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Strathclyde University Big Band featuring Mike Walker

The Cinnamon Club Lounge, Bowdon, Friday 13th March 2009

I was a little on the late side making it down to the The Cinnamon Club to be met by a packed house for the Strathclyde University Big Band featuring guest star Mike Walker. Very glad I did too, as it was a fab night with a great buzz.


The second set kicked off with a personal fave, the perennial classic 'Maiden Voyage'. I thought the horn arrangements on this one slightly odd, but it featured a kicking solo from the ever reliable Mr Walker, and got the set off to a driving start. The funky 'Chameleon' was delivered with panache, the dual guitar attack of guitarist Nigel Chadwick and Mike Walker giving the tune a swaggering kick. Nigel treated us to a tasty overdriven solo that Mike picked up and rounded off with gusto. 'Work song' was another hard swinging treat, the rich and punchy horn lines hitting the spot nicely. The dusky tones of vocalist Stephanie Lawrence were a great addition to some vocal led tracks that went down especially well with the club lounge audience I felt.

After the big band set, Nige Chadwick invited us local jazzers to an after hours jam, so I joined in along with Jamie Saffers, Frank Le Bass, Bennet Longman and a few of the horn players fom the big band. It was a tad rough at the edges, a beer or two having dimmed the brain cells somewhat, but I think we knocked out a half decent version of 'All The Things You Are'. All in all it was a great night and I'm sure owner Neil Hughes will have been well chuffed with how it went.

Cor Baby That's Really Free

Having promised I would many times, I finally made it down to Anton's free improvisation soirée at Fuel Cafe in Withington last night, The Noise Upstairs - "An evening of uncomposed sounds... combining our backgrounds of jazz, contemporary classical and electro-acoustic music". Good fun it was too with the democratic principle of drawing three names out of a hat to form each improv trio being adhered to.

It was interesting to hear the different 'free' styles. The first trio consisting of a drummer and two saxes was clearly reminscent of classic 1960's free jazz, reminding me a little of the Art Ensemble of Chicago. It was especially effective when the two sax players came together for a long unison note and then drifted microtonally apart giving a bitter tasting atonal whining clash.

The second trio was a cello, violin and a mic'd muted trumpet through a series of multifarious effects units. I'm not at all familiar with classical free improv (any good suggestions?) but this trio again reminded me of stuff I've heard and seen in TV documentaries on people like Stockhausen. Anton joined in for the final ensemble of the evening on mandolin (ok it was a quartet to give everyone a bash). With the addition of violin, french horn (I think!) and electric guitar, much staccato stabs and scratching of bows on the back of violins made for a wholesome aural brew.


I joined in myself (see pic above) for one trio session and had scratch about on a few guitar strings running through buckets of delay and wah wah to create a back wash for my trombone and violin ensemble partners. This went into a heavily delayed Terry Riley'ish arpeggio thing that seemed to go down well with a few folk. Nice evening and highly recommended.

Maiden Voyage (Slight Return)

After faffing about and making excuses of one sort or another I finally dragged myself down to the Matt and Phreds monthly jazz jam run by sax player Ed Kainyek last Monday. My first experience of this was a good year ago now and hadn't gone too well but that's the way it goes with jams I guess.

This Monday went pretty well I'm pleased to say. First up was a slightly funky version of 'Maiden Voyage' that I think was great. I'm historically a trained funkster having been part of the London 'Acid Jazz' scene when I had the luxury of being a full time musician. Not surprisingly then, this sort of vibe sits nicely under my fingers and I can generally pull it off pretty well. After this track Gavin Barras joined us on bass. We agreed it was nice to finally get to get to play together after having met a little while ago. He seemed into the Maiden Voyage vibe which was good to hear. We then had a crack at 'My Favourite Things'. We did the straight form version without the Coltrane E-7 to F#-7 long modal vamp so it was medium concentration all the way. It's quite a long form without many harmonic signposts so fairly easy to get lost in, but it more or less hung together. By no means my most inspired improv but no disgrace either.

It was great to catch up with pianist Sam Smith of Mrs Columbo, recently returned to Manchester after a years sojourn at the Birmingham Conservatoire. He was a great player before he went and continues to get even better. We had a good chat about various inspirational books on music. It was the first time I've come across house band drummer Ben Gray who seemed a pleasant chap. On the last track of the second set (can't remember it's name) I got up with Jo McCallum and local stalwart, drummer Rob Turner. It was another groove track that I hadn't played before with a few key shifts but looked manageable. It ended up being a long version so I passed on the improv (or I had my head down at the wrong time or something).

