Suggestions and that.

A long-awaited list of awesome music suggestions is here!

I understand my suggestions may not be your cup of tea, but I know that a lot of the music I listen to is a bit out-of-the-ordinary and often overlooked, and I absolutely adore it all! If I can make someone out there feel as good as this music makes me, then I know I'm doing a good job!

Finding your music taste and discovering new music is a journey, and I'll give you an example of how I found a lot of jazz.

When I was about 15 or 16, my school big-band played a tune called 'The Chicken', a school big-band classic, and I decided to look into this. I found a recording of this track on Limewire (those were the days...) by a guy called Jaco Pastorius. I had never heard of him before in my life. After listening to this recording countless times, and I can still do this, I knew every solo inside-out, including Jaco's on-the-fly bass accompaniment. One day I was in town with a few friends, and in HMV I saw this CD sitting there, simply entitled 'Jaco Pastorius'. I needed to have it. I didn't have the money for it then, so a friend bought it for himself, my main man Smokey Fingers, and I got a lend of it. This recording changed my perception of music. Every track was just incredible, and even now, many years on, I'm still blown away by it. Check it out.

Anyway, on this album, there was a collaberation with Herbie Hancock. Now I know that Herbie has been around since what we know as modern jazz was born. I got one album, 'Headhunters', which is the best selling jazz album of all time. This is also an absolutely mind-blowing crazy album. After that, I got a compilation album of his earlier, more acoustic recordings, called 'Canteloupe Island', and the title track was very simple, but also incredibly addictive. Remember that track.

At some point close to finding Herbie, I was playing with the Ulster Youth Jazz Orchestra, and we played a chart called 'Stolen Moments', another all-time favourite track of mine. I went and got the recording of this, on a beautifully named album, 'Blues and the Abstract Truth'. On this track, there was a trumpet solo by a guy called Freddie Hubbard, an incredible jazz musician. I loved this trumpet solo, so simple, yet so elegant. Now, I went to listen to some other Herbie stuff, and listened to the trumpet solo on Canteloupe Island. Is this the same guy? Checked out the band listing, it was indeed Freddie Hubbard, and from that I went and listened to load of Freddie's albums.

From Herbie I also discovered Chick Corea, from him I found Dave Weckl, and so on. That's the great thing about jazz; go to a great era of jazz, like the fusion era in the mid 70s, and you'll find that everyone has played with everyone else, and made some fantastic music.

Anyway, that's just something to think about.

My first track for this edition is a special one. If you read my last blog, you'll know that I attended the Ulster Youth Orchestra course, and we played the breathtaking 'Scheherazade' by Rimsky-Korsakov. I knew this piece well beforehand, but I knew this version almost as well: Maynard Ferguson's version. Or this one: Waynard's version. I would recommend listening to the original Rimsky-Korsakov piece first, then listening to the Maynard. It's just an absolutely fantastic opening to a track by Maynard, some of his best soaring! If you know the classical piece, and the gorgeous violin cadenzas, this will be a special listen!

Next up, is fairly new to me, but it's Bill Chase. If you've ever heard of the jazz trumpeter and legend Thomas Gansch, you're sure to have heard his big-band, Gansch & Roses. They do a fantastic tribute chart to Bill Chase, and you'll find out why by listening to my favourite track of theirs, Livin' in Heat. Despite having screaming trumpets and sick charts, Chase were quite a popular band, and made it into the charts with many of their tunes.

I discovered this next band only this week whilst on YouTube; this video shows the band talking about writing one of their pieces of music, and I was very interested in the rest of their music. They only have one album on Spotify, but it's definitely worth a listen! Here's Bop, by Brandt Brauer Frick. It won't quite be jazz, it's not quite classical, it's not quite contemporary ensemble, it's just everything.

Now, if you're involved in any youth big-band or jazz orchestra, you'll almost definitely know of Gordon Goodwin and his Big Phat Band. He's churned out some classics in the past few years, like Hunting Wabbits and Count Bubba, but they've just released a new album on Spotify! It's called That's How We Roll, and it's worth a full listen-through. Here's my favourite track on it, and you'll know why, but it's Hunting Wabbits 3.

