I’m working on a set of new Jazz compositions for my next CD. The focus will be on Jazz Blues, Soul Jazz and Cool Jazz. The fantastic Danish vibes player Jakob Svensson has agreed to work with me on the recording. I’m very excited about it.
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As I sit here listening to Reflections by Thelonious Monk and gazing at my one week old baby daughter, my first child, and my last, my girlfriend informs me ;-), I find my thoughts drifting back across time to my own childhood. More than that, I reflect over the paths that I have chosen and how they have led me here to another country, often another language, and as a jazz musician all over northern Europe and Scandinavia. I’m living a life that my child self would never have dreamed possible, even ten years ago I had no idea life could be this fulfilling.
As I look at her impossibly tiny, and extraordinarily long and elegant fingers, I wonder where will her choices take her? With fingers like that, will she be a pianist like the great Thelonious Monk? Or a champion dartswomen? or a professional pick pocket?
Whatever she does in life I hope she has the courage to chase her dreams, and the good fortune to achieve at least some of them.
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I am happy to say that midnight in Paris has just been nominated for four Oscars in this years (2012) Oscar Awards. This of course means that my music is in an Oscar nominated film. I didn’t write the music of course, but I recorded, produced and released the CD Swing 41 on which I also perform. For my own compositions you should visit the website of my jazz quartet 2econd Nature, or check it out my last jazz CD on iTunes.
If there was a category for best non-original soundtrack Midnight in Paris may well of stood a chance. However there is not.
Midnight in Paris was nominated for the Oscars 2012 in the following categories:
- Best Picture
- Best Director
- Best Original Screenplay
- Best Art Direction
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If you, like me, use your iPad as your music pad on Jazz gigs, or any gigs for that matter you will most likely need a stand to put it on.
Given that the iPad is a pretty expensive piece of kit I decided to find a secure way of placing it on a stand without the danger of it falling off and breaking during a concert. Luckily the well established manufacturer of quality music stands K&M make a perfect iPad holder. It is available from the German international music cyber-store www.thomann.de.
The stand not only securely holds the iPad (IorII) but you still have easy access to your buttons and controls and the holder swivels so that you can read landscape or portrait charts. It is mic stand mountable (in fact that is the only way to use it) which means that you can easily adjust it’s position to suit your needs, depending on which mic stand you are using.
Beware, iPad I and iPad II are different sizes, there is therefore a different holder for each model. Make sure (un-like me) that you buy the correct one! If anyone out there is in Copenhagen and needs a holder for an iPad I just let me know…. I have a spare.
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Whilst playing gigs around Denmark over the last few months I have been attracting a lot of attention. Sadly, not all of it has been because of my bass playing. In fact a great deal of focus has been on the use of my iPad as a music pad. It has been very useful in replacing about 5 or 6 heavy A4 pads that I used to carry around. But sheet music reading is not all I use it for. I have found so much use for it that I have decided to write a series of posts about my favorate uses, you will find them under the category iPad for musicians. I hope to answers some of the common questions that I get after a Jazz gig on that subject. Don’t hesitate to post a reply or mail me if there is something you need to know that I may not have covered.
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It’s been a great year of live jazz for me and this is brilliant way of rounding it off. Two concerts with the Paul Harrison band, one last night in Randers and one in 30 minutes, tonight here in Hobro, both sell outs. Tomorrow night I will be playing gypsy jazz and so much more with katja Continental in Copenhagen at Cafe Bartoff. All are welcome.
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There are loads of iPad applications that can be used by musicians to replace all those folders of sheet music that used to clutter up the stage for so many of us. Some have more functions and features than others, but at the end of the day what you need is basically just a pdf reader.
I use ForScore, it was not free, but I felt it was worth the small expense to have an application that was designed for musicians. Features that I regularly use which I find most useful are:
- Metronome
- Group by genre/composer etc.
