GOOD EVENING! And welcome to… THE GIG REVIEW! “Well, it’s a marvelous night for a moondance, With the stars up above in your eyes, A fantabulous night to make romance, ‘Neath the cover of October skies.” – quoth Van Morrison, ‘Moondance’ As the days continue to shorten and the nights to lengthen, we yet …
As a long-time supporter of knitted, crocheted and otherwise hand-crafted musicians, it gives me great joy to share with you the cover of Ellen Tsai’s new EP ‘Windy Friends’! But to quote a phrase, “A cover is not the book so open it up and take a look,” or in this case, “A cover …
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 …
If you’re reading this, you probably have an interest in the noises I make through my various wooden, plastic and metal tubes! Yes? Well in that case you’ll also have an interest in a song called ‘A Lens To Find A Trace’. This is the latest release from Dortmund-based musician David Kleinekottmann and is part …
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! 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 recently had the pleasure of collaborating with Cambridge-based composer Paul Wellings-Longmore, who despite not playing any musical instruments himself has written some thoroughly charming pieces for a variety of woodwind ensembles. He’s kindly allowed me to share the results of one of these projects, and so I’d like to present ‘Variations on a Theme’, …
