April News
Hello there,
I thought it was about time for a quick update. But first I’d like to share with you a topical song about April showers. A gorgeous little song, and inspiration for a positive outlook on the random April weather we’ve grown accustomed to. Although I bet Bambi never had to put up with April hail-stone showers like we do. Anyway, moving on…
It’s been a busy old time. I’ve started doing a course to improve my knowledge of singing and teaching, I want to know all there is to know! I’ve also started doing some work leading choirs for the wonderful Simply Singing, and as if that wasn’t enough I’ve begun teaching some one-to-one singing lessons in a high school as well. It is turning out to be a year of personal development and pushing myself forward!
As well as that, all the band stuff has still been going on…
The Beleza Band Is Here!
We had our first gig with the new 6-piece line-up of Beleza at The Chorlton Big Green Festival. The new band members are: Rory Duffy on flute, Justin Shearn on keyboard, Nicky Dupuy on double bass, and Holly Prest on percussion. The day got off to a slightly rocky start when we arrived to find that the PA system had blown up and they were taking it away as we brought our gear in. Luckily the festival managed to procure a replacement PA and get the show back on the road. Thanks to a very patient audience we had a great crowd to watch us, we put our best foot forward and all managed to remember what we were supposed to be doing. It was very exciting to finally get out there and do it, as we’d had the idea of getting a full band line-up for some time, but it had taken a while for it to all come together. It is also very exciting to be playing with such fantastic musicians, each bringing their own bit of magic and character to the music. We have some recordings in the pipeline, and we are on the case to find more gigs, so all being well you should be seeing more of us soon. One of our friends got some video at the gig which you can see on our facebook page. In the meantime you can catch me and Julian playing a few of our songs live on Cat’s Manchester Culture Show, North Manchester FM this Saturday. All details below
Diaspora
Diaspora is the Latin Jazz big band that I sing with. Recently our bandleader Rory has composed a number of new pieces for us, so if you’d like to come and check out our new stuff, we’ll be playing at the Prestwich Festival on Tuesday 8th May (full details below). This is a good one to catch us on, as it’s the full 11 piece line-up, which is a bit of a rare event these days. You can find out more about the band at http://www.facebook.com/diasporamusic
Riverman
Sadly Riverman is no more. It’s all good though, Chris Manley whose project it was is taking some time to get inspired and focus on his song writing, so I’m sure we’ll be hearing more from him in the future. We had some great gigs together, and Riverman gave my first opportunity to play my ukulele in front of an audience. Good times.
The Voice Collective
March saw us in the studio (read very cold church!) getting some more recordings done for what will one day be our album if all goes to plan. We’ve also had some exciting gigs. Recently we sang at the sparkly sports star studded benefit for England cricketer Mr Jimmy Anderson. Some of the more sporty members of TVC were pretty delighted about being in the same room as all those sporting greats, some of the less sporty members (like me) were very happy to be there, but none the wiser as to who most of the people were.
https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Voice-Collective/211730148848675
UPCOMING GIGS
Beleza duo live on Cat’s Manchester Culture Show
Saturday 28th April @1pm
Listen live at http://www.northmanchesterfm.org/listen-live.html
Diaspora at Prestwich Festival
St Mary’s Church, Prestwich, Manchester, M25 1AN
7:30pm
££7.50 door / £6.00 advance -> email: white548@btinternet.com for advance tickets
Event page: https://www.lite.facebook.com/?ref=tn_tnmn#!/events/235543753201741/
As always, don’t forget to check my gig page website www.alyssrose.co.uk/gigs for to see when I’m playing, or you can “like” me on Faceache www.facebook.com/alyssrose
Thanks for reading,
Happy April!
Alyss x
Happy New Year
Happy New Year to you all. Happy to see that after a few problems my website is back up and running again. Thanks to my host.
OH IT’S A LONG LONG TIME
Welcome to the Autumn newsletter. I’ve skipped a month or two as there were holidays to be had and house moves to be done. I spent another week in bonny Scotland, far up on the East Coast. I saw seals and dolphins and amazingly we had beautiful sunny weather. If you’re wondering what the newsletter title is all about this time, it’s a reference to September Song written by Kurt Weill/Maxwell Anderson, a short and sweet reflection on the passing of time and changing of the seasons. I first heard Sarah Vaughan singing it. Click here to hear to have a listen on youtube. Here are the lyrics for your delectation.
