So, there is no more procrastinating to be done.
Its time to write some new music – not that it’s that burdensome – it’s just a bit scary when you haven’t done it for a while.
My summer has been so full of domestic organising (have now moved and finished with all that!) punctuated only by some fun and funky summer school teaching. The Montgomerey/Holloway Summer School was a hardworking but exciting week working alongside the great team of Becki Biggins, Simon Colam, Dave Olney and the inimitable Harold Fisher. This was followed by a week at the new Jazzlines Summer School based at the Conservatoire in Birmingham, which brought together some very talented young jazz musicians from Birmingham Schools. I was really impressed with these amazing young people and delighted to be working alongside Percy Pursglove and Andrew Bain – both of whom are very charismatic and experienced educators.
There were some fabulous festival gigs with The Colman Brothers starting with the very special Mostly Jazz Festival. My bro’s were so excited to be slotted between two of their all time heros – Fred Wesley and George Clinton!. Then we enjoyed a brief 24 hour stay in Groningen for their ‘Swingin’ festival’ in Holland - wonderfully received and very well looked after. Bristol Harbourside Festival and Manchester Jazz festival gave the music the most wonderful opportunity – a chance to be completely live – No Track!! – full 10 trombones and trumpets alongside 5 piece rhythm section and me – That was really, really enjoyable and of course the music became a different creature – alive and so exciting!
So, now it’s time to be creative again.I took a listen to this – a song I co-wrote with Boo Hewerdine a couple of years ago – we did it in a day whilst I was at the UK Songwriting Festival. It was all there was to do, so that was all we did.
It’s reminded me that turning the phone and computer off and giving my full attention to writing on a regular basis will be productive – so I’m off to get on with it!
I’ll let you know how I get on. . . . . .
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under News tagged boo hewerdine, colman brothers, jazz festivals, songwriting