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Eric Roche benefit gig…

Today, Eric Roche would have been 38. He already had Haverhill Arts Centre booked for a gig to celebrate. Sadly, he died too soon. So instead, the venue decided to put on a Tribute gig, which would act as a benefit gig for his family, and the bookings co-ordinater at the venue, Nick Kemble, set about booking lots of Eric’s friends to come and play, and ended up with a stellar line up – Max Gilkes, Ravi, Stuart Ryan, Steve Lockwood and Chris Newman, Boo Hewerdine and me.

Max kicked things off with a solo set, followed by me – I did Grace and Gratitude, which just before I went on I decided I’d segue into ‘Deep Deep Down’ by Eric, which is usually in G and had to be in Bb, to fit over the Gminor of Grace and Gratitude. I followed that with a version of ‘Lovely’ with Steve Lockwood on harmonica, and then did People Get Ready, started solo and was joined by Steve and Chris, which was great.

However, the more keen-eyed of you will notice a glaring omission from my set list… who was the gig in honour of?: Who have I written a tune for that I’ve played at every solo gig I’ve done in the last 5 months? How on earth did I forget to play my tune for Eric???? what on earth was going on in my head when I was thinking back stage ‘hmmm, what shall I play?’ – sometimes, I amaze myself with my own sieve-brain-ness.

Anyway, I came back on during Steve and Chris’ set to play a funky blues with them, and again during Stuart Ryan’s set to play an uptempo blues with him and Steve. And then finally at the end, I sat in on the last of Boo’s tunes, and we all finished together with a version of ‘The Water Is Wide’ – a folk song that Eric played regularly, and recorded a lovely version of.

All it all, it was a magic night – everyone played well, the venue was packed, the sound was great, and they sold tonnes of Eric merch, meaning a healthy chunk of cash goes to his family.

Don’t forget to go and buy his CDs, especially ‘With These Hands’ – it’s amazing. I’ve had a few people mention with some surprise that they’d bought things on my recommendation from the blog that turned out to be amazing. Believe me, i ONLY recommend things here that I think are genuinely marvellous. I’ve got lots of lovely friends who make CDS and write books and stuff that are fine, but aren’t world-beating, so I save my recommendations here for things that are magical. Eric’s CDs are just that – magical. Do yourself a favour and get one.

It was a real privilege and an honour to be a part of the gig, to help support his family, to play with such great musicians, and to contribute my noises to a celebration of a life well lived. If you were there, thanks for coming – all of us who performed had a fantastic time.

(oh, and Nick did a great job of the compering… ;o) )

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"Intention is Audible"

It’s one of those things I tell my students all the time. ‘Intention Is Audible’ – if you’re writing music just so other people who play the same instrument as you will think you’re a badass and can play faster than them, that’s going to come across in the music, and it’s very unlikely to have any emotional impact on your listeners. If you are playing out of some sense of obligation to some outside standard of what is and isn’t acceptable, the likelihood is that it’ll be plainly obvious that it isn’t from the heart. It’s why so much modern pop is as dull as shit, why not one of the TV talent shows has, as yet, produced a genuinely creative artist. That Will Young is the best we have is a sad indictment on the whole sorry charade.

Every now and again, the ‘intention is audible’ line is hammered home to me in a positive way (the negative stuff is there in so much music every day, sadly). One such experience is listening to ‘Duw A Wyr’ by Lleuwen Steffan/Huw Warren and Mark Lockheart. It’s a collection of Welsh hymns from the time of the revival, sung in welsh and given a european jazz reworking. And it’s beautiful.

But more than that, it’s deeply moving. Remember, it’s sung in welsh – there are translations on the sleeve, but I’ve intentionally avoided them thus far, as I’m allowing the music to impact me on a purely emotional level. And it works. Boy, it works. One particular track, ‘Gwahoddiad’, is one of the most uplifting things I’ve heard in years. The intention of the song is crystal clear in the performance, in the intonation of the voice. It’s incredible. Maybe I’ll have a read of the words later on. Maybe I won’t. It’s gospel music in its purest form – ‘good news’.

