Thursday, March 24, 2011

Catch Up

Tues 22nd
10:30am - 12:30pm Unitec Diploma class in the music bunker

6:30 - 8:00 Poor Boy

9:30 A song w Andrew Keoghan, "Every Orchid Offering" The gig was at the Comedy Club and was very well attended. Andrew played with his band then about halfway through the band left the stage and I was invited up, the first of a number of cameo appearances by collegues of Andrews. Every Orchid Offering has had an amazing journey as a song. I first started playing it with him on tour with Flip Grater last year. ANdrew was playing a solo set to support Flip and he invited me to jam on this song. It went from that to a recording session/video shoot late last year, and then the performance this evening. WHo knows where next...?

Wed 23
12:45 - 2pm Drum lesson with Dean looking at Advanced Metronome Techniques.

6:30 - 8:30pm Poor Boy

9 - 10pm Drum lesson with Cameron looking into advnaced metronome techniques and begining the Teed Reed syncopation studies..

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Monday night w Elsebeth

2 - 3 Drum lesson. A quick look at the rhythm pyramid and jazz coordination drills. Showed a sneak preview of some advanced metronome techniques I've developed. We then got into Ron Samson's coordination drills, started reading through the Ted Reed Syncopation Studies, and looked at playing Gary Chester's excercises in the context of some basic rock beats. A jammed packed lesson! Afterwards on the walk back to Uni, we played John Stevens ONE TWO game in 2/4 and 3/4.

3 - 5 Combo8 at Auckland University. The group is finding its feet. A big jump from when I last heard them a couple of weeks ago. I showed them some nice arrangement tricks and still trying to get them to crack the dynamic thing. They need to bust out of the gray area and really explore the extremes of very quiet and very loud.

6:30 - 8 Poor Boy. The first early show of the season. The show is consolidating well, though the pre-recorded sound cues get worse with every hearing.

Ended the evening jamming along to my compilation of Alan Lomax recordings of old blues tracks. Elsebeth (my guitar) is sounding wonderful. I'm in love.

Sunday, March 20, 2011

the BIG screen


Wow a photo taken by a mate of my mother's who happened to be at the Roxy Music gig.

Jazz at the Rotunda

12pm - rocked up to the Auckland Domain Band Rotunda to meet Kingsley and chat about our set this afternoon. It was to be the last in the Jazz at the Rotunda series for this summer. Our band was lead by Kingsley Melhuish, with Neil Watson on guitar and Ross Larson on bass. Kings had put together a nice set of music, which featured his multi-instrumental skills - guitar, trumpet, trombone, conch shells, and vocals. Kings and I have played a lot together over my years in Auckland in various line ups, but I'd never backed him singing before. His voice is beautiful!
Our set:

1. Collective Improv
2. Bemsha Swing (Thelonius Monk)
3. Come Rain or Shine (Harold Arlen lyrics Johnny Mercer)
4. Mood Indigo (Duke Ellington, Barney Bigard lyrics Irving Mills)
5. Don't You Feel My Leg (Danny Barker, J. Mayo Williams, Blue Lu Barker)
6. Monkey Man (Toots and the Maytals)
7. Cy's Eyes (K Melhuish)

What a fresh repertoire. I'd never played Monkey Man, though I know it well. I love playing tunes I know and love for the first time on gigs.

I played the gig on Frank Gibson's drums, a tidy wee Yamaha bebop kit. Tight tuning on the toms, a beautiful snare and lovely small, open bass drum. Apart from the kick pedal which kept slipping off the bass drum, it was enjoyable to play. Cheers Frank!

After our set Frank played with Andy Atwell on bass, Murray McNab keyboards and a visiting saxoophonist and vocalist from the UK. I heard a few of the usual jazz standards before I had to leave.

ethipoiques, rhythm pyramids and poor boy opening

1pm Rehearsal w Don McGlashan. We are learning a piece of music called "Yekermo Sew" by Mulatu Astake. Its for a gig organized by Nick Dwyer, a multicultural fest at mid-day Sun 27th in Mt Roskill Park. Its a pretty straight forward tune, though Don is playing the melody on Euphonium which seems quite challenging!


