I mentioned my cousin, successful jazz pianist Martin Litton in a recent blog post. He’s been kind enough to share some of his reactions to my album Valentine Court (which you can listen to on the music page of this site.

Its interesting in terms of a critical analysis of my music, and later he later presents contrasting takes on what we are each trying to achieve with our music:

“I liked your piece Lyndall and the Debussyan intro to the Cello Song and the major-minor shift towards the end of Gudonya. This last, like So Steve has a perpetuum mobile effect, of which you seem fond. Sensawunda does what it says on the tin and Just Sitting could be your tribute to John Cage.

Beyond this I don’t feel qualified to comment because my aims appear the polar opposite of yours. You achieve a trance-like ambience through a harmonically static medium with motivic repetition, whereas I follow the jazz dictum “the sound of surprise,” where I try to challenge the listener within a swinging framework. My heroes are people like Earl Hines, teddy Wilson, Willie “The Lion” Smith etc whereas your points of reference are just names to me.”

Its interesting to note that two of the composers mentioned in the wikipedia entry for perpetuum mobile (defined as “pieces of music, or parts of pieces, characterised by a continuous steady stream of notes, usually at a rapid tempo”) are Beethoven and Schubert, two composers close to my heart, although I often to credit the minimalism of Steve Reich as having had an effect on my penchant for fast, repetitive rhythm.

I played a lovely little gig in Bristol last weekend which deserves a special mention for being the only time I can recall a classical music night in a pub.

Now many people might find this a bit strange (there being classical in a club) tho conversely Ive always found it strange that so many people who are really into music never listen to anything recorded before 1960, when some fantastic music was being written in the 1860s and even better stuff in the 100 years before that.

In fact, I absolutely adore the music of Thomas Tallis – possibly the first great English composer – who was hard at work producing sublime music (recently sampled by super-hot Electronia artist Jon Hopkins) way back in the 1560s.

Anyways, it was a lovely gig – in a pleasantly cosy bar, nestled between two massage parlours (offering me the ideal opportunity to continue the noble tradition of composers contracting syphilis!), so if you find yourself in that area, do check it out (and Id strongly recommend grabbing some food in The Canteen which is nearby.

Pls click on image left for an interview with the organisers of Club Parnassus, taken from Venue Magazine.

There may be something to this genetics lark, as I found out a while back that Im not the only pianist in the family.

My cousin, Martin Litton is a jazz pianist of some note having played regularly with Kenny Ball as well as with George Chisholm and Humphrey Lyttleton.

He’s also known as an expert in Stride Piano – a style of jazz that evolved partially from ragtime. I once saw Martin peform an interesting evening of music and talk around one of its key practitioners, Jelly Roll Morton. A very entertaining evening.

In an email to me earlier today, Martin described his route to success which was “to answer an advertisemant in the (now defunct) Melody Maker for a job in a London jazz band. I got this job in my last year at music college which put my face on the London classic jazz scene and then it was all word of mouth leading me from semi-pro to more professional and higher profile groups.”

He goes on to explain that the London Jazz club circuit no longer exists as he knew it, but notes that many young jazz musicians go straight from there college training into forming bands themselves.

I went on another hugely enjoyable retreat last weekend my fifth or sixth overall and my third visit Padmaloka – a mens retreat centre in Norfolk.

The retreats are run under the auspices of the the Triratna Buddhist Order (until recently it was called the FWBO – Friends of the Western Buddhist Order, but the name has changed to reflect the fact that the Order is now worldwide).

It was a great weekend of meditation, talks, discussions, workshops and pujas (devotional rituals).

One of the two friends I travelled down with is known to me primarily by his Buddhist name – Alokavira but under his original name – Timm Sonnenschein, he is an excellent professional photographer. His website has recently received a makeover so do check it out, and meanwhile, heres a couple of great shots he took over the weekend, of myself and Padmavajra in rapt attention at an inspiring talk by Paramatha on the noble subject of friendship.

Easily the best singer songwriter night in Birmingham – Bohemian Jukebox – is no more after tonight, at least for the time being.

Booker and promoter Ben Calvert is taking time out to concentrate on his own musical efforts and also to develop Bohemian Jukebox as a record label.

Its a shame, but I can very much understand where he’s coming from. Its an exciting time to be a musician, because we have the possibilty of taking our careers in our own hands, but its also tough, because there are so many people with the same thought and the job of becoming a self releasing musician actually involves one person doing theur best to do about 7 different jobs at the same time.

I recently quit Project X, partly for similar reasons.

Anyway, if you want to catch the last Bohemian Jukebox for now, I’m sure it’ll be a great gig – its tonight (Thursday Jan 14th) at the Hare & Hounds.

