK. I think it was the first time we’d played together! Dirk Serries recorded, mixed and mastered this one.
New Dark Art sax quartet recording surfaces
Corey Mwamba has just released a recording I found in my archives, of his piece New Dark Art played by a special sax quartet forwed for the occasion. We did two performances of the piece in May 2015, one in London and one in Derby. This recording is of the London date, a LUME gig at Long White Cloud on 14th May.
The quartet was all Eb saxophones. I was on baritone along with Colin Webster; Tom Ward and Chris Williams were on altos. A really nice project!
If you head over to Corey’s Bandcamp site you can download the release, and subscribe to the site for access to tons more music.
Duo with Rachel Musson up on the live recordings site!
I’ve just published something new on the live recordings Bandcamp site: a duo with Rachel Musson! We’ve done a couple of gigs together and I love playing with Rachel. This was possibly our first one, in the beer shop in 2018. Hope you enjoy it…
Two more live recordings emerge
My work on the new live recordings Bandcamp site is continuing, and there are now two more sets up there.
First up, a trio set with Corey Mwamba and Olie Brice. This is from a LUME gig at The Vortex in April 2016, when we played opposite Dave Kane’s quartet. Who recorded it is a mystery, but I *think* it was me with my Zoom recorder. Going through these old files is reminding me of the importance of proper labelling…
Also up on the site is a duo set with Benedict Taylor. This is from the Horse Improv Club in 2018, recorded at IKLECTIK by Jeff at Saint Austral Sound. A short set with an abrupt ending!
Hope you enjoy these. Everything I publish on the site is a ‘name your price’ download, and the money will be split equally between me and the other musicians on the tracks. So if you’re in a position to support artists, please consider buying a copy.
More coming soon…follow on Bandcamp or keep an eye on this blog for info.
New live recordings site, and some Bandcamp recommendations
With all live music off for a while yet, I’m working on a new project that looks back at the gigs I’ve been a part of over the past few years. My hard drives are full of audio from past concerts, and in normal times I hardly ever had time to listen to them. In lockdown, or at least in the rare moments that I’m able to focus on working at something, there’s time to have a good dig around in the files and listen back to some sets. I’ve set up a new Bandcamp site that will act as a kind of scrapbook of old and raw live recordings from my archive. This will be a slow burner, but the first two recordings are up now – a solo set and a duo set with Seth Bennett, both from 2016. All the music on this site will be ‘name your price’, so there’s the option to pay on the door for these old gigs. The money will be split equally between the musicians on the recording.
As you may be aware of from seeing a billion social media posts, Bandcamp are giving artists some extra support during the pandemic by waiving their commission on the first Friday of the month in May, June and July. We have something in the pipeline at Luminous HQ for the July one, so keep an eye out for that. And as today is May 1st, I thought I’d pull together a few recommendations of music to check out and support some artists close to my heart…
Article XI – Live In Newcastle (Discus) / Anton Hunter – LUME Kestrel Online
I’m proud to be a member of Anton’s large ensemble, and it’s great to see a second release out there. This live album was recorded on our double bill large ensemble tour in 2017, at the mighty Bridge Hotel in Newcastle for Jazz North East. Featuring two previously unrecorded Anton Hunter originals! Anton is also releasing a brand new track TODAY, made in lockdown, with lots of us playing and a kestrel drawing by me…
Bathing Trio – Stretford – Bromley-by-Bow – Peckham
The excellent trio of Sam Andreae, Otto Willberg and David Birchall are making tracks together live over the interwebs. This is one of several improvised lockdown sets they’ve published so far…
Deemer – Live at the Vortex (Luminous)
Dee and Merijn are currently working on something new for Luminous, but check out this live set from 2016 if you haven’t already.
Kodian Trio – Live In Leeds (Raw Tonk)
The latest slice of Kodian Trio goodness on Raw Tonk Records, recorded by Chris Sharkey at LS6 Cafe.
Ti/om – The Narrow Road to the Deep North (Madwort Records)
This is a pretty special release, several years in the making. Ti/om went to the Isle of Eigg in 2016, staying in a bothy together for a week and recording these pieces. It’s lovely to see them surfacing now on Madwort Records.
