The Rugs Christmas Hangover

Had a great time playing with the funky Rugs in Tufnell Park last night. Apart from the festive tinsel display collapsing on the horn section during one number, it went very well I think.


Here's Mr Johnny White, taking a break from singing and retelling the story of the Nativity in his inimitable funky fashion.

The Rugs Christmas Party

..Like it says on the flier. (The Rugs are a funky band, Joey Fingas is a funky DJ. The Progress Bar is a bar, Tufnell Park Road is a road, etc. etc.)

Come along and say hi.

Eileen Hunter at The Bedford

I played with great jazz singer Eileen Hunter at The Bedford in Balham last night. Eileen's been busy recording her album over the past few weeks, and this was the first time we tried out some of the material with a full band.

The set was a mixture of jazz standards and originals. I heard someone remark that some of these originals sounded like the classic jazz songs which you hadn't heard before, which I thought was right on the money. Hopefully they will become well known when the album is released (early next year?) My favourites were The Letter and Coming Round to You - on which Eileen not only sang beautifully and played piano, but also did a great flute solo! (Don't you just hate talented people?!)

Eileen's man, Steve Brookstein also performed a great set, including songs from his number 1 album Heart & Soul as well as several original songs which will be appearing on his forthcoming album.

All in all, it was a really lovely night in a really nice venue - and a real thrill for me to play with such great musicians. Apparently, the whole thing was transmitted on a live webcast - if only I'd known before, I'd have told my mum. Sorry Mum.

Desire

Here's another animated film which I recently did the music for. It's called Desire, and is by Sanghee Park.



(This movie is 11MB and is in Quicktime format.)

It Fell from the Sky

Been pretty busy over the past month working on the music for a couple of animated films. Here is one of them: It Fell from the Sky by Jason Ruddy.



(This movie is around 13MB. You will need Quicktime - which is a free download - to view it. Hope this thing works - I don't think I used <embed> before..)

Liane Carroll - Standard Issue

A little while ago I went with some friends to the 606 Club in Chelsea to see fantastic jazz singer and pianist, Liane Carroll. Strangely enough, we bumped into Bill Oddie on the way in (that's him on the left). Ms Carroll was playing with Greg Leppard on drums, and her husband, Roger Carey, on bass. The highlight of the gig was when vocalist Ian Shaw (who she introduced as 'my luvrrrr') came up and they did a storming rendition of Carole King's You've Got a Friend. Disappointingly, they didn't do The Funky Gibbon, despite the fact that Mr Oddie was there to show us how (ooh ooh ooh).

Liane's music can definitely be enjoyed by everybody - it's not just for jazz-heads. The set included jazz classics such as That Old Black Magic, done in a very contemporary style, and songs from the pop repertoire, such as Eleanor Rigby, done, naturally, with a dash of jazz. There were also several great songs written by Ms Carroll.

It was such an absorbing gig that I completely missed the last tube home. (Mind you, the way the club was set up, you would have had to squeeze past Ms Carroll to get to the exit, so it wouldn't really have been the done thing to leave before the end.) Lucky for me my friends had a spare sofa.

This was also the CD Launch Party of her new album, Standard Issue. She kindly signed my copy ('To Angis'. Oh well.)

Opus 1

Hello World. This is my first post. (Mind you, there were a few groovy things happening last month so I might put them in retrospectively.)

I'm intending to use this blog to write up about all the musical stuff I'm involved in, such as playing gigs, going to jam sessions, going to see gigs, writing music for films, writing music for fun, and that kind of thing. Hopefully I'll figure out how to post some mp3s of my work, and you will be able to comment on them if you like! (But if your comment says I suck, then obviously I'm going to delete it.) No doubt there will be other random and unconnected posts along the way.

By the way, several examples of my work are posted on my main webpage, so check them out if you like. The best place to browse through my music samples there is on the right hand side of the home page, not on the actual 'Music' page (I really must sort that thing out..)

I think my title for this blog, 'Cylindrical Bore', is fantastically cool. What do you think?

Hello...? Is there anybody there.....?