http://soundcloud.com/davidmbirchall/reel1-track-1
Here’s updates on a few things:
I usually only use this blog to report on what I’m up to, and I’ve never sat down and written about what another musician means to me before, but the news of Paul Motian’s death yesterday has made me want to do so. There are very few musicians who I don’t know personally who have been as important in my life as Paul Motian.
I have never met Paul Motian, and never heard him live. But I have listened so much to his records, transcribed and played his tunes, and been constantly inspired by his music and approach. I’m pretty sure he appears on a higher percentage of my record collection than anyone else… Here are a few thoughts on what I love about his music:
There are lots of tributes and obituaries around, a few that I found moving are here:
http://elleryeskelin.blogspot.com/2011/11/paul-motian.html
and here:
http://blogs.ottawacitizen.com/2011/11/22/musicians-on-paul-motian-i-jerome-sabbagh-remembers/
and here:
Ken Waxman has reviewed ‘brackish’ on his site ‘JazzWord’ here:
http://www.jazzword.com/review/127614
we’ve had lots of nice reviews for ‘brackish’ now, maybe I should start referring to it as ‘critically acclaimed’!
I’ve got my first ever solo gig coming up, next Wednesday (October 5th) at St Leonard’s Church in Shoreditch, London.
Excited and nervous in roughly equal parts!
It’s a double bill with the wonderfully named ‘Why Camels Have No Wings’ (Daniel Thompson / Will Connor / Matt Chilton and Kay Grant).
Edit: Here’s a couple of tracks from the gig:
Got news of a few recent recordings that look like coming out…
Another very nice review of Brackish, this time from Clifford Allen:
http://cliffordallen.blogspot.com/2011/08/late-summer-review-roundup.html
I’ve recently started playing again with Dave Birchall (guitar) and Phillip Marks (drums). I used to play a lot with both of them separately when I first started gigging, with Dave in a folk/post-rock/improv band called ‘Our Beautiful Ridiculous Plan’ and with Phil in various jazz and improv settings. The two musicians I played with most frequently when I lived in Manchester, but last week was the first time we’d done anything together. Anyway, its great to be working with them again, looking forward to developing the project.
Here’s a couple of zoom recordings of our recent jam:
http://soundcloud.com/davidmbirchall/david-birchall-olie-brice
http://soundcloud.com/davidmbirchall/da
We’ll be touring sometime early next year, info on here as always….
I’ve been really enjoying playing in Nick Malcolm’s quartet the past few months. The band is Nick on trumpet and flugelhorn, Alexander Hawkins on piano and Mark Whitlam on drums. The material is orginals by Nick, a couple by me, and the odd Monk tune. A real blend of free playing, structures and more melodic material.
We’ve got a few nice gigs coming up; The Vortex next Monday (11/07/11), and then Manchester (25/07/11) and Ealing (31/07/11) Jazz Festivals.
We’ll be recording an album in August, details on here when it’s ready for release…
I’ve posted a couple of tracks on the ‘listen’ page of this website from a recent gig by the new Olie Brice Quartet. They’re not very hi-fi, and Leon is on Rhodes in the absence of piano, but I think they capture some of what we’re trying to do all the same.
If your appetite is whetted and you want to hear the real thing, we’ll be at the Vortex on October 11th.