togetherness

Joan Baez, Jimmy Page, Dave Matthews, Paolo Nutini, The Duchess of Cambridge, and Haddaway walk into a bar…

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…because it’s all of their birthdays today (9 January)!

In celebration, here are some videos of wonderful things they’ve done:


Queen Jane, performed by Oscar Isaac in the 2013 Coen Brothers’ film, ‘Inside Llewyn Davis’. Joan Baez recorded this — one of the Child Ballads — on her fifth LP in 1963. The following track on that LP (simply titled ‘5’) is a beautiful rendition of Argentinian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos’s ‘Bachianas Brasilierias No. 5 — Aria’. As well as Baez’s haunting vocal, accompanied by a cello octet, there is a beautiful solo by cellist David Soyer.

My favourite Led Zeppelin album is ‘Houses Of The Holy’, which begins with the double whammy of The Song Remains The Same and The Rain Song (the first originally intended as an instrumental overture to the second). Here’s The Rain Song from Page & Plant’s MTV Unledded session.

My friends and I had just gotten far enough into Zep to be over the moon when this reunion happened. I still remember reading about it in the Sunday Times Culture section, that pre-Internet window out into the world of art. Four of us came down to Dublin and saw them in concert at The Point. It was an incredible show. The next morning, as my friend Andrew and I lay in our single B&B beds, the news came on the radio that Robbie had left Take That.

“Mom, it’s my birthday” sings Dave Matthews 2 minutes and 30 seconds into this video. John Popper, who guests on this performance on harmonica, just explodes the boundaries of the instrument. Check out his band, Blues Traveler, for more of that!

Paolo Nutini’s blistering Abbey Road performance of ‘Iron Sky’, which stopped us in our tracks when we first heard it on the road this year.

The Duchess of Cambridge being lovely:

And Haddaway…? Well, it’s got to be this SNL sketch, soundtracked memorably by his monster hit, ‘What Is Love’:

Happy birthday to all of them!!

Brilliant, quotes

Chaff and grain (quote from Christopher Stevens’ biography of Kenneth Williams)

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The quote that most often closed his letters (sometimes in full, sometimes indicated with just the words ‘chaff & grain’) was from a forgotten Victorian novelist, Mrs Craik: ‘Oh, the comfort, the inexpressible comfort of feeling safe with a person, having neither to weigh thoughts nor measure words, but pouring them all out, just as they are, chaff and grain together, certain that a faithful hand will take and sift them, keep what is worth keeping, and with a breath of kindness blow the rest away.’

Brilliant, quotes

Handholds (quote from Christopher Stevens’ biography of Kenneth Williams)

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Williams, whose mind was a compendium of verses and tag lines, sources and quotations, felt his thoughts were clearest when told in other people’s words. Wilfred Owen, Roy Fuller, A.E. Housman, John Milton and T.S. Eliot all left deep grooves to which he returned for handholds, proving the truth of an argument by showing that the thought had been beautifully phrased by a better mind.

composition

Gabriel’s Message — solo piano

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I really like this melody (it’s a Basque carol) and I find its subject matter, the angel Gabriel appearing to Mary, one of the most interesting episodes in the Gospels. Like a lot of the stories of Jesus’ genesis, it’s not dealt with in *all* the gospels. Matthew, after his lengthy family tree (*this* is what the bible’s editors ran with for the opening of the New Testament…?!), outlines quite clearly the rather delicate situation that the young couple found themselves in, concerning this surprise pre-nuptial pregnancy, but doesn’t go into the specifics of ‘The Annunciation’. Mark, the breathless, bounding lion of a writer that he was, skips it and everything to do with Jesus’ early life. As does John (although he wins for best introduction). Luke, the doctor, the man of learning, he gives us everything we know about Mary’s bizarre encounter.

“Greetings, favoured one! The Lord is with you.” But she was much perplexed by his words and pondered what sort of greeting this might be.

She’s perplexed at his angelically formal hello (fair enough), but he hasn’t even got to the good part yet…!

Many artists have painted the scene throughout the ages. The one I’ve chosen is by Carl Heinrich Bloch, a prominent 19th century Danish painter. The light effect is incredible. (The original hangs in Denmark’s national museum in Frederiksborg Castle, north of Copenhagen.)

PS If you’re listening on headphones, or on good speakers, marvel at the beautiful sound of the Nord Stage piano sound (I’m using one that’s sampled from a Steinway Model D). Especially the harmonics and overtones on the ‘most highly favoured lady’ phrase.

composition

Winter Wonderland piano arrangement

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Happy Christmas! This is a jazzy arrangement of ‘Winter Wonderland’ that I did last year for one of my piano students, Chloe, just as I was finishing up my teaching and preparing to embark on this year’s Post Tropical adventure. I’ve made it downloadable, so feel free to add it to your seasonal playlists…!

I’ve also revamped my website, so this is also an announcement of that. Feel free to ‘share’ and ‘bookmark’ and ‘like’ and ‘follow’ in the spirit of holiday cheer!!!

Much exclamation 🙂

Brilliant, composers, composition, forthcoming events, funny funny funny, Post Tropical, Technical

Last tour of the year

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imageI’m on a plane from Boston to Washington DC, where we play the first gig of this tour tomorrow. It’s a relatively short run, just two weeks, and in that time we’ll do eight shows: Washington DC, New York, Minneapolis, Chicago, Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, and Los Angeles.

I’m excited — our tour of Europe in October went really well — and also nervous. It’s cool to be going back to cities we played earlier in the year, this time to slightly larger venues. There’s a sense of growth and development that’s satisfying and gratifying. I’m looking forward to visiting Portland for the first time, too.

On the flight to Boston, Adrian and I watched the very funny ’22 Jump Street’ and then I watched some episodes of ‘Girls’, ‘Hello Ladies’, and ‘True Detective’. Cue much accent mimicking on my part in Boston airport…sorry guys!

On this flight, I started reading Amy Poehler’s ‘Yes Please’ (which is already funny and charming and wise) and listened to a wonderful recording of Shostakovich’s 2nd piano concerto, played by Elisabeth Leonskaja with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra (it’s on Spotify — check it out).

There are kids in this airport with ‘Class of 2020’ shirts on! On that note…here’s to a brilliant tour!

forthcoming events, Post Tropical

Books for tour

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image

Packing for our three-week tour, taking James Vincent McMorrow’s ‘Post Tropical’ show for its second jaunt around Europe. I’m excited to get back on the road again, back to our own shows, as opposed to all the festivals we did over the summer. Back to cities we visited earlier this year, and also heading to places we haven’t been to before (Milan, Barcelona, Madrid, Fribourg, Utrecht).

performance, teaching, composition & reviews