Jazz Workshop with the Bobby Avey Project incl. Ben Monder, Miguel Zenón, Jordan Perlson and Michael Janisch

Leeds College of Music, Leeds. Wednesday 10th December 2014

I attended an excellent workshop at Leeds College of Music yesterday led by pianist Bobby Avey with contributions from all of the band playing as part of his latest 'Authority Melts From Me' project including Ben Monder on guitar, Miguel Zenón on alto saxophone, Jordan Perlson on drums and joining them for the UK tour, Michael Janisch on double bass.

The workshop kicked off with the band playing the opening section of the 'Authority Melts From Me' suite. Avey then explained the background to the project, it being a suite for quintet inspired by the Haitian people who've persevered through a tragic history of colonialism, slavery, and foreign occupation. The suite focuses particularly on Haiti's slave revolt. You can find more on the general background outlined on his website. 

Avey then gave us an example of how Haitian Vodou drumming formed the basis of the rhythms of the suite. He played a short recording of some multi-layered rhythms he'd recorded at a Vodou Ceremony in the small village of Soukri (You can download these recordings). He explained how he transcribed the recordings to break the rhythm down, then giving some of these rhythmic parts to the piano, guitar and drums. He said that although it would be possible to accurately transcribe the time of the rhythms using complex subdivisions such as septuplets, the written parts would look a bit crazy and would be very difficult to play. To convey the essence of what he wanted, it made much more sense to pass the audio files to the players and get them to understand the vibe and learn them by ear.

Someone asked about harmony of the music. Avey noted that although standard western notation and chord descriptions are used to convey the information to the players, the music is coming from places outside of western functional harmony. An example given (if I'm recalling correctly) was a chord containing the notes F, F#, G and A. Avey noted that it's a valid and real sound, but describing it in terms of root notes, b9s, natural 9s etc. doesn't really make sense. It would have been great to have heard more on the harmony but this discussion came at the end of the first part of the workshop which rounded off with a take on 'On Green Dolphin Street'.

Following this, four of the LCM students bravely performed a version of On Green Dolphin Street after which the band gave some feedback. There was some really useful stuff here and it was interesting to hear pro musicians from other countries discussing  ways to learn and get better at jazz. It was reassuring that all of this resonated with what I've been taught, mainly by guitarist Mike Walker, but also tutors such as Les Chisnall and Iain Dixon.

Janisch emphasised the importance of practising switching between the two and walking four feel to the bassist and drummer . He got the players to play several choruses switching at the top of form from one to the other. It was noticeable how much focussing in like this improved the time and feel. I think it was Janisch that also stressed the importance of recording yourself playing and improvising as much as possible. Listening back to your own playing really highlights where your own weaknesses are and what needs addressing. For him, the listening back and learning process is almost half of his practice time. 

Avey noted that some of the improv was a bit meandering and ideas were not being developed. He suggested it can be a great idea to write a plan down for solos over a number of choruses to make sure there's some strategy and conscious development. Then see if you can play it. The plan could include all kinds of different ideas. It could be using a specific comping idea for each improviser, focussing on a scale pattern, specifically using repetition, playing quieter, louder, slower, faster and so on. Avey also emphasised the importance of transcribing solos to build your vocabulary and listening to different versions of tunes to build up reference points. He compared just using the Real Book to only reading the spark notes for Macbeth. Clearly you need to read/hear the originals to get deeply into the pieces, as only so much can be noted down on paper.  

Zenón noted that some of the players were struggling a little with technical obstacles. He stressed the importance of really working on and nailing the fundamentals, relating to the feeling players have when struggling to express themselves. There's no greater wisdom here than making sure you put in the hours of practice and don't try to be too advanced too early. 

Monder said he didn't feel the students were stating the harmony as clearly as they could in their improvisation. He mentioned that it's really important to be able to comfortably play all the chord tones of the sequence of a piece. On the guitar it's important to be able to do this in position in all the positions on the fretboard, though you may find you have to jump around the neck initially to get this down. He suggested the improvisers try playing two or three choruses based on chord tones before bringing in tension notes and other approaches.

We stuck around for the concert in the evening which was phenomenal. It's challenging stuff for sure, but really engaging if you focus in on it. Avey's approach to harmony is really intriguing and something I want to find out more about. All the playing was great, but I particularly enjoyed the gorgeous fluidity of drummer Jordan Perlson who was a delight to listen to.

The Sound of Silence

Alice Zawadzki + Silence Blossoms, Freedom Principle at the Sand Bar, Manchester. Tuesday 20th November 2012

A milk frother is not generally known for its rhythmic properties. Nor have walkie-talkies established themselves as a means to simultaneously bow and amplify a double bass as far as I'm aware. Nevertheless, these were just two of the many innovative approaches to sound generation brought forth by Sweden and Macclesfield's 'Silence Blossoms'. Comprising Gus Loxbo on double bass, guitar, voice, frother and walkie-talkies; Hanna Olivegren on voice and synthesiser, and a repatriated (at least for now) Sam Andreae on tenor sax, voice and electronics, this curious trio take poetry as the basis of most of their pieces. The words are under-layered with various blends of folksy harmony, lo-fi white noise, environment textures and a little free jazz abstraction.

Silence Blossoms (photo by Angela Guyton)

There's a danger of novelty leading to boredom with this kind of approach, but Silence Blossoms steered well clear of this territory, delivering a more or less perfect blend of sweet harmony and art noise. The stuttering echoes and earthy folk tones of first track 'Lady White' led into 'Not Waving But Drowning', probably the most conventional piece of the set. There was some lovely soulful playing from Andreae on sax here, accompanied by Loxbo's warm rounded double bass and Olivegren's deep sparse vocal. Some wonderfully vulnerable vocal harmonies from Olivegren and Andreae on final track 'King of Everything' rounded things off perfectly. This really worked.

