As reported in Jazzwise and elsewhere today, the great British jazz pianist George Shearing has died at the age of 91.
Shear genius: George Shearing
Blind from birth, London-born Shearing moved to American and lived in New York; he worked with a notable array of jazz luminaries including singers Nat King Cole and Sarah Vaughan, guitarist Joe Pass and vibraphone legend Gary Burton . Shearing had a deft pianistic style, that moved easily from rich clusters of chords to delicate single-finger melodic playing.
Lullaby of Birdland was perhaps his most famous tune, named after the famous jazz club in New York.
Continuing the series profiling musical alumni of the University of Kent. This week, Susannah Wharfe.
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When were you at Kent ?
Lady Sings the Blues: Susannah Wharfe
I was at Kent from September 2008 – November 2009.
What subject did you study ?
I studied for a Masters in International Conflict Analysis.
What occupation are you now engaged in ?
Officially, as in my paid job, I work for a Social Mechanics Agency, called Kinship Networking. We’re based in Shoreditch, London, and look at providing solutions for businesses using ‘socialness’.
Unofficially I have two other ‘jobs’ – helping run an up-and-coming theatre company called Pilotlight Theatre, as well as writing and recording my own music, and playing whenever I can.
(For note, I perform under my nickname, zanna wharfe)
If music is not your profession, do you participate in any musical experiences now ?
I’m still heavily involved in music, but mostly from a personal, solo perspective. I’m currently writing my own material, as well as helping out with backing tracks and covers for various little projects. I’ve also got a MySpace page. I’m heading into the recording studio soon to start recording my own stuff, which is ridiculously exciting and nerve-wracking at the same time! Fingers crossed in time it might be my primary profession!
How were you involved in music whilst at Kent ?
I was an avid singer – singing with the Chamber Choir as well as regularly joining the team for the inaugural Jazz @ 5 sessions.
What did you gain from your University music experience, and has this helped you in any way since leaving Kent ?
Singing at Kent reinvigorated my love of it. I’d not realised how much I’d missed having music in my life till I was thrown back into the deep end and got involved again. It also reminded me how exhilarating it is to stand up in front of people and bare your soul, so to speak.
What was your most memorable musical experience at Kent ?
Singing at The Orange Street Music Club for our charity concert.
What would you say to current musical students at the University ?
Just enjoy it. As they’ll drill home to you, there’s no official music department, and that’s what makes it so exciting, and friendly! If, in the long term, it’s really want you want to do, then do it. Just keep practicing, keep performing, but know your strengths. There’s a fine balance between realism and the dream world – and you have to keep one foot in each at all times; a tough, but ultimately fulfilling thing to do.
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f you’re an alumnus and would like to be featured, get in touch via the Music Department website: we’d love to hear from you!
Hold onto your hats, as the traditional annual roof-raising concert by the University Concert and Big Bands storms back to the Gulbenkian Theatre.
Click to enlarge
An action-packed programme includes an invitation to spend A Night On Broadway with a medley of popular showtunes including The Lion King and Wicked, and music by John Williams, Jo Zawinul as well as a tribute to Artie Shaw. Featuring staff and student musicians from the University, and led from the front by magic-fingered reeedsman Ian Swatman, this popular event will also feature two of the University’s Music Scholars, Jo Turner and Ruby Mutlow, as guest singers with the Big Band.
There’ll also be some live musical entertainment from student musicians in the Gulbenkian Foyer before the show to get you in the mood. Prepare to be carried away on a night of swing, funk, cinema soundtracks and big band favourites.
You can follow the adventures of the Concert and Big Bands on their blog, ‘On The Beat;’ further details about the concert on the deparment website here.
A richly intoxicating evening with the innovative Brodsky Quartet beckons, as they bring a flavour of the exotic to the University’s Gulbenkian Theatre. They are teaming up with flautist Diana Baroni to explore music from South America in their concert on Wednesday 23 February.
The Brodsky Quartet
A heady and exciting programme includes Tavener’s Prayer of the Heart, which was written for the Quartet and pop singer Björk, asw well as a feast of traditional music from Peru and Bolivia. Tantalisingly, the Quartet have also said that they’re bringing a tubular bell and a Tibetan bowl: in order to find out how they’ll be using them in the performance, though, you’ll have to come along and see…
Steadfast professionals, their concert this time last year saw them braving fearsome snow and icy conditions to reach the campus: here’s hoping the warmth of their programme will keep adverse weather at bay.