All in all a pretty good evening and I'm looking forward to getting out again. Next stop I think will be Ed's weekly jam at The King's Arms in Salford if it's still going.

Jamming the Whalley

The jam scene in Manchester continues it's ebb and flow with the appearance of a new one at The Carlton Club in Whalley Range on the last Tuesday of every month. I've not checked this one out myself yet but I'm aiming to as soon as possible. It's free for performers and £2 for listeners, boozers, scenesters etc. The Carlton Club is described as "a big comfortable Victorian mansion. It's a bit worn around the edges but has a cozy feel, two giant snooker tables and offers cheap drinks". Sounds really quite charming to me. I heard about this new jam from a recent NWJazzworks newsletter and initially assumed it was something to do with the Extraordinary Rendition Jazz nights, but they're every other Thursday so it doesn't look like they are. I'm not sure who's behind them.

I've also been meaning to get down to the Hedge folk nights also at the Carlton Club that Jon Thorne mentioned to me after one of his gigs. I notice he's playing there in his folk guise - looks promising. The Hedge nights have been off for the summer I think, but are back from October the 15th. I have to confess that I used to be a bit anti folk but I'm mellowing out these days as most folk do. I've spoken to a few people who've been to the Hedge night and have given really good reports. I believe also that it can sell out so it's probably worth getting down early or at least checking with them on that one.

Blue in Little Green

Well the jam scene in Manchester seems to be recovering from the dire situation earlier this year. All That Jazz on a tuesday seems to be going from strength to strength. I went down last night and was again enraptured by the gorgeous soulful vibes and general cool karma of the ace Judy Green from the fanatastic band Little Green. I jammed down there with her a few months ago and it was fab to get to play with her again last night. Special.

Their website, http://www.littlegreenmusic.com/ gives you a good feel for where she's at - quite mysterious and mystical:

sPriNg is sPruNg
the GrasS is RiZ,
I woNdeR wHeRe
the BiRdiz iz ?

Some of the singing and talking between the jams was pretty much stream of consciousness. They've got a myspace area with a few download tracks - http://www.myspace.com/tactac. The track 'Cupid' is particularly good. I managed to chat to her last night and was treated to more mystical enchantment which follows through to one to one conversations. Such quality on the doorstep.

Inspiring.

Bring the beat back

Following my last blog on the lack of jams in Manchester, 'Kick out the jams', I've checked out what appears to be one of the only remaining ones at the excellent Matt and Phred's jazz venue in central Manchester. It's only monthly which is a shame.

It is pretty much straight ahead jazz and I found it quite tough actually. We did a funky blues track as the first tune that I played on and I played pretty well on that one I think. I put in some nice altered sounds using pentatonics placed around the keys (as opposed to just the blues scale pentatonic) which worked really well. See the 'Pentatonic lines- navigating outside tonal harmony' blog entry in the fanatastic Casa Valdez blog by David Valdez for more information on this approach. The next track was a tune called 'Yesterdays' from the Real Book. My repertoire is still quite poor and I had to read it from the sheet. That was more or less OK but I didn't then have the confidence to improv on it. We also did One Note Samba and things seemed to go a bit wrong in that as well. I really need to work on these tracks but also learn how to cope better in these sorts of situations. I'm fine on fusiony tracks and can really burn on them but some of these latin tracks stump me. All in all it felt like a 'mixed' performance shall I say and there's plenty of work to do.

Kick out the jams

Well this seems to be what's happening in Manchester these days. Not so much kicking MC5 style, but literally kicking our jams out of town. I've been checking out the jam scene in Manchester for about 18 months now and it's health has been variable. I'd say we're going through a lean time right now.

The first jam I checked out when I moved back to Manchester from London (another story) was 'All that Jazz' at The Arch Bar run by a local DJ Lee Speed on a Tuesday night. It was pretty good back then but I'd have to say it's lost it's way recently. It did completely stop for a few weeks but has started again with the venue being under new management. Let's hope it's goes from strength to strength. Another good one back then was at the Po Na Na Souk bar also on a Tuesday run by a local guitar player called Daiwa (not sure how his name is spelt). This attracted more singers probably due to having a better PA system. Sadly that has now gone. Lee started up a really good one in January this year back at Po Na Na on a Thursday but this only lasted for 3 weeks despite good attendance. This was a real shame as the standard was really execellent. It seems that the venues are not keen to pay the extra for a PA and house band. A DJ is cheaper and easier sadly. Then there was the jam at the Iguana Bar in Chorlton that only lasted about a month. Tough times for us players.