Author: Laura Tindall

North East Music Label Looks To Revitalise Jazz Scene

By on 21st January 2016in Entertainment

Laura Tindall, music teacher and Radio Tyneside host, catches up with Jamie Toms – founder of North East label Jazz Sound Records…

Jamie Toms, like many other creatives I know, is all about the artistry. He’s in it for the love of it, for the music, and to bring recognition to talented people.

As a musician and teacher with a life-long involvement in jazz music, performing and composing, Jamie recognised that original jazz music in the Newcastle area doesn’t always have an outlet.

He said: “I set up Jazz Sound Records to help promote people who are writing original jazz. People here in the North East would otherwise have to release their material independently or go elsewhere to a bigger label.

“There are bands doing original stuff that are being overlooked, or the bands are backing away from writing original material because of a difficulty in getting events. There are a lot of talented musicians, but the scene is going a bit quiet.”

The idea for the label came as a business idea for part of Jamie’s recent MA in Music Management, but he realised there was a demand for the label to continue after discussions with different musicians and bandleaders.

 

“I believe the music these bands are creating is high quality, and I will eventually push the bands to be gigging further afield, arranging gigs in other parts of the country, and even into other European countries where the jazz scene is strong.”

The bands currently represented by the label are Not Now Charlie, Uncle Oswald, Slowlight Quartet and After Dark Fonksters – all of which hold strong ties with the North East.

The ultimate driving force behind Jazz Sound Records is original music.

“A lot of places book bands to play trad. jazz and standards, but it can put the nail in the coffin of people writing original jazz music if there’s no outlet or any venues to play it at.”

Jamie is putting his money where his mouth is, and in February will be putting on a gig with his band Not Now Charlie at the Jazz Café in Newcastle. The gig will be entirely original jazz, and the band’s sound can be described as melodic, groove-based jazz, which is catchy and partly improvised. There will be a live recording of the gig, and the EP will be released by Jazz Sound Records later in the year.

Jamie agrees that there is often quite a discerning audience at jazz gigs, and enjoys that it’s often other musicians in attendance. However, he wants the gigs promoted by Jazz Sound Records to be of wider appeal, especially to those people who think they might not like jazz.

“I want a fresher approach to the scene. I want a jazz band to be able to put on a gig in the same way that a pop band would do. I want to expose more people to original music that they might not otherwise seek out.”

Not Now Charlie, made up of a group of five musicians in their 20s and 30s, were brought together by knowing each other from different jazz bands and from studying Music at university. While Jamie writes most of the material, the band’s unique sound comes from the interpretation that the band members bring to the material.

“I have an idea of the harmonic structure in my head, as well as riffs, or sometimes particular rhythmic ideas. We also have set solo sections within a piece, and we improvise around an idea. If I write all the parts out exactly, then it sounds like my voice, but I like to leave it as open as possible so people can interpret it and bring their own sound to it.”

If you have ever wanted your clapping and cheering preserved on a jazz album forever, then now is your chance!

Jazz Sound Records are presenting Not Now Charlie with support from The Saxophonics playing at the Jazz Café, Pink Lane, Newcastle, NE1 5DW on Friday 12th February at 9pm. Tickets are £5 in advance, or £3 on the door.

 

Not Now Charlie play original groove-based jazz. They are Jamie Toms – Saxophone, Pawel Jedrzejewski – Guitar, Richard Campbell – Keys, Liam Gaughan – Bass, Dave McKeague – Drums.

Saxophonics are a local saxophone quartet playing original jazz compositions and arrangements.

Photographs by Ken Drew and Jamie Toms.

North East Theatre Company To Debut Legally Blonde Musical

By on 17th November 2015in Entertainment, Events, Local Biz, What's New?, What's On?

Newcastle will be turning blonde next week as a North East theatre company takes to the stage with their premiere of the smash-hit musical Legally Blonde…

West End Musical Theatre Company will be performing the musical based on the popular film, which tells the story of Elle Woods as she turns from sorority sister to legal high-flyer. Elle makes the move to Harvard Law School when she realises that her boyfriend is dumping her for someone more ‘serious’.

Elle, played by Cheryl Moody, even considers turning brunette!

The cast of North East performers will be entertaining audiences all week from 24th to 28th November at the Tyne Theatre, and the show even features two dogs – Chi-Chi the chihuahua, and Patsy the bulldog.

Despite having taken leading roles before, Cheryl say this is the most demanding part she’s ever had.

“I loved the movie as a child, and when I realised there was a musical version I couldn’t wait to audition for the role of Elle!”

Cheryl, who works as cabin crew for Thomas Cook airlines, already had the flowing blonde locks needed for the part, and the similarities don’t end there.

“I love playing Elle, and to be honest, I don’t find it too difficult. I am a very girly girl, I own a chihuahua, I love pink and I have been known to be a bit dizzy at times!”

