The Lamp Tavern
Barford Street
Birmingham B5 6AH
England
7:30pm
Bruce Coates (saxophones), Han-earl Park (guitar) and Walt Shaw (percussion) presented by Fizzle. Also performing: Liam Noble (piano), Mark Lewandowski (double bass) and Jim Bashford (drums) and Andrew Woodhead (piano). Admission: £5.
[Details…] [Fizzle listings…]
Just back from Birmingham after playing with Dominic Lash, Mark Sanders, and Caroline Pugh—a.k.a. Sirene 1009. I’ve been laying some groundwork for the Arts Council funded project to be premiered in Cork (more on that in the coming weeks), but we also spent a few hours recording some material which, in addition to tracks recorded during the London performance in December, will be part of our upcoming album.
Thanks, of course, to Dom, Mark and Caroline, but also a big thanks to Luke Morrish-Thomas (of Flood Studio) for recording the ensemble, and to Bruce Coates for the photographic documentation.
Excited? Absolutely. And if you’d like to know more; hear, see or download some exclusive outtakes, intakes and sidetakes; and be first-in-line when album comes out, please signup to my newsletter:
In addition, to raise funds for completing the album, I’ll shortly be offering my (near) complete discography at a special price. These will be limited in number, so signup, and be the first to be notified!
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This newsletter is announcement only: subscribers cannot use it for discussion, and traffic should be minimal. I will not reveal your contact details to other subscribers, nor pass them to another party. I will not use the newsletter to cross-promote anything that is not related to my music activities. You may unsubscribe at any time.
Nothing directly to do with me, but… one of the most fun and adventurous gigs anywhere in the world, LUMEneeds our support! LUME is programming a festival of jazz and improvised music in London, and are in need of additional funding to cover artist fees and travel expenses:
This Summer, we’re rounding off our 2015/16 season of gigs with the first ever LUME Festival. On Sunday 26th June we’re taking over IKLECTIK ARTLAB near Waterloo for a one-day celebration of all things LUME: original and improvised music from the UK and beyond, friendly vibes and good times….
Our core programme of LUME gigs this year is supported by Arts Council England, and there will be part of this funding left for the festival. There’s enough to put on about three bands and have a nice evening. But after all the amazing music we’ve listened to, that’s not quite enough for us. We want to do more—and this is where you come in. With your help, we can put on everyone in the list above and pack the day full of music. We’ve also invited Gina Southgate to come and capture the day on canvas, and Alex Fiennes to record the performances! [Read the rest…]
In addition to being an incomparably energetic space for new jazz and improvised music, LUME has previously supported my work, not least by hosting the first London performance by the trio with Dominic Lash and Mark Sanders (an ensemble that would eventually morph into Sirene 1009). For those who value music work on the ‘ground level’ of a scene, this is definitely one to back!
I’ve been busy with Sirene 1009—the stupendous ensemble featuring the indomitable low-end growl of Dominic Lash, the unstoppable hits and clangs of Mark Sanders, and the controlled vocal mayhem of Caroline Pugh. I’m working towards tours and performances by this ensemble, and working on a recording to be release later this year. We’ve got recordings of the London gig in December, and, in a couple of months, we’re going into the studio in Birmingham make some more music.
In addition to learning about what we’re doing as it happens, by signing up to the newsletter, you’ll get the opportunity to hear, see or download some exclusive content (outtakes? intakes? sidetakes?) and sneak previews, and you’ll be first-in-line when album comes out!
I’m super excited about this project, and, with the caliber of creative musicians involved, you should be too!
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This newsletter is announcement only: subscribers cannot use it for discussion, and traffic should be minimal. I will not reveal your contact details to other subscribers, nor pass them to another party. I will not use the newsletter to cross-promote anything that is not related to my music activities. You may unsubscribe at any time.
Update: download no longer available (“Limited availability… until March 31, 2016”). For those who got it, big thanks for your support; wishing you good listening!
Hey! I’ll be performing again with Dom, Mark and Caroline—an exemplary group of crafty, noisy, creative musicians. We just came back from a short tour of England, and I am thrilled to be able to bring this ensemble to Cork. (The tour was presented with funding from Culture Ireland, and support from SLAM Productions.)
Screeching and scraping in an improv style, this quartet assailed the ears with a pleasing melee of noise, some of it vaguely intelligible. Caroline Pugh jabbered away in what sounded like snatches of Greek, while the guitarist Han-earl Park did impossibly intricate yet percussive stuff on his guitar fret. Mad but entertaining. It was in the backroom of a gloomy back-street boozer. When I tentatively asked the elderly landlord “Where’s the jazz tonight?”, he said “I wouldn’t call it jazz. More like a fookin’ racket.” He was right! [Read the rest…]
Five performance this final month of 2015! A great privilege to have shared the stage with so many awesomely creative, smart and generous people. Let’s get to the hat-tips…
Okay, start with a thanks to my co-conspirators, Dominic Lash, Mark Sanders and Caroline Pugh, who consistently created fascinating, difficult, infuriating, confounding and beautiful spaces for interaction. Listening to the music play out in real-time, all I could think was that it sounds great whenever the guitarist shuts-up. (As Josh Sinton pointed out later, that’s really a wonderful position to be in; not knowing how to contribute to—to add to—an already perfect ensemble at play.)
Thanks to Ingrid Laubrock for the play—it was great to come-off a… logistically challenging set of gigs into a relaxed performance where, well, anything might happen… and we ended up in some interesting and unexpected places. (Felt very good about this one.)
To Josh Sinton and Nick Didkovsky, well… That. Was. A. Blast. …Thanks, Josh, Nick, for the Loud Jazz (best possible sense!).
Big thanks to all the venues and promoters, DIYers and supporters: to the indefatigable Andrew Woodhead at Fizzle; to Seth Cooke and everyone at Bang the Bore for an awesome event; to Fielding Hope, Oli Barrett and everyone at Cafe OTO for their support, and for their patience with all the ups’n’downs; to Josh and everyone at 65Fen Music Series; and to Cisco Bradley for inviting me to perform at New Revolution Arts (a beautiful space—socially, musically).
Thanks to Tom Durham the gentleman who lent me his amplifier in Birmingham (sorry, can’t remember your name!), and to Andrew Drury and Chris Welcome who did the same in Brooklyn—y’all made my travels so much more pleasant!
The tour by my ensemble with Dom, Mark and Caroline was made possible with funding from Culture Ireland, and I am extremely grateful for their support.
Thanks to Dom Lash and Kate Hendry, and to Josh Sinton and family, for offering a place for this itinerant musician to crash a night (or three). Kudos to Nasc Ireland for helping me navigate some border… technicalities 😉
And a very special thanks to the Best Sound Engineer in the Known Universe, Alex Fiennes, for taking time to make the music sound great in London.
Finally, as always, thanks, thanks, thanks, everyone, for listening.
As I said previously, we never got to do a launch gig for Anomic Aphasia, so, despite Catherine Sikora’s absence (next time, Catherine!), I’m thinking of this as an unofficial record launch event. Come down to hear some noise!