Further details on the department website here: this is one you’ll definitely not want to miss.
Graham Fitkin‘s music first attracted my attention in 1998, when I came across an SPNM sampler disc containing a tantalising segment of Cud and a complete performance of Hook which all but took my head off. That was enough: bam, I was, well…hooked. I think I had those two pieces on the disc on repeat for the best part of a year, a blissful relationship only interrupted by my moving house and losing the disc.
His music defies those neat genre-defining labels that critics and music shop stockists love: classical, minimalist, techno, jazz. Combining repetition, polyphonic rhythmic inventiveness, sampled and electronic sounds and a tonal language glittering with bright colours, it’s a music that refuses to be neatly pigeon-holed.
I love the vibrancy of Hook; the driving rhythmic vitality, brash modern textural writing, and the sheer exuberance in the music that makes it infectious listening.
There’s something rather ‘X Files’-like about ‘Warm Area’ from Still Warm for harp and electronics (although that might just be my response to the tonal colours and the imagery of the accompanying video…!)
There’s exciting news about a new concerto for MIDI harp, premiered at the end of last month, with a sneak preview from BBC Radio 3;
Fervent. for solo piano, has a relentless energy to its ostinato-driven material. Last year, PK was commissioned for, and performed at, the BBC Proms; dealing with the first sending of Morse code signals from Porthcurno in Fitkin’s birthplace of Cornwall, the piece employs Morse code-inspired rhythms, blazing brass and big orchestral gestures occasionally reminiscent of John Adams’ Harmonielehre. Then there’s the contrasting intimacy of Skirting, for solo harp, with its evocative arabesques, or the bustling Vent for four clarinet or saxophone quartet.
Then there’s the minimalist electronica of K2, from Kaplan, that could almost be something by Aphex Twin.
Just listen to the way the music dances and shimmies in the advert for Uniqlo jeans: brief but utterly captivating, like much of Fitkin’s music there’s a wild urgency that cannot be denied, a delight in revelling in bright textures married to bold rhythmic gestures.
It’s compulsive stuff that luxuriates in the sheer joy of music-making. Is it classical ? Is it minimalist ? Or post-minimalist ? Or jazz ? Electronica ? Or all of them, or perhaps none ? Who cares… Keep an ear out: a new piece by Fitkin is always worth waiting for.
Continuing the series profiling musical alumni of the University of Kent. This week, Mariah Mazur.
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Mariah Mazur
When were you at Kent ?
2002 – 2006
What subject did you study ?
Drama and Italian, Joint Honours
What occupation are you now engaged in ?
Management Consulting. Self-employed harpist.
If music is not your profession, do you participate in any musical experiences now ?
Yes, I play with chamber orchestras, symphonies, teach harp lessons, as well as many other events and concerts.
How were you involved in music whilst at Kent ?
I played in the Orchestra for four years, and was also the recipient of music scholarship.
What did you gain from your University music experience, and has this helped you in any way since leaving Kent ?
Being the recipient of a music scholarship at Kent provided the opportunity for me to study with harp professors at the Royal Academy of Music, an incomparable experience. I was also able to perform in such unique and varied settings, encouraging my confidence as a musician. The connections that I made and the experiences I enjoyed continue to enrich my life today.
What was your most memorable musical experience at Kent ?
The opportunity to perform Mozart’s Flute and Harp concerto to a sold-out audience in the Gulbenkian Theatre was the paramount occasion of my time studying at the University of Kent.
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If you’re an alumnus and would like to be featured, get in touch via the Music Department website: we’d love to hear from you!
Be My Guest: an occasional series featuring guest post and contributions. This week, third-year student Andrew Bailey reviews the Rite of Spring lunchtime concert.
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The reputation of Stravinsky’s magnum opus had clearly preceded it, with a packed Gulbenkian visibly demonstrating the esteem that ‘The Rite of Spring’ continues to hold with audiences today. Sitting with a clear view of the grand piano and the score, I wondered how Peter Hill and Benjamin Frith’s interpretation of the infamous score would challenge my own understanding of it. Having worn out three copies of “Fantasia” on VHS when I was a toddler, The Rite and Stravinsky’s work has always continued to fascinate me and I have continuously endeavoured to experience its different adaptations. As my old music teacher used to recount: “Every time you listen to The Rite, you always discover something new; be it a note, a motif, or a new feeling”. She has yet to be proved wrong.