3:30pm A drum lesson, focusing on the rhythm pyramid and the preliminary jazz independance exercises. A good lesson. Taylor is doing well.

8pm Opening night of Poor Boy. Well it went okay I thought. The bands performance was generally excellent though we had a few weird moments - which probably went unnoticed by the audience.. The comments after the show were generally along the lines of "wow the music was great" (which it is!!) the subtext being that the play wasn't so good... Sure it isn't everyone's cup of tea I guess. The story is growing on me. It has a lot of depth. Has Raymond done it justice as director?? Perhaps not... perhaps it needs to be dirtier, more dynamic... The sound effects in the play are terrible in my opinion. AH well.. come and see it and you be the judge!

Saturday, March 19, 2011

Unitec and Poor Boy Part 2

9:30 - 11am Todays class was the drum lesson class. I explained the rhythm pyramid and we went through the basic subdivisions exploring the different styles of music characterized by each subdivsion and how this changes when the tempo speeds up/slows down. I then demonstrated a basic drum beat in each subdivision and we went round the class giving everyone a go. When you take it a beat at a time, anyone can do it, even after they insist they cant.

12pm - 2 Diploma Group. A small group this one a quartet. It'll be a nice group, heavy metal and RnB/gospel being the two main influences. That should make for some interesting flavors I hope. We jammed a bit, and then we had a close examination of John Stevens ONE TWO game, taking it into versions in 3/4, 4/4 and 5/4. The group took to it well. We then played a cool game setting up different themed pathways around the group - names, a phrase from a song, and an animal sound. Each theme forms a unique loop and the challenge for the group is to have all three simultaneously going. Looking forward to putting this one on instruments.

2pm Fern Christi stage manger for Poor Boy picked me up and we raced back to the Maidment for a 2:30 dress rehearsal. From the bands perspective it was a shocker. Loads of mistakes, weird volume levels... and to our astonishment we get wonderful praise at the end of the run. Go figure.

6:30m Drilled a bunch of the songs for the 2nd preview later this evening. Especially the first one, Poor Boy. Its a tricky arrangement with lots of changes in dynamics and texture. We got it sitting nicely after a few goes.

8pm 2nd preview. A very good performance. We nailed our monitor levels before the show and it made a big difference compared to the earlier performance. We were able to really inject some feeling into the songs, and the singers responded with good performances too. Brett played some killer solos this evening. I'm thrilled to be sitting right next to him! Raymond reckoned in his notes after the show that we own it now, its ours. He's right. Opening night is going to be just fine.

Friday, March 18, 2011

Unitec and Poor Boy

9.30am - 11am Unitec Certificate Class - an unruly mob of rough diamonds. They have come to the course learn about music and are up for it it seems. I cajoled four of them into singing an accapella number and their voices are beautiful! Another couple of ensembles rose up out of the throng of around 20 to play a little bit. There is plenty of good talent in there, and the usual few cheeky lads. We examined furthur John Stevens rhythm piece ONE TWO. An hour and a half goes by very quick!

1:30pm - 3:30pm Poor Boy dress rehearsal. It was shaky. Our first time through with the whole production in full swing. A new acoustic space to adjust to. There are some big spaces for me in this show where I am not doing much.

6:30 Back to the Maidment to run a few tunes that went pair shaped earlier today, and tighten up a few things before the first preview at 8pm. We still hadn't tried the music for the bows yet, a nice down beat version of the song Poor Boy.