- Different set-lists
- Piano Keyboard
- Search
- Annotation
- Different versions
- Cropping
Some features are more useful than others, the darkroom function for example, where you can take a photo with your iPad II and save it directly to pdf for use within forScore is a great idea, but the iPad’s camera is not up to the job unless you have a very steady hand and are in a very well lit room.There are loads of iPad applications that can be used by musicians to replace all those folders of sheet music that used to clutter up the stage for so many of us. Some have more functions and features than others, but at the end of the day what you need is basically just a pdf reader.
I use ForScore, it was not free, but I felt it was worth the small expense to have an application that was designed for musicians. Features that I regularly use which I find most useful are:
- Metronome
- Group by genre/composer etc.
- Different set-lists
- Keyboard
- Search
Posted in iPad for musicians, Peter Williams | Tagged Peter Williams | Comments Off on iPad as a music Pad
Well, the category of best soundtrack does not exist in the golden globes. Best original score is the closest. But if there was a category for best jazz soundtrack I reckon we would have been in with a shot.
Midnight in Paris was however nominated for four awards in this years golden globes, including best director and best screenplay.
George Clooney looks like he is going to be man of the hour, but let’s hope Woody Allen and Owen Wilson get some recognition for what was a lovely film, with a lovely soundtrack.
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Swing 41 was recorded in a very basic way, This is the approach I try and take whenever I record Jazz, and it’s even more appropriate in this setting with acoustic guitars, violin and double bass. I wanted to capture what the band actually sounded like and avoid the polished flat sound that one often hears today, because of this everything you hear on the CD was a first take with no overdubs giving a slightly raw and very natural sound.
I studied sound engineering and reenforcement in Liverpool, my teachers were very experienced and gave me lot’s of advice about how to capture sound for recording and for concerts. This of course was back in the days when digital recording had not yet taken over the industry, but the principles of how sound travels and how to capture an image of it have not changed. You can study for years on end but there is no substitute for experience and experimentation. From time to time you just get lucky with a recording, all the study, science and preperation helps, but there’s no substitute for putting the microphone in the right place and just playing from the heart.
7 of the 9 tunes on Swing 41 were recorded at rehearsal using SM58 microphones on all instruments at fairly standard distances from the instruments directed to pick up sound from the instrument belly and some string noise. Remember the sound comes from all over the instrument, apart from the sound holes!
Amazingly, two of the tracks, including the one used in Woody Allen’s Midnight in Paris, were recorded in concert on a portable MP3 recorder. It was the Zoom H4. I did not use any built in effects or signal processing. I just put the device on a camera stand about 1 metre from the ground and 2 or 3 metres in front and slightly to the side of the stage. I made no sound check, I had been using this recorder at concerts I’d played in Copenhagen over the previous month so the gain had been optimised beforehand.
Once I had made the recordings the hard work began. Mixing, producing, publishing and promoting. I’ll cover those in another post.
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What a wonderful gig and jam session this was. A veritable gypsy jazz acadamy. Many of Denmark’s best artists in the world of Gipsy Jazz turned up to share the stage with Robin Nolan – a great exponent of the acoustic guitar.  I was lucky enough that Walter Clerici gave me the call and the three of us kicked the evening off with a short set of standards, and selections from Robin’s new CD. What followed was one of the most enjoyable jam sessions that I can remember being a part of. Great communication and generosity of spirit amongst the musicians on the stage. I loved it.
Pictured here are – Â Left to right:
- Robin Nolan
- Chris Tanner
- Peter Williams
- Michael Dahl Hansen
- Kurt Mortensen
- Walter Clerici
There were many, many more great musicians off camera.
Thank you Robin for the Gig Book, maybe it will inspire me to pick up my guitar more often, I might even change the strings! I’ll get round to reviewing it one day and post a link if it’s still for sale.
Posted in django reinhardt, Gipsy Jazz, Peter Williams | Tagged acoustic guitar, Gipsy Jazz, gypsy jazz acadamy, Peter Williams | Comments Off on The Robin Nolan Jam session
