Concerts

Another stonking night this Tuesday at the Grey Horse in Kingston. The John Bird Big Band was at full strength and on blasting form.  Among many highlights was this superb extended solo from Aaron Liddard.   A hugely enjoyable evening, but as is so often the case, the band outnumbered the audience.  This really surprises…

A once-in-a-lifetime experience listening to a very unique instrument. In a previous post I wrote about a performance of the St Saens ‘Symphony with Organ’ at the Albert Hall.  In researching that instrument, I learned about the organ at the Abattiale de St Oue, in Rouen, which is held by many to be one of…

Stride piano.  Something that you don’t hear every decade. The second album I ever bought, (after Astral Weeks), was called ‘The Jazz Piano’, and featured Willie ‘the Lion’ Smith, as well as Art Tatum,  Earl Hines and many others.  All those three were great exponents of stride piano, a genre that is almost never now…

Pumping away vigorously, the monumental  Albert Hall organ was given a sustained pounding by Thomas Trotter on Tuesday night, stunning promenaders, who gave ecstatic applause after a magnificent and thunderous climax.* The organ at the Albert hall is one of the wonders of London, and a genuinely thrilling instrument to hear.  It is the second…

Also, new camera proves quite effective, so your correspondent doubly chuffed.   I have always liked the Jayhawks – one of those bands that should have been bigger, but would probably have been worse as a result. The essence of the Twin Cities-based band was the close harmony between lead guitarist Gary Louris, and Mark Olson….

Friends and family probably don’t think of me as an emotional person.  Yet I do not by choice read books or watch films where the dog dies.  I don’t like it when the dog dies and that is why we don’t currently have a dog (or cat, as it turns out I don’t like it…