8pm First preview. There was an audience of about 200 folks. The show was definitely still undercooked, but I guess they weren't paying full orice. Stil I feel for the actors having to perform a piece still ubder rehearsed.. The run went great from our perspective, a definite step up from the afternoon. Feedback from Tim was that we can really go for it in the scene changes with the transition music as there are no lines being said and no one on stage even, I'm going to err on the side of VERY LOUD tomorrow and see what happens. Looking forward to two more runs tomorrow the opening night Saturday.

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Gimel Performance

Tues 15th March 6 - 7pm We (Gimel) played our set this eve and it went very well. I got a sketchy outline of the music off Jonathan minutes before our set started and, on top of our rehearsal last Sunday, it worked great for me. Just one piece of paper with the important data I could take in at a glance - more like a set list with time signatures and the odd phrase written out. It meant my head wasn't buried in a chart and I could catch Jonathan's visual cues - of which there were many! We successfully toned down our performance to great effect. I felt there was much more breathing space in the music. It had more poise and composure than our performance at the Band Rotunda in Albert Park a month ago. Wayne Laird from Atoll Records was there to record the concert and I gather it was captured without any hiccups. So the proof shall be in the pudding. Good comments afterwards from friends and colleagues in the audience. More and more I can appreciate positive feedback.
So that was my last gig at the Garden Bar. Thanks to Sandy the sound man and Amber the stage manager for being helpful and relaxed and wonderful.

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

rehearsals, a lesson and a new release

Sat 12th
10am - 1pm Our 2nd Sitzprobe for Poor Boy. We mostly looked at the in between music bits like scene changes and segues between tunes, playouts, intros etc.. Shaping up well. Tim Finn was there. It got pretty intense with the actors copping instructions from every side. I thought John handled the situation very well. Tim, while not directly involved in this production, still has a lot invested in it of course because they are his precious songs. John has really gone out on a limb with his interpretation of the songs, moving away from a pop treatment into a more chamber like, sonically playful world. Tim isn't shy about suggesting changes to Johns arrangements (and neither is Raymond for that matter!!) and John is so gracious and humble at accommodating their ideas. Tim to his credit has been very open minded about the whole affair. I think, musically at least, this production will be a great success!!

2pm - 3pm drum lesson. Ah yes a great lesson today, thanks Taylor! When you learn a new beat, how well have you learned it? As well as the amount of tempos you can play it, and it is going slow that counts, and I mean S L O W . . . .
Plenty of work on the amazing wonderful rhythm pyramid too. I love that thing!

Sun 13th - Gimel rehearsal at Jonathan Besser's house. We have a gig at the Garden Stage in Aotea Square this Tuesday. Jonathon's music is beautiful. I have always liked it. Its kind of romantic and programmatic and just breathtakingly beautiful. Jonathan plays the piano with such unabashed enthusiasm and passion, it more than makes up for his erratic time keeping. John Bell plays vibraphone and Peter Scott plays bass. Our last gig at the Band Rotunda in Albert park was recorded and some of the music came out wonderfully. We are much better rehearsed for this Tuesday and its being recorded by Wayne Liard of Rattle Records. Fongers crossed we play a good set!

Mon 14th
8:30am - 12pm Sound checks and band rehearsals for Poor Boy down at the Maidment theatre. Its a much better sound down there than at the ATC rehearsal rooms so that was a relief. Our set up is nice and intimate. I'm sitting very close to Brent and John, and I can see Maree just over the piano. Its coming together well. Tim was all smiles and Raymond was enjoying our music too.

3 - 5 Poor boy run through of all the songs. Fine tuned levels. The actors are all mic'd and we have a couple of monitors to hear them. The songs really coming together now we've played them a bunch of times. Great fine tuning the parts and dynamics. I have some great triangle moments!

Jonathan Crayford has released a trio recording he, Patrick Bleakley and I did quite a few years ago. Here is the link - http://music.jocray.com/track/decision
There are some hard swinging moments!!! Cheers Jo!

