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| 30th December 2006 |
It's the end of the year and also the end of my 2 = 1 = 0 project. It has been incredibly successful in that it has produced 11 CD's worth of material, one thoroughly enjoyable concert at Things to look forward to next year are On The Road (part two of Beat Series, my four-year/four-major work plan) and Four Holy Mountains (a work inspired by the Bogd, Songino Khairkhan, Chingeltei and Bayanzurkh mountains surrounding Ulaanbaatar).
These projects should keep me pretty busy during the coming year, but I'm also going to have to find time to organise and lecture at both the UB Jazz Academy and the Jazz and Traditional Mongolian Music Summer Camp. For more information on these ventures, visit
I also hope to record some of my important works of the last few years, hopefully producing studio recordings of Howl, The Book of the Law and now is a ship if I can find the time and, most importantly, the money. As I always say, watch this space!
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| 27th December 2006 | Yuletide greeting to everyone in the UK, and see you at some point in 2007! Congratulations to Hannah for winning the Best Teacher Award (voted for by the students) at Santis, congratulations to the Mayer's for their latest new arrival, and happy 1st wedding anniversary to Phil and Hannah. Happy New Year from a subzero Ulaanbaatar. | |||
| 23rd December 2006 | The Jazz Mongolia Jazz and Mongolian Traditional Music Summer Camp idea for 2007 is attracting some interest from teachers and students alike. If you are interested in studying Traditional Mongolian music, Jazz, or are interested in teaching for a month or three over here in Mongolia, please get in touch through this site or www.jazzmongolia.com/jazzsummercamp. For the cost of an average tourist-style holiday in the beautiful Mongolian countryside just North-East of Ulaanbaatar, you can receive three solid weeks of lessons on your primary (or secondary) instrument, followed by participation in a gala concert at one of Ulaanbaatar's premier music venues. Teachers will also benefit from this 24-7 countryside experience, as well as being paid a small but, by Mongolian standards, comfortable salary. All meals will be provided on-site, plus traditional Ger camp accomodation and full water and electricity. Come and experience the great Mongolian countryside during the great Mongolian summer whilst learning Jazz or Traditional Mongolian music (or both) at the same time... | |||
| 26th November 2006 | My 2=1=0 N O X recording project is at an end. Mag-Taal is the 6th part of the cycle. 'Magtaal' means 'Prayer Song' in Mongolian. I am extremely pleased with the way this 6CD set has come out, and there are some astonishing sounds within each of the hour-long pieces. | |||
| 25th November 2006 | It's the end of the first full week at the new UB Jazz Academy and it's been a good one. Our room in the Cultural Palace is just the right size for the small number of students that have started studying my Jazz course. Giant Steppes of Jazz NGO purchased a whiteboard-with-staves from the Sky Shopping Centre (just down the road from our apartment) last Friday, and Ganbat attached it to the wall that afternoon. I taught Theory, Practical, History and Piano classes from 9am each morning this last week (except Friday - my lie-in day!), then dashed off to teach English till 9pm - pretty exhausting stuff, but worth it! The History class was especially illuminating for the students, since they had no idea about all the different periods of Jazz history (Bebop, Cool, Hard Bop, etc) and enjoyed listening to examples on CD (I wish I'd brought more Jazz CDs to Mongolia now!). One of the new students is a woman called Soyolmaa, who is a professional Khuuchir player. The Khuuchir is a traditional Mongolian instrument, similar to a Morin Khuur, but smaller. She is keen to play Jazz on this instrument, and I'm looking forward to hearing the results. | |||
| 14th November 2006 | Great developments on the Shaman music and musicians front. Take a look at the Mongolia Diary November page for full details of my first encounter with this 5000-year old tradition. | |||
| 11th November 2006 | The UB Jazz Academy has found its new home! Last night, at the Mealody Jazz Club, I was introduced to the Director of the Cultural Palace (a seriously impressive building on Sukhbaatar Square). She apparently enjoyed our performance so much that, when Ganbat told her of our search for a more permanent location for our academy, she extended the offer of a room in the Cultural Palace! Also, in a related development, the Arts Council Mongolia have offered to support Giant Steppes of Jazz and the UB Jazz Academy in the coming year, financially and otherwise. These two developments are going to make for an exciting (and busy!) 2007. ACM truly is the arts council that likes to say "yes"! Now we just need to get a couple of pianos and a whiteboard with staves... | |||
| 8th November 2006 | I have found a review of the premiere performance of my Book of the Law work (presented at the Vortex in London earlier this year). Please take a look at this review, and it's great to know the writer was moved so much by our performance. I was certainly extremely happy with how it came out. Mike Hurley and Miles Levin perfomed at such a high level of intensity, and being able to use a £60,000 Steinway was a real treat for me! I hope we can perform the work many more times over the coming years. Interested venues/promoters get in touch... | |||