Silence Blossoms rehearsing (photo by Angela Guyton)

Now based in London but no stranger to Manchester's music scene, Alice Zawadzki once again delivered an engaging set in the city last night, this time in trio formation with Stuart McCallum on guitar and Rosie Toll on Cello. Zawadzki rarely fails to impress, not only with her extensive range of vocal styles and strong technique, but also the way she manages to convey an authenticity and intimacy through the styles that make her performances consistently captivating. Whether it's a sephardic song, a portuguese tune, a rootsy blues number or some folk whimsy, she puts everything over convincingly and with real passion.

Alice Zawadzki with Stuart McCallum and Rosie Toll

A highlight was the self-penned 'Ring of Fire'. The track begins with a really strong tune sung by Zawadzki that opens out to an instrumental section allowing McCallum's modulated echo reverbs plenty of sonic space to breath, all backed by Toll's strong and unfussy cello parts. It's not all that often I can hear the harmonic subtleties of McCallum's expansive layering, so many thanks to Zawadzki's relatively sparse line-up choice, the sound man and an attentive Sand Bar.  Another very memorable gig. Hat's off to Freedom-Principle @ Sandbar.

Zawadzki is playing again at the Manchester Jazz Festival Re-Live MJF 2012 this Friday at Matt and Phreds. Take your opportunites when you can.

Follow Your Spine

Sheryl Bailey jazz guitar workshop sessions, North Wales International Jazz Guitar Weekend, Wrexham. Friday 19th to Sunday 21st October 2012

I'm just back from a really excellent weekend workshop co-tutored by New York based jazz guitarist Sheryl Bailey as part of the North Wales Jazz Guitar Weekend held at the Glyndwr University in Wrexham. Sheryl teaches at Berklee amongst many other places, and it was clear from the off that (not surprisingly) she really knows her stuff both about jazz theory and jazz history. I picked up some really useful things that I'll try to explain here. I should probably give a muso warning at this point that the post does get quite technical and assumes some knowledge of jazz theory and harmony.

First off I was really pleased to find that I'm not the only one puzzled why so many jazz guitarists roll their tone right back, in some cases completely off. Sheryl said many students at Berklee do this, but she doesn't think it sounds at all good and mutes all the higher end harmonics that give richness to guitar tone. I wholeheartedly agree! She also suggested that because the subtlety of tone is removed, mistakes are more easily covered up, so it's not a good way to go technique wise either.

Bop Improvising

The Saturday session was about approaches to bop playing. Sheryl emphasised that she isn't thinking about scales at all for this style of playing. It's all about knowing and being able to follow the chord changes or the "spine of the tune" as she referred to it many times. Improvised lines are based on using the arpeggio chord tones along with diatonic and chromatic approach notes. She outlined a good step-by-step way to get into this, which is first to play through the changes using voice led arpeggio notes, next bringing in approach notes to the arpeggio notes.  Voice leading here simply means playing the nearest note of the next arpeggio when the chords change rather than going back to the root note each time.

This principles were explained in application to a Bb blues. I wish I'd taken a photo of the board here, but as I didn't I've typed it out. The formatting was fiddly on the blog, so I ended up taking the photo below.  She said that when she sees a dominant chord she will think of its II minor chord as well as the dominant chord itself, and will use the arpeggio notes for both as the basis for the improvised lines. These would be the F-7 and Bb7 arpeggios over the first Bb7 chord of a blues. She also mentioned that it's good to set up the Eb7 IV chord in bar 5 with an altered sound over the previous bar 4, the same idea being used on the G7 in bar 8. There's also the possibility of using the arpeggios of the sub V chord and its associated II chord in all cases, such as shown in bars 6, 9 (not labelled), 10 and 12 (also not labelled). In the first instance, it's important for the chord tones to be played on the downbeat to give strength to the sound of the chord and the changes, but when you start to have a good handle on what you're doing, you can relax and play around with this to a certain extent.

Click photo to enlarge

Sheryl then outlined some next steps to add boppy melodic embellishments:

1) Add the chromatic note below each chord tone
2) Add the diatonic note above the chord tone
3) Combine (1) and (3)
4) 3 note chromaticism: 1 chromatic below and 2 above
5) 3 note chromaticism: 2 chromatic below and 1 above
6) 4 note chromaticism: 2 chromatic below and 2 above
7) 4 note chromaticism: 2 chromatic above and 2 below

By doing this you're not only adding more colour to a standard blues scale approach, but you're outlining the changes very clearly and sounding much more authentically boppy. Improvising in this manner can be done more or less unaccompanied when done effectively, the changes being clearly outlined. She mentioned that this approach was heavily used by people like John Coltrane and Sonny Stitt.

Additional to the II and V7 arpeggios, the VII and IV arpeggios can also be used. On the Bb7 for example, these would be D-7b5 and AbMaj7. This gives what she called the "family of four" substitution possibilities.

A further possible step is to bring in some melodic minor harmony, using for example FmMaj7, Bb7#11 and AbMaj7#5 arpeggios on the Bb7 chord of the blues progression. Another fairly out idea used by Pat Martino is to play the whole blues sequence a tritone above. She mentioned you may be pushing your luck to do this for more than a chorus though :).

We also got into the idea of playing dotted quarter notes over a 4:4 rhythm to give anticipation to chord movement. Sheryl mentioned that Berklee tutor Ben Wilmott teaches this stuff, his 'Time for the Future: Polyrythm in Harmony' book being a good reference for further study.

Drop Voicings

On Sunday we covered 'drop 2' and 'drop 3' voicings, much used by players like Wes Montgomery. A good exemplar of the use of drop 2 voicings is Wes Montgomery's 'Cariba' where the opening is played on a drop 2 F-7 and its inversions.

Drop voicings are where you drop the 2nd or 3rd note (voice) from the top of a voicing down one octave.  The left part of the photo below shows an example using a G minor chord and its inversions. You can (hopefully) see the first chord on the left is a standard R 3 5 7 voicing. Next to it is the drop 2 voicing where the second voice down from the top, i.e. the D note is dropped an octave down to the bottom of the voicing.