As the lead role, Cheryl performs numbers such as Take It Like A Man, So Much Better and Legally Blonde.

Elle’s love interests are Warner, played by Kevin Rhodes, and Emmett, played by Alex Easten. Elle is advised to follow her heart when it comes to love in Paulette’s powerful, moving and funny song Ireland.

The Newcastle-based theatre group pulled off a remarkable coup when they gained the licence to perform the North East amateur premiere of the show. Ken Anderson, Managing Director of West End Musical Theatre Company says:

“We were delighted to obtain the exclusive amateur performance rights for the North East, prior to its general release in 2016. The show includes memorable music with great lyrics, lots of dancing and plenty of energy.”

Legally Blonde is on at the Tyne Theatre, Westgate Road, Newcastle. Performances are nightly at 7pm from Tuesday 24th until Saturday 28th November, as well as matinée performances at 2pm on the Thursday and Saturday.

Tickets can be booked online at www.tynetheatreandoperahouse.uk, by calling 0844 2491000 or in person at the Tyne Theatre box office.

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Judy Collins: Folk Legend at The Sage, Gateshead

By on 28th October 2015in Entertainment, Have Your Say, Music, What's New?

Laura Tindall, musician, music teacher and Radio Tyneside host, shares the music closest to her heart…

Throughout my adult life, I’ve had a great interest in folk singer-songwriters from the height of the 1960s and 1970s protest song and social activism era. Perhaps I should have been born in a different decade?

We had songs by the likes of Joan Baez, Bob Dylan and Joni Mitchell playing in the car when I was little, back in the eighties when it was a tape player. Songs like The Wild Mountain Thyme (1965), Blowin’ in the Wind (1963), and Both Sides Now (1969) are amongst the defining sound of these artists, as well as a generation, and the lyrics are as relevant today as any day.

My first encounter with the music of Judy Collins was around my late teens/early twenties, when my best friend and I would perform as a duo at various North East venues, and we included Who Knows Where the Time Goes? into our live performance repertoire, taking inspiration from the Judy Collins version. The song was written by Sandy Denny in 1967, and originally recorded as a demo. Judy Collins heard the demo tape in 1968 and decided to cover the song. It became the B-side to her version of Both Sides Now.

My friend and I preferred the Judy Collins version due to her treatment of the song’s metre, and to this day it’s one of our favourite songs to perform.

In October, Judy Collins came to The Sage, Gateshead, and there was no way I would miss the chance to hear this folk legend live.

A piano, an empty stage, and a pretty full audience were what awaited Judy in Hall 2 of The Sage, a great, intimate venue. Just as I had my own story surrounding why I wanted to see this artist live, I wondered what others’ stories were. Most of the audience were close in age to Collins, if my perceptions served me correctly. Some, like me, were alone, while others were in pairs or small groups. It’s the ones who are alone that intrigue me most, as I wonder about their story, their personal music experience, and the lives they’ve lived.

Judy Collins opened with a beautiful performance of Open The Door, on which she played guitar while musical director Russell Walden accompanied on piano. She moved into her second song without saying a word. As soon as I heard the opening few bars and lyrics, I knew I’d be watching the rest of it through misty eyes. Both Sides Now sounds just as wonderful today as it does on any of her recordings. A truly emotional experience as I watched this silver-locked folk legend, 56 years into the business, perform such an iconic song.

“I’ve looked at love from both sides now, from up and down, and still somehow, it’s clouds’ illusions I recall, I really don’t know life at all.”

Throughout the evening, Judy’s new and old material was interspersed with stories of friendships, with the likes of Leonard Cohen, Joan Baez, Joan Rivers, and others who are true friends and icons of the music and entertainment industries.

Another emotional moment was her song In The Twilight, about her mother. It clearly touched many, many people in the audience.

“She’s a lady and she’s going home, she tells me as her eyes close in the twilight. I ask her where and she smiles and she tells me ‘it’s a secret’. And then she’s gone, just like the flowers in her garden.”

Judy Collins’ support act for the evening was Ari Hest, a singer-songwriter from New York. He’s one to watch, with a rounded, slightly husky voice and a penchant for Brazilian-style guitar playing. To me, he’s cut from the same cloth as Collins, with songs celebrating the simple things in life, as well as giving hope for the future. Check out songs After The Thunder and Harvest from his new album, Shouts and Whispers.

 

The years have been kind to Judy Collins, her voice as soaring and beautiful as ever. Whether you listen to Both Sides Now today or yesterday, in 1968, 2015, or somewhere in between, you have your own story. Live it and remember it.

Piano Fantasy: Newcastle Composer Reimagines Live Music Scene

By on 10th October 2015in Entertainment, Music, What's New?

Laura Tindall, music teacher and Radio Tyneside host, waxes lyrical about Newcastle-based pianist and composer, Christopher Watson…

Take a contemporary composer and pianist, add a little 19th century Romantic inspiration, and you get something very rarely seen these days – a pianist performing his own compositions.

