Here’s a set that I’d previously uploaded to Soundcloud but it’ll have a better home on Bandcamp. I’m going to use Soundcloud for shorter things.
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It features Asaf Sirkis’s group Inner Noise recorded, again, by Paul Pirongs. Me on guitar, Asaf Sirkis on drums and all the compositions are his, and Steve Lodder on church [k]organ. Every now and then we get to do a gig in an actual church, with a real church organ. Lots of fun.
Not sure when it was. [Paul??] And it was from the Vortex jazz club in Dalston – another amazing place to go to see live music. As usual, all the music in the Live Vault is free to download.
Here are some mobile phone bootlegs recorded by top man David Gerrish. Don’t get your hopes up too much, they’re only snippets of the gigs, just a few guitar solos. But they’re not totally awful so here they are :)
Both venues are great too so if ever you’re around West London be sure to investigate The Rose & Crown, Ealing on a Wednesday and The Boater’s Inn, Kingston on a Sunday.
I made a Bandcamp page to house some live recordings that I’m on. I think I’ll use it eventually as a place to put recordings of my gigs (for when it’s my music), and any bands that I’m in that do original music and don’t mind putting up recordings of live stuff such as this one…
Have a listen; and, if you like, you can download it for free.
It’s a recording of a gig with with Asaf Sirkis’s Inner Noise trio from the Wheatsheaf, Oxford on 24/04/08. Normally, Steve Lodder plays Church Organ with this group but on this date Kit Downes is playing.
Top man Paul Pirongs recorded it on a little Sony hand-held machine. I think he must’ve recorded the rehearsal before the gig too which accounts for the multiple versions of Hymn and Miniature some of which feature us fiddling around, trying things out. I thought I might as well add that in too. The order of the tunes, I’m sure, is totally mixed up here so if anyone knows what got played when, let me know :)
We also played three standards but I’m opting to leave them off for the time being. Someone took a video of this one though (thanks, whomever you are!) Here it is:
I took down the first chorus of your solo on Donna Lee from Martin Speake’s Charlie Parker album, and it would be interesting to know how you play that in terms of fingering and string-choices. If I send it as a sibelius-file with fingerings, would you mind checking it?
So I added in the phrasing and fingering, the kind of fingering I’d use if it were me playing it. And, er, it is :)
The track is from the album ‘Charlie Parker’ by Martin Speake and you can hear it on Spotify here. This particular arrangement uses the idea of collective improvising but the entry of each instrument is staggered. So first the sax improvises a chorus, then the guitar joins so it turns into a duet, then the bass joins so it’s a trio and finally the drums enter making a collectively improvising quartet.
The solo starts out mind-numbingly simple. I’m just outlining the changes using mainly triads. At around bar 9 it starts to get more 8th-notey. I’d normally use more pull-offs and hammer-ons than this but I seem to remember trying to get a more forceful rhythmic feel so I could lock in with Martin (as we’re just playing on our own with no drums) so I pick a bit more than normal.
Phrasing-wise I use a combination of picking and slurring to try to approximate the kind of phrasing sound that a voice or trumpet might have. Generally that means picking on the upbeats and slurring onto the downbeats. In places that you can’t do that you have to be more dynamic with the pick.
Here are two little exercises to help with that:
Play constant 8th notes and pick on the upbeats and slur on to the downbeat. Just go all over the neck, improvising with this phrasing sound. This exercise is about getting dynamic phrasing (i.e. not all picked/the same) from slurs, and tied in with that is the guitar’s limitation of having to slur on one string.
Play a scale and accent the downbeats. Then play the scale but accent upbeats. Make the contrast between accented and non-accented notes as extreme as you can. Make the quiet notes as quiet as you can play (almost inaudible) and the loud notes as loud as you can (like you’re trying to break the strings!). This exercise is about getting dynamic control over the pick.
On Wednesday evening a bill was rushed through parliament in the ‘wash-up’ called the Digital Economy Bill. Have a look at these posts to find out more about the bill and how it could affect your life as a musician. I don’t support the bill for several reasons, the main one being the infringement of liberty – I don’t think the internet and internet usage should be monitored by government, but there are several other issues.
Watching the parliamentary ‘debate’ on television was dispiriting – first for how little time the discussion had, and second for the paucity of informed representative voices who actually had an understanding of technology and the internet, and how artists use these things.
Anyhow, I think the best thing to do is be more aware of what’s going on, so I’m urging you to read and share the following and talk it out with fellow musicians.
On Sunday I played in Harvey Brough’s Requiem in Blue piece. There’s a 200 piece choir, early music instruments, Liane Carroll, amazing kids, Roy Dodds, Clara Sanabras, Harvey, and more. It’s an amazing piece to be a part of. There’s an album launch too on the 9th of July. Here’s a little clip of the gig.
There was a scary moment when Harvey asked me to play something on my own and I blindly said yes only to realise I’d be playing straight after Liane Carroll. If you haven’t heard Liane you’re in for a treat. She’s all music; it just pours out of her. Anyway, she did a solo piece. It was utterly amazing. And then I had to play (actually, just dicking around on the guitar for a bit would be a better description of what I did). I was really nervous. But I like being nervous so I enjoyed it. [must write a post about nerves soon]
Monday and Tuesday I did the late, late, late set at Ronnie’s with the house band. It finishes at 2am, and with a teething baby, who’s fond of a vampiric lifestyle, that’s a challenge in itself :) [not that the baby was on the gig. “4 month old baby kills it at Ronnie’s”. (I’m going off on a tangent, aren’t I. And I’m running out of parentheses)] Tuesday was good as we got to play a longer set before the bit after the set when it gets a bit Pontins for my taste. It’s not like there’s an after-hours knobbly knees contest or anything but it does get quite, er, comedic. Anyhow, I got to hear Ravi Coltrane too. Which was nice.
Wednesday I had a gig at the WOW collective for the first time in about 2 years. I decided to do a trio so I could play and arrange some standards. I put it together with Dylan Howe on drums who is fantastic and a bass player called Nick Walsh who is also fantastic. Had a blast. Again, quite a lot of stuff whirring in my head, but good to get the first one out of the way and get on with doing some more. I did a nice version, at least I though so, of Haunted Heart that I’ve been wanting to do for ages. The crew down at Way Out West are fab and if you’re in or around Richmond I can’t recommend it enough.
Thursday I had a gig in Nottingham with Theo Travis. I love this band. Bit of a Milk-Tray/Ninja gig. Steam up to the venue with 30 mins to spare, play, go home. Great gig tho and lovely people who run it too.
Friday I had a recording session with Gareth Lockrane’s band – Grooveyard. Super music; quite a roast but a good challenge. After that I had a gig at the 606 with the London Horns. They recorded all three recent gigs so I might persuade Barney to put all his stuff on Bandcamp. Great band.
.Sat and Sunday I taught at home. I’ve got some fantastic students at the moment. I relish the opportunity to spend time doing this.
Went to Kew and the zoo after that.
Monday I had a session with Steven Wilson. I’d been looking forward to this for ages. He’s one of my favourite musicians, amazingly productive and inspiring. We recorded a couple of tracks that basically involved going banzai on the guitar all day. So much fun.
So that’s been sort of my week. Check back on the blog to 2 month’s or so ago and you’ll see I was doing NOTHING for a few months so it’s super nice to be involved with some exciting projects. There’s some good stuff coming soon too: finishing the duo record with Steve Lawson and the Japan trip with TALC. All in all I’ve got a lot to be thankful for.
