An April Fool

April 1st brought two firsts: singing with the Duncan Fraser Big Band, and eating rabbit.  The second first was at The Old Red Cow, a 'proper' local pub - in the sense that it serves local food and drink.  I was confused by the wierd-shaped bone that I was nibbling on until I remembered that I was eating the leg of a rabbit!  But rabbit wasn't the reason I was there - I was performing on one of Barry Green's jazz nights, which are free entry every Sunday night to the intimate upstairs room of this jem of a pub and feature the London scenes best vocalists on a rotational basis.

Smithfield's local pub

The first first was a fantastic experience: Duncan Fraser is a trumpeter who is greatly influenced by the work of Kenny Wheeler, someone whose music I have hardly listened to.  So the Duncan Fraser Big Band uses a similar format of band to that of Kenny Wheeler's larger ensembles: with flugelhorn and voice as two lead instruments.  In the process of learning the repertoire and practising the demanding vocal lines, I had the chance to listen to and be inspired by this music - something which hasn't reached me before, and something that I blame partly on the fact that I didn't go to music college, and therefore wasn't exposed to a great deal of jazz that didn't fall into the Great American Songbook category.  But having heard and played this style of big band jazz, I will certainly be learning from it and writing one or two pieces in this style for my own big band.

So, thank you, Duncan, for booking me to sing in your band, and in your way influencing my own work!

The Duncan Fraser Big Band - CD available from  Esteem Records