John Ongom big band

I've recently taken over as musical director of the John Ongom big band, and we've got a gig coming up at the White Hart, 1 Mile End Road, London, E1 4TP (map). It's on Sunday 4th March, probably starting around 7:30. I'm not looking forward to doing the talking bits, but there we are. If anyone sees this and comes along, please don't heckle me.

I'd also like to give a plug for my chum, jazz singer Eileen Hunter, who is playing at the 606 Club on this Thursday, 1st March. Alas, I won't be able to make it myself. :(

Primeval coming this Saturday

Look out for Primeval, which will be broadcast this coming Saturday, 10th February at 7:45pm on ITV1.

Quite excited about this, as I worked with composer Dominik Scherrer on this series last Summer, doing orchestration, programming and playing trumpet.

ITV have also got their Primeval micro-site up and running here (it's pretty heavy on bandwidth though).

Trip to Rome

Just got back from a short visit to Rome with my Roman friend, Pierluca.

I was only there for three nights, so Luca suggested we make an early start on the sightseeing. So as soon as we got chucked out of the bar on the first night, he and his cousins took me on an early-hours tour, during which we saw the Forum, the Pantheon and the Trevi Fountain. I'm afraid the photos I took during this tour are particularly fuzzy - I think because of the low level of light (and I only have my phone camera). Or perhaps it's got something to do with all the beer I drank earlier.

Unfortunately, I think perhaps I peaked too soon as the next day I didn't get out sightseeing again till about 4 in the afternoon. I decided to go on one of those tourist bus tours. The first half was fine, but then darkness fell and it got pretty freezing, but I doggedly persevered with it for the full two hours.

On Wednesday, Luca and I managed to get out and about incredibly early but alas, found that our intended destination, the Sistine Chapel, had closed at midday. But we looked around St Peter's, and went to the very top (the highest point in Rome, I think).

During the rest of the afternoon we visited Trastevere, the Pantheon again, and saw Area Sacra Argentina and admired some of the 350 feral cats who live amongst the Roman ruins there (if you click on the photo on the left, you'll see a couple of them). We went on to the Tridente, the Spanish Steps and Piazza del Popolo.

I've uploaded all my photos here (please excuse my crappy photography).

Ooh I'm all excited!

Just saw a trailer for ITV's new sci-fi drama, Primeval, right after tonight's first instalment of Coronation Street (OK, I admit it, I'm a fan). I worked on the music for Primeval last year, doing most of the orchestration and programming, and also playing trumpet on it.

They're not saying yet when it's on, just that it's coming soon..

OK, better get back to the TV for the next instalment of Corrie (hope Chesney and Schmeichel turn up...)

Mark Levine's The Jazz Piano Book

My piano playing is certainly not all it should be, so I put The Jazz Piano Book by Mark Levine on my Christmas Amazon wish list. (This is how we do present buying in my family these days - perhaps some of the excitement is lost, but people do actually receive presents which they want, and no-one has to traipse around the shops on Christmas Eve.) And sure enough, one of my lovely sisters generously clicked on it.

Flicking through, I came across this bit, which I really liked:

Sitting at the piano for eight hours every day may not make you a better musician if you're not practicing the right things. As an example, I once discovered a method book of strange intervalic exercises. It was rumored that 'Coltrane practiced out of this book,' much as it was rumored that 'Bird practiced out of Nicolas Slonimsky's Thesaurus of Scales' in the 1940s and 50s. It took me about six hours to go through the book the first day, but after a week I was going through the book about six times a day, driving my neighbors bananas I'm sure. Finally, someone walking past my door shouted 'For Pete's sake, play a bossa nova!'

Bored (and sleepy)

This week I've been busy doing the notation for the recording of the score for a popular ITV drama.. Now I'm sitting here at 4:14 am waiting for the score and parts to print off...

78 more pages to go

..ho hum...

77 more pages to go

...What to do... what to do...?

76 more pages to go

..it's about time I invested in a laser printer..

75 more pages to go

..I suppose I could browse Amazon for laser printers..

74 more pages to go

..but that sounds terribly boring too.

73 more pages to go

...hrummphhhh

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...