Saturday, March 12, 2011

The Birth of Tihn Lantern

10am - Poor Boy Sitzprobe. This term is an odd one. It refers, as I understand it, to the moment that the band and cast get together for the first time and sing through the material of the show before putting it on its feet in the context of the acting and/or dancing. It was cool to run through a bunch of the somgs in order and get a bigger picture of the whole sound world of this show. We have another one Saturday morning - in a few hours yikes!!
It went pretty well considering how undercooked a lot of our parts are. Raymond seemed to like a lot of it.

1:30 Last rehearsal with Sean and James before heading down to sound check at the Garden Bar. We ran through the few ideas we'd dreamed up and Sean bought another synth to try. Short and sweet and off to soundcheck...

4 - 4:30 Sound check. Yep Sandy the sound man for the Garden Stage is onto it. All the sounds working. Its shaping up to b a good gig.

4:45 - 5:45 Drum lesson for Cameron, a student at Massey University. We ran the independence drills based on Alan's teachings and then did some mind bending rhythm pyramid work. I love the rhythm pyramid/table of time body of exercises.

6 - 7 First set of the night was a BLINDER!! We easily filled the time with synth soundscapes and minimalist beats, a slowly evolving cinematic sound world. The pieces we prepared slotted into set very nicely. I had a hinch this combunation would work a treat and I was right. I think this band has legs.

11 - 12 Second set was fun too! A bit odd to wait 4 hours between sets, but we did come up with a name (thanks Chelsea!) Tihn Lantern. I felt a tad tired just before going on, but once we began I dropped back into the zone and before I knew it 40 minutes had gone WOOOSH!!!! Another beautiful set.

Thursday, March 10, 2011

teachin' and giggin'

9:30am First class at Unitec this morning. First year certificate students, a group of about 16 students mostly younger folks. We talked music for a bit, I showed them John Steven's ONE TWO exercise. Its great for fine tuning one's sense of rhythm. I then split the class up into two groups and they'll be devising a piece of music tomorrow in my absence..

4pm Sound check at the TV3 Garden Stage for gig w Age Pryor.

6 - 7pm Age and I were very excited about this gig. We've been work shopping using Ableton Live for the last few months, and a few practices ago we abandoned doing anything pre-prepared. So just before going on, while being well drilled in our process, we still had absolutely no idea how the music would go. Brilliant. And the gig went well, especially the first part. There are still a few problems too iron out, especially keeping track of where beat ONE is once the layers start building up. I have a gig booked at the Wine Cellar in May so we'll look forward to working towards that one.

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

two rehearsals + two students = cup of tea and a lie down

Am really packing it in at the moment.

9:30am Rehearsed with Sean and James for our gigs at the Garden Bar Stage in Aotea Square this Friday. Sean has this amazing keyboard that has an iphone dock so you can play the synth apps. It sounds amazing. We gonna bust out some wicked electro-kraut-minimalist jams this Friday I suspect!!

12 - 2 Had a couple of students. Dean from the jazz course at Massey and Cameron form the jazz course at Auckland University. I'm getting them both familliar with the Table of Time and Allan Dawson's system of developing jazz drumming independence. Still working through the preliminary stages with the guys and its bending their heads. Brilliant stuff!! Set them both the task of establishing a research angle with their music listening and both have decided to start with Jack DeJohnette. I think we'll work backwards through his influences towards the origins of the drumset.

7 - 9.30 Poor Boy rehearsal with John Gibson our musical director and bassist Maree. We did some great detailing tonight, nailing down exactly whre the accents need to be on some of the tunes. We have our sitzprobe on Friday and it will be the bands first appearance in front of the dreaded Raymond Hawthawne. I hope he isn't too badly behaved.

Todays work and a gig at the Ak Fest

Had a get together with Sean James Donnelly to discuss plans for our two sets of music this Friday in Aotea Square. I showed him my ideas - a melody and some chords, and Sean is gonna play his iphone synth apps with a keyboard you can plug into it... wow looking forward to hearing that. We rehearsing tomorrow with James Duncan so we'll see how it goes. I'm hoping we can have a pretty relaxed jam on the day.

