"Lebab"

Live recording made at Great Court of the British Museum on 5th July 2013.
Performance by 121-piece orchestra, all RNCM Students and participating in the "Sound Histories", RNCM 40th Anniversary event.

All you need to know - I gave the flimsiest guidance and sketched out the overall architecture of the piece.
There were five hours of rehearsal/preparation in the days running up to the performance.
The performers gave generously from their hearts and every sound and idea you hear is individually chosen by them, in the moment.
There is no conductor.
Any cueing required is heard, not visual and governed by collective intuition.

Geeky stuff: The entrance lobby of the British Museum is adjacent to the Great Court and separated by simple archways. 
Sound from the Great Court doesn't travel well into the lobby, but unfortunately it travels too well in the reverse direction.
Accordingly I applied a very aggresive Izotope RXII filter at certain points to remove a lot of that unwanted 'hubbub'. 
Works very well for most of it, but in the Harps & Guitars section the filter adds an unintentionally extra-other-worldly quality to the music (you'll hear bits of the hubbub ghosting in behind some of the playing.)
Hope you enjoy it. I did, and more than I can adequately relay in mere words.
As I said to the orchestra prior to the performance itself - this was an opportunity of a lifetime. Thank you to you all.

Lebab

Back in 2008, LIPA's "Large & Loose" made an album at Parr St Studios. No longer available in any form, but thought I would seasonally upload this as a reminder and thank you to all the noble souls who brought this arrangement of Shane MacGowan's famous epic to a spirited and unique fruition.
Happy Christmas and thanks, all of you. :-)

Fairy Tale Of New York

Many years ago, I turned up, 2am and frozen to the bone at the 606, in hope of finding somewhere to sleep. Bundling in with my bass, two late straggler jam freaks were still playing, just piano and drums. Their eyes lit up when they saw a bass arrive and urgently demanded I play along.
Still frozen, but desperate, I obliged. Seconds after the bass case was removed - "Giant Steps! 1, 2, a-1, 2, 3,4..." - at the speed of light.
I died. Ho hum.
Here's me years later, still carrying the scars of that night, but still searching to make some piece with Coltrane's feted tour de force.
This is as far as I have got, so far.
Single live take, in my practice room and to a keyboard accompaniment fashioned for the purpose.
The heating was on, mercifully. :-)

Pliant Steps

My Mum (in the picture).

I've always loved 'My Foolish Heart', first hearing it from the classic Bill Evans recording(s).
Recorded this in amongst Mac's drying laundry, in the dining room at his Ivinghoe bungalow.
Nice, cozy acoustic to practise in... :-)

My Foolish Heart

As it's the Easter hols, thought I'd do a spot of Caravanning, like you do...
More of my current fascination with trying to create a sense of melody + seperate bassline. Should probably figure out a less messy bridge - speaking of which, got in a bit of a pickle in final bridge but somehow, it checks out (almost).
(Borrowed the pic from http://www.saabsunited.com/2009/07/saab-motorhome-restored-to-former-glory.html
in case you want to check it out.)

Caravan

NARRADOR
A brief compilation of pieces from our first ever meeting, recorded 'on the fly' at rehearsal studio.

NARRADOR Montage Sampler Revised (15th Sept)

Metronome inventing its own odd time patterns, through varying pitch.
Didn't used to do this. Old age I guess...

Metronome In 7

Another example. There's probably some kind of logical explanation for which time signature it chooses, but I can't say I'm that bothered to figure it out.
Poor old thing.

Metronome In 19

Arising out of study with my students in Liverpool and Manchester. We've been considering some of the many dominant identities and this tune grew out of an attempt to link a string of them in as 'flowing' a manner as possible.
A hasty demo, assembled with sequenced percussion and Rhodes melody line. The bass(es) and piano however are real at least.

Steve Berry

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