Page to Performance on Radio 4

Quite a nice show talking about George and Ira Gershwin's iconic song I Got Rhythm, from it's birth as a song from the musical Girl Crazy, through to Gershwin's orchestral variations, and it's continued significance as a vehicle for improvisation in jazz. Love John Etheridge's impromptu self-accompanying breakneck performance, and Lorna Luft's bit about singing whilst being heavily pregnant (apparently you can get higher notes!).

You can listen again, but not sure how long the show will be available...

Dracula on BBC1 tonight

Look out for Dracula tonight on BBC1 at 9pm. The music was written by Dominik Scherrer and I did some of the orchestration and music editing.

How to Make a Trumpet

Here's a groovy video all about making trumpets in a trumpet factory. Although it's from the American kids' show Mr Rogers' Neighborhood, it takes me back to looking through the Square/Round/Arched window in Play School.



[edit: I'm afraid this video has been taken down from YouTube now - but check out my post of Nov 9th 2007.]

Funny how lots of people like watching stuff being made - the guy who uploaded this video has lots of similar films.

P.S. Merry Christmas!

Morley Big Band

This morning, I went along to the Morley Big Band run by Gordon Rose. It's a rehearsal band, playing very interesting and challenging music including pieces by Bill Russo and Bill Holman. There are some excellent players, but sadly a distinct lack of trombones. Amazingly, Gordon has been leading this band now for 46 years!!

I went along because I heard there was a possibility they would play a chart of mine, but they were a trumpet down so I got to play too. My chart was a jazz ballad which I wrote a few years ago in college. It was really nice to have something played by a big band again - and it's really inspired me to write something new.

A couple of other composers also arrived with charts for us to play, including Pete Moore, the gentleman who wrote the famous Pearl and Dean theme (you know: 'Ba-baa, ba-baa, ba-baa, ba-baa, ba-ba-baa, Ba-baa, ba-baa, ba-baa, ba-baaaa-BAP!')