Prior to the performance, Hill presented a concise yet detailed synopsis of the piece’s origins and I was glad that he took care in running through the “plot” of the piece. What was clear from his emphasis on its genesis and the difficulty in rehearsals was that Hill wanted us to appreciate the piece as Stravinsky would have first written it and how innovative it is musically; discarding our memories of the spectacle we now associate it with. It was then that the theatre went silent; a soft C was then heard, almost floating its way around the room, as the infamous opening began.
Without the visuals of an extravagant ballet, the audience’s attention was drawn to the physical performance of the musicians; clearly caught in the music as they thrashed their heads to the rumblings of ‘The Augurs of Spring’. Undoubtedly, one could not ignore the musicality of the piece as its dissonance, sometimes suppressed by an orchestra, was all but fully exposed on the piano. Despite what could seem a cacophony of sound, Hill and Frith demonstrated without a doubt that they knew the piece intimately and that all the right notes were indeed being played in the right order. The rapturous applause the musicians received was indisputably well deserved (alongside Dan Harding’s impeccable page turning skills!)
This Lunchtime Concert definitely demonstrated the musical complexities of The Rite and the four hands arrangement is certainly the optimum version to take notice of if one wishes to examine Stravinsky’s musical innovations. Is it now my favourite arrangement though? No. Not that I believe Hill and Frith did not play well enough; on the contrary I think they performed outstandingly! However in my opinion, The Rite should be as much a spectacle as it is a musical innovation. As Hill pointed out in his synopsis, Stravinsky remembered the violent image of the Spring as the ice would crack open around St Petersburg; he dreamt the disturbing image of a girl dancing herself to death. The notorious riot at its premiere was as much a reaction to Vaslav Nijinsky’s controversial choreography, as to Stravinsky’s score.
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t believe the piece is not ‘innovative’ enough; I will happily acknowledge and rant about how it is a landmark piece in the history of music. What I want to emphasise it that I personally believe the piece works best with a spectacle to watch. In Sir Simon Rattle’s documentary on the piece, ‘The Augurs of Spring’ and ‘Sacrificial Dance’ are performed whilst images of a maiden dancing through a forest are shown, consequently making the piece more haunting in my opinion. There is even some filtered footage of the First World War thrown in to demonstrate how the violence of the work was reflected the following year with the outbreak of the conflict.
Although a complete different interpretation of Stravinsky’s intentions (as well as harshly cutting out and editing the various sections all over the place) I still think that watching The Rite segment in Fantasia is fascinating and the fight between the Stegosaurus and the Tyrannosaurus heightens the tension and excitement of “The Naming and Honouring of the Chosen One” movement.
But that is just my opinion.
Overall, a great Lunchtime Concert which will, I feel, be talked about for years. But if you want to experience more Stravinsky before the Colyer-Fergusson Concert on March 12th, where “The Firebird Suite (1919 Version)” will be performed by the UKC Music Society Orchestra, then I cannot recommend highly enough watching The Rite in its original ballet form (choreography, sets, costumes etc) to truly experience its spectacle.
Barry is perhaps best known for scoring eleven films in the Bond franchise, as well as the Oscar-winning soundtracks to, amongst other films, Born Free and Dances With Wolves.
Everyone has their own favourite Bond-Barry soundtrack: for me, it’s Mooraker from 1979. MGM’s answer to Star Wars, which had premiered two years previously, and an attempt to take Bond into space, the music is a rich tapestry of sound which capture the grandeur of space, as well as the slow-moving rotation of megalomaniac Hugo Drax’s epic space-station.
(In 1998, Barry also wrote the music for Play It By Heart, an altogether different, non-Bond movie, which to my ears seems to use ccast-offs from the Moonraker music, as though there were bits lying around on the floor which Barry re-used; I love that soundtrack as well.)
A sad weekend for music: here’s to all of them.
Because it does. Doesn't it ? Blogging about extra-curricular musical life at the University of Kent.
His music defies those neat genre-defining labels that critics and music shop stockists love: classical, minimalist, techno, jazz. Combining repetition, polyphonic rhythmic inventiveness, sampled and electronic sounds and a tonal language glittering with bright colours, it’s a music that refuses to be neatly pigeon-holed.