Oh it’s a long long time from May to December,
But the days grow short when you reach September
When the autumn weather turns the leaves to flame
I haven’t got time for the waiting game
Oh the days dwindle down to a precious few
September, November
But these few precious days I’ll spend with you,
These precious days I’ll spend with you.
What’s been happenin?
So now I am one house move down; a lot of boxes unpacked, things got rid of and stuff organised. The music room is finally up and running without having to climb over a million boxes to get in there. There is a functional keyboard, sound system and desk. Hallelujah! And we also have a lovely garden view. The new place came with a very wild overgrown garden, which I have started taming by much chopping, sawing and weeding. It’s starting to emerge now from the undergrowth and is very pleasing to see and do.
I’m very happy to tell you that we have finally confirmed the musicians for the expanded Beleza band and scheduled our first rehearsal. Planning for the recording sessions is under way, so we should have something for you to listen to before too long. Things are moving along.
Some gigs done and some more coming up…
On September 14th I had the great pleasure of being the featured singer at The Indigo Jazz Jam, a weekly jam night run by saxophonist Ed Kainyek. I enjoyed singing with some fantastic musicians. In the house band that night were Rich Jones on keys, John Sandham on bass and Ben Grey on drums.
On Saturday 24th September I did a lovely gig singing with The Voice Collective at the Whitworth Art Gallery in Manchester. The event was part of the Peace Without Borders Festival organised by Musicans Without Borders, a charity that uses music to reduce the stressful effects of war and to connect people across cultural, political and religious borders for peace and positive change. Also playing at the gig was five-piece Australian/British chamber-psych-folk-rock group Samson & Delilah. We were delighted to add our voices to their beautiful song, Silently. Hopefully some time soon there should be some video footage of a couple of the songs from this gig.
Thursday 20th October
I’ll be singing with The Voice Collective at PICNIC CLUB: An acoustic showcase hosted by Picnic Area featuring the immaculate vocal harmonies of The Voice Collective, plus two great local songwriters, Colin Wakeford and Jo Lewis. Starts 7.30pm, we’ll be on at 10pm. Entry is free.
Venue is FUEL Bar, Wilmslow Road, Withington, Manchester, M20.
Saturday 29th October
I’ll be singing backing vocals with acoustic band Riverman. Starts 9pm.
Venue is Bar Place, Crown Street, Hebden Bridge, West Yorkshire, HX7 8AH.
Have a listen to Riverman here: http://soundcloud.com/river-man
Sunday 13th November
I’ll be singing backing vocals with acoustic band Riverman. Timings tbc.
Venue: The Red Triangle Cafe, 160 St. James’s Street, Burnley, BB11 1NR, Tel: 01282 832319
Thursday 17th November
I’ll be singing backing vocals with acoustic band Riverman, supporting the Grammy nominated Neil C Young and his jazz trio. Timings and entry price tbc.
Venue: Jim’s Vegetarian Restaurant,19-21 New Market Street, Colne, Lancs, BB8 9BJ, Tel: 01282 868828. Check out the Neil C Young Trio here: www.neilcyoungtrio.com
Saturday 10th December
I’ll be singing backing vocals with acoustic band Riverman. Timings and entry price tbc.
Venue: The Admiral Lord Rodney, Mill Green, Colne, Lancs, BB8 0TA, Tel: 01282 866206
Sunday 11th December
I’ll be singing with The Voice Collective at a charity event at The Trafford Centre, Manchester, M17 8AA. 12 noon – 4pm. There will be a number of choirs performing in the main shopping centre.
Thursday 15th December
I’ll be singing backing vocals with acoustic band Riverman, supporting James Baxter. Timings and entry price tbc.
Venue: Jim’s Vegetarian Restaurant,19-21 New Market Street, Colne, Lancs, BB8 9BJ, Tel: 01282 868828.
Thanks for reading, and don’t forget to check my gig page for updates.
Happy Autumn to you all,
Alyss x
IT’S JULY, BUT ONLY JUST.
Time somehow kept slipping away from me this month, so July’s newsletter is a retrospective one. It has been a month of varied gigs and musical activities. There’s been jam nights, burlesque, Latin themed parties, recording sessions, a bit of guitar, and intensive jazz viewing. As I write I’m listening to Gregory Porter’s album, Water. He’s a new American jazz singer that I came across on Jools Holland a few months ago. I would highly recommend it. It’s a mixture of standards and originals and it has a real classic sound.