Trained with Fern into the Henderson campus of Unitec to the music department, where I have some teaching work this year, and caught up with Glenda Keame my fabulous boss and Age Pryor who had his first class there today. He had a good time. Mentoring bands is probably one of the most satisfying music teaching gigs I know of - especially when you have colleagues as amazing as the ones at Unitec. My first classes are this Thursday and Friday. My first couple of weeks will be disrupted a bit with Poor Boy rehearsals, but Age can cover me and Glenda is cool with that.

Played my second gig on the TV 3 garden bar stage this eve with The Grant Winterburn Experience - Grant on keys and Aaron Coddel on electric bass. What an eclectic set we played... Grant had an arrangement of Thus Spake Zarasthustra, Aquarious (from the HAIR musical), Caravan, James Brown's I Got You... yes something for everyone. It was a beautiful afternoon.

Ned Ngatai showed up for the dj set afterwards and rightly queried about the lack of free drinks. I must say that the AK Festival doesn't really look after local musicians very well. During the set with Storehouse on Saturday the show in another venue in Aotea Square was running late. Tom, the main vocalist, suggested that we wait and start a bit later and play a bit later, but we had to start at 11pm on the dot and had to play with the main PA speakers turned off until the other show finished, which is kind of ridiculous and inflexible, kind of "computer says no".

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

The last few days....

These Four Walls - The rest of the season went well as far as the audiences went. Each night more people came. The show itself deteriorated over the three nights I felt. We drilled it so hard leading up till opening night, then took our feet off the gas and the next two shows were both wobbly, especially in the chorus work. No doubt my dissappointment after the last show was exacerbated by my high expectations. A good lesson there. And over all still a very rewarding experience.

Jack Dejohnette Workshop - so great to see Jack play again and hear about his ideas around music as a healing force through the power of the intent behind it. He played some nice solos and used a mic to pick up the lower frequencies of the cymbals - the soul of the cymbals he said.

Don McGlashan and the Seven Sisters supported Roxy Music on Sunday at Villa Maria. WE had our last practice on Saturday afternoon and it was a goodun. The gig on Sunday was a ripper. We played great. There were thousands of people in the audience, the sound system was fantastic and apparently we towered like gods above the audience on two huge screens that flanked the stage. After our set there was a huge line of folks waiting to buy CD's off Don and get them signed. It was great to see Don so excited about that!

Storehouse at the Festival Garden Bar - 11 till midnight on Saturday I played w Store House and it rained and the good people danced anyway! Very hard not to dance when Tom Rodwell is stomping his box.

So that brings me up to Monday:

Rehearsed with Age Pryor this morning for our gig on Thursday eve at the Festival Garden Bar. Another couple of nice pieces improvised into the looping universe of Ableton Live.

Took a music class at Auckland Uni with Combo 8. They're a very studious group, thankfully. We played an original, as well as Spain, and a John Scofield tune. Twas a good session.

Poor Boy rehearsal in the evening. things making progress there. Completely abandoned the drum kit now. Going for a percussive set up with lots of sound effects. Its bound to change again before opening night next week!!

Frank Gibson got on my case about the bebop drummer Pete La Roca. I ran into Frank at the Jack DeJohnette workshop. SO tonight I downloaded Sonny Rollins live at the Vanguard. It features both Pete and Elvin. Thanks for the tip off Frank its a great record!

Thursday, March 3, 2011

The After Glow

How wonderful to make a performance work with a group of talented artists with no budget and no time and pull it off!! We did it tonight! These Four Walls, I am happy to say, is a beautiful, challenging, delightful piece of performance art.

On getting home after the show, still bathing in the euphoria of our accomplishment, I sent off this heart felt invite to my Auckland friends:

dear friends,

tonight was the opening night of These Four Walls in the Auckland Fringe Festival (we have TWO MORE PERFORMANCES) and I am delighted to say it was WONDERFUL!!!