Newcastle-based pianist and composer Christopher Watson, 35, is all about the contemporary piano scene, but you won’t find him performing covers of pop songs. Instead, his latest piano recital series has been a mix of 19th century compositions by such composers as Grieg and Liszt alongside his own compositions. His own pieces range from his Fairytale Suite, inspired by recent trips to Germany, to a piece called Lakrima composed in memory of his late mother.

Christopher is passionate about telling his audiences about the role of 19th century musicians, and uses these ideas in a contemporary setting. There’s an interesting ethos behind the recitals. Christopher says:

“Being a classical pianist, I’ve always been aware of the fact that since the Second World War, pianists are rarely composers too, yet in the 19th century performing and composing worked hand in hand. That fascinated me. The likes of Liszt, Alkan, and Chopin’s recital programmes were mainly about stuff they had written themselves.”

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Christopher revels in these ideas, and produced a series of piano recitals to reinvigorate interest in the pianist-composer. He calls his style of music Romantic Minimalism, and the recent concerts in central Newcastle proved a hit with audiences.

In August he delivered Music for a Late Summer’s Evening, a recital which included the original set of compositions Postcards from Cornwall and other music loosely based on ‘summery’ impressionism, including some works by Debussy, Satie and the Grieg Lyric pieces. September saw his Fairy Tales and Fantasies recital, which was a programme of entirely original music, including Fairy Tale Suite, a collection of pieces which are emotional responses based on different fairy tales by The Brothers Grimm. They were also inspired by a recent trip along the Fairy Tale Route in Germany.

Christopher gets creative about most situations, whether it’s photographing it, writing about it, or composing music.

“For me, one of the draws of fairy tales is that they didn’t necessarily happen. I like the fact that they are folk responses to something that may or may not have happened, so it’s an interpretation of an event. There is something about the story of Hamelin, for example, that invokes a creative response. The pieces that I write aren’t meant to be programmatic, but they’re about feelings of the place or situation.”

Christopher is unashamedly romantic, and the idea of a subjective, emotional response is something to which he can relate. There is a scene for new compositions in popular music and jazz, but the same, it seems, can not be said of classical music.

“The unreserved acceptance of new classical music doesn’t seem to be as prominent as it is in other genres today, but this wasn’t the case in the 19th century. Back then, when the piano was perhaps enjoying its heyday, the instrument was a popular vehicle for fresh, new music, and especially improvisation. All the great composers I admire so much were famous improvisers”.

 

Christopher extemporises on themes and improvises a significant element of his piano recitals. As an audience member, it’s thrilling to watch and listen to. There’s no safety net as a solo performer, and certainly not one with music or lyrics in front of you.

But that’s what excites Christopher Watson, and while this modus operandi would send many a performer into a spin, he enjoys the thrill of this type of performance.

“Knowing many 19th century pianists were improvisers reminds me that a lot of great compositions started life as improvisations. The process of writing is that really no one sits down with a piece of paper. You have to experiment with musical ideas. The safety net is having no music and no bookends.

There are scores for all my compositions. They have been ‘written’. However, during the performance, it might go in a different direction. I want the freedom to allow the piece to take a different route. That’s the beauty of the piano recital.”

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Christopher also showcases his ‘fantasies’ in his recitals, and one of the most popular pieces at his recent concert was the Amy Winehouse Fantasy. Christopher explains that fantasy in the piano sense (in the 19th century) was a vehicle for popularising songs.

“Publishers would seek to hire a pianist because they were the pop stars of the day. So if someone was trying to promote a new opera, they would hire a pianist to play, promote and popularise the music from it. It went mad, especially in Paris. You could hardly turn a corner without a pianist of some renown playing a recital. They were the gigs of the 19th century. “

There is a market for this type of recital, as audience reaction can tell us this. Christopher’s recent recitals at St James’ United Reform Church and Royal Grammar School attracted a varied audience of novice students, seasoned performers, frequent concert-goers, and those who don’t normally go to recitals. It’s a brave move to play a concert of entirely original music, but Christopher is confident that the audiences are there.

“People thought the music was interesting and emotional. Some pieces made them cry or made them think about new things. Look at more ‘popular’ music, and people often relate to things with a dark, romantic feel to them. At my recitals everybody conjured up ideas. Young children thought of stories and characters in their heads while listening.”

So what’s next?

Christopher is planning a new recital for the end of the autumn. Long-term, he’s also working on a ballet based on the fairy tale Jorinda and Joringel.

Having been to the recitals, I feel I want to shout from the rooftops about how good and talented this performer is. Do something different this autumn, and go and hear him.

Keep up to date with Chris’ music at www.christopherwatsonmusic.com or follow Christopher Watson Music on Facebook.

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