Click photo to enlarge

The high, middle and low string tab chord shapes are given below the voicings on the photo along with all the three inversions.  These should be learnt for maj 7, minor 7, dominant 7 and minor 7b5 chords at first, then extending the principle to chords with added tensions later. This should be practiced on all three string groups.

She then explained how these voicings can be used to harmonise a melody line or solo (if you've got the chops ;) on the top string, with diminished chords being used to fill in any passing notes of the line. This isn't easy to do live in the moment of improvising, Sheryl reminding us how Wes was a monster player to be able to do this so well. This took us into a little work on melody notes over diminished chords whilst moving them up the fretboard in minor thirds (on the right of the photo).

Someone asked a question about tasty final chords for tunes, which got us into the idea of using the open strings of the guitar for tension notes to get some striking and strong sounds. Wayne Shorter's 'JuJu' is in a useful key for voicings using open strings, as well as being a good tune for practising whole tone scales.

Pluralities

The final part of the workshop covered what Sheryl referred to as 'Pluralities'. This is the idea that you have families of 'like chords' varied by the use of different notes in the bass. For example if you take a standard Cmaj7 chord and place an A in the bass you get an Amin7 add 9 chord. If you take the same Cmaj7 chord and add a D in the bass you get a D7sus9 13 chord. To get into the sounds of modes such as melodic minor, the same principle can be applied to Cmaj7b5 and Cmaj7#5 chords, a notable example being when an F bass note is added to a Cmaj7#5 chord to give the strange sounding F diminished major 7 chord (dimMaj7).  This sound is coming from the harmonic major scale and its modes.  I was interested to hear Sheryl say that the dimMaj7 chord is very popular with contemporary players in New York such as Kurt Rosenwinkel, Ben Monder and Adam Rogers. These players will typically use the dimMaj7 chord as a default I chord in both major and minor tonalities, it having an ambiguity that allows for its use in both situations.

So that was about it for Sheryl's sessions. Course leader Trefor Owen covered many useful pragmatic tips for the working jazz guitarist in his sessions, including things like bass line comping and Maj7 arpeggio lines for getting through the fast changes on tunes like 'Cherokee'. It was also great to hear Sheryl in concert on the Saturday evening. The jams as ever, were very useful, giving us the chance to play with the legendary Bill Coleman on bass along with Andy on drums.

A big thanks from me to Trefor, Maureen, Joe and everybody else involved in organising the weekend. They've been running for an amazing 12 years now. This one was the 18th weekend so far. Jack Wilkins is the plan for the next weekend, so all being well I'll pop along to that too. For now, there's plenty been added to the practice list.

Heading South West South North in Vienna

Simcock Walker Swallow Nussbaum, Porgy and Bess Jazz Club, Vienna, Austria. Sunday June 6th 2010

Last month I was lucky enough to catch the 'Simcock Walker Swallow Nussbaum' group in Vienna at the Porgy and Bess Jazz and Music Club (seemingly implying jazz isn't music?) . Once out of the Vienna sunshine and down deep in the basement of the club two floors underground, it seemed surprisingly unstrange to be bumping into a few familiar faces.

The set opened with guitarist Mike Walker's warm and welcoming 'Clockmaker', further enhancing the homely feel. The legendary Steve Swallow on electric bass went straight in for a solo, feet apart to anchor himself to the ground while leaning forward, his fingers wrapping the fretboard where the neck joins the body to project flowing and melodic lines.

Pianist Gwilym Simcock is rapidly gaining an enviable reputation, and on the basis of tonight's performance, it's not hard to see why. His tune, 'You Won't Be Around To See It' grooved with a satisfying angularity that really dug in when both Walker and Simcock laid some punchy and aggressive lines over the top.

The band delivered the incendiary bop of Walker's 'Laughlines' at hyper-real speed, leaving the audience almost literally gasping for breath. The precision, pace and power of the complex tune head and the improvisations from Walker and Simcock had to be heard to be believed on this one, with all members playing out of their skins.

It was over to bluesy street for a fine take on 'Hey Pretty Baby' written by drummer Adam Nussbaum, a tune based on a simple blues riff in homage to legends such as Howlin' Wolf. Walker overlaid the sound with some fade-in textures before biting in hard with piercing overdriven string bends and feedback sustained harmonic headslices. Walker has a masterful ability to coax the guitar and amplifier to find the feedback sweetspot seemingly with ease. Simcock responded with a side-swiping almost Bach-like figure before taking the harmony down a delightfully airy dorian avenue. Nussbaum all the while cruised the deep groove, always resonating sympathetically to the group's ebb and flow. His dynamic range and sensitivity seems to extend beyond human hearing.

The evening concluded with the Steve Swallow favourite, 'Ladies in Mercedes'. Simcock led us in with some muted piano string percussion before Swallow treated us to a liquid gold flowing solo. A warm ending to a great jazz evening in the capital of classical music.

I grabbed Mike for an interview about the tour while I was on his advanced Jazz Guitar Master Class Retreat in Andalucia, Spain last week (highly recommended!). I'll be posting that in a few days.

Simcock Walker Swallow Nussbaum will be on tour again very soon and will be playing at the Royal Northern College of Music on the 27th July as part of the Manchester Jazz Festival. One not to miss me thinks.

The Dappled Cat - The Music Place Jazz Summer School 2008

About two weeks ago I once again attended the annual Music Place Jazz Summer School hosted by the kind folk at The Cinnamon Club in Bowdon. It was another exhausting week of scales, arpeggios, triplets, grooves, vibes and mixed emotions. Don't get me wrong, it's a really great week but it can expose the raw side of one's ego when you realise what you (still) can't do, though it's all too easy to forget what you have actually learnt. I have to say I found this year quite a tough one as I wasn't really all that happy with my playing during the week. That's not to say I didn't have a good time and learn a good deal to boot. The evening jam sessions in particular were excellent, being expertly facilitated by Suzanne Higgins.

