Nottingham Jazz’s Blog

John is compiling a list of free jazz piano transcriptions that he hopes will be useful to other jazz pianists.

What a wonderful evening’s music! The trio sported by La Serenissima last night was marvellous - such a pure sound, such incredible clarity. Themed around violin concertos composed for Pisendel (pronounced pizz-endul) by such luminaries as Vivaldi and Albinoni, the baroque repertoire lent itself so well to the violin/cello/harpsichord combination. I can think of no better adjective than ‘pure’ - this concert was a real treat.

Adrian Chandler, violin
Gareth Deats, cello
Robert Howarth, harpsichord

VIVALDI Sonata per Monsieur Pisendel in C minor RV6
ALBINONI Sonata composta per il Signor Pisendel in B flat, So 32
PISENDEL Sonata in D for violin and continuo
ALBINONI Sonata in G minor for violin and continuo, So 33
PISENDEL Sonata in E minor for violin and continuo
VIVALDI Sonata per Monsieur Pisendel in C, RV2

Here are my thoughts on the Julian Arguelles Trio, which I saw last night in Nottingham. I’ll keep it brief.

First impressions: a few minutes before the gig’s scheduled start, the trio saunter through the auditorium to their warm up room, evidently returning from dinner or perhaps a trip to the pub. Most artists go round the back, so that the audience don’t actually see them until their act begins. Not this lot. A refreshing attitude, if perhaps a little underwhelming. ‘But it’s jazz, you see, so these things don’t matter.’

Second impressions: my word these guys are laid back: jeans, super scruffy shirts etc. But still, you say, it’s jazz, so that’s OK.

On the charisma score I’m afraid these guys score very poorly. Poor chat, a few half-hearted naff jokes, shoddy patter.

Music: I first saw Julian Arguelles a couple of years ago on Islay, at the jazz festival there. He’s a superb player, with a rock solid command of his tenor sax. Last night he played some marvellous jazz, and I thought he was great. But throughout the night he was always playing second fiddle to drummer Ton Rainey, who, by dint of the rather bright acoustic in Lakeside’s Recital Hall, consistently overpowered the other two musicians. This is a shame, but I’ve come to expect it in that venue. The only drummer I’ve ever witnessed turn the place to his advantage was Jarle Vespestad, but that’s another story.

They were playing a bunch of original stuff, some of which was interesting, but most of which was forgettable. The sax/drums/bass configuration worked pretty well, but on many occasions I was yearning for the harmonic depth of a pianist or guitarist. But that’s just me I suppose.

Hurrah! We were on BBC1. OK, only John was on the East Midlands regional news for approx 0.5 seconds at the beginning of BBC East Midlands Today’s piece on the Sports Awards. Luckily I recorded it - only after a few replays did I notice myself standing on the far left of the shot. This must have been after we finished the first set. It’s definitely me though. If you look really carefully you can see Nicky’s elbow!

Nottingham Jazz was delighted to be chosen to perform at tonight’s BBC East Midlands Sports Awards 2008 in Nottingham’s Royal Concert Hall. The band’s lineup for this event included two top quality local freelance jazz musicians: Martyn Spencer, who teaches double bass in Nottingham; and Nicky Jaques, one of Nottingham’s finest saxophone teachers.

We were pleased to receive admiring glances off many of the 400 VIPs and sports stars, including local legend Rebecca Adlington (who went on to win the 2008 Sports Personality Award) and TV sports hero John Inverdale, amongst countless other glitterati from civic, sports and business spheres.

We are hopeful that some of our jazz was caught on camera, and eagerly await tomorrow’s East Midlands Today bulletin to see if we’ve made it onto BBC1!

This is Nottingham Jazz’s first post! This blog will be used to post all sorts of weird and wonderful observations, not just about jazz, but about anything that’s likely to drive more traffic to our website…call my a cynic, but the more links we get pointing to this site, the better!

I’ve not quite yet figured out how best to link the blog to the main site, and vice versa, but hopefully this can be done without too much of a headache.

Check back soon for updates.