My last suggestion for you is a bit more interesting. A few years ago, my brother and I decided to try and find the best version of 'Air on the G String', by Bach. We found a few very good versions, like the Modern Jazz Quartet version, but it took us a while to find this gem; if you've ever seen the film Collateral with Tom Cruise, you'll have heard this played. It's by the Klazz Brothers & Cuba Percussion, who are a fascinating group. Fusing jazz with classical with cuban and all sorts, this really is fantastic listening. If you want another suggestion for them, here is their version of the Overture to the Wagner opera Tannhauser.

I hope I've given you enough listening to keep you occupied for a while!

'til next time...

Thanks ~ The Jazzbone

I'm getting worse at this as time goes on... UPDATES!

So, it's been a while since I last posted on here. This may be a long update post...

I'll start from the latest event and work backwards. Just yesterday, I was playing in the Ulster Hall in Belfast to a near-capacity crowd with the Ulster Youth Orchestra. Despite being 21 and at a music college, I had never done a youth orchestra course in my life until this Summer. I'm hoping to do some work with a professional orchestra sometime in the next year or 2, so I thought it would be a good time to get some experience playing in an orchestral section. Happily, I auditioned and got 1st chair, and had a solid lower brass section.

The rep we were playing was pretty good, not the best, but pretty good. We put on a programme of 'Russian Masterpieces'; Shostakovich's "Festive Overture", Rachmaninov's "Piano Concerto #2" and Rimsky-Korsakov's "Scheherazade". The piano soloist for the piano concerto was Michael McHale, a brilliant Northern Irish concert pianist. We put on two fantastic concerts, one in Derry and one in Belfast, and both were just fantastic.

The best part for me was definitely our tutor, Paul Mayes. Every day we had brass sectionals with Paul, which for 2 days was going through the repertoire, but most of the time, he talked to us about playing a brass instrument, being a musician, and a whole host of related topics. I've taken so many notes on things that he has said, and I feel really motivated to play.

The biggest thing he said took me by surprise, but once I digested it, it made a lot of sense; Don't rely on your teacher to do everything for you. Work out what your weaknesses are, and fix them. There is always a reason why you're doing something wrong, and there is always a way to do it better.

This makes a lot of sense to me. Teachers and tutors are great for a lot of things, like learning repertoire, style, and buying you lunch, but they can't teach you how to play the instrument to it's full potential. It's up to you to master the instrument.

I'm feeling good about this next year, and I'm looking forward to proving myself again.

Just a week after I got home from Manchester for the Summer, I got a very exciting phone call; a trombone had pulled out of a gig, and I was first number that got called. The 'gig' was actually a two-week festival in St. Endellion in Cornwall, playing the Richard Wagner 4-hour masterpiece 'Valkyries'. I had never heard of the festival, but quickly found out that it was a pretty prestigious festival. The late Richard Hickox was the musical director there from 1972 to 2008, and made it into a festival to rival the BBC Proms. All of the musicians and choir members involved pay to be there, and all the international soloists do it for free.

It was a brilliant two weeks, not only because of the Wagner, or the other concerts, but the social aspect was fantastic. All of the musicians there were freelance musicians, mostly from London, and I got to meet some brilliant people. Every night was a great laugh, and I made a lot of good friends.

I got to play in two concerts aside from the Valkyries; the first was with orchestra and choir playing Berlioz' "Royal Hunt and Storm" and Stravinsky's "Symphony of Psalms", both fantastic pieces. The second concert was just the brass players, and featured the brilliant arrangement of Mussorgsky's "Pictures at an Exhibition". It's hard to beat the sound of a brass choir, and playing with such great musicians just made it a special concert.

Before the Summer, I cannot really remember what I did. College was tough for the last term, but I managed to get a 2:1 out of 2nd year, and a fantastic recital mark.

Lastly, I found out recently that I shall be auditioning for the 2nd trombone job for the Ulster Orchestra in just a few weeks time! This will be my first professional orchestral audition, so I'm gonna keep the head down for the next couple of weeks, and do my best. I'm feeling really good about my playing at the minute, and I'm looking forward to showing these guys what I'm capable of.

I'll roll out some more of these blogs in the next couple of weeks with updates and some listening suggestions!

'til next time...

Thanks ~ The Jazzbone

2011 Awesomness

Belated Happy New Year!

I know, it has been forever since my last post, but the wait will be worth it. I have some fantastic tracks for you listen to, as well and some good updates!