I had originally made the decision not to attend this year as I went on Mike Walker's fab guitar retreat in Andalucia, Spain. However my other 'arf, Jane has taken up jazz ivory tinkling and decided to do the course this year so I figured I'd go along partly to keep her company. The set up for most days is 'sectionals' in the morning which is based on your instrument, and ensembles in the afternoon roughly grouped by standard. The course tutors this year were Mike Walker (guitar), Iain Dixon (horns), Andy Schofield (horns), Les Chisnall (keys), Caroline Boaden (drums) and Alec Dankworth (bass).

Having been on the summer school before and having had one to one lessons from Mike, I suspected the guitar classes might be going over stuff I'm fairly familiar with but it was a pleasant surprise to find that he took a different tack this year. One thing that's been noticed is that the general standard has improved over the last few years and the bar has definately been raised. In the guitar class everyone had attended the course at least once before so we were able to look at some new areas including the finer subtleties of triplet swing feel. We went into this in quite some detail and it was clear there's a lot to getting this feel spot on. Mike employed the phrase 'Dave the dappled cat' to good effect to help master the timing of the swung '2 and' beat of the charleston groove landing on the word 'cat'.

Some interesting exploration of the melodic minor scale was very welcome too, with it's altered and lydian dominant modes useful over certain applications of dominant chords, and the Hitchcock/Debussy favoured mystical locrian natural two mode. For sure no one was left in any doubt as to how to swing the metronome on the 2 and 4.

There were some great players in my group for the afternoon ensemble sessions. This was good for keeping me on my toes and I was sometimes left for dead if asked to play the melody for a tune. Mike had us running down the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 5th notes of each chord of 'Solar' [I never got his "they say so-la in Liverpool" joke] and I came up with some particularly tasty 'clams' [= very wrong notes] when forced to improvise just using these notes of the scale. It's surprising sometimes how the slightest rearrangement of a scale or arpeggio brings you to a grinding halt. We did a lot of work on swing feel in the ensemble class as well, alternating between playing all of the '1 and a, 2 and a' triplet beats and then dropping playing but still feeling the 'and's to get the quaver swing feel.

The final evening of the week is always the school concert to which family and friends come. A nervous Jane did really well trading eights and fours on an Abdullah Ibrahim tune in Alec Dankworth's ensemble. In the end I think I chickened out a little by choosing to solo on the straightforward blues of 'Thing's Ain't What They Used To Be' a la BB King. Nevertheless it seemed to go down well so I guess it must have come across OK. The rather shattered tutors then sent us home with some mellow renditions of a few standards. Now it's time to practice...

Chords That Bind - Manchester Jazz Festival day 6

There are moments when things align. The frequency and interval varies. It may take months. It may take years. It may happen in a fleeting moment or take many millennia. Everywhere there is scale and relativity. Particles line up and resonate in mutual empathy. Broken clocks tell exactly the right time. Birds migrate. Some alignments are intentional, some occur by chance. Most events conjoin these opposite and coincident bedfellows.


And so we happened upon one such event on the evening of Wednesday 23rd July 2008 at the Royal Northern College of Music. Such was the sense of occasion and expectation for ‘Ropes’, a specially commissioned piece by the guitarist Mike Walker for this year's jazz festival. Whilst he has a long established and enviable reputation as a premier guitar player on the UK and world jazz stage, it has only been this year that we've finally had an opportunity to hear Mike’s compositional skills in full, first with the recent release of the ‘Madhouse and the Whole Thing There’ album in May and now with the epic ‘Ropes’. The suite employed a twenty two piece string section alongside the clarinet of Mike’s long time collaborator and friend Iain Dixon, the piano of Les Chisnall, the double bass playing of Steve Watts and the drumming of the mighty Adam Nussbaum.

Ropes met the occasion and surpassed it, sweeping us along with its soaring beauty and near overwhelming intensity. A touching version of ‘Still Slippery Underfoot’ from the Madhouse album opened the set, its mysterious opening piano chords accompanied by the haunting cello of Hannah Roberts before giving way to the main melody on the clarinet. Headbound followed, opening with a dark and pensive repeating piano sequence. A soft cymbal accompaniment from Adam Nussbaum eased its way in, lifting the dynamic and opening the way for some classy improvisation from Iain and Mike with some graceful cushioning from the string section.

A harmonics enhanced solo guitar introduction from Mike steered us into the warm and latin-tinged wistful tones of ‘Wallenda’s Last Stand’. The tune seemed to capture a certain sense of regret and isolation in parts, a mood deepened by the plaintive solos from the violin of Ben Holland and the sax of Iain Dixon.

Another short sweeping solo introduction from Mike opened the smiling nostalgia of the swing feel based ‘Clockmaker’. A fluid solo from Iain set Les up for a particularly joyful response that warmed the heart. The closing melody created a good feeling all round, returning the hope that ‘Wallenda’s Last Stand’ had doubted. A subtle and savvy dynamic drum intro from Adam Nussbaum kicked off the fast swing and metrical melodies of ‘Last to the Line’. There was some really sweet, clean and boppy improvising from Mike on this tune.

After the break Mike introduced ‘Moored to Water’, a collective free improvisation from the string section. To hear a 20-piece classical string section improvising was both a surprise and very effective. Mike explained a little about the layered concept behind ‘Ropes’, the broad theme being the lines on a music stave and the harmony of the chords as ropes hanging down like threads. The music also evokes many of the uses of ropes, both good and bad, from the light sounds and harmonies of sea shanties to the darker sounds for the darker history.

The first movement of Ropes opened with a series of short block string chords of varying lightness and darkness. A solo clarinet introduction of an upright folk melody then got the movement going, leading into a lush string wash and some punchy lines delivered with panache by the string section. Ropes part two began with a metrical piano phrase that became the outline for the tune’s repeated sequence and its slightly off kilter rhythm, hinting at the sounds of Steve Reich. The really quite sublime Ropes part three featured the marvellous playing of Iain Dixon on clarinet, backed by sweeping strings and evoking some intense emotions of melancholy, longing, reflective contemplation, quiet and calm resolution, reconciliation and the happiness of meeting old friends. So much was evoked by the piece and all echoed in the sense of occasion of this special evening. A long shared moment of return, closure and beginning again.