Johnny Hunter – Pale Blue Dot (Northern Contemporary)
A four movement sextet suite by Johnny Hunter, recorded at the Lescar in Sheffield. A gig I wished I could have attended! The fourth release on the excellent Northern Contemporary label.
Venue fundraisers
It’s a very challenging time for music venues right now for obvious reasons, and they need our support if we are able. Hundred Years Gallery and the Vortex both have fundraiser Bandcamp sites, Martin Clarke’s oem label is raising money for Arch 1, and IKLECTIK has a page of fundraising music on its website. Here are some starting points…
Off Bandcamp, you could always become a digital member of Cafe Oto and support them while treating yourself to a year of amazing downloads.
I’m finding it hard to engage with the online world, and with everything that’s going on around us in the real world I’m struggling to even think about being creative. We all have to do what we do to get through this! I hope you find some sounds you love in this post, and that we can all be back out there listening to and playing live music again soon.
Article XI – Live In Newcastle
A new release to check out! Anton Hunter has released a new live recording of his large ensemble Article XI, from the Newcastle date of our double bill large ensembles tour in 2017. Released on the mighty Sheffield label Discus Music, the set features two new compositions plus new live versions of some AXI classics. Have a listen – it’s great to be a part of this group and I hope we can play live again soon.
COVID-19 cancellations
Live events all over the world are being cancelled due to the situation with COVID-19. Check my gigs page for the current status of my upcoming dates as I hear about them. In these very uncertain times, please support artists and venues by buying music online, making donations, etc, if you are able to.
Trio with Han-earl Park and Alex Bonney
A very nice gig and first time trio meeting coming up on 22nd March at Hundred Years Gallery. I’ll be playing a set with Han-earl Park and Alex Bonney, as part of Ti/om’s album launch for their new release on Madwort Records, ‘The Narrow Road to The Deep North’. It’s an afternoon gig, with doors at 3.30pm. Come along….more info is on the Hundred Years Gallery site.
Here’s Tom’s lovely description of the Ti/om album:
‘The Narrow Road to the Deep North…documents [our] 2016 residency in a bothy on the Isle of Eigg, off the west coast of Scotland. [We] stayed for a week in winter, looking out over the mountains of Rhum; playing together and alone, walking in the hills, and meditating on the relation of music to place, and the process of inspiration. The music seeks an expression of personal responses to Eigg, to the wildness and the quietude both, to inhabit in the music the same emotional spaces as entered into on the island; trying to play in such a way that feels consonant with the state of being out on the hill.’
BRÅK Festival of Improvised Music
Happening in a couple of weeks’ time is the inaugural BRÅK Festival of Improvised Music, a.k.a BRÅKFest! We’re taking a trip outside of our normal beer shop setting and pitching up at Hundred Years Gallery for an all-dayer packed full of exciting improvisers. There are two sessions, afternoon and evening, with tickets on sale for both the whole day and each session separately. Head to the Musicglue tickets page to buy yours.
In a tip of the hat to our usual BRÅK format at waterintobeer Colin, Tom and I each booked a group to play as well as organising a lineup to play in ourselves. I invited Sam Andreae, Hannah Marshall and Alison Blunt for my guest group, and my own set will be with Dee Byrne and Craig Scott; a first time meeting! I’m looking forward to finding out what happens when the three of us play together.
See the poster below for full info on the festival. I’m really into the fact that it’s happening on a LEAP DAY, 29th February, so come and join us for a once-in-four-years experience…
Duo with Benedict Taylor – now Alex Bonney!
Update: Benedict has had to pull out of the gig duo to injury :-(( But, Martin Clarke has sorted out an excellent new collaborator for me…Alex Bonney! We had a great time playing together at BRÅK in December, so I’m looking forward to doing it again. Get well soon Benedict!
Quick post to alert you to a last-minute gig! I’m playing a duo set with Benedict Taylor this Friday 14th February at Hundred Years Gallery. It’s part of an album launch night organised by Martin Clarke for his label oem. Info on the flyer below….
