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| 4th May 2008 | After a 123-day drought - new audio and video footage from my "return-to-the-piano" performance with the Andrea Ferrario Band at Cantina Bentivoglio in Bologna on Friday 2nd May. Go to Italy Travelogue: May 2008 to listen to and watch the action... | |||
| 12th April 2008 | Due to an overwhelming public outcry (well, amongst friends at least!) I have reinstated the travel diary section. If you're new to our travels or itching to re-read our experiences in various places around the globe, you now have the opportunity to by clicking: TRAVELOGUE (or follow the link at the top of the page). I have decided to keep the MONGOLIA sabbatical separate from the travel diaries. I will endeavour to keep the online diary as up-to-date as before, and have also included editorial notes as part of some of the past entries, featuring recent insights and information not known at the time of the original writing. | |||
| 11th April 2008 | Discovered a review of the Howl Band's performance as part of the StAnza Poetry Festival back in 2005. I have put the review under the feedback I received from the festival director, Brian Johnstone, immediately after the performance. Visit Howl Feedback StAnza to read the short but extremely flattering review. I hope for the connection to StAnza to be renewed in the next couple of years, and negotiations are already underway for a return performance with another project, most likely as part of the 2010 festival. | |||
| 10th April 2008 | A video excerpt from my solo piano concert, Seven Ages of Jazz, is available to view on YouTube. To view the excerpt from Ornette Coleman's "Blues Connotation, simply click here: Blues Connotation. If you like it, why not leave a comment on YouTube? | |||
| 5th April 2008 | Here's a sample from my forthcoming album, "I O". The track - I O i - is a time-stretch manipulation of a piano improvisation I recorded in August 2007. I use time-stretch computer software to get "inside" the moment of a sound, to inspect it closely and reveal new vistas and textures. At this level of scrutiny, sounds that are as familiar as a single note on a piano can take on vastly different characteristics. Enjoy! | |||
| 28th March 2008 | I am now a member of the Birmingham-based Cobweb Collective. Formed to showcase the amazing explosion of creativity that is my home city in recent years, and also to give proper respect to those who have been producing top-class music in Birmingham for many years now. Birmingham rocks! | |||
| 21st March 2008 | I've been offered a place on the MMus Musicology course at Leeds University. Aside from having a Mongolian language department, Leeds is also the university at which the current Monogolian President, Enkhbayar, studied prior to returning to Mongolia in time for the democratic revolution. His time at Leeds University was marked by his access to the University library which "...enabled him for the first time to read the works of "Soviet dissidents and European intellectuals". He translated into Mongolian short stories by Charles Dickens, Virginia Woolf, Rudyard Kipling and - his particular favourite - Aldous Huxley." [Many thanks to my fellow Mealody Jazz Club artist and Mongolphile Jimi Fallows and his excellent Ulaanbanjo Blog for this information.] No prizes for guessing the most likely subject of my Ethnomusicological research. And I see an opportunity to return to Mongolia presenting itself in due course... | |||
| 8th March 2008 | I'm currently putting the final touches to 3 new albums, each of which will be available through this website alongside all my others on the RECORDINGS page. The titles of the new albums are: "Monologues, Dialogues", "Melodica Travels: Carpi Diem" and "I O". For a sample audio track from "Melodica Travels: Carpi Diem", click here: March 8th Carpi Diem. This track features birdsong recorded in Carpi in Northern Italy at the time of the improvisation. | |||
| 6th March 2008 | I've uploaded a new page to the "Mongolia Sabbatical" section. Mongolia Audio & Articles has some audio clips from my "Khiimori" project and also from a couple of recordings made at Mealody Jazz Club in 2007. Underneath the audio samples there are also links to three articles written about my experiences in Mongolia. Enjoy! | |||
| 9th February 2008 | The Arts Council of Mongolia has been recognised by Enkhbayar, the Mongolian President, for their tireless work as the country's best NGO. To read an article about this award last November, go to: Mongolia Web ACM article. The lady who is standing the 3rd from the left is Ariunna, the director of the ACM who was personally responsible for putting me in touch with Ganbat shortly after my arrival in Mongolia back in 2006. ACM is a glowing example of how an arts body can mediate between artists for the common good without any hidden agendas or endless paper-heavy procedures. And the staff regularly came down to Mealody Jazz Club and cheered the band too! | |||
| 14th January 2008 | Happy New Year to you all, wherever in the world you are! Well, new year = new possibilities, but first, some disappointing news: the proposed December 20th recording of the Book of the Law fell through at the last moment. As to when we'll be able to record it, who knows, maybe a performance/live recording on the three feast days April 8th-10th this year? I am considering the options. | |||