Sunday, January 19, 2003

Welcome to 2003! Life continues to fire forward. After the SMB Blackheath performance in the main hall (brilliantly stages and presented by Richard Heason), an electric atmosphere created, the reality of Arts in Britain hit. The halls are in crisis, reducing their staff from 12 to 4, payments are still pending, will Britain ever really cherish what the arts can bring in the way of making people value their lives, and by doing so themselves? Music and the arts in general transcend politics and the market place, music brings a world together unlike the business of the market economy and war! It's Ok for the UK to use money to fund the western worlds thirst for oil, it seems that it's not ok for this same pot to support the work of many people on the, for want of better words 'the home front'. Oh no, then it's the time to borrow further euphanisms...' belt tightening = the noose around the neck. Somehow perhaps that's what people in Iraq and the like also feel at the moment, many lives in different places being ruined because of the illogical/ double standards of the West. I'm not stupid enough to say that music is life and death but it can certainly touch and enrich people unlike any other force. Perhaps that's the problem, destructive force is fine (ecological & physical) creative and cultural force just isn't!

Talking to the amazing guitarist dep in the Martland Band (James Woodrow) we were discussing the differences in the UK (re- audience & arts) as apposed to Italy etc. He bluntly concluded that their isn't any culture left in the UK..... It's dead, forget it! Who's heard of dumbing down? There's nothing left to dumb.

Exciting times at the moment for the Delta Saxophone Quartet. Christian Forshaw has taken over on Soprano from Steve Cottrell, a new group vibe is under construction = lots of rehearsals! As mentioned in a previous Blog. the quartet is in Cambridge in January at Kettles Yard, plus a return trip is schedules for Austria on 15th February 2003, again in St. Poelten

Further dates are set for Friday 28th March @ Djanogly Hall, Nottingham featuring a two day educational programme plus performances of Louis Andriessen's 'Facing Death', Joe Duddell's 'Circle Square' Gavin Bryars' 'Alaric I ort II' and Graham Fitkin's 'Stub'. & St. Georges, Bristol, April 10th 2003 featuring a new project based on the 1970's creative rock group 'The Soft Machine'!

Under discussion for May 2003 is a return trip to Taiwan and a possible performance at the Hong Kong Academy of Arts.

After the fantastic response in November 2002 to the SMB performance in Italy, the dynamic Italian agency' Modena Music International' has taken on the task of seeking further performances for the band in Southern Europe. Balzano is interested for a performance later this year. London Saxophonic will also be represented by the same agency so hopefully further performances will soon be forthcoming.

The Steve Martland Band will challenge the establishment later this year by taking on the good residents of Henley. Thursday 10th July 2003 is a must see date for the diary. It's probably the only chance ever to mix Martland with champagne!

Talking of all things food, The 'Tate & Egg' Live, yes the Tate Modern and the investment 'Internet' bank Egg are presenting live events this year. Steve Martland is involved in the project 'Death & Resurrection' on Wednesday 16th April @ 19.30. The venues are St Paul's cathedral & The Tate Modern, Sir John Eliot Gardiner, The Montiverdi Choir and English Baroque soloists perform an all Bach programme in the Cathedral on the easter theme of death and resurrection and then (wait for it!!), lead the audience across the Millennium Bridge (wobbles and all) to Tate modern where Colin Currie (marimba Steve Martland band & brilliant soloist), & new arrangements of Steve Martland's 'Street Songs' set to specially commissioned films from the Brothers Quay continue on this religious theme. What a build up to the delights of the easter 'Egg'

Other Martland Performances are by The Goldberg Ensemble with support from the SPNM in Wolverhampton on 13th February 2003, St. John's in the Square, 2pm workshop plus 18.30 pre- concert talk. The concert @19.30 starts with Martland's arrangement of 'Toccata and Fugue BWV 565. The programme is repeated in Manchester on 21st February plus a further workshop at Leeds College of Music on 19th February @ 12 noon.

