by on

Still having the time of me life….great bunch of singers on the  week rock and jazz  course.

Hanging with my musician  homies…Singing most of the day, when not chilling with all my favourite musicians in the universe. Lunching from the stalls in Whitecross Street near the college. Get to sing with my new ‘for one night only’ band tomorrow. Every night there is a tutor gig before the ‘open mics’ for the students so had the fastest rehearsal tonight with my allotted band          ( yippee) Here is a  tiny snippet  of our practice…I cannot tell who is me and who is DC, my vocalist buddy…we make a great team….the rest of the band are completely Lush… You will have to come to the theatre at the Guildhall at 7.15 tonight to see the rest of our hour long set.

It will be a cracker.

Song of the Day Purple Rain -Prince

by on

Yup…that really helped. Singing really helps A wonderful  ‘singers weekend’ at the Guildhall School of Music with singers from all sorts of places, including a bunch of kids from Norway and their lovely teacher. We did the concert tonight at the end of two days of workshops, with a  blindin’ quartet. It was lovely…. bit of African, bit of Gospel, bit of Folk a bit of Soul and Pop. There was me, Scatt and Lucky  leading songs. Funny though as next door and part of the same building  about 5 paces away, in the Barbican, one of the biggest complex of concert halls in London, they were having a festival of  ‘Extraordinary Voices’. I popped in at Lunchtime and noticed that the London Gay Men’s Chorus, the London Bulgarian Choir, The London Georgian Choir, The Feral Choir, Orlando Gough and numerous other local choirs were performing, but we were completely unlinked to this event even though we were literally metres away.

It is often like that in London, the left hand has no idea what the right is doing. Community is very small. I often try to build bridges between neighbourhood creative organisations, but it can be really  difficult. But we had a lovely time….

I am teaching for another 5 days on the Rock and Pop summer school…one of the highlights of my year as I get to hang with a load of amazingly delicious musicians, (with a couple of old  chauvinistic ‘pop is crap’ jazzers just to keep it interesting) so you will not be getting much sense out of me this week, as I will be having way too much fun!

SONG OF THE DAY 

Detroit Mass Choir – The Storm Is Passing Over

Gospel is just one of the most wonderful song forms. Love the fact the audience participate, encouraging, clapping etc. Thats what music should be.We should all be involved in it.