I'm currently in the midst of exam stress, as I have my technical exam in college on Monday. I despise this exam, purely because I hate scales. I can see how they can be used as an educational tool, and as a means to improvise, but I just hate being given a list of scales and told to learn them. Melodic minor scales in 3rds has been the bane of my life these past couple of weeks... Despite that, in the technical exam we do get to play 12 orchestral excerpts, which gives me an excellent opportunity to play some alto trombone! I'm doing 8 tenor trombone excerpts and 4 alto excerpts, so those make up for the hurrendousness of scales... nearly.

This past month I've had the huge privilage of playing in the RNCM Big-band for the first time, and it was incredible. I've been to nearly every college big-band concert since I start here in 2009, and I admired all of the players so much, but I'm now getting the chance to sit on stage and play to a packed audience.

The special guest for this concert was an electric bassist called Laurence Cottle, who is a great guy, as well as being an untouchable player. He's worked with everyone in his career, and he's one of the few people who had the privilage of working with the late great Jaco Pastorius, back in the 70s. Laurence has written some incredible tunes, and unforunately they aren't on Spotify, but two of his albums are free to download off of his website, as well as other free tracks of his. This stuff is definitely worth a listen, especially tracks like The Owl, Underhill Pavilion, El Viejo Paso, and I Got Ridov'em, if not for the superb electric bass playing, for the awesome tunes and screaming lead trumpet!

I'm getting the chance to play with the college big-band again, this time on lead trombone which is AWESOME, but even moreso because the guest is Gwilym Simcock. Before I knew about this concert we would be doing with him, I'd only heard his name mentioned in a couple of brochures and magazines, but I started listening to some of his stuff on Spotify, and it's incredible. It's a strange combination of the late-Romantic piano works of Satiz and Einaudi, and the improvised solo piano work of Herbie Hancock and Chick Corea. I do love listening to solo piano stuff, especially when it's as emotional and intense as this album is. The album is called Good Days At Schloss Elmau, and it's definitely worth a listen.

Last year, Mike Walker played with the college big-band, and he put on an incredible concert. I've listened to the recordings of that concerts countless times now, and I discovered that there was some Mike Walker stuff on Spotify. His album, Madhouse & The Whole Thing There, is a diverse, but incredible album. I particularly love the first track, A Real Embrace, and the last track, Dad Logic, but the whole album is definitely worth a listen. Good jazz guitar players that are easy to listen to, I find, are few and far between. Mike Walker is definitely up there Pat Metheny, especially since Mike's compositions are so fresh.

I found 2 real gems recently that were hiding under my nose, here in Manchester. The first is a group called Riot Jazz, a brass ensemble similar to Youngblood Brass Band, and just as funky! Their EP, Gives You the Horn!, is on Spotify. I'm not going to comment on it, just listen. You will enjoy it.

The other gem is a ska band based in Manchester, called Baked a la Ska, doing gigs around the north, but their repertoire is slightly different to standard ska bands on their self titled album; one of my favourite tracks has to be their cover of Jean Michel Jarre's Oxygene 4, or the Beastie Boys' Intergalactic. Some of the covers aren't as awesome, but there's a lot of gems in there!

Another gem that I discovered was revealed at the college bar after a rehearsal; we were just sitting, doing what you do after a rehearsal, and this album comes on the speakers, and it's just this insane, awesome, big-band music. I asked one of the guys what it was, and I think 2 or 3 people at the table were shocked that I didn't know what it was! Turns out, it's the big-band of a guy called Michel Camilo, and all the charts are insane! This album, Caribe, is intense. My favourite track has to be Not Yet. But I'm saying no more. Listen.

I'm going to leave you with some awesome. I've had one track on loop quite a bit since coming back, and it's this: The Brecker Brothers' Skunk Funk. I love this tune. You will have almost definitely have heard it before, but it never loses it's energy. It really makes me wish I could play bebop/post-bop, just for the high-energy improvising and choruses. Enjoy!

‘til next time...

Thanks ~ The Jazzbone

Of trombones, jazz, and some serious listening.

It’s been just over 2 months since I posted anything, and even then it wasn’t anything substantial, so I’ll do a major update for you.

