I did some more recording with Will Archer recently, and discovered that some of the last batch has now been released as the final track (“Ugly Thoughts”) of Celeste’s “Lately” EP, on Polydor. It’s lovely to appear alongside such a great voice!
Blog
Electric bass lessons
You there! Want to learn about the electric bass?
Grab a lesson with me if you like. I have lots of experience, communication skills and have spent time approaching the bass from a lot of different angles so I can find what works for you. Especially if you are an electric bassist wanting to learn how to play jazz on it, you will very likely benefit from speaking to me. Get in touch!
Read more here.
Chart: So in Love as by Dave King Trio
This version of So in Love from Dave King‘s trio has been my favourite thing to listen to for a few months. Floaty, beautiful piano playing, lightly rolling brushed drums and not a walking bassline in sight. Here’s a chart that follows Bill Carrothers’ realisation of the head.
Mob Wife, A Mafia Comedy
This week I’ve been playing bass for the UK development workshop production of a new musical called Mob Wife, written by Michael Mott and Corey Skaggs. It’s on at the Cockpit Theatre until Saturday 26th Jan. Lots of fun, some great music, and it’s been unusual and fun to witness the early stages of a new show. Cheers to MD Dan Tomkinson for getting me involved.
Article about science and music
I’ve written a short article for the Crick Institute website about science and music. If you’ve thought about these two things before, a few obvious and stereotypical connections might come to mind. Hopefully the article goes beyond these or ignores them entirely :-). Thanks to Greta Keenan at the Crick comms team for arranging this!
Recording with Will Archer
This weekend I did some recording on upright and electric bass for Will Archer. Kind of tricky to describe the music, but it wasn’t totally dissimilar to this recent stuff of his. It should be out sometime later in the year. Cheers to Dom Pusey who was also involved :-).
Crick website article
A few weeks ago I went to Wrexham to talk with Mike Corcoran about working science and music as part of the Darganfod/Discover festival. Thanks to Greta Keenan who does media and press at the Crick Institute, I’ll soon have a short article on the Crick’s website about this subject. Keep an eye out!
Trump lyrics
A while ago the ‘very stable genius’ quote from that STUPID IDIOT TRUMP did the rounds as a re-working of ‘Modern Major General’ from The Pirates Of Penzance. See, for example, here.
I contributed some on Twitter and had been meaning to archive them for safe keeping, especially since some people said they scanned well (scanning is very important) and were funny. Better late than never, I found out how to search through my old tweets and rescued them. Here they are!
- My son-in-law named Jared had a meeting that was treasonous,
I do not listen, cannot read, my late-night tweets are meaningless,
My people are the greatest but my critics are the meaniest
and fail to see I am a model Very Stable Genius! - Unlettered and unthinking, I’m a president implausible,
I golf and grope and lie and tweet with zest that’s inexhaustible,
But all these things are secondary, a minor inconvenience,
As soon as you remember I’m a Very Stable Genius. - When I became the president I couldn’t quite believe it all,
The Democrats, the Deep State and the FBI are terrible,
But with a quarter pounder and some Coke that’s intraveneous
I reassure myself that I’m a Very Stable Genius. - I hate myself and hate the world, my only love is flattery,
With GOP enablers, HR Clinton was no match for me,
And in uncertain times, all this political unseemliness,
The only man to solve it is this Very Stable Genius. - My wife sleeps in a separate room, she cried when I became elect,
I disregard objective truth and laugh at the greenhouse effect,
I thread tweets with ellipses, they’re impressive in their seamlessness…
…attesting that I’m clearly, like, a Very Stable Genius. - I do not like transgender people serving in the milit’ry,
The notion of an independent DOJ’s fake news to me,
I never like to brag about my intellectual leanings, thus
it may surprise to find that I’m a Very Stable Genius.
Talk at DARGANFOD//DISCOVER
On Friday I’ll be in Wrexham to take part in the DARGANFOD//DISCOVER festival that Mike Corcoran is organising. Roughly speaking, it’s a science festival, but there’s a whole lot of stuff crossing over with arts and music too — it looks pretty amazing. Lots of credit to Mike for getting it together, and for agreeing to lend his formidable conversation-leading powers to help my talk make a bit more sense.
https://darganfod-discover.com/2018/09/20/physics-in-biology-and-science-in-music/
Also taking part is the amazing Bryony Benge-Abbott who, among other things, is in charge of exhibitions at the Crick institute.
Videos & Sound and Nordstrand
Here are some more recordings from my quartet gig a few weeks ago in Leeds, all together in one post for convenience. Videos: It’s You by Lee Konitz, the standard Just Friends, and Bud Powell’s I’ll Keep Loving You. Then, some audio: Subconscious Lee (Konitz), and the Love Theme and Memories of Green, from the Blade Runner soundtrack by Vangelis.
In other news, I’m now an endorsing artist for Nordstrand, a great company in California that made my basses and is especially famous for their excellent pickups. Thanks to Carey and everyone else there.