And it reminds me why I do what I do. Playing solo bass that isn’t all histrionic fretboard gymnastics and slapping, tapping circus tricks is definitely a ‘road less travelled’. There are very few solo bassists around, even fewer that aren’t spending their time pushing speed and agility as their main frontiers. To keep heading down this path into music where the emotional narrative is front and centre is a juggling act, given that it requires a lot of work on all those technical control and awareness issues that the twiddly stuff requires but without the pay-off that your peers rave about your wikkid skillz. Instead you get the pay-off of people being moved by what you do, being changed in some way by hearing it. I get enough of these stories from people to make it worthwhile. It’s never going to be a mainstream choice of music career (well, I guess it might be, I’d be happy to end up looping, layering and noodling on Top Of The Pops… or at least on Jools Holland’s show…), but it’s one that ultimately is so much more fulfilling for me creatively.

For any musician, learning to practice, absorb and then dismiss virtuosic technique is a huge challenge. For extreme virtuosity and emotional impact to be resident in the same player is incredibly rare – Coltrane would be one, Michael Manring another. Keith Jarrett’s one, Pat Metheny is more than capable of it. And Eric Roche, for whose family I’m playing a benefit gig on Sunday night, was definitely one, one who inspired me hugely, who encouraged me to pursue those aims, to carry the tension forward on my own journey into deeper musical understanding, and greater control of musical vocabulary and expression.

The gig on Sunday night, at Haverhill Arts Centre will be a great chance to give credit where it’s due. The rest of the bill is pretty fine too – Boo Hewerdine, Steve Lockwood and Stuart Ryan are all fabulous musicians that I’m really looking forward to playing with and listening to.

Soundtrack – Lleuwen Steffan/Huw Warren/Mark Lockheart, ‘Duw A Wyr’

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Hacker logic

So my forum was hacked. The hacker in question was clearly a fairly benign hacker – no links to porn, no major disruption. It was actually more of a warning than anything else. However, in the process of upgrading my site to the new very with all the security patches, I’ve lost all the edits I made to the templates. I did a backup of everything before hand, but apparently ‘everything’ doesn’t include edited templates. Ah, my mistake, I thought this was the ‘everything’ usage of the word ‘everything’, rather than the version of the word ‘everything’ that means ‘not quite everything, actually’.

So the forum looks a bit weird at the moment. And probably will do for while – it took me ages to get it looking nearly right last time (I never quite got the integration spot on – some font differences and a patch of grey background behind the links bar), but I’ll have a go at it soon enough… and this time I’ll see if I can back up the files as I go along…

grrrr.

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The myth of 'customer service'

For two days running, I’ve been trying to call the phone number of a government department to get some advice. Yesterday’s was Customs and Excise (trying to find out how to send the Looperlative back to Bob for him to repair my huge mistake), and today it’s called the Inland Revenue, to find out why I’ve suddenly been sent a bill for FOUR YEARS of national insurance payments, with one month to pay and no prior warning, despite having paid my NI on my last god-knows-how-many tax bills…

Sadly, both lines are permanently engaged. I’ve been trying for ages. Yesterday, I eventually gave up and emailed HMRC and they kindly called me back this morning with the info I required (very confusing call though – apparently, they can’t really deal with the idea that you can be sent an electrical item to beta test that has a declared value – either it’s a beat unit and isn’t worth anything, or it’s worth something and therefor you bought it. The notion that there’s a declarable insurance value because of the work that’s already gone into it, despite it not having a street value due to it being a prototype is not something covered in UK customs legislation… doh!)

So today I’ll be mostly hitting redial and hopefully eventually finding out why I’ve suddenly got this bill, and what it’s for!

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Credit where it's due…

Tonight was the Doug Wimbish gig at the Bass Centre – Doug always puts on a great show, and tonight was no different. He was in town for the launch of the new Trace Elliot range – Trace, now owned by Peavey (after having been run into the ground by Gibson), have redesigned and relaunched their stuff, which was sounding mighty fine.

