GOOD EVENING! And welcome to… THE GIG REVIEW! “The leaves of brown came tumblin’ down, remember, In September in the rain.” – quoth Al Dubin, ‘September in the Rain’ As we progress into the ninth month of the year it always feels to me as though things begin to slow down a bit. The …
GOOD EVENING! And welcome to… THE GIG REVIEW! “Augustus Gloop! Augustus Gloop! The great, big, greedy nincompoop!” – quoth The Oompa Loompas, ‘Augustus Gloop’ Sure as eggs is eggs, August follows July, and thus it was no surprise for me to awake on the day after 31st July to find that I was yet …
GOOD EVENING! And welcome to… THE GIG REVIEW! “True love blooms for the world to see, Blooms high upon the July tree.” – quoth Nina Simone, ‘July Tree’ With the summer months now well and truly upon us and the academic year drawing to an end, July represents for many a period of winding …
GOOD EVENING! And welcome to… THE GIG REVIEW! “May the road rise to meet you, May the wind be always at your back. May the sun shine warm upon your face, The rains fall soft upon your fields.” – quoth an unknown wellwisher from Ireland, ‘An Irish Blessing’ Well in case you hadn’t realised …
Here’s a thing! O.K., maybe I should be more specific. Here’s a video of a piece of music I helped record a few months ago. It’s written by a fellow called Jan Maria C. Deckers and is entitled ‘Paradise’ – deservedly so, in my opinion! This is a really beautiful bit of music and I …
GOOD EVENING! And welcome to… THE GIG REVIEW! “You bettah Stick to the plan and get me planted by March ‘Cos They call me Iron Man – y’know, Tony Starch? [woof!]” – quoth Rich Tweed, ‘Something About Buckwheat‘ Well, we were dragged kicking and screaming into January, we staggered blindly into February, but then …
GOOD EVENING! And welcome to… THE GIG REVIEW! Well, February has been and gone so you may think me the fool for carrying on, however that’s a chance I’m willing to take if it means I can tell you about all the hooting and honking I indulged in over the year’s second month. And what …
GOOD EVENING! And welcome to… THE GIG REVIEW! This is a brand new, freshly-baked feature in the Michael A. Grant Blogging Universe, in which I will be taking a wry look at the preceding month’s performances, sharing some of my sublime and ridiculous adventures, and – who knows? – maybe even learning some life lessons …
One of the reasons I play so many different instruments is that I really enjoy performing in pit orchestras for musical theatre productions. In these ensembles, each individual woodwind musician is frequently called upon to swap between 3 or 4 instruments, and this practice of ‘doubling’ allows orchestrators to maximise the palette of sounds available …
I was saddened and surprised recently to hear of the death of the legendary songwriter Burt Bacharach, at the age of 94. To be completely honest the main surprise wasn’t so much that he had died, but rather that he had still been alive so recently – but that’s beside the point! At any rate, …