A sustained standing ovation brought the musicians back for a reprise of ‘Headlong’. A lightness and relief opened the space for an incredibly relaxed, gentle and dreamlike seductive start to the track. The momentum slowly built with Mike eventually burning us up with the most searingly powerful improvising of the evening. A really amazing, emotionally exhausting and truly unforgettable evening.

Frankly Mr Funkly - Manchester Jazz Festival day 6

We were awaken with the mighty funk of the MK-Ultras on the Wednesday morning back in St Anns Square. I've known the guitar player Nick Mellor for a few years now but for some reason this is the first time I've managed to see him play. A great slurry bluesy feel he has too reminiscent of Larry Carlton and John Scofield as outlined on a tasty version of Scofield's 'Do Like Eddie'. Much of the material had a decidedly New Orleans Meters thing going on and I quite enjoyed hearing some no nonsense grooving in the context of the jazz festival. Jonas Backman as always was great on drums and suited this style of playing perfectly. Not surprising as it turns out, as Nick informed me that the funk groove thing is where Mr Backman's true heart lies. Sound and solid stuff too from Chris Cliff on the bass and Nick Steed on the keys and vocals. As slightly odd choice for first act of the day but good stuff nontheless.

It was great to see 'Drumcake' leader and Manchester ex-pat Aaron Liddard back in the city. I've played with Aaron at a few jams going back a few years now down at the Band on the Wall and Arch Bar - both venues sadly closed at the moment though the Band on the Wall should be reopening at some point. This was another intriguing sounding prospect, the band having the two drummers Marc Parnell and Myke Wilson at either side of the stage in victoria sandwich drum cake formation. The cake filling consisted of the cream and fruit of Aaron on sax, Scott Bayliss on trumpet and keys, Stuart McCallum on guitar and Jon Thorne on bass. As promised in the program the set was largely a hard-edged groove based affair with some complex and witty tunes. I think it's fair to say this was a fun outfit with the material not meant to be taken too seriously.

They more or less got away with it but I sensed the outfit had probably had few (if indeed any) rehearsal and it did show in the scrappy delivery. At times the grooves locked and clicked and the music picked up nicely but all too often the momentum was squandered. The intentionally incongruous combination of a super fast drum and bass groove dramatically switching to classic swing and back was knowingly amus(o)ing enough but ultimately dissatisfying. 'Mayhem', the last tune was another complex angular workout that stumbled to halt in confusion. An unfortunate way to end a set that did have some high points.

Tuneful Tuesday - Manchester Jazz Festival day 5

It was back to the Bridgewater Hall foyer on Tuesday lunchtime to join the Troubadours with Kirsty Almeida, many of them back here too from their concert in the main hall a few days ago. I've tended to associate bass player Matt Owens and Kirsty more or less solely with latin music from La Gran Descarga and also from their latin jam session down at Lamarrs in the Northern Quarter.

Consequently it was really refreshing to hear some country, folk and well, just some good songs emananting from this band of merry minstrels including co-songwriter John Ellis. There was some genuinely beautiful and touching material here from these two, in particular the wistful 'Josie Brown' and the crafted Joniesque 'Cool Down Unwind'. It was an extremely relaxed, warm and welcoming performance with guest spots from Kenji Fenton playing the steel drums and a nice solo from Olivia Moore on the violin. Steve Buckley was again inspiring on the electric and pedal steel guitars. His trademark bottle necked pinched harmonic technique was used to great effect to create some soaring singing high notes. A really nice one this.

Following this I trooped over to the new Leftbank stage near the river to see 'Alex Douglas and John Ellis'. A slightly unusual spot nested in a walkway gap between a couple of cafes but it seemed to work OK. The gig however didn't really work for me. Alex Douglas on sax sounded consistenty a little out of tune to my ear. There were some quite nice versions of a few Beatles songs but the improvisations from Alex on 'Blue Monk' sounded all a bit wrong. Still, I heard someone saying to one of the festival organisers that it was the best thing they'd heard at the festival so far so what do I know?

The evening triple bill in the RNCM Studio sounded like an interesting proposition all round. First on was Olivia Moore's 'Owl Ensemble'. This looked to be a promising one consisting of a string quartet accompanied by piano, bass and drums. There was definate promise in the material but the performance was a bit timid and seemed a little under rehearsed. An admittedly brave drums and piano improvisation didn't really work, partly as Olivia's unamplified violin was inaudible at this point. It would be nice to see how this unit progresses but I think it needs some more work.

Following this was a very free and very intense performance from the riotous 'Grew Quartet'. I think it's quite amusing that free improvisation can sound almost as formulaic as your good ol' X factor winners pop tune with it's own cliches a la jerky and frantic playing of the back, side or underneath of instruments. There were elements of this classic 'free' playing in the Grew sound but nevertheless they were hugely enjoyable to listen to and indeed watch. The quiveringly neurotic percussion playing of Phillip Marks was particularly entertaining with Phillip frequently dropping or knocking instruments over and then fishing in his bag for the next thing to hit. Ping pong balls, paper and screwdrivers were duly rested on piano strings to add a nice dissonant clang to the proceedings. It left me with a smile for sure.

The duo of Graham Clark on violin and dance music legend Graham Massey on laptop, electronics and dusty old ARP synths etc. closed the triple bill set. Not that I'm one to pigeon hole what jazz is or isn't as I find such debates anal and pointless, but this set was quite unusual for a jazz festival and one would presume equally at home at something like Creamfields. I've got quite a soft spot for Krautrocky droning synth stuff so I was quite looking forward to this. Well it wasn't bad, but a little disappointing. Some parts reminded me of the fabulous Harmonia but most of it left me cold if truth be told. My main problem was the insistency of the violin which in this setting I found detracted from the sweeping electronic soundscape. It may have been a concession to give the sound a more jazzy edge but it got in the way for me. Some violin would have been fine but it was in there the whole time and by the end was proverbially doing my head in. Oh well.