My Summer didn’t really consist of much playing, I had a thoroughly relaxing holiday. I did however get the opportunity to tour Scotland for a week with the All-Souls Orchestra, an ensemble from the All-Souls Church, Langham Place in London. This orchestra gets together once a month and performs in a church service at their home church, and then goes away for weekends or week-long tours and play somewhere else in the country. The Scottish tour consisted of 5 concerts in major cities, and the programme was a bit daunting at first, but by the end of the tour we were pretty tight. Each concert started off with Sibelius’ masterwork Finlandia, and the first 1^st trombone entry on C# was pretty terrifying. I liked the conductor’s interpretation of the piece, it meant I could play with a bit of grit and very loud. After Finlandia finished, we played various hymn tune arrangements for orchestra, as well as some other classical works like selections from Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake, the march from Shostakovich’s Jazz Suite II, a flute soloist played extracts from John Rutter’s Suite Antique, and various others. They were long concerts, and it was a long tour, but I’m really glad I did it! It was fantastic experience working with a section and working in an orchestra.

I’m back at college now, and have been for about 2 weeks now. It’s a great feeling to be back, and to be practising regularly. Although during the Summer you have all the time in the world to practise with all the space to do it in, there’s just always something else to do. Like watch TV.

I had my first lesson this week with my teacher, Simon Cowen, and it was awesome. I’m getting there, I just need to put the hours in. It’s been very interesting, I’ve been looking into different trombones recently; not because I’m looking to get a new one, but it’s very interesting to see the differences between different makes, different metals, different techniques. I play on a Conn 88HTO (open wrap with rose brass bell) circa 2002. Conns of the 1950s were the instrument of choice, and still really are in most professional orchestras (well, the sane ones, a lot of Americans are now using Raths... oh dear). Since Conn-Elkhart seperated and just became Conn, the trombones have gone down in standard due to becoming mass-produced. When it was Conn-Elkhart, they were all hand-made and are still considered to be some of the greatest trombones ever made. The closest thing to them now are considered to be either Shires custom made trombones, or Greenhoe-Conns, both of which are exceptionally expensive.

The reason this has been on my mind this week is because I did a gig 2 weeks ago, and had to borrow someone else’s trombone because mine was damaged. I played on a Rath trombone, and I was surprisingly pleased with it. I have my own Rath, which I had for 4/5 years before I had my Conn, and I now can’t stand it! My own Rath was configured when I was 15/16, and it really wasn’t the best time to build an instrument. It has a nickel slide, which is nice and quick, it’s got the Bb/F valve, lots of lovely stuff, but it does have a small bore bright brass bell, which really isn’t ideal. Large bore slide and small bore bell? It’s an accident waiting to happen. It only encouraged my teenage desire to play as loud and sharp as possible.

This Rath, however, was very easy to play, very versatile and had quite a nice sound. I’ve had a prejudice against Raths for the past year or 2, due to them being predominantly brass banding trombones, and I therefore associate that with playing very fast, very loud, and not necessarily with a nice sound. But after playing someone else’s Rath, I realised this was all wrong. At the end of the day, it’s really how you approach the instrument that makes a difference; the instrument only takes your air and projects it. I personally think I suit a Conn, rose-brass sound, therefore my instrument compliments me very well. I can still play with a good sound on a Rath, but I don’t suit the lightweight and thinner Rath set-up.

It isn’t really a hobby horse of mine, I usually try to shy away from conversations and arguments about hardware, except when it’s just a really nerdy trombone chat. If you want some real hardcore hardware and philosophical articles on brass playing, check out my friend Mike Barkley’s blog, http://www.michaelbarkley.com/. He really knows his stuff when it comes to brass playing, especially if you’re a trumpet player. Especially if you like jazz too!

I’ve found some very VERY good recordings recently, and there’s one that has really blown me away; I’m surprised I’ve never heard of this cat before, but Dave Steinmeyer is an absolutely demon trombone player. The majority of his recordings are with the legendary Airmen of Note, the US Air Force big/dance band. He was one absolutely amazing video on YouTube that shows just how much of an amazing player he is, even at his age -> You won’t be disappointed. All great jazz trombonists, like him and my all time heroes Bill Watrous and Urbie Green, have this super-easy approach to playing. You watch that video, and see him squeeze out whatever note that is, and his face is perfectly set, with no apparent effort. It’s absolutely incredbile. I can play high, but I end up dizzy and my heartrate shooting up.

Another Steinmeyer legendary video is him with the Airmen playing Chick Corea’s spain -> The same effortless approach to the trombone. Here’s the Spotify studio version too, which is just as sick. All evidence of the no-pressure method to brass playing which we all really struggle with.