| 28th October 2006 | Some new developments over here and in cyberspace. Firstly, Khiimori now has a MySpace page, www.myspace.com/khiimori, and is steadily getting an interesting mix of friends new and old. Who knows where this might lead. Secondly, myself and Andrew Colwell from the UBopBand have a new regular gig in Ulaanbaatar, at Le Bistro Francais, a wonderfully charming French resturant near the National University of Mongolia and Government House. We're hoping to make it an opportunity to stretch out a little more on some standards, and really take our time exploring the harmonic possibilities of each tune. | |||
| 22nd October 2006 | My Vexations:210 first performance has suffered two slight setbacks: the first being that I had to teach English yesterday afternoon, and the second being a real drop in temperature (it was down to -16oC the other night). I have decided to postpone the mountaintop performance until next weekend, weather permitting. | |||
| 14th October 2006 | We're on the other side of the Festival now, so I've had time to write a full report of the whole event. Please take a look at: Mongolia Diary October. The next project on the horizon is the Jazz Academy, currently looking for a more permanent venue. I'm also preparing for my 210 repetition performance of Erik Satie's Vexations this weekend. I'm going to perform the work on each of the four holy mountains that surround Ulaanbaatar, one performance in each season. So this is the Autumn performance. I'm not looking forward to the Winter performance too much! | |||
| 6th October 2006 |
I'm pretty busy at the moment with the Giant Steppes Jazz Festival, and of course the academy work on top of that, but I've found a little time this morning to write a progress report of sorts. The Festival is into its last two days. So far there have been six performances and one press conference. The performances have been at the Music & Dance College, the Grand Khaan Irish Pub and the official opening concert of the Festival at the State Opera & Ballet Theatre, plus late-night sessions at Mealody Restaurant, where last night I had the chance to play with Keith Smith, John Hyde and Robin Tufts (guitar, double bass and drums, respectively) from the Northern Lights Quartet. These guys work so well together with a real sense of 'group' performance. Ganbat also joined us on drums, making a three-nations quartet for a few numbers. And, of course, we played Giant Steps in honour of the Festival's name!
This afternoon there will be a masterclass and performance at the Culture and Arts University, followed by an early evening gig at River Sounds Live Music Club, then back to Mealody again for more jamming. Saturday is the last day, with what promises to be an extra-special performance at the Lotus Children's Orphange, then on to Strings Nightclub for the final official gig (plus, no doubt, a last jam session at Mealody!). Last night's Opera Theatre performance was filmed in its entirety by UBS Television and will be shown at a future date. The press conference was also shown on all the TV networks in the country. I talked about the UB Jazz Academy and our ideas for supporting the development of Mongolian Jazz students' own personal take on Jazz music. Talking of which, in the Opera Theatre concert, a piano trio of Mongolian University students played a tight and obviously well-rehearsed version of one of Jacques Loussier's Bach arrangements. The dynamics and interplay shown by these two guys and one girl were testament to the potential of many of the young players around the city. Andrew Colwell, the American bass player in the U-Bop Band, also gave a powerful rendition of a Khoomei song, simultaneously bowing double-stops on his double bass in the Mongolian Ikh Khuur style. This solo performance (the intro section of our jazz/khoomei experiment) brought the house down, and deservedly so. One of my students from the Academy, a talented young Mongolian pianist, Purevsukh, played alongside myself, Ganbat and Bruce Petherick from NLQ in my arrangement of Jimmy Giuffre's Four Brothers ('Four Brothers, Four Pianos'), making a truly international band, featuring two Canadians, one American, two Mongolians and myself from England. Being in Mongolia and taking part in these incredibly fast-paced developments in Mongolian Jazz, makes me realise even more clearly that, despite being around a hundred years old or there abouts, Jazz is still a music in its infancy. It was fathered by desperation and mothered by determination, and now delights in an international family of brothers and sisters. |
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| 1st October 2006 |
I have been considering how to approach Erik Satie's most intriguing and mystical work, Vexations, for the last 5 years, and feel it's high time I staged a performance. I am going to perform the marathon work (estimated to last around 20-24 hours non-stop in its complete form) in a 7-hour version for melodica, to be performed on top of the Bogd Khan moutain range south of Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. The use of melodica is on account of the remote location and the obvious impossibility of transporting a piano up onto a mountain! The performance will begin (weather permitting) at 2:10pm on Saturday 21st October, and continue for 210 repetitions of the theme and variations, concluding around sunset. Some of the performance will be captured on video and available to view on this site after the event. There will of course be pictures of the event posted in the picture gallery, too.