Small Objects Moving Very Quickly

So the hot weather has finally returned to this fine city of ours. I spent much of yesterday in the garden working on improvising through 'Autumn in New York'. I rather rashly suggested doing this song for a couple of duo gigs I've got coming up at the Southport Jazz Festival with Hannah Peel at the end of May. The song sounds simple enough on a surface listening but is actually quite complex in places, rapidly shifting between major, harmonic minor and melodic minor keys with a healthy dose of altered 7th chords and a whole bunch of other things going on as well.

The weather and the need to practice (and the thought of an early evening beer in the garden) all made me partially regret having got a ticket to see Bill Bruford and Michiel Borstlap at the RNCM last night. I did however make the effort and it was really worth it. Just before the Bruford gig was an RNCM student showcase of Terry Riley's minimalist masterpiece 'In C'. They started a little tentavively but soon got going and gave a great rendition of the piece which was suitably hypnotic and a good aperitif for the main course.


The Bruford/Borstlap duo immediately hit the spot for me with a great percussive intro instantly characteristic of the Bruford approach and sound, Borstlap drumming along with his fingers on the piano lid. The set was more or less entirely improvised with Borstlap wandering liberally between classic swing jazz sequences, Monkesque jagged blues riffs, Herbie style suspended chord grooves, contemplative nordic introverted sections and a whole lot more. There's just something about Bruford so that is so captivating. He sits more or less bolt upright and the playing is extremely precise but at the same time flows and grooves gorgeously in a way that's quite addictive to listen to. He can get very busy when he wants to but for me he's most engaging when he gets a strong pulse going and throws in his sneaky sporadic sideways jabs and cuts that make the whole thing so exciting. Bruford introduced quite a few of the tracks at length and he does come across just a tad public school pompous but he's interesting none the less so I think he can be forgiven for this.

Overall a really exciting and excellent concert. My only criticism really was that the pianist could have held back a little a times to allow the full Bruford effect to come across but it's a minor point. I hope I get a chance to see these two again and would recommend missing a few hours of rare UK sunshine to see them any day.

The Boy With The Thorne By His Side

I played a Freedom Principle gig down at the Revise Bar in Chorlton last Saturday with Sam Andreae on sax, Fin Panter on drums and late substitute Jon Thorne (Lamb) on double bass - we don't really have a name as yet. It was intended to be a loose low key improv thing with Sam providing us with a few recorded grooves and we just do as we see fit, so we hadn't really rehearsed. We figured as Jon had come in at the last moment however that we better do a few standards so we threw a few in for the first set.

It was a really cool gig and went down really well, even if I do say so myself. The first set was more standards based and had it's moments but I think we really hit the spot in the second set when we went for the groove improv thing big time. There was plenty of intense Miles style Bitches Brew digging in over some jazzy funky grooves from Fin. A take on Bonobo's 'Between the Lines' and a version of the Mr Scruff / Moondog 'Get a Move On' went down particularly well. A somewhat scruffy encore slant on a White Stripes track rounded the set off nicely.

Everyone in the band seems keen so we're intending to take it forward and get some more gigs. Jon promises to bring some effects pedals for the next one so that should be interesting. Thanks to Joe Jones from the Moss Freed Sextet for being especially positive and everyone else who made it down for this first outing. Join the Freedom Principle Facebook group if you want to hear about any future gigs.

A bit of rough and ready video from the gig:

Happy-Go-Mike-Leigh

I've been in film mode for the last couple of days. Yesterday I went to the Cornerhouse to check out the new Mike Leigh film, 'Happy-Go-Lucky' which was introduced by the director himself and followed by a Q&A with Mike and one of the actresses, Kate O'Flynn who played Suzy in the film.


I'm pleased to report that it's a great fun film with a lot of laughs without being flippant and overly light. It tells the story of Poppy, a thirty year old primary school teacher renting a flat in Finsbury Park who goes about being happy, positive and generally getting on with life. A quite intentional aspect of the film is that she at first appears quite surface to the point of being annoying but you soon realise that she has great wit and intelligence and has a very positive influence on her friends and the world around her. Actress Sally Hawkins who plays Poppy gives a great performance full of charm and humour whilst delivering the more serious scenes with the perfect balance. The film was also a fab little nostalgia trip for me as it was set very near where I used to live in north Camden.

It was interesting to follow with a question and answer session that illuminated on some of the themes of the film. Mike confirmed that he wanted to show a more positive outlook than portrayed in many of his previous films but without ignoring the fact that Poppy is living in the same tough world, the difference being that she deals with life's difficulties in her own way. He also talked about his method of film making using improvisation around ideas and themes, in this case for six months before doing any filming. One questioner suggested that the film is quite feminist potraying women as succeeding in coping with life and the men the one's struggling, a view that Mike agreed with. He also talked about the somewhat ironic fact that he's seen by many as the London film maker despite being from Salford. He said that he'd like to make more films in the north but that it's too expensive up here and actually cheaper in London. This does seem very surprising but he didn't explain why this is the case. It would be a great shame for film making in Manchester if this is generally true. All in all it was a great evening and I'm really glad I went along.

The film theme unexpectedly continued into today. I've just got back from having lunch with my other half and a good mate Helle at the Continental Cafe in West Didsbury where lo and behold, legendary director Ken Loach was there having lunch as well. There were rumours he would be at the Q&A last night as he's in Manchester making a film at the moment. I'm not sure what the film is about or where this is happening. Somewhere near West Didsbury perhaps? Maybe some film buff could let me know.

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.

Mysterious Traveller in a Stolen Caravan

Another one of those special big little gigs last night the 29th January down at the Carlton Club as part of the EXR jazz nights series. A last minute word of mouth text alerted me to what promised to be a good one with the Cinematic Orchestra's Luke Flowers on drums, ex-Cinematics John Ellis on piano and the Oedipal Jon Thorne on double bass. It was the first time I've managed to make it down to the Carlton Club and I was immediately taken with it's somewhat jaded boho vibe.

