10 months flown! Guildhall Masters tick! Musical ventures in Palestine and NEW ALBUM (!)..

wowwee.. 10 months have just flown by and i see the calendar will clock over to December next week.. Blimey! i feel i should back track a little considering the time past..

It's been a busy year this one. I finished the masters at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, my final project being a collaboration with tap dancer and choreographer Junior Laniyan. Readers may remember my post from november last year about the london tap jam.. well, Junior and i created a half hour show of live music (performed on piano, harp, bass clarinet and violin) and 5 tap dance extraordinaires! the next plan is to develop it into a full length show..

Musicians I work with were Ausiàs Garrigós Morant on bass clarinet, Katya Herman on harp and Eugene Feygelson on violin.. such fabulously talented people to work and play with.. And the amazing tap dancers were Junior Laniyan, Ryan Campbell-Birch, Thomas Kempf, Eilidh Ross and Avalon Rathgeb. Such a great project to immerse myself in.. cannot wait until the next installment..

here's a pic of me from the technical rehearsal..

and a little montage from rehearsals..

ok, so next story, as part of the masters back in march, my fellow students and i had a venture to Palestine, for a music exchange with Beit Al Musica and the Edward Said Music Conservatorium. this was the second part to our initial collaboration in London in October last year, however this time we visited their homeland and surrounding areas, immersing ourselves in their culture.. what an amazing time we had, meeting and playing with really fantastic musicians, running workshops for conservatoriums there, amongst touring about a little in Bethlehem, Ramallah, the Dead Sea and Jerusalem on the final day..

i swam in the dead sea!

the exchange group...

i was also commissioned in May this year.. a solo piano work, written, recorded and hand-scribed by yours truly.. the perfect job!

On the completion of my masters, I also said goodbye to the collection percussion instruments I've become so close with over the past couple of years..

a sad goodbye to all the percussion instruments..

By this time I was in good need of a holiday, so a trip to Portugal was in order..

Porto, Portugal..

And more recently I played with Ruthless Jabiru, the All-Australian Orchestra in London conducted by Kelly Lovelady, performing at Union Chapel in London.. here's a couple of pics from the rehearsals..

OK.. so... finally, I'd like to end with the announcement of a brand new CD, called Heavy Forest Air.. it's a live spontaneous musical collaboration between Eugene Skeef on all things percussive and myself on vibes & marimba. Recorded by Jared Miller in the Rolston Recital Hall at The Banff Centre, Alberta Canada, it was an impulsive venture in this magnificent hall filled with percussion instruments, that began as an experiment following an intensive three month winter music residency. I highly recommend it as it's an absolute gem of an album! buy it here.. http://www.sunwrae.com

thanks and see you all very soon...
Australian audiences stay tuned for a visit in March / April 2014... finally!

ps. poly was put up online this year..
pps. for any vibraphone players out there~ the sheet music of Decipher the Crooked Ways for solo vibes is now available to buy.. please contact us for more details!

Argentina exchange, Canal cruise, gigs and workshops..

mm where do i begin?!
probably Argentina..
In December I was fortunate to spend just over a couple of weeks in La Plata, near Buenos Aires in Argentina. Whilst the contrast in weather from London was awesome and I could have stayed by the pool the whole time, we (myself and a few fellow Masters students from Guildhall) were there to immerse ourselves in music (and a little bit of dancing!).. Candombe, Tango and Argentinian Folklore music were the flavour of our days, from early in the morning, until late evening. Our Argentinian teachers and collaborators were fantastic people, musicians and souls to have around day and night.

First stop was Candombe, a ceremonial gathering of sorts, with music (primarily drumming) and dance. In Argentina today, the rhythms of Candombe stem from traditions in Uraguay. Below are the three base rhythms & variations (and names of the drums), Clave, Chico and Piano, that make up Candombe, which gets incredibly fast and complicated with experience and improvisation...

 

Here's a few pics & videos of our teachers and us absorbed in Candombe..

After learning the ins and outs of Candombe over a number of intense days playing (and taping the blisters from our fingers down!), we embarked on a venture into the public to show of our stuff..

our meeting place where the fire below was..

heating the skins of the drums before playing..

and the walk to prepare...

where are we going?

nearly 2 hours walking, 10 blocks (slowly!), all the while, playing..

amazingly powerful feeling, so loud..

unfortunately i cannot upload a video of this, as there's a limit of 100mg... ouch!! sorry! sounded amazing though...

then came the tango and folklore.. music and dancing! I loved learning the tango music, so particular in articulation.. the influence will certainly come out in my future writings... look out!!!

Keeping the locals on their toes during my tango lesson.. yes, that's me :)

and time out bike riding to the crystal tree (only 2 left in South America!)

oops someone had a puncture..

meantime we're in the background having an afternoon beer..

couldn't resist this one.. he he he!

and i've been involved in some music and theatre workshops, dance improvisation sessions and also been to see lots of shows.. London Jazz Festival: Neil Crowley Trio at The Barbican, some good ol rock n' roll at Macbeth in Hoxton, the Dan Wood Trio playing Thelonious Monk at the Servant Jazz Quarters, Orchestra Elastique at Cafe Oto in Dalston, the fabulous Manu Delago (Bjork's percussionist, on Hang) in 'Living Room' at Rich Mix in Shoreditch.. and the list goes on...

The day of Manu Delago's gig with Living Room, he and Austrian woodwind player Christoph Pepe Auer came to run a session at Guildhall. They're fantastic and well rounded musicians and I highly recommend checking out their projects, all of them (!)..their youtube clips are great too..

Just after new year's I embarked on a canal cruise with some great friends who own a narrow boat and moor it just outside London, to the West in the beautiful countrside. We went along for the ride (almost 9 hours it took), travelling down the canal from Camden, through the locks, eventually stopping in the countryside to breathe in the fresh air. then.. back to london smog on a train :(

Little Venice

 

And of course it snowed for a week or more. my toes have finally thawed out!! It was quite delightful to see the snow.. watch the snowmen being built.. experience a quieter London.. and giggle at people trying to walk on slippery surfaces and fall flat on the ground laughing...

my street..

my morning view on my way out..

 

 

me and my snowman..

me and my instruments..

OK. I think it's over and out from me for now.. next up is a music exchange with the Palestinian musicians we worked with in October... from Beit AlMusica Conservatoire in Shefa’amr and The Edward Said National Conservatory of Music in Ramallah.. but we're visiting them!!! Stay tuned for more in a month or so.. :)