Its a stellar cast:

Genevieve McLaine
Tahi Mapp-Borren
Nigel Gavin
Chris O'Connor
Regan Taylor
Tessa Mitchel
Matt Sunderland

The show is all about Lopdell House. An olde worlde parlour variety type show brimming with improvisational creativity and wonderful performances. Poetry, music, story telling... its a treat.

The two remaining shows are Friday and Saturday nights 7.30 start. There are door sales.

I know its a dreadfully busy time, but if you can make it along, I'd be proud to perform this show to you.

Chris x

I hope we get good houses for our remaining shows!!

musical workings March 2nd 2011 (yesterday)

Musical workings March 2nd 2011 (yesterday)

9:30 - had a rehearsal with Mr James Duncan for our gigs in the Garden Bar that has been set up in Aotea Square for the Auckland Arts Festival. We playing a couple of sets Fri 11th March - check out our timings here. Generating some very nice material for these sets.

7:30 - did a couple of run throughs of our Lopdell House piece with the These Four Walls crew. We open tonight!! The first run was a nightmare for me. I seemed a leats a scene behind everybody else. After solving a few problems the second run showed glimmers of brilliance. Tonight our dress rehearsal will be a big leap forward again and then its our first go with an audience!

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Rehearsal w the Seven Sisters for the Roxy Music gig

Playing with Don McGlashan and his band the Seven Sisters at Villa Maria I think it is this Sunday supporting Roxy Music. Nathan Haines is on the bill too. What a crazy line up. We had our second to last rehearsal before the gig this eve and it was very good. A few tunes that hadn't been feeling that great came together thank goodness. Envy of Angels had proved elusive before tonight- a minimal brushes feel pitter pattering away needing too be plain yet breathing with the dynamics of the words. Finally getting it I hope! Dave Khan is our new member on fiddle, accordian, guitar and backing vocals. He is great he adds heaps!
One more rehearsal on Saturday to run the set and we'll be ready to bust some very beautifully sculpted pop songs on the good peoples' ears.

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

A Big Day

Music activities on Mon 28th Feb....

9am A meeting at the Auckland University music school w Ron in the jazz department at he Kenneth Myers Center on Shortland Street. I'm tutoring a couple of drummers up there this year - Tristan and Taylor, and I'm mentoring Jazz Combo 8 as well. Ron has put together a thorough bunch of material for the drummers to work through. Classic stuff that I've enjoyed wrestling with myself in the past. It will be nice to re engage with these classic jazz drumming techniques!

11am - 2pm Rehearsing for These Four Walls. A hard core session of blocking scenes, drilling songs, and problem solving tricky bits, of which there are still a few!! Opening night is immanent!

3 - 5pm Combo 8. A nice wee band I'll be working with at AK Uni this semester. Louis on drums, Nik and Sam on guitars, David on bass, Erina on vocals, Alina and Crystal playing piano. The rehearsal room had nice acoustics and natural light. We jammed on a few pieces to get acquanted - an original work by Alina called Saraband, and the ol classics The Girl from Ipaneeeema, Footprints and Bags Groove. ALl the usual issues to be addressed - listening listening listening!! Making the music interesting w devious and cunning tricks. DYNAMICS!!! They sounded pretty good for the first day of semester. We''l have fun I think.

7:30 - 10 Poor Boy band rehearsal. The highlight of my day in that I got to sit down behind my drums and do what I do best - explore my drums with exquisite musicians, which Maree, John and Brett indeed are. We found some gold today, as director Jade Ericson would say, GOLD!!! There's gooold in them there hills! The cello is sweet so sweet. Brett brought some flash pedals and we nailed a few arrangements. Raymond Hawthawne threatened that there would be changes though, so better not get too attached to anything. We spent a bit of time figuring out our set up. As usual the set designers have given the band a very small space to play in... but we came to a cozy solution...