Cheeky
So, the burlesque night was with The Voice Collective, where happily we were allowed to keep all our clothes on. It was a bit of an eye opener, I can tell you! The night was called Cherry Kiss Cabaret, and it was part of Not Part Of Festival (I love that sentence). I think they are planning it as a regular night, so it would be worth checking out if you like a bit of cabaret style entertainment. One of things I enjoyed most about the night was the compere, who was a stand-up comedian. He really brought the whole thing together and helped to get everyone involved.
Is that fruit on your head?
Beleza (the bossa nova duo I sing in) performed at the annual celebration for The Cranberries Club, an inspiring club for older people which allows them to meet new people and do all sorts of activities. They had decided on a Latin theme for the party, hence the bossa nova music from us, and a plethora of Carmen Miranda style hats from them. There was one particular 94 year old lady with a definite twinkle in her eye, who seemed to take a real shine to my guitarist Julian. It was good to see such a positive and creative attitude to ageing and older people.
Serious recording artists
Well The Voice Collective have now completed the first day of recording for our new album! It’s very exciting for us. We have done a number of recordings before, but this time it’s serious. We’re going to get something out there into the world that shows what we can do. It was a productive day. We got around five songs down, so we’re nearly half way there. Watch this space.
Wi jammin
I had the pleasure of going down and taking part in the jam night at the Salutation Pub (known to the regulars as “The Salli”). It’s a very different animal to the jazz jams that I normally go to, in that it’s not improvising from charts to standards, but really someone just lays down a groove and then you see what grows out of it. It’s the first one of that kind that I’ve been to in a long time. I used to go down to one at the Arch Bar, and The Dancehouse, but sadly neither place exists anymore. It was a great experience anyway to do that again. It encouraged me to experiment and be spontaneous with on the spot composing of lyrics and melodies. I do find coming up with lyrics quite a challenge, so I decided to use this as my inspiration, and to sing about the fact that I didn’t know what to sing about. This worked well as a starting point, and helped me to get over that initial fear.
I enjoyed it immensely, but I have to admit that after five or so jammed songs, I was itching to just sing a song that already existed – just for the joy of singing and playing around with something that already has form. Which is why it was so nice to go down to the jazz jam at Matt n Phred’s jazz club. It was part of the Manchester Jazz Festival, so there were some fantastic musicians there taking part. I got to get up and do one song. The house band has a real high energy feel to it, which feeds into the rest of the night when various people are getting up to play and sing. This all seems to stem from Dave Spencer who leads from the double bass.
Would you like some jazz with that?
So I spent the majority of this week planning my life around the Manchester Jazz Festival. I’m exhausted now. Even then I didn’t manage to see everything that I wanted to see, but I did squeeze a lot in. So, here’s my highlights: Clarke-Thorne-Fell, a trio made up of violin, double bass and drum kit. It was completely improvised, with the use of experimental and non-traditional sounds on the violin especially. I’m not sure that I can do it justice with a description. All I can say is that they were extremely imaginative, accomplished players and the way they communicated and played off each other was captivating and really joyful.
I also enjoyed watching Kenji Fenton (sax) and Andy Stamatakis-Brown (piano) playing together. They were less experimental, but again there was a big focus on improvisation, interaction and communication. They have played together in various outfits for at least 10 years they said, so they were a really tight unit. They mainly played standards with some original compositions too and also a song by Bjork. I liked the way they made the Bjork connection by following on with “Like Someone In Love”, an old jazz sing that was included on her album, Debut. I enjoyed the geeky feeling of knowing why they’d put those two songs next to each other.
The other act I’d like to mention is Sally Doherty (voice). She was joined by Paul Kilvington (piano) and Liz Hanks (cello). Sally has a beautiful clear resonant voice, and a gentle and thoughtful style of delivery. There were bossa novas, swaying jazz songs and folk flavours, and the music had a spacious airy quality to it.
The first rule of guitar club is…
…you know, you don’t talk about guitar club. So I’ll keep it short in case I get kicked out by the other members. The guitar class I was doing has reached the end, so I’m on my own from now on. Happily I think me and a friend are starting a mini “guitar club”, so that will help to keep me motivated and inspired to practice and learn. My guitar playing was tested over the weekend. Playing when drunk has always been the ultimate test for me, and this time I could do it. It’s safe to say it wasn’t the best I’ve ever played, but I remembered the chords and my fingers pretty much did as I told them. So that’s progress.