Best of luck to Ben for his future plans.
Xx

Free Solo Piano is a site well worth checking out for all piano music fans.

Webmaster Chuck Brown defines the style of piano it represents as containing “elements of pop, jazz and classical music to form a style also been termed “new age”. Artists such as Yanni, George Winston and Jim Brickman have helped define the genre and spread its popularity. Strong melodies, a tender touch and a soothing spirit are hallmarks of this music.”

I think that goes some way to definining my music as well, tho I feel whilst some of my music is very mellow, it has more passion, purpose and drama than the new age tag implies.

Anyway, well worth checking out and they are offering to tracks from my albun as a free download, so if you dont have my album yet, grab em and see what you think! (filed under B).

The Irresistable Force

I think of Mixmaster Morris as the John Peel of the digital age – he has an incredible, insatiable enthusiasm for new music and tho for me, Peel’s taste was, well, a bit on the noisy side, Morris leans very much to the chilled out and the ambient.

He has an extraordinary history as a musician himself as his Wikipedia page confirms in detail – producing many chill out compilations (amongst the first to do so) and remixing (his mix of Coldcuts “Autumn Leaves” regularly tops polls of best chill out tune, not to mention DJing all over the world.

And happily, he is a major social networker, so you can keep in regular touch with him on his facebook account where he posts about a lot of great music, and excitingly, for those that cant make it to his regular nights at London’s Big Chill Bar, he posts up a lot of free mixes on his soundcloud page.
Xx

I love the Shambala Festival – I’ve been several times and its a great mix of music, art and good vibes. It turns out that this year, a Tweet I sent from the festival is going to be used in a nice looking book reviewing the Summer’s Festivals and claiming to be the worlds first user generated book:

You can see some of the rest of the book here.

This weekend I had the great pleasure of my debut appearance at the Big Chill.

I’d heard a lot of good things about this festival from friends and had thought earlier in the year about buying a ticket before we decided we were too broke. So you can imagine how chuffed I was to get a call from Ambient Guru Mixmaster Morris inviting me to come along and play.

Its a terrific site with a great array of (mostly) chilled music and I found myself playing in a lovely tent called Vida La Vida in the Body and Soul area – the tent plays host to yoga classes and the like during the day with a Mixmaster Morris curated array of music in the evening and some handy energy giving cocktails on sale from the bar. I played an hour set to an appreciate crowd – smallish at first, but growing in numbers as the set went on. Got an encore too!

Other highlights of the visit (our first festival in Rusty the Campervan) included Orbital, Ludovico Einaudi (in collaboration with a drummer and laptop guy from Germany) and Rodriguez who’s seminal album “Cold Fact” I’ve gotten to know via Lyndall – a welcome return for an artist who had spent twenty years in the wilderness and the irrascible and incisive comedy of Dylan Moran.
Xx

Marc Reck‘s Live & Free events at the Adam and Eve (top of Bradford Street in Digbeth) have got to be amongst the best nights out going on in Birmingham at the moment. Great live music, nice people, a lovely little bar, free entry and a 4am license – whats not to like?

Last nights show featured a varied line up offering some of the best music being made in the city today, and 0 particularly for those following the on/off stage banter – a great little insight into some of its recent music history (see Baxxter, Starries, Egososo, Koala Grip etc).

Geordie Blake of Shanatova kicked things off with a debut solo set which he naturally found a bit of a learning curve, but his inexperience of solo gigs if anything only enhanced the performance as he let the audience in on his experience with frank honesty, rawness and humour – effortless and genuine showmanship.

Hopefully we’ll hear much more of Geordie solo as well playing with his tight and powerful band, since the stripped down versions of the songs showcase his excellent voice – a likeable and versatile instrument with the capability for raw power in the most passionate and intense sections and a strong, even falsetto to draw on in the quieter moments.

Next up, the front man of Recall 34 in his solo guise of Andre Aristotle offered a modern take on the traditional one man/one instrument solo performance accompanying himself with pre-produced tracks on some 80′s influenced electro pop.

I mostly missed Barnsey‘s street poetry due to chatting – its like that at the Adam on a Saturday tho – the room is long and thin so there’s potential to either get down the front and focus on the artists, or just hang out further back and chill.

Finally, Black Heart Generator rocked the joint in their inimitable fashion – some new songs added since I reviewed them at the Lamp Tavern a short while ago. They play fast and sometimes loose but for the most part very, very tight with Steve Kelly’s machine gun snare outburts punctuating and pounding additional energy into Greg Smith’s intricate and abrasive guitar and explosively articulate rants with Stu Mack rumbling away dangerously all the while on involved yet primal bass.