The performance is unlikely to attract an audience, but, with regard to the personal nature of Vexations, I believe that to be hardly the point.
I'm extremely excited to be finally perfoming this work, since I have been fascinated by this most extreme of solo instrumental works for many years now, and have admired the stamina and concentrated attention shown by the many solo performers who have performed the work since its premiere by John Cage and friends in New York in 1963. |
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| 23rd September 2006 | I've added two new pages to the 2 = 1 = 0 Project. p I A n O and N O X provide full details, and some audio clips, of these major recording projects. Please take a look, and consider purchasing the 5CD and 6CD Sets, due for release in 2007! | |||
| 14th September 2006 | The Giant Steppes Jazz Festival has been featured on www.mongolianartist.com, an arts and culture site that also includes aggregated news about Mongolia, photo essays and more. It's also given a mention at www.jazzelements.com, a Canadian Jazz and Blues website featuring news, reviews and interviews, as well as on the Jazz News Worldwide Festival Guide. | |||
| 3rd September 2006 | I've produced the third album in my 2 = 1 = 0 Series. Altan-Zul is an exploration of a digital error (read 'nagual' element - see 2 = 1 = 0 for more on the nagual and 0=1) in three voices, antiphonally spaced. It's my favourite recording in the series so far. Altan-Zul means 'Golden Flame' in Mongolian. | |||
| 27th August 2006 | Today we were privileged enough to see the Dalai Lama during his visit to Ulaanbaatar's Gandan Monastery. There was an incredible, warm and spiritual atmosphere at Gandan Monastery as the Dalai Lama led the Tibetan chanting to an audience of hundreds of monks and locals, plus a few lucky tourists (including us!). | |||
| 26th August 2006 | I've started work on a new website, www.jazzmongolia.com. It will detail Mongolia's newly developing Jazz scene, including the organisations, bands and festivals, plus information on the UB Jazz Academy. | |||
| 16th August 2006 | Here's a link to some interesting comments about my Beat Series Projects, posted after a S C A P E gig (Mike Green, Miles Levin and Ian Muir - three Howl Band veterans): Thumper Monkey Forum. It looks to me as if Mssrs Green et al have uncovered yet another branch on the underground Midlands Free Improv/Noise scene. | |||
| 14th August 2006 | Yesterday myself, Andrew and a German musician called Felix recorded two improvisations using 2 khoomei vocals, 1 morin khuur, 1 water-percussion metal bottle and 1 melodica. You can hear a clip of the results by clicking here: Khoomei excerpt 1. Expect much more in this direction in the coming months. It feels good to be doing some free improvisation again, and I think the melodica works well alongside the sound of the morin khuur. Check out the whistling khoomei o-tones near the end of the clip. Incredible! | |||
| 12th August 2006 |
Discovered this article on the internet, written by Peter Bacon for the Birmingham Post, April 26th:
Outer Mongolia is the sort of place people use in conversation to represent somewhere no one would think of going to. But Mongolia, and more specifically Ulaanbaatar, a "laid-back city not without its charms" according to one guide, is where Birmingham jazz keyboard player, composer and bandleader, Steve Tromans, is heading this week. According to my sources - well, Tony Dudley-Evans of Now it's sabbatical time and a chance for new experiences and to concentrate on his solo piano project, 2 = 1 = 0.