There is talk of a performance of Martland's 'Hard Times' (written for the Australian Chamber Orch. & Bang On a Can All Stars, performed at the 2000 Sydney Olympics) later in the year in Holland. Watch this space. & by De Volharding a tour of Martland's brilliant 'Danceworks'.

The Whyman Trio CD 'Pulse' is at last ...out there! The reviews have been amazing,try these links The Scotsman and the Guardian seemed to hit many nails on the head...


Friday January 10, 2003
The Guardian

In TV shows like Popstars and Fame Academy, and in much DJ culture for that
matter, keyboard players and sound engineers work below stairs, like the
servants in an Edwardian country house. And contemporary theatres - always
eager to promote the value of "live" performance - often shut musicians away in
a sealed box backstage. In Sheffield Crucible's production of Sweet Charity,
for example, where Cy Coleman's music is critical to the success of the show,
the band is barely visible behind a neon-decorated cage.
Rowland Sutherland and Peter Whyman, who both have new albums out, are examples
of good, frequently "invisible" musicians: the former a gifted flute player;
the latter a clarinettist/saxophonist. They are versatile, professional
players, who also work in contemporary classical music. Whyman is a member of
the Steve Martland Band; Sutherland plays with New Music Players. You can hear
them in world music - Sutherland in Shiva Nova and Whyman in Mbawula - and in
jazz - Whyman in various Westbrook bands and Sutherland in the influential Jazz
Warriors.

Each musician has a substantial body of creative work behind him, but it is
work carried out, semi-anonymously, for a variety of "clients", spread across
different contexts. So a solo album is a chance to establish a signature. Yet
Coast to Coast (FMR, £14.99) by Rowland Sutherland's Mistura is not obviously
personal - the band is an entertaining Latin-Brazilian outfit, heavy in the
trombone and percussion departments. It's a dream setting for a flute player,
and Sutherland shines throughout. Jazz is sometimes criticised for a virtuosity
that obscures its content, but there are times when the virtuosity is the
content. Listeners can bask pleasurably in the sound, much as they might enjoy
the digres sions of a stand-up comedian. Coast to Coast is a self-produced
affair, with dull spots, but not bad within the scope of its genre. An outside
producer would have made it shorter and sharper, with more flute.

Pulse (FMR, £13.99), by the Pete Whyman Trio, immediately creates a soundworld
more personal and innovative than that of Mistura. With drummer Peter
Fairclough and Huw Warren (piano and accordian), Whyman has been developing
this unusual line-up for many years. The album is packed with excellent
compositions: Fairclough's clever Salmon Pastures; Warren's exhilarating
Scowling Like Beethoven; Whyman's title track and Clarinet, a solo feature
that's agreeably virtuosic, highly emotional and packed with "content".

Like Coast to Coast, Pulse is part of FMR's Jazznow series, but the band is
hardly a conventional trio. There is extensive use of unusual timbres from
Warren's prepared piano and accordian; there's no bass (echoes of Benny
Goodman's quartet); everybody doubles on percussion. Their spiritual siblings
may be Orquestra Mahatma or Human Chain, but they also have the folk-dance
quirkiness you get in the great Slovenian band Bratko Bibic and The Madleys,
whose album In The Family Garden is highly recommended (though difficult to
track down). If Pete Whyman gave his trio a more World Music-friendly name,
they'd be perfectly at home in one of the smaller tents at Womad.



John Walters


Quintessence and the extended version Ensemble Q prepare to present another World Premiere @ Blackheath Halls on the 2nd March 2003. The work is by Tansy Davies and will be for Wind quintet plus bass clarinet and percussion. The performance will be repeated on 9th March @ Siddlesham nr. Chichester. Later in the year a further work by the Manchester composer Ian Vine will be premiered. Also under discussion is their next CD 'Disc 2' which will be a compilation of their commissions from 1999 until 2003, hopefully being released again on the FMR label.

This Blogger has been sent from a rainy Edinburgh, hence its length. Hope you made it to the end and be back with more news soon. Best wishes Chris C.




posted by Chris at 12:25 PM