I presume due to the last minuteness it turned out to be a small affair. This made for an intensely personal and intimate gig in ours and a small quota of the MCR jazz community's honour (Whackabas' Jonas Backman and Gavin Barras joined us at the front table). Everyone was very quiet and one could almost hear the shuffling of Luke's denim in time with his kick drum swagger. I was recently enlightened to Luke's alternative monicker of 'Mr Tickle' which I have to say does seem very suitable given his lithe style and extensive reach.

The set opened with a classic sounding untitled song for a mysterious person by John Ellis. Jon Thorne announced a song he'd written for Mr Flowers called 'Cool Hand Luke' that fittingly featured some graceful and potent playing from the said man. John Ellis gave a great blues stomper rendition of 'Nobody's Fault But Mine' with some mighty singing from himself. Just before the end of the first set Jon Thorne shared with us that his main means of transport, a VW caravan had been stolen at 11.20pm the night before, adding an ironic twist to a forceful and fast version of 'Caravan'. The second set ended with a touchingly vulnerable rendition of Richard Iles' 'Old Friends' also sung by John with really quite moving words from guitarist Mike Walker.

This was kind of what it's all about really. Memorable.

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.

Northern Uproar

It's been a busy few months on the MCR jazz front. The RNCM is having a particularly good run with 'name' acts Tord Gustavson (great gig, but too short at 1 hours 20 mins), Jan Garbarek and Mike Gibbs as well as a host of home grown acts. Last night was the turn of the Tim Garland Northern Underground Orchestra to shuffle onto the stage. As Tim mentioned many times, the group includes many of our local players such as Mike Walker, Andy Schofield, and Richard Iles. It was another really good one and the first chance I've had to check out pianist Gwilym Simcock who was really excellent. I found his somewhat somber and stern manner amusing and the playing was wonderful. Tim talked about a composition contest he'd set up where he invited entries arranged for big band in a 'Steely Dan' style. They played two of these compositions giving Mike Walker the perfect excuse to let loose with some fiery overdriven Dan'esque style guitar soloing. No thuddy mellow jazz guitar tone here. For my money it was the best I've heard Mike play since the Matt and Phred's gig at the 2006 Manchester Jazz festival. Andy Schofield and Paul Booth on sax and Barnaby Dickinson on trombone were also hitting the sweet spot.

I don't know what it is about jazz singers but for me this was the only bit of the set I wasn't so interested in. There's no doubt vocalist Hannah Jones is a good singer but it just doesn't grab me. One aspect is that I sometimes feel a bit uncomfortable with dodgy jazz lyrics. Interestingly though I often find the singing too predictable in it's style and approach. I don't know if this is just a prejudice of mine and I'm not hearing the subtleties in style I think are present with other instruments or whether I've got a point. I'm not suggesting this is the case for all jazz singers either, although I can't actually think of any I like to listen to. To my ears I hear much more interesting vocals in other forms like popular music (whatever that means) and folk - Liz Fraser and PJ Harvey to name just two female examples from the indie sphere. Maybe I've just not managed to recover from the Fast Show's 'Stepney Green and the New, not quite as good as the old, Headhunters', the "most popular exponents of dinner jazz in the US today". You can hear this fine vocalist in the video below from 7:30 mins in:

My Name is Mike Gibbs

Went to a really inspiring gig by jazz and film composer Mike Gibbs and his Big Band at the Royal Northern College of Music last night. It was very powerful and potent stuff right from the off and immediately upped the excitement levels. To my ears much of the earlier part of the first set was classic 1960s sounding stuff and had me picturing spy's in black and white movies shuffling about near the Berlin Wall . The star studded cast included guitarist Bill Frisell, bass player Steve Swallow, sax players Chris Hunter and Stan Sulzmann and drummer Adam Nussbaum who were all on great form. Adam was really enjoying himself and the energy in his playing was quite infectious. The second set included some more contemplative and unusual pieces along with some rousing standards including an arrangement of Miles' arrangements of Monk's 'Round about Midnight' and Parker's 'Au Privavé'. 'Matter of Fact', a new track complete with a cool repeating 7/4 figure was stretching Mike's conducting skills to the limit. The picked line from Frisell echoed on the piano concluded the track in a most satisfying way. I'll be buying the record this track is on for sure.

Mike Gibbs is the stuff of legend being born in Zimbabwe and trained at the famous Berklee College in Boston, where he continued as Composer in Residence for many years. He has written and arranged for many of the jazz greats over the years including Pat Metheny and John McLaughlin to name just two.


We went along with guitar tutor Mike. A fair few other members of the MCR jazz posse were in attendance including Andy Schofield, Iain Dixon, Nick Mellor, Sam Smith, Jo McCallum and Anton Hunter. Mike, Iain and Andy have all worked with Mike Gibbs in the past, Mike and Iain having played on the 1996 album 'By The Way'. A few drinks in the RNCM bar after the gig confirmed it was a bit of a classic. Some professed to be very inspired and promised to put pen to manuscript paper or fire up Sibelius on getting home. I had a good chat with Mick and Steve who run NWJazzworks and the Manchester Jazz Festival and who I'd alerted earlier that day to the blog awards and recent press this blog has had. Looks like I may possibly get involved in working with them in some way which would be great. A most pleasant evening all round.

Madhouse and the Whole Thing Almost There

The 'new' album by local guitar ace and good mate Mike Walker is at last finally being mixed after considerable delays due to problems with the original producer. This record has been a long time in the making, but it looks like it will finally see the light of day quite soon. Mike is currently working on the second round of the mixdown and reports to be 'well pleased' with the results so far. There's the small matter of the artwork still to be sorted which it's hoped will be less traumatic than getting the mixing done. The album is called 'Madhouse and the Whole Thing There' and has Iain Dixon on saxophones, John Ellis on keys, Mikey Wilson on drums and Sylvan Richardson on bass. Mike says about the record:

"This album is the first under my name. It's about dissonance masked by consonance, and having clear statements despite the density. I wanted the harmony to be supported by the melody. I wanted the rhythm and bar lengths to feel completely natural, even though they're not. I wanted it to be singable, and street-walk whistleable. I didn't want the face to reflect the inner workings."