Speaking of Bill Watrous, here is his version of Spain playing WITH the legendary Chick Corea, as well as Hubert Laws with some serious YAZZ flute, and other legends on stage. Spain is without a doubt one of my favourite standards ever, and every interpretation of it seems to work so well. Any time I hear it there’s just ideas floating in my head for solos, it’s just crazy!

I also love Bill’s hair. It’s too awesome for his own good.

Another trombone legend would have to Joe Alessi. Despite being the principal trombone of the New York Philharmonic, he’s a jazzer. So much so that he’s best mates with Jiggs Whigham, possibly the greatest jazz-trombonist alive, one of the last of his era. Classically, I consider him to be the greatest trombonist alive. I know, that’s a bold statement, but considering his main rival would be Christian Lindberg, I just prefer the style and sound that Alessi makes. Lindberg is just far too European and loves vibrato too much...

That’s beside the point. He has a fantastic album now on Spotify, Joseph Alessi Plays Bernstein, Peaslee, Rush, Ewazen, et al. It starts off with a piece I did in my recital last year, Elegy for Mippy II, which is a funky short piece for unnaccompanied trombone. This album has some really fantastic gems, especially the Tribute to JJ Johnson, another one of the greatest jazz trombonists of all time.

Heading slightly away from jazz, Joe also has an album with Imperial Brass, a highly regarded American brass band. This album has blown me away. With classics like Time for Piece and the Concertino, as well as face-melting jazz stuff, this just shows how good Joe Alessi is. This is a must listen album for any trombone player -> Bone-A-Fide Brass.

I think I shall call it a day here, but I hope you enjoyed reading as much as I do writing this blog! There’s a lot of listening here, very trombone heavy, but there’s nothing wrong with that is there?

‘til next time...

Thanks ~ The Jazzbone

Keith Jarrett

Not sure whether I've posted about this cat before, but I'll do it now anyway in a quick post. Was just looking through my YouTube "Recommended for You" section, and found this gem from Keith Jarrett which blew me away. I saw in the description that it was from his album Still Live, so I hooked it up on Spotify and found the whole album.

And I'm totally in awe of this trio. It's so tight from start to finish.

The track I want to highlight is the one from the video, You And The Night And The Music / Extension / Intro / Someday My Prince Will Come. You'll have to get to 12 minutes in to find the part I'm talking about, which is Someday My Prince Will Come. This is one of my all-time favourite standards, and this version is a little bit more up-beat than I'm used to, but it's nails.

Seriously check it out. I'll try to do more of these smaller posts just with a track or 2 on them, because I try to save them up then forget about all of the best ones.

'til next time...

Thanks ~ The Jazzbone

Summer-er

I have some fantastic gems to share with you that I've found over the past months which I've neglected to post! Not a great deal is happening with my playing at the minute, the Summer has taken it's toll! Just practising the same exercises again and again, just keeping my lip in shape and trying to fix some long-term problems.

First things first, here's a YouTube video which I found while looking for covers to the Gnarls Barkley song "Crazy". I loved this cover so much, I just had to find out more about the artist, Katie Noonan. She's an Australian jazz singer who studied opera and classical-style singing along with jazz at the Queensland Conservatorium. After listening to her cover of Crazy, I listened to her album "Skin" which is a fantastic collection of original jazz tunes. She has also recorded an album or her own interpretation of Lennon & McCartney songs called "Blackbird: The Music Of Lennon And McCartney". She's definitely an artist to keep an eye on!

This is, however, my favourite cover of Crazy -> YouTube.

I found a fantastic cover by Flora Purim of Jaco Pastorius' Las Olas Farewell. It's hard to find recordings of this tune, as Jaco never recorded it himself, except on some of the New York sessions disks, which were illegally distrubuted. Jaco himself plays on this cover, and the lyrics really add to the song from Flora.

There's a great recording of West Side Story arranged by a pianist called Dave Grusin, which I heard years ago but I can't find a recording of it online, only to buy on Amazon. But he does have another album with the famous GRP All-Star Big-Band called Dave Grusin Presents GRP All-Star Big Band Live!, with some great covers of tunes like Manteca, Singx3, and Cherokee. The GRP has had some fantastic musicians over the years, and there are some great YouTube videos of them. My favourite has to be the trumpet feature they did on the tune Cherokee, check it out on YouTube!

My brother sent me a link to a fantastic album on Spotify by Banda Paralela called "Banda Paralela In Box" with some great covers in a Ska style.

The Summer just makes me want to listen to Chuck Mangione, and I just find myself listening to this tune more and more -> Feels So Good. You can find more versions on YouTube, like the live version and the version with his dad singing vocals.