The Birmingham jazz scene will miss him hugely, though he should be back next year, doubtless bringing a Mongolian musical influence back with him. A throat-singing version of Howl, anyone?
Bon voyage Steve, and we'll keep up with your progress on www.steve-tromans.co.uk.
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| 5th August 2006 | I've produced the second album in my 2 = 1 = 0 Series. Shing-Wa takes two keyboard improvisations originally recorded in May 2000, and manipulates them in an attempt to introduce the 'nagual' element (see 2 = 1 = 0 for more on the nagual and 0=1). | |||
| 29th July 2006 | Last week saw the launch of the UB Jazz Academy. The Academy is the brainchild of N. Ganbat, my friend and fellow musician in the Steve Tromans U-Bop Band, my trio-plus-guests band over here in Mongolia. He has long desired to help educate Mongolian musicians in the theory and practice of Jazz, steeped as they are in Traditional Mongolian music and Soviet-era 'accepted' Classical music. So, on Monday and Thursday, I began teaching a few piano students the basics of Jazz Theory as applied to the piano. The beauty of music is that, despite the language barrier, we were able to understand each other through the piano. Future classes will also include Jazz History lectures - wish I'd brought more CDs with me to Mongolia! | |||
| 22nd July 2006 | I've produced the first CD as part of my 2 = 1 = 0 Project. Aum-Ha presents an extended hour-long sound manipulation of a 10-minute piano improvisation originally recorded in April 2006 in Birmingham. There will be other releases over the course of the year, including, I hope, a live solo performance in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. | |||
| 13th July 2006 | I've put a 4-minute excerpt of the score for Morin Khuur (4 groups of 2 Morin and 1 Ikh Khuur, with each group representing a different mountain) on the webpage for the Four Holy Mountains project. Each mountain has its own pentatonic melody independent of the other three, but all four can, and will, be performed simultaneously, as in this short excerpt. I wanted to create a soundworld that was ever-changing yet also fixed somehow, as the moutains are a constant yet gradually changing feature in Ulaanbaatar. The tones are of course electronically generated sine-waves, and will be realised on Morin Khuur at the premiere performance. | |||
| 6th July 2006 | Hydrogen Jukebox, my ongoing duo project with composer/poet Sid Peacock, is going to produce a new album, created across 6000 miles courtesy of the magic of the World Wide Web, folks! I will produce 12 five-minute instrumental tracks, Sid will produce 12 five-minute vocal tracks, we will email each other our tracks and then each separately combine them as we see fit. This way, two seperate pieces of music will combine, through the DeBop process, to produce a new composition (2 = 1). This process will produce two albums worth of material, which we'll then print up and release. Look out for audio excerpts on this website in the near future... | |||
| 2nd July 2006 | Today I began work on my latest project, Four Holy Mountains, an Orchestral 'suite' in honour of the mountains that surround Ulaanbaatar at each point of the compass. Watch this space for further infomation on this new venture, which I hope will have a big impact during my stay in Mongolia. | |||
| 30th June 2006 | Today I will be awarded a HonBC (Honourary Member of Birmingham Conservatoire), 'in absentia', since I am 6000 miles away in Mongolia and it's an expensive commute to receive it in person! Am very pleased to be awarded in this way, needless to say. | |||
| 13th June 2006 | The opening night of the Mealody Jazz Club has been provisionally arranged for Friday 23rd June at Meal'Ody Restaurant on Baga Toyruu, Chingeltei District. The performance will start at 10pm and feature the Steve Tromans U-Bop Band, with guest vocalist Khishgee. The band also features Mongolian drummer (and pianist) Ganbat and double bassist Munkhbayar. | |||