The intriguing album title is taken from 'The Divided Self: An Existential Study in Sanity and Madness', a book by the Scottish psychiatrist R. D. Laing and is a quote from English literary critic and poet William Empson. Getting the album mixed has proved to be a study in sanity and madness for Mike and Iain who had paid a significant sum of money upfront to the presumed to be trustworthy Steely Dan producer Roger Nichols who is based in the US. Roger accepted the work and the money but then proceeded to do nothing. Progress reports on the mix were given along with promises that it would be ready 'in a week or so'. However no mixes were forthcoming and Roger proceeded to go AWOL. After a year of constant hassling from Mike and Iain, the music was returned unmixed but still no cash was to be seen. It's taken almost two years and a sustained email campaign by Mike and friends, but after much heartache and stress for all concerned they eventually got the cash back courtesy of Roger's boss and have finally been able to go ahead and get the album mixed. The man himself is yet to resurface and has not offered so much as an apology.

I haven't heard a note of the record myself yet so I'm really looking forward to the conclusion of this long running saga.

Gig Preview: Blake Wilner Group

I got a MySpace friend request from this lot a few days ago. I hadn't heard of them before, but they seem well worth checking out if you like jazz guitar in the John Scofield and Kurt Rosenwinkel stylee. They're playing at Matt and Phreds this Thursday the 27th Oct, though I can't actually make it down myself. Some might say their vibe is a little derivative but it's well executed. The first MySpace track 'Mo Mo' is clearly going for that slurry sassy Sco groove and succeeds admirably. 'Interloper' starts off contemplative before kicking into a precise angular but still quite melodic line over a fast swing backing. 'Stormy Friday' sounds like classic introspective Sco again with maybe a nod to a Rosenwinkel chord voicing here and there. Looks like he plays the same Ibanez AS200 that Scofield uses to complete the references. See http://www.myspace.com/blakewilnergroup to hear the tracks and get more info.

Watching the Thorne

We have some friends, Frank and Moira, visiting us at the moment so last night we took them along to see Jon Thorne's tribute to bass player Danny Thompson at the RNCM. I've seen Jon several times and have a copy of his excellent Oedipus Complex CD, 'Manchester Road'. Generally speaking Jon's music is quite accessible and I know of Danny Thompson's playing with Kate Bush and with an all time fave of mine, David Sylvian, so I was expecting quite a 'melodic' gig. The set was in two halves with the first half being a quartet covering some of Danny's material and the latter Jon's commissioned piece for the festival, 'Watching the Well' named after Danny's contribution to Sylvian's song 'The Ink in the Well' that was a major inspiration for Jon picking up the double bass. The first half turned out to be some of the most free and avant-garde jazz I've heard at the festival and was quite hard going much of the time to tell the truth. This wasn't helped by the somewhat echoey and indistinct sound in the RNCM hall. The slightly mad saxophonist Gilad Atzmon was in attendance providing some suitably intense horn playing. I don't think it was the ideal start for our non-jazz fan friends who had been promised a fairly accessible gig.

The latter half was a much easier ride with some quite moving contemplative and almost classical pieces. Jon was conducting with Danny Thompson on double bass and the addition of strings, harp and vocals to the quartet. Jon described it as the most special concert he'd ever done and it was clearly a very personal and moving experience for him. It was touching to be part of that and I'm very glad we went along. He also paid tribute to Manchester and the nurturing environment that exists for musicians. It feels great for me to be part of this now and I have found also that almost everyone is positive and welcoming. This is quite different to my memories of the London indie 'scene' that was very competitive and quite cruel in many ways. It's taken me and Jane a while to settle in Manchester and this really helps us feel more content here.

The Noise Upstairs

Two gigs last night. Julian Argüelles as part of the fab Learn Live series of events and Jon Cervantes new outfit, Current Affairs.

The Learn Live events are basically:

"informal talks by each of the featured artists in a relaxed and friendly venue. We wanted to create a place where you could hear great gigs from internationally performing artists and ask them about their lives, loves and music!"

I've been to several of these now and found them really enjoyable and useful. They're normally held in the RNCM Students Union and the attendance has generally been quite low so I'm really hoping they can manage to keep them going. Surprisingly few students show up - most people seem to be usual MCR jazz mafia. This one was well attended however with the Jazz Festival publicity behind it. Julian covered some of the issues of jazz education. This has become a big business since the 1970s and he made the point that it can be a problem with students looking to be given everything and maybe not going and finding things out for themselves. he thn talked about improvisation. He stressed that many of his favorite players with the exception of Coltrane were not master technicians. It's great to have facility and technique but there's a danger it can get in the way of expression and feeling. Music isn't supposed to be a competitive sport.

I then went over to Matt and Phreds to see Jons Current Affairs. It was quite Steve Coleman and very fusiony at times but there were some really good grooves in there. Quite liked the poetry style vocals. It's good to see Jon's finally got something together. We've met at jams many times over the last couple of years and played together briefly in a funk band, the Vibrant Family Collective.

Also finally chatted to Anton at M&Ps. I've known who he is for a while but our paths didn't quite cross for some reason and hadn't spoken to him before. Had a really good chat actually. I was really excited to hear he's involved in setting up a free improv jam night called 'The Noise Upstairs' at Fuel Cafe Bar in Withington - sounds really amazing:

"The idea is an improv-jam night combining our backgrounds of jazz, contemporary classical and electro-acoustic music. In order to create a totally democratic evening, the way we're running it is; if you want to play, put your name in a hat at the start of the night, then ensembles are created at random by pulling, say, three names out at once (depending on how many people turn up and so on) and then you play for 10-15mins... Bring instruments, laptops, voices and toys!"

I've got high hopes for this - reminds me of some of the amazing sounding nights that used to happen in Soho in the 50s and 60s that I've read about. Withington is very studenty and quite a young crowd so I'm hoping I don't feel too much the old git. I'll have to give it a try for sure.