Jersey Weekend

I wasn’t looking forward to a weekend of singing in Jersey - having lost my voice on Thursday evening I still hadn’t found it, and 3 gigs over the weekend wasn’t going to help!  

The first gig was at Roberto’s jazz bar in the Savoy Hotel, St Helier.  I had played there once before on my UK album tour in May this year, and had returned to see the bar fast becoming an official jazz venue - a stage area, plans to buy a piano, and black and white pictures of the jazz greats adorning the walls... and there was me!  A little picture amongst the Monks and the Ellas and the Coltranes. 

The following morning I found my way to the Merton Hotel, where the Jersey Big Band play every Sunday.  I was their special guest for the day which was a great privilege - they were a good band, and fronted by two very competent singers.  Voice not improving, I drank copious amounts of tea and tried not to talk to anybody during the breaks.  Luckily, they had an advantageous set design: sing one song, rest for two etc.  This certainly helped.  (I still had the ‘diva’ comment when someone said “Ooh, you don’t sound well,” and I said “No, I’ve lost my voice.”  How that’s a diva I’ll never know!)

Anna in foreground enjoying
a dance lesson.

Anyway, the songs sounded fine - they must have done because I sold out of the CDs I had taken - but I had lost all ability to sing in my head voice so had to belt out the tunes in my tiring chest voice.  Singing in this loud voice is tiring at the best of times, but coupled with the fact that I was having troubles anyway, I ended up totally exhausted.

The evening’s gig was a struggle.  Luckily I had identical twin sister Anna on hand to sing a few songs to give me a rest.

Overall a lovely weekend - good weather, good food and good company - but much more husky and definitely quieter than usual!

Cardiff Cafe Jazz, and the Hazards of being a Singer

Temperatures soaring, high fever... doesn’t sound much like Cardiff does it?!  No, it’s my body responding to the first three weeks back at school and a gruelling singing/teaching schedule.

I’m in Cardiff for a gig at Cafe Jazz.  I have visited Cardiff once before on jazz business - to sing at Dempsey’s during my UK album tour in May.  And, yes, as my name would suggest I have relatives in South Wales.  My grandparents were from Llanelli and Blaengwynfi.

I am joined on stage by a trio booked by Jazz Productions Wales man Ian Poole - who had in fact booked himself on drums, but had to pull out at the last minute owing to a back injury.  Greg Evans ably stepped into his shoes; Ashley Long demonstrated the fastest fingers I have ever seen (how anyone manages to play sustained triplet quaver passages on a double bass to my rip-roaring tempo of That’s All is beyond me); Dave Cottle in for flu-ridden Dave Jones on piano.  

Unfortunately, I’ve spent the day not feeling well.  I had even taken the afternoon off work which is so unlike me - definitely poorly then!  I arrived in Cardiff feeling a little shivery, but nothing a white wine and excellent chicken dish couldn’t ease.  

The first set went well: it’s a pleasure to play ‘busking’ standards with such competent musicians who bring something new to each tune.

However, by the second tune of the second set things weren’t going so well.  I felt it necessary to announce to the crowd that I was losing my voice.  

At the end of the show, someone came up to me at the bar and offered me a drink.  “No thanks,” I croaked.  “Oh, you’ve really lost your voice!” he said.  “Singer always moan: oh, I’ve got a sore throat...etc.”  

I know the sort: ‘I’ve got a cold... I usually sound better than this... etc. etc. moan, moan, moan.  I’ve made a conscious decision not to moan to anybody when I’m feeling under the weather, as it just invites the response “Oh, you sound fine” when they’re really thinking, “Stop fishing for compliments.”  

It’s frustrating though, as if you’re feeling under the weather even slightly, this can totally affect the way your body - ie. your instrument - works.  When I sing it’s a thrilling experience.  When the adrenaline works in the right way, it makes me feel GREAT!  However, even the slightest niggle can throw all that off balance and make me feel frustratingly crap.  

So when a singer says to you “Oh, that was terrible - I’ve got a cold,” they’re not fishing for compliments - they probably didn’t enjoy it at all.  Take pity on them!

Sector 7

Emma Smith

To start October in style, my new band - Sector 7 - had its first
rehearsal.  As you may guess, Sector 7 is a seven-piece band,
and it features jazz trio with 4 singers.  I’m very excited about
where it may go.

The inspiration to set up this band came from watching a gig 
with Pete Churchill’s London Vocal Project.  For part of the 
set, the choir sang behind the Jessica Berry quartet, and I was so
overwhelmed by the sound of so many voices and the power that

Shakka Phillip

it added to the music that I thought it would be great to start a
similar project.  Setting up a choir, however, is a massive
logistical stress, and Pete's group already does it brilliantly.  
So the idea to create a jazz band with backing singers was born.

I’m joined behind the mic(s) by Emma Smith - London Jazz 

Sarah Ellen Hughes

Vocal Award nominee 2010, Kwabena Adjepong and 
Shakka Phillip.  This band was conceived as being my jazz 
quartet with backing singers, but I soon realised that I was 
working with 3 singers better than me!  They are terrifically 
talented, and the two boys have roots in soul music, so the 
group - while predominantly being a jazz group - is exploring 
repertoire from artists like Stevie Wonder and Erykah Badu 
to showcase the diversity in voices that we have as a foursome. 






We will be recording an EP later in the year, and touring the 
group in 2011.  Watch this space!