| 7th June 2006 | Plans are underway for Giant Steppes II, Mongolia's second ever Jazz Festival. The Festival will hopefully be taking place in October of this year, and I will be involved in some of the organisation, workshops and hopefully performances that take place as part of this event. The NGO responsible for the festival (the 'Jazz Council') hosted the first ever television programme about the history of Jazz on June 2nd, with more programmes planned for the coming months, including a weekly show on radio. Watch this space for more info on all matters relating to my involvement in the Festival! | |||
| 9th May 2006 | We're gradually settling into life in Ulaanbaatar (it's been a week so far). I've also begun to work on the travel diary and photo gallery, so anyone interested in reading about our journey over and experiences whilst here should go to the section on Mongolia. | |||
| 23rd April 2006 | Last night's recording session has produced four hours of solo piano, so it's going to be a little while before The PIANO Sessions sees the light of day! But I will make sure to get them ready for release whilst over in Mongolia. | |||
| 22nd April 2006 |
I would like to thank everyone that has been in touch to wish us well on our travels. I will of course miss everyone I've worked with on the Birmingham scene over the last 15 or so years. I've had the privilege to play alongside some top-class musicians and have forged some strong associations that I know will continue throughout my career. You know who you are!! Many thanks of course to |
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| 18th April 2006 | As part of 2=1=0, I will be recording a multi-album set of solo piano music the day before I leave for Mongolia. This will be available through this website as a series of downloads. The recording project is going to be called 'The PIANO Sessions'. More info will be posted following the recording session. As usual, watch this space! | |||
| 17th April 2006 | I will shortly begin planning and writing the next part of Beat Series, On The Road, based around the classic Beat novel by Jack Kerouac. The work will be scored for narrator and ensemble and I of course aim to have it ready for premiere at some point in 2007, in time to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the book's first publication. Not yet decided whether or not to set the entire text of the book (I know, I'm crazy) or excerpt it. I personally hate those Readers Digest-style condensations you get with Audio Books so may opt for the full-length version. Will post up my decision when I finally make up my mind! | |||
| 14th April 2006 | It's my last Steve Tromans Trio gig at the Hyatt tomorrow. This gig has run since May 1998, when the trio was led by drummer/composer Mitch Perrins (soon to be studying in New York for an MA) and featured Mike Green and myself. It's been a consistent feature of my life since then and has ALWAYS been of a high standard. If you can make it, come down to the Hyatt at 12.30pm and see one of the best kept secrets of the Birmingham scene perform for the last time in its current incarnation. I should also point out that the trio WILL be continuing to perform fortnightly at the Hyatt under the co-leadership of Carl Hemmingsley and Mike Green. | |||
| 13th April 2006 | You can now buy Church of Logick's debut album by visiting the RECORDINGS page, having a listen, and emailing this site to order your copy. | |||
| 12th April 2006 | The Steve Tromans Trio recorded its first studio album in October last year. This should be due for release at some point this year. Watch this space for all details regarding the release. There are a few 'bootleg-style' live recordings of the trio, but this is the first time we've put down tracks in the studio. Expect to hear some audio excerpts as and when the album is available to the general public. | |||
| 11th April 2006 |
It's been pretty hectic this last week with some high-profile gigs: starting with last week's Howl performance at the Crescent Arts Centre in Belfast as part of the Between The Lines Festival, then launching Church of Logick's debut album at The Glee Club in Birmingham, followed by the premiere of Book of the Law setting at The Vortex in London on Monday. Each of the gigs went better than I'd even hoped for, with the Howl project receiving a great reception and gaining a whole new bunch of fans in Northern Ireland, Church of Logick playing a tight set to an appreciative home crowd.
