Sweeney Todd

I almost forgot to say! I'll be playing in a production of Sweeney Todd, the musical, next month in King David's High School, on Seymour Road in Manchester. It's being directed by Trevor Siemens, a very talented young composer and musician. The musical itself is fantastic, the music is very interesting and quite funny, if not lacking in trombone moments...

Here's a link to the Facebook page with some more details :)

'til next time...

Thanks ~ The Jazzbone

Scream Machine

I do apologise for my lack of updates recently, it's been a tough month! Coming back to college after Christmas has been a bit of an ordeal, and not as easy as I was expecting it to be... We have technical assessments coming up, and my teacher is trying to get me through the material for those as well as keeping up the technique and fundamental stuff. It's pretty intense at the minute.

But anyway.

Back to jazz. I bought an album off of iTunes the other day, purely because I love the guy, and his albums aren't that widely available. Any brass player who has a real love of jam hot brass playing will have hopefully heard of 2 artists; Mnozil Brass and James Morrison. I won't be talking about Mnozil this time, because they aren't jazz in the slightest, but they are as jam hot as you can get. James Morrison however, I could talk about this cat all day. If you're a fan of Black Dyke Brass Band, you will have definitely heard of this guy. Just check this out -> YouTube. That's James performing "Things Just Ain't What They Used To Be", that old Ellington standard. I couldn't tell you the amount of times I've watched that video, and how many times I've watched that DVD... But anyway.

He's released some phenom albums through the years, the only problem being that he's an Australian artist, and his albums aren't released here except online through iTunes, which is a real shame. Here's the album I bought though -> iTunes. And just listen to some of those samples... Jam hot, yes? Thankfully, he does have an album on Spotify, hidden away under the gay James Morrison... but srsly, listen to this ASAP -> Spotify.

It's been a tough month or so for trombone playing, I've had to re-think my practise schedule entirely. But, you'll be glad to hear, I've actually been doing some Aebersold work! All in preparation for Jiggs Whigham's return next month!

I will try to be more active with my posts guys, I promise!

'til next time...

Thanks ~ The Jazzbone

New Year

Happy new year everyone! Hope you all had a classy Christmas, and a sloppy New Year!

It's been bizarre, I've started watching quite a few vlogs on youtube, like RayWilliamJohnston's blog BreakingNYC, which is pretty cool. I've always loved the idea of being able to do that myself, but more music orientated, even with a few tasty musical bites here and there on the ol trombone... ANYWAY, I'll just stick to this for the minute, I like doing this :)

I feel really bad, because Jiggs Whigham is coming back in March, and I haven't done a lot of work for him yet... I've been neglecting my Aebersold book a bit too much. I have been doing a bit of improvising for part of my course though, in class. And I must say, I wasn't too bad at it. We did a solo over the Welsh folk tune "O Waley, Waley", and it was seriously tasty. I will be doing more work on my jazz though. I promise :)

Got a few tasty albums/artists for you guys to listen to that I've come across quite recently!

First off, here's a trio called 'Project', with their album Brooklyn which is pretty tasty. If you're wondering who the flautist is, then here is where you first heard him -> YouTube (EVERYONE must have seen this vid. Or one of his others.) I admit, I do sometimes have a strange taste in instruments sometimes, but jazz flute is seriously badass. The Anchorman is the prime example.

These cats have some seriously tasty original stuff on there, as well as some interesting covers and transcriptions!

Next up is something a bit differant, but SERIOUSLY funky; it's the Quantic Soul Orchestra, with their album Tropidélico. This guys have some seriously tasty stuff on here, a lot of groovy riffs and a lot of aux percussion, which is what I'm all about! Check out their YouTube vids as well, like this one. Or this one. S'all gravy.

The last album I've got here is a pure classic for me. My memory of this group is of my former trombone teacher back in Belfast blaring a few tunes out the window in the car. Seriously, check it out. And have a spare pair of trousers ready. Oh yeah.

'til next time...

Thanks ~ The Jazzbone