I can't think of any more at the minute, I'm sorry I can't say more about what I'm doing at the minute! I'm genuinely just enjoying the Summer and chilling out, last term at college was drawn-out and stressful!

Hope you're all staying classy!

'til next time...

Thanks ~ The Jazzbone

Summer!

It's been a while, I know. Hope you're all staying classy!

Since Easter, Jazzbone has been a busy bunny, some great gigs were coming my way! I'll fill you in on what I've been up to since then.

The first thing I did when I got back was straight into rehearsals for lots of different things. Jazz collective was on the cards again, which I was very pleased about. We played 2 concerts with the jazz collective, one in college and one in the Art Theatre, New Mills. The concert in college consisted of the jazz collective with guest Jack Davies. It was at this concert we played Gil Evans' Concerto de Aranjuez with the extended jazz group. We had french horns, flutes, cor anglais, loads of crazy stuff going on! Again I was sitting top trombone for the gigs, and I absolutely loved it. We played some roastin' tunes like Home Basie, Manteca, One O'Clock Jump, Elektric City and some other great funky tunes. I played a solo this time as well, which I was very privilaged to do! I played the Tommy Dorsey standard Getting Sentimental Over You, which when placed in the 2nd half of a programme, can be quite a tiring piece to play.

Altogether, jazz at the RNCM is fantastic. I'm focusing more on my classical playing at the minute, but in a few months time once I've fixed a few things in my technique, I'm back on the jazz again! I have been getting some improvisation done since Easter as well, which is always terrifying. We had to perform improvisations in our musicianship exams, and we chose to play the Welsh folk tune O Waly, Waly. The group was slightly unorthodox, with 3 trombones and a piano. Trying to keep a piece exciting with improvisation going on and 3 other people not just sitting about was quite a challenge, but we nailed it! We reckon we got a pretty sweet mark for it anyway. I also got to do some improv solos in jazz collective, which I was forced to do, but I gave them a shot anyway. My Aebersold and Jiggs book are getting a bit dusty...

Since Easter I've played with 2 university symphony orchestras, which was really good experience for me. The first was Manchester University Choral and Orchestral Society playing in a church in Didsbury. The repertoire was fantastic, with pieces like Rhapsody in Blue, Pomp and Circumstance and other popular 'classics'. The soloist for the Gershwin was just amazing, no idea what he's doing at university, he should be at conservatoire!

The other orchestra was Newcastle University Symphony Orchestra and Student Orchestra. My brother Matt went to Newcastle-Upon-Tyne for university and became really involved in the music department there, and despite having graduated a few years ago, he's still conducting and playing percussion there. The Saturday night concert was fantastic; the concert's theme was Nationality, and we played pieces like Finlandia, Ma Vlast, Walton's Johannesburg Overtune and my favourite, Brahms' 2nd Symphony. The Brahms was nuts, I was on 1st trombone and reading alto clef is not quite natural yet. There are some beautiful trombone parts in the symphony, and the last movement just has a glorious ending, with an exposed trombone chord just a few bars before the end.

The Sunday night concert was my 2nd performance of Karl Jenkin's The Armed Man, this time on first trombone! It was an excellent concert.

I've done a few other bits and pieces since then, like today I played in the Manchester Day Parade with a samba band which was great fun! We played with them in the Preston Caribbean Festival a few weeks ago, and it's totally different to what we classical musicians are used to!

The last notable gig I did was at the Ulverston International Music Festival last week. In college at the minute there are recitals and various competitions going on, so some of the trombone players despite having finished their exams are still very busy, so this gave me a great opportunity. A 4th year trombone player was needed for an ensemble, so he asked me to dep for him in a big-band gig. This was a big-band called The Sky Project, which is a local big-band playing local music. The band was formed by some friends who wanted to promote local music by artists like Mike Walker, or artists who play with the band like Moss Freed, Alice Zawadzki or Joe McCallum. The gig was fantastic, great atmosphere, and the music was just so well written, hopefully I'll get to play with them again. The band is fronted by Alice Zawadzki, a former violin student at the RNCM, who is also a fantastic jazz singer.

I think that's a pretty in-depth analysis of my Summer term at the RNCM. I go home next Tuesday to Belfast, so when I get back I'll write up some of my awesome finds !

'til next time...

Thanks ~ The Jazzbone