And Book of the Law was simply sublime. Mike Hurley and Miles Levin really showed their star qualities: Mike handling the lengthy and wordy text with ease and confidence, and Miles producing yet another sensitive performance, ranging in emotion from darkly apocalyptic to unbearably delicate. Many thanks to Christina and |
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| 8th April 2006 |
World Premiere time! The Book of the Law concert will take place at |
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| 7th April 2006 |
It's the launch of Church of Logick's debut album on Sunday night (9th), with a performance at The Glee Club supporting Mercury-Prize-nominated |
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| 6th April 2006 | I know some of you know already, but for those who don't... Me and Hannah are moving to live in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia at the end of this month for at least a year. Aside from both of us wanting to travel and experience a completely different culture, my decision to move is also motivated by the desire to devote my time exclusively to my 2 = 1 = 0 Project - A Year of Solo Performance. It will be a sabbatical of sorts, and I'm really looking forward to seeing what effect it will have on my composition and performance. The Mongolia section of this site will act as an online diary of our experiences over the course of the year. Watch this space! | |||
| 2nd April 2006 | Have been notified that I am to be awarded an Honorary Membership of Birmingham Conservatoire (HonBC). This is an award acknowledging past students who have made a significant contribution within the various branches of the music profession since their graduation. The award ceremony will take place at the end of June as part of the Conservatoire's Graduation Ceremony itself. Needless to say, I'm very pleased with the news! The Conservatoire represented a major turning point in my life and has, given that it attracts many fine musicians to Birmingham, continued to be instrumental in helping me find the best musicians for my bands and projects. | |||
| 27th March 2006 | My musical setting of Allen Ginsberg's Howl is back for another performance next week. The quintet version will receive it's Irish premiere at the Crescent Arts Centre in Belfast. This will be as part of the Between The Lines Festival. If you're in Belfast at the time, please come along. It will be the only UK performance of 2006 and should, as usual, be an unmissable evening and the work's 7th performance to date. I wonder how many other commissioned UK works achieve more than their own premiere performances? Howl has certainly shown itself to have an ongoing relevance to both musical and literary audiences, and never ceases to be an all-round cathartic experience for performer and listener alike. | |||
| 21st March 2006 | More on the forthcoming premiere of my Book of the Law setting at The Vortex in London on 10th April. Treadwell's Books are part sponsoring and promoting the event, and they have recently placed a short concert preview on their site. To read this, follow the link: Treadwell's Live Journal. The countdown to the premiere is well and truly underway, and I am currently finalising the instrumental parts and shall be beginning rehearsals with the narrator and percussionist next week. | |||
| 18th March 2006 |
I would like to thank those who turned up to watch Jewel in the Lotus at |
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| 17th March 2006 |
Was good to re-join |
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| 10th March 2006 | As part of my efforts to develop my solo playing this year, I will be presenting Jewel in the Lotus next Tuesday (14th) at FiZZLE in Moseley. If you haven't got hold of a copy of Jewel in the Lotus as yet, there will be the opportunity to buy one at the concert. Hope to see you there! | |||
| 8th March 2006 | Beginning tomorrow night, and for a total of 5 performances over the next two months, I am going to be playing as part of the Chitraleka Dance Company in their latest project, Tears of Fire. Tomorrow's performance is at The Edge Arts Centre in Much Wenlock. I saw Chitraleka when they performed Tears of Fire at the Midlands Arts Centre (mac) last week and it features some beautiful Classical Indian Bharatanatyam dancing and virtuosic tabla and drumkit. If you get the chance, I'd recommend coming along. | |||
| 4th March 2006 | Channel Four's Ideas Factory have posted a review peppered with snatches of interview from the Future Jazz Night last year, which featured Church of Logick alongside Sugar Beats and Colonel Red. Follow the link to read it. I'd like to point out, however, that contrary to the article, I don't run FiZZLE anymore. It is now co-ordinated by Mike Hurley, and that rather than being an occasional thing, FiZZLE is fortnightly (as it's always been). | |||
| 3rd March 2006 | Have just got back from a great couple of gigs in London - first Last Amendment, Penny Rimbaud's exhilirating poetics and politics; and secondly, SURGE, Sid Peacock's inexhaustible 11-piece powerhouse of a band. I thought it was one of the best yet for SURGE, and hope it opened a few eyes (and ears) on the London scene to the wonderful music being created in Birmingham these days. | |||