Anyway, the amazing thing about tonight was realising how much I’d nicked from Doug the first time I saw him give a clinic, back in the mid-90s. That was at the old Bass Centre in Wapping, and he and Keith LeBlanc played to a packed room. Hearing him again today, using loads of tricks and techniques that are now a firm part of my musical arsenal, reminded me just how pivotal that first clinic was in me getting my sound together.

Which is why the Bass Centre putting on these clinics is such a fantastic addition to bass life in London – if you’re a bassist in London and you’re not yet going to these, YOU’RE MISSING OUT! These are free events, put on by the shop, where we get to see up close what these amazing musicians do, and then ask them questions about it. It doesn’t get much better than that, and there are few good reasons for not being there. That the building isn’t rammed to the ceiling with music students amazes me.

anyway, it was a good crowd, Doug played his arse off, and everyone went away happy.

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'sorry mate, your names not on the list'

I was just sending a message to my mailing list about a gig this weekend (Sunday night in Haverhill, near Cambridge, see gigs page for details), and thought I’d big up the mailing list here, as some of you may not be on it, and may not have thought to join it, thinking I post all the news here…

…well I don’t, so if you want to keep up with gig dates, cd news etc. please head over to the mailing list signup page – there you can join the ordinary mailing list, the street team mailing list or the Recycle Collective list. Or sign up for all three – you won’t get duplicates of messages if I happen to send them to more than one list (PHPlist is clever like that).

The street team, in case you were unaware, are a lovely bunch of people who help me to spread the word about what I do – they post on internet message boards, dish out flyers, put up posters and in some cases promote gigs! They’re a vital part of the stevie-plan for world domination, and I appreciate bigly all they do.

So go on, sign up now!

Soundtrack – Prefab Sprout, ‘Steve McQueen’.

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another important anniversary

yesterday was one year to the day since we got the Fairly Aged Felines. One very fine year of them bringing much joy into the house, and us building up their trust, them learning how to get us to feed them when they want, dealing with a couple of health scares, and feeling grateful every day for their presence in the house.

Happy Anniversary, boys!

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Two important anniversaries

Today is an important day for two reasons – one, it’s World AIDS day, and two, it’s the 50th anniversary of Rosa Parks’ monumental decision to not move on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama. Don’t let either of these days go unmarked in your world.

For World AIDS day, do some research into what’s causing the spread of AIDS, the places in the world where its growing fastest, and how hard it is for them to get the medication they need. Petition your elected officials to do more to fund education initiatives in the places where it’s an epidemic. In Botswana, 30% of children born have the HIV virus. 30%!!!! that’s an inconceivable statistic. The stats on the spread of AIDS across Africa are terrifying, and it’s still rolling on, there are still squabbles over drugs companies refusing licenses to produce the drugs cheaply to keep people alive, still squabbles over Catholic leaders telling men infected with HIV/AIDS not to use condoms to protect their wives – look, I’m generally fairly old fashioned, i think abstinence is generally a good idea – very few people are messed up by not having enough sex – but the idea that limiting access to contraception is more important that protecting people from the AIDS virus is ludicrous. That there are religious and cultural stigmas attached to condom useage across huge parts of the world is a travesty, and one that needs to be campaigned against virulently.

What can we do today to help stem the spread of HIV/AIDS? Check out the DATA website for more info, and ways to help.

And on the anniversary of the bus boycott, let’s not forget that Racism still exists, that Europe is becoming an evermore xenophobic continent, that an unofficial economic colour bar still operates in the US. Today, two Liverpool teenagers are going on trial for murdering a young black guy with an ice axe. That such thinking still exists in Britain today is a tragedy. That racism was ever legal in the UK,US, South Africa, etc. is a blot on all of our consciences.

