Unless the music is stopped now, the human race, mumbling, snapping its fingers, twitching its hips, will sink back into an amoebic state where it will take a coagulation of hundreds of teenagers to make up a s single unit of vital force, which once formed, will only live on sedatives.” Quentin Crisp
Wow, he said that like it was a BAD thing! While we appreciate the caustic wit of the well-coiffed and much beaten up writer and contrarian Quentin Crisp, your newsletter correspondent loves nothing more than being in a crazed, dancing crowd. And just how MANY great gigs there were during the EFG London Jazz Festival, where we got to see many of our Premises pals play to ecstatic crowds. More of which, this happy amoebic unit will report on, later.
COURSES
Christmas, New Year, yadda yadda…. we’ve got a 2023 Year Planner and we’re gonna use it. We can think of no better Christmas present to give a musically inclined loved one, or indeed, yourself, than a course in something they’re pretty good at and want to get even better at! Resolutions and all that. First up on 11th Feb is an intensive one-day Masterclass by bass player extraordinaire Yolanda Charles MBE, whose course will be about musical development for bassists and drummers. Yolanda, who has played and/or toured with Robbie Williams, Paul Weller, Squeeze and Hans Zimmer amongst others, will help those who play or want to play rhythm professionally, to develop a nuanced approach to style, influence, feel and groove. This is NOT for beginners, but those who aspire to get on the gigging and session circuit, ideally, but mainly to improve musicianship. Early Bird price of £75. If you play electric bass or drums at least at an intermediate level and want to play even better and get more gigs, contact details below.
Always fancied being a Pip, or Pip-esque, as in Gladys Knight and the… or have aspired to be a gigging, reliable and red-hot backing vocalist, which is a vital, backbone like part of any good stage act? You need to join our three-day Backing Vocalist crash course run by singing sensation, Gospel star and MOBO winner Lurine Cato, who has worked professionally as a BV for the likes of Kylie and Adele. Learn all about timing, harmonies, moving, professionalism and winning that audition. Not for beginners, but for good and great singers who want to get the know how to get the gigs. Dates are 16-18 Feb, with an Early Bird price of £195.
Finally, for the very advanced planners amongst you, we are running Janette Mason’s popular Art of Arranging course, which went down a storm earlier this year, on the 25th of March and 1st and 2nd of April. Janette will teach you how to arrange your song for a band, and the final day will be a professional recording of you, the band and your song and vocals in our solar-powered recording studio. There will be a vocal coach on hand and Janette will accompany on piano. We got some dynamic recordings last time round. Check out Stephanie’s Unlovable to The Bone on Premises Radio. Early Bird price for the three days is £340. For more information or booking for ANY of these courses, email: michele@premiseseducation.org
EFG LONDON JAZZ FESTIVAL If you did not go to one of these many gigs all over London, mainly starring Premises regulars, we want to know, if not, why not? And demand a note from your parents.
Gig land in London has been such a blast the last couple of months, and if you didn’t attend at least one of ‘em, you need a mighty good excuse. At the Barbican we had Carroll Thompson, Ian Shaw, Abdullah Ibrahim, Lady Blackbird and Nubian Twist.
We particularly enjoyed the double Joni Mitchell Hejira and Mingus tribute at South Bank, featuring conductor Peter Edwards and vocalist Eska, with the Nu Civilisation Orchestra. Tears were shed and hearts were exploded, in a good way.
Finally, one of the workingest guys on the contemporary jazz scene, Shabaka Hutchings, who has launched his own label, Native Rebel Records, had a showcase gig at EARTH in Hackney. We’ve heard very exciting and innovative sounds from label stars The Brother Moves On, Kofi Flexx (with ace drummer Jas Kayser), Chelsea Carmichael and Confucius MC and Kwake Bass. You can hear bits of all via: nativerebelrecordings.co.uk
CONGRATULATIONS Big adventures in store for BBC Young Jazz Musician of the Year, 20-year-old double bassist Ewan Hastie. Ewan and other nominees all got to play with Nikki Yeoh (image below), who leads our piano courses, and her band Infinitum, which consists of Michael Mondesir on bass and Mark Mondesir on drums. Those who recorded at our 2022 Piano Week were very lucky to have Mark playing with them. More info on our Live Piano comping course coming up next newsletter.
MORE CONGRATULATIONS! Nominees just announced for BBC Radio 1’s Sound of 2023 include, of course, a bunch of Premises clients. We’d like to take all the credit, but we can’t. However, big props to R&B group Flo, drum and bass duo Piri and Tommy, Afrobeats contender Asake, punky popster Dylan, indie songwriter Rachel Chinouriri, and alt pop musician Biig Piig
WHO’S BEEN IN? Amongst many others during November…. Ezra Collective, Bigg Pigg, Tomorrow’s Warriors, Tom Burke, Fontaines DC, Liberty Church, Lava La Rue, Mauvey, Fossils, Gretel Hanlyn, Tim Burgess, Tony Kofi, Omar, Nubya Garcia, Binker Golding, Black Country New Road, Perhaps Contraption, Laura Mvula, House Gospel Choir, John Oates, Daniel Casimir, The Staves, Maverick Sabre, All Stars Collective, Asian Dub Foundation, Ash, Izzy Bizu, Jorja Smith, Shabaka Hutchings. Kofi Flexx, Deaf School, Mansur Brown, Kid Apollo, Jean Toussaint, Roella Oloro, Perusi Kakaire, Sarkodie, Anoushka Shankar, Abby Roberts, Skylar, Kevin Rowland, Becky Hill, Jarvis Cocker, Trans Voices and Dalia Mubarak.
PREMISES RADIO TRACKS OF THE MONTH: 1. Don’t Look Back into The Sun: The Libertines 2. Paradise: Sun Ra Arkestra 3. Tate Song: Jean Toussaint 4. Space: Becky Hill 5. Hold: Nubya Garcia
CHRISTMAS OPENINGS Please make a note that we’ll be closing at 16:00 on the 23rd of December, and reopening on the 2nd Jan 2023, so the usual amount of break for you lot, although we’ll still be busy here behind the scenes once we’ve eaten our weight in mince pies and screamed, “He’s behind you,” at the pantos we’re heading to.
AND FINALLY…