| 27th February 2006 | The Premiere of my latest major work, Book of the Law, has been arranged for April 10th (the last day of The Feast for the Three Days of the Writing of the Book of the Law) and will be taking place at The Vortex in London. The Book's three chapters will be read by Mike Hurley, who read so beautifully in my now is a ship work earlier this month. He will be accompanied by the ever-inventive Miles Levin on drums/percussion and myself on piano. It promises to be a memorable night. | |||
| 20th February 2006 | Church of Logick have been in the studio and have recorded their debut album, as yet untitled. The album will be launched on April 9th at the Glee Club when we support Mercury-Prize-nominated Polar Bear. More info on the album to follow... Watch this space! | |||
| 11th February 2006 | Magical evening last night. It's always important to try to connect with another scene for another artform, and last night certainly achieved that goal. now is a ship was magically brought to life through the narration and vocals of, respectively, Mike Hurley and Alison Symons. I will endeavour to record the work as soon as possible. Full details will of course be posted here as they become available. Many thanks to Jonathan Davidson and Julie Boden from the Oasis Cafe Theatre for being so enthusiastic about this new work, for programming an evening for it so rapidly, and of course for providing the venue. And finally to Anu Singh, Literature Development Officer for Birmingham City Council for financially supporting the project. | |||
| 10th February 2006 | The premiere of now is a ship is tonight! Please come along and support this concert at the Oasis Cafe Theatre. Plus it's free entry! What could be better? | |||
| 31st January 2006 | I've made a few additions to the pages for my A Love Supreme project. This is due to the work receiving a fairly lengthy review in last Thursay's Stratford Herald. Please take a look and read both this new article and Martin's Longley's January 2005 review of the premiere back in December 2004. | |||
| 25th January 2006 |
The premiere of now is a ship on February 10th will be featuring narration by Mike Hurley and the voice of Alison Symons alongside my piano. Please come along and support this concert at the |
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| 24th January 2006 | The A Love Supreme performance on Sunday was a real delight. Ed, Chris and Miles each gave their all to produce a great evening of music. The crowd was, as usual, appreciative and open-minded. Can't really say more other than 'thanks' to all concerned for a great birthday. And the gig made the Guardian's Pick of the Week in The Guide, "Interesting young Midlands-based composer/pianist, fearlessly exploring the margins of regular jazz and free-improv." I must be doing something right... | |||
| 21st January 2006 |
The DeBop Band will be performing my arrangement of A Love Supreme at |
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| 18th January 2006 | My latest project, now is a ship (a musical setting of 17 poems by e.e. cummings) is to be PREMIERED at the Oasis Cafe Theatre on February 10th. Further info will be posted here nearer the time. Many thanks to Julie Boden and Jonathan Davidson for providing the setting and showing such a keen interest in the project! Also...if anyone's around in Birmingham city Centre tomorrow night, come along and check out the Mike Fletcher Band at The Stage (previously Bread & Roses, previously Gios and, for those with long memories like myself, The Grapevine!) Mike is one of a growing number of really great sax players on the Birmingham scene - and a great composer too. | |||
| 16th January 2006 | Have had a great weekend playing at Matt and Phreds Jazz Club in Manchester alongside Neil Yates, Munch Manship, Luke Flowers and Simon Thorpe. Great venue, both great gigs. We could really use a venue like this in Birmingham - jazz six nights a week. | |||
| 5th January 2006 |
Happy New Year! Some New Year thoughts, resolutions and notices:
Firstly, on a sad note, Derek Bailey has died aged 75. He died on Christmas Day. We never seem to expect musicians to die. It always comes as a great shock, no matter how old they were. His playing, performance ethic and dogged determination to stick at his art no matter what the consequences have been a constant source of encouragement and enlightenment for me. And will continue to be so long into the future. Musicians such as Derek Bailey are the very reason there is a future for music. I have made one serious musical resolution for 2006, and that is to concentrate most of my efforts this year on my solo playing. It's an area that has interested me greatly for a number of years, but particularly since the recording of my solo piano album, Jewel in the Lotus. I shall be hoping to record a short series of solo albums alongside as many solo concerts as I can arrange. This new undertaking will be documented as a new project under the title of 2 = 1 = 0. This contains all the relevant information on the project and its aims. Important news relating to this and all other projects/bands etc will, as usual, be featured here. |
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