My review of last night’s barn-storming gig by the Julian Joseph Trio (and surprise guest) has gone onto the Sounds New Festival’s blog this morning: you can read it here.
A fiery, inventive and terrific gig; and who was the special guest ? Well, you’ll just have to read it to find out…
Photo credit: Peter Cook.
Colossus of the British jazz world, fearlessly inventive pianist, presenter on Radio 3, and stalwart of the British jazz scene, Julian Joseph brings his trio to the Gulbenkian Theatre this Sunday.
I’ve written more on Julian Joseph here, where he answers ‘Three Questions’ about coming to the Gulbenkian as part of the Sounds New Festival that’s ringing around Canterbury at the moment.
Here’s Julian Joseph playing ‘Autumn Leaves.’ Be sure not to miss this, a chance to hear one of the major figures of British jazz in intimate trio mode. Umissable: see you there…
The Gulbenkian Theatre will be bursting with music, art, face-painting and more on Sunday to celebrate Worldwide Mothers’ Day as part of Sounds New Festival this year.
From 11am to 3.30pm, Musical Mother’s Day will include performances on the hour, every hour, including art and drama workshops, song, dance, instrumental music, flowery fun, food and more, in an event that will please youngsters of all ages!
From 12pm at regular intervals throughout the day, events will feature Canterbury Christ Church Chamber Orchestra, Canterbury Youth Music Big Band, Wide-Eyed Theatre, Dance Warehouse and Simon Langton Girls School dancers and much, much more!
In the afternoon, eminent British jazz pianist Julian Joseph will lead a jazz workshop, prior to his trio’s evening concert later on.
The event is free to children and £5 for adults. More details here: come and join the fun!
The Laurie Kay Trio comes to the Gulbenkian Theatre foyer stage tomorrow, for an hour of classic jazz and swing at 5pm.
The event launches the trio’s once-a-month appearance on Fridays at the Gulbenkian, with an eclectic mix of swing, be-bop and boogie-woogie. A fixture in Canterbury throughout the 1990s, playing modern jazz, Laurie was also formerly principal clarinettist with the University Symphony Orchestra and a physicist at Kent.
The trio also appeared in Darwin College last year, which I featured on ‘On the Beat’ here.
Details about tomorrow’s appearance online here; a great way to start the weekend…
There’ll be a sense of the exotic at the Gulbenkian Theatre next Monday lunchtime, as the Silk and Bamboo Ensemble bring music of China to the Lunchtime Concert series.
This ensemble of virtuoso musicians has performed at the Purcell Room and Queen Elizabeth Hall, and has appeared in many festivals, including Cambridge Folk Music, the Edinburgh Festival and in Europe’s WOMEX and WOMAD festivals.
For this special concert the group will present a selection of ensemble and solo pieces of traditional, folk and modern Chinese music.
The concert starts at 1.10pm, and will finish at 1.50pm. Admission as usual is free with a suggested donation £3. Don’t miss it…
Yesterday was apparently the first day of spring, and what better way to herald the change into the new season with the first Jazz @ 5 on the Gulbenkian Theatre’s foyer stage.
Featuring the robust pianistic skills of second-year Economic student, Niji Adeleye, and saxophonist with the Concert and Big Bands, Tim Pickering, both of whom were making their debut, and Jazz @ 5 stalwart Andrew Kitchin on guitar, the programme kicked off with a lively blues.
Over the course of set the stage was graced with songstresses Steph Richardson (who, when not singing jazz or studying Drama, can also be found performing and conducting with the Chamber Choir), Ruby Mutlow (familiar as singer with the Big Band), and Jo Gray. A deft rendition of Too Darn Hot from Steph, a French version of I Go Sailing from Jo and a vibrant I Wish I Knew (How It Feels To Be Free) were just some of the standards in the programme, alongside some instrumental pieces showing Niji’s immense creativity, Andrew’s skilful solo-ing and some robust melodic improvisation from Tim.
Well received by an enthusiastic (and numerous) crowd, the event was a great success: well done to all the performers.
It’s over fifty years since the death of Erich Wolfgang Korngold, presciently given his middle name by parents who must have been sure their child would, like the other great Wolfgang, be something of a child prodigy. Fifty years later, opinion is divided over whether Korngold was a musical genius or a reactionary who preferred to ignore musical modernism in favour of self-indulgent music, pining for a lost age.
The talented Viennese wunderkind was hailed by Mahler and Puccini as a child, and by the tender age of nineteen Korngold had already written a clutch of chamber works and had two one-act operas staged to great acclaim.
Korngold moved to Hollywood in the 1930s to write film scores for Warner Bros, a move which has perhaps contributed to his lack of esteem in critical circles: sadly, there’s still a sense that ‘great composers don’t write film music,’ an idea with which John Williams and Jerry Goldsmith might take issue… And anyone who has heard the sweeping lyricism of the Violin Concerto or the effortless handling of musical ideas in the second and third string quartets might also have something to say about Korngold’s facility for melodic invention and expressive writing.
You can make up your own minds as the Brodsky Quartet brings Korngold’s lyrical Second String Quartet to the Gulbenkian Theatre in their concert this month, along with Gershwin’s evocative Lullaby, Wolf’s sunny Italian Serenade, and Beethoven’s mighty op.132; details and tickets online here.
Here’s a foretaste of the Korngold with the lyrically dancing ‘Waltz’ of the final movement.