I was watching a documentary the other evening about forgotten stories from the world war. One of the people mentioned was Walter Tull, who was Britian’s second black professional footballer, and first Black army officer. The tragedy of this is that at the time it was still illegal for a Black man to be an officer in the forces. That he triumphed over the racism is testimony to Walter’s strength of character (he was also from a working class background at a time when the officer’s rank was almost exclusively upper class, with a few middle class people), but it’s a disgrace to the forces that we ever had a time when people were excluded on grounds of race…

Heavy stuff, both AIDS/HIV awareness and racism, I know, but if you’re lucky enough to live a life not directly influenced by either, give thanks and use your oh so privileged position to make a change for those not so lucky…

Soundtrack – Peter Gabriel, ‘Up’.

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today was meant to be looperlative day…

OK – here’s how my first draft blog post looked this morning –

Finally, last night Bob and I (well bob, really – I just pushed the buttons I was told to!) got the Looperlative updated and working. I’m now vaguely conversant with the ways of Windows Hyperterminal, and have typed lots of numbers into it to make the box work. Just don’t ask me what the numbers mean, or ask me to repeat it without Bob talking me through it…

Anyway, it’s working, my MIDI pedal board is hooked up and I’m putting it through its paces. I’m going to go through my tunes and see which of them I can do on here with the software as it stands. Even at this level (with software revisions happening all the time) the feature set is great. Just having stereo in/out and 8 tracks of stereo independent loopage is fantastic, and programming a midi controller to have it do whatever you want it to do is really easy.

sadly, at that point, I think I blew it up… loose end of a power supply cable came into contact with the board… schoolboy error on my part, bit of a major f***-up, which has changed my day’s plans somewhat.

Such a shame as I was just getting to grips with what the box could do. Here’s hoping it’s mainly a software problem (at the moment I can’t tell, as not long after that happened, my rubbish power supply blew up… am off out now to get a new one).

All in all, a dreadful start to the day.

Soundtrack – Martyn Joseph, ‘Deep Blue’.

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Dudley Philips at the Vortex last night

Yesterday day time was spent finishing off the mastering of Julie McKee’s live album from the Edinburgh Festival. Julie’s a fabulous singer – we’ve been working on some duet ideas between doing the mastering, the latest of which is to do the entire soundtrack to ‘Bugsy Malone’…! the mastering went pretty well, considering the source material. Sadly, the guy who recorded it didn’t send the multitrack sessions, just his own mixdown, so we were limited in terms of what we could do, but some compression, stereo expansion, judicious reverb and the tidying up of the bits where the recording had clipped have made it just fine. We compared it to a few other live recordings, from Donny Hathaway’s live album to my first album, and it stands up well, despite the odd pop ‘n’ crackle. Anyway, isn’t that what live albums are all about? There’s squealing feedback in the middle of Bob Marley’s live version of ‘No Woman No Cry’ and that was released as single!

Anyway, that was the daytime. Yesterday evening involved a trip down to The New Vortex in Stoke Newington to see Dudley Philips launch his album Life Without Trousers. I’ve had a copy of the album for a few weeks, and am loving it, so was excited to go and see the gig. The place was pleasingly full, lots of musicians in – Julie McKee, Orphy Robinson, Filomena Campus, John Parricelli and others, as well as friends of Dudley’s there to celebrate the album coming out.

The gig was marvellous – Nic France, Mark Lockheart and Carl Orr were the band, along with Dudley on 4/6 string electric and upright bass. great tunes, great playing, all in all a fab night out. The Vortex is such a great venue, and a vital part of the london jazz scene. I’ll be back down there next Thursday to see the Works – Patrick Wood’s band who played such a spellbinding set at Greenbelt in the summer. Please come down if you can! While you’re at it, check out the rest of the programme for December on the Vortex website, they’ve got so much great stuff on!

I also picked up a new CD while I was there, which was playing before the gig – it’s a collection of hymns sung in welsh, by LLeuwen Steffan, Huw Warren and Mark Lockheart. A truly beautiful album, on the oh-so-cool Babel Label – Babel are putting out so many great albums of late, go and check out their website and have a browse around. Marvellous stuff!

Soundtrack – Steffan/Warren/Lockheart, ‘God Only Knows’.

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