Kwabena Adjepong

Caption Competition

I have recently been given the photos that were taken at the Jazz Voices competition that I won in Lithuania earlier this year... Captions suggestions please!

1.

2.   

3.

4.

Applauding Live Music

"Audiences at the Proms are ignorant of the correct time to clap and need educating to avoid spoiling the music for others, according to a classical music expert."

Clapping live music is an interesting debate, and one that I found myself caught up in after a visit to the Royal Albert Hall for a Prom this year.  My brother-in-law was playing bass clarinet with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and members of our family had a very enjoyable evening in support of him, and in appreciation of an excellent program of classical music.  

It's true - quite often an audience at a classical concert doesn't really know when to clap, and in between movements of  Chopin's 2nd Piano Concerto and Roussel's Symphony No. 3, I could feel the tension as people's hand moved closer together, waiting to see if someone else would initiate applause.  Annoyingly, we were sitting next to a group of young people whose main objective seemed to be to toy with the clapping habits of this anxious audience.  A movement came to an end; the conductor rested his arms; pages of music were turned; throats were cleared.  Suddenly a clean and crisp *CLAP* came from the seats next to ours which set off a Mexican ripple of applause around the hall.  Hilarious, apparently.

I can understand the difficult in knowing when to clap - and is there a right or wrong place to do it?  Certainly in jazz, the whole performance is interspersed with applause as the audience shows appreciation of individual musician's skill.  However, this is usually in response to a solo which is improvised - so you are effectively applauding the on-the-spot composition as well as the playing skills of the musician.  This wouldn't be the case in a classical concert, as the composer has laid down absolutely which notes are to be played and when - and the effect of a piece is in its entirety, not in its individual movements.  

Clapping at the Proms has initiated quite a few interesting discussions.  Jonathan Lennie, the classical editor of Time Out magazine, contributed this to the discussion "You don't have to reward the performers halfway through, this isn't opera, they do not expect it and most often resent the intrusion." [Telegraph Online]  I would be willing to bet that not a single person who was clapping between movements did it to show their appreciation of the music that had just happened - rather to break the embarrassment of silence, or to hide any embarrassment of 'not knowing when to clap.'  I am with the school of thought that it's incorrect to clap in the middle of pieces, but can understand that the Proms - a world-renowned concert series - attracts many listeners who aren't necessarily classical music aficionados.  Much better that people are actually attending the Proms and appreciating the music, than leaving the decision of when to clap to a smaller audience.

I would say that it's easier to know when to clap at jazz gig - for a start, it's rarely in a totally silent atmosphere that you would be listening to jazz, so the worry of breaking the silence doesn't exist so much.  Quite often the band leader will point to, or even announce, the soloist during the tune so inviting applause.  In fact, I've done gigs where I've felt surprised and a little uncomfortable when someone in my band has done a solo and not been applauded.  I have found myself thinking 'Doesn't this audience know anything about jazz?!'

I do find myself getting frustrated at classical concerts when the time between movements is interspersed with nervous applause.  Perhaps it's the nervousness that gets to me; if it were rapturous applause I may not mind so much.  

It's hard to know where the debate will end.  Proms director Roger Wright contributed to the above article by saying "Mozart rather enjoyed audiences clapping and Brahms was rather disappointed when they didn't clap between movements."  

Who knows what the accepted norm will be in another 100 years time?

Top Ten Anagrams

It's hard to make a list of the top 10 jazz musicians of all time in the world... ever!  So I have taken Jamie Cullum's suggestions from his recent top 10 list - The 10 best jazz musicians The Observer Sunday 23 May 2010 - and created a word puzzle.  


The names are now anagrams; the photos are random (well, they're the right people just in the wrong order)




Correct answers on a postcard please!  




1. Unlike moonshot


2.  Let lurking


3.  Tiny nasal worms


4.  Angelic knot


5.  You swim, I'll alarm


6.  Rather jet kit


7.  Conal horn jet


8.  Saved, I slim

9.  Oh, bare chicken


10.  Lush screaming

August Round-Up

It's been a good August, although perhaps not as hot as we would have liked!

I made my first visit to the Princess of Wales, Chalcot Road in Primrose Hill.  There is jazz every Sunday with the Pete Chapman Trio + guests.  A very enjoyable gig followed by a very good roast.  (Incidentally, the Princess of Wales is the site for the latest Banksy (or is it a fake?) and I forgot to go down and take a look!  I guess I'll have to return for some more jazz)


On Monday 16th, I was invited to attend the 2010 London Jazz awards, to report on the evening in my role as a contributor to the LondonJazz publication.  It was a wonderful evening, and you can find the report here: http://londonjazz.blogspot.com/2010/08/london-jazz-awards-winners.html

My quartet's August gig was at the Bull's Head in Barnes.  A wonderful venue, and well-attended (which can be unusual for a weeknight here), it was great to be playing again with the band.  We haven't performed all together since mid-June when we were on tour, so it was fantastic to get an hour or two of playing together.  The gig was recorded by UK Jazz Radio, and will be broadcast on Sunday 12th September at 8pm.  Visit www.ukjazzradio.com to listen.

And finally, August saw the birth of my new jazz group Sector 7.  A jazz trio fronted by 4 vocalists, we're still in the rehearsing stages as yet, but it will be going places soon.  Watch this space.  It's going to be filled magnificently.