It's not every Tilt gig that gets on to CJ.  We have some secrets!  But this was a great gig and we had an appreciative audience that hung around until we finished then left which is a good sign for the band and we played really well and I played the second set with my newish Japanese Fender P-Bass 1985 with lovely aftermarket Motown-styled pickup and I was renewing my feel for the ..read more

Sam Row played Debussy preludes book 1 at Wesley.  Twelve preludes, all manner of styles and themes, presumably in 12 keys.  The themes were especially interesting, so we had Delphic dancers and winds and hills and snow and a girl with flaxen hair and Puck and minstrels and an interrupted serenade and even a flooded cathedral.  Several were mild but at least Puck and Minstrels were ..read more

Funny to drive for 2 days to attend and record a concert but that's what I just did.  I'd been in Adelaide visiting family and other than the rain, the 2-day trip was pretty comfy.  The concert was Kompactus Youth Choir celebrating their 15th anniversary at Wesley.  The first  numbers were by the current youth choir under MD and conductor Olivia Swift and the last 5 tunes ..read more

My outing with NCO and choir in Llewellyn Hall is a highlight of my year and this was a doozy: Beethoven Missa Solemnis.  Not at all easy but with plenty of mates to tackle it with.  Not just one but two choirs.  I counted 148 listed in the program, 86 choristers, 57 instrumentalists, 4 solo singers and Louis as conductor but I know of one who had to pull out so perhaps 147 total ..read more

Bottesini is by tradition the bassist who towers over the craft.  I've heard Kyle Ramsay -Daniel play his music before but a full concert of just Bottesini is worthy of Kyle's title, Paradigm Shift, even if it sounds rather C20th sci-fi rather than virtuosic C19th contrabass.  The paradigm shift was the thought that the bass had a solo, lead, melodic role and Bottesini pretty much ..read more

Well that's a first: my first time to record a Grammy-award winning artist.  It was just the evening of our MdCC concert and I threw the recording gear in my car and in the end I got the gig.  The group was a touring boys' choir out of Silicon Valley called Ragazzi Boys Chorus.  They tour regularly; they total ~250 students in SF and toured with ~100: the pizza boxes on the way in ..read more

Brad Tham led our latest Musica da Camera outing.  It was his first outing as a conductor and he did a great job, as conductor and also as an inspirational soloist in a Vaughan Williams concerto.  It's his Concerto Accademico.  I've been thinking it's an etude for students, given the odd twists and timings throughout, but apparently it's a homage to a Bach concerto.  I don't ..read more

It's axiomatic that everyone loves Mozart.  But Mozart covers a range and he's renowned for operas but they can be new to me.  This gig was piano and soprano, so heavy on arias and operas.  And the one solo piano piece was a series of 12 variations but Twinkle twinkle little star?  Actually the tune is mediaeval French, "Ah vous dirai je maman", and it's known well enough.& ..read more

I wasn't the only one who wouldn't miss such an impressive selection of Melbourne jazzers visiting Canberra.  Smiths was packed and we got a show of a special intensity and beauty.  I was wondering what to expect, but from the first notes the front line of trumpet, alto and tenor was bell-like with precise harmonies and interpretations and the written lines were a dream, rich and ..read more

The pic is of the current batch of Wesley Music Scholars performing Mozart Ave verum corpus and it was deeply satisfying but it was just the final number for this concert and it wasn't really indicative at all.  In fact, there were all manner of combinations playing all manner of musics, from Gaelic and classical, contemporary to jazz and even one original. Impressive.  But the Mozart ..read more