Duo plans
As I mentioned in my last newsletter, my regular accompanist has run away to Corfu, so I was hunting for a new one. Well I’ve now found a great piano player who I’m really looking forward to working with. I’ve also found someone who’s willing to record us, so the cogs are slowly turning, and things are getting into motion. Now I just need to choose the songs, get rehearsing, record them, and send them out to the right people, and then start taking over the world. Easy, when you put it like that.
Thanks for reading,
Alyss
MANCHESTER IN JUNE….A SHADY VERANDA UNDER A SUNDAY BLUE SKY
Well the months are flying by. I can’t believe we’re nearly half way through the year already. How does this happen? Since it’s June, and I enjoy a good theme, I’d like to point you in the direction of my favourite June-based song Memphis In June written by Mr Hoagy Carmichael and performed by the great and dynamic Lianne Carroll.
What’s been happening?
Well there’s been a few gigs, news songs learned, outings to music nights.
Recently I’ve been getting down to Ed Kainyek’s Wednesday night jazz jam at Indigo in Withington. I always enjoy getting up to sing there, playing with some new people, trying things out. It can be a bit by the seat of your pants at times, but that’s the nature of jam nights. It’s a great little night with a real mixture of folks. There are some very accomplished musicians who have been out and about on the jazz scene for years and then also up and coming musicians who are just finding their feet. So it’s a good learning place for the musicians, but quality and entertaining for the audience as well.
One of the songs I’ve been learning is Lush Life, by Billy Strayhorn. It’s a song that I’d heard quite a few times by various artists, but it wasn’t until my other half left the music out in front of the piano and I started to have a little go through it one night that I really began to appreciate it. On the surface it sounds very straightforward, but once you start breaking it down, you find that the melody has some quite unexpected little twists and turns, with subtle little accidentals half a note out from where you’d expect them to be. Parts that sound like it’s just the same phrase repeated again, are just slightly different. I also love the drama of the lyrics. I think it’s got to be a bit tongue in cheek. It’s so melodramatic, and kind of clichéd, but that’s what I love about it. The version I’ve been listening to is from the 1963 album “John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman”, with the vocal performed by Johnny Hartman, who I think sounds like a male Sarah Vaughan. They share so many little inflections and ways of phrasing and making sounds. I found his style a bit schmaltzy to start with, but he’s really grown on me. It was much the same for me when I first came across Sarah Vaughan. I wasn’t an immediate fan, I found her a bit much, especially with her tendency for lots of vibrato and a slightly operatic sound, but the more I listened the more I grew to love her, and now I’m a firm fan. My favourite song by Sarah Vaughan is Shulie A Bop. I love the playful improvisations she does and the fact that they are very short, sweet and to the point. Not too much noodling! Also the interaction with the other musicians is fantastic. I think it’s a really good compact demonstration of what jazz is about.
On the 28th of May I had the pleasure of doing my second ever radio interview. Rory Duffy (leader of Diáspora) and myself were invited by DJ Amos De Roover to come and talk about Diáspora and to play a couple of songs on his Global Vybz radio show on 106.6 North Manchester FM. It was a good experience, a little bit nerve-racking at first, but we relaxed into it. The strangest thing really was performing the songs with just the two of us. I’m so used to having the weight of the full band behind me when I’m singing these songs that it felt quite exposed to have just a piano. But Rory did a sterling job, and I think we held it together. If you’d like hear what it was like, you can get the “listen again” option for the first hour of the show by clicking here we’re just in the last 7 minutes. Then in the second half of the show you can catch us performing our songs. Golden Section is at 12 mins 51 secs and Move To The Music is at 42 mins 26 secs. The show is on every Saturday 6pm-8pm on 106.6 FM if you want to hear more from the Global Vybz crew.
We had a great turn out for the Voice Collective gig at Chorlton Arts Festival. It was pretty much a full house. Not an empty pew in sight! So thanks to everyone who came down to watch. It was a lot of fun for us, and we enjoyed having the lovely acoustic of the church, which was a rare treat for us, as we’re normally performing in bars and pubs. I had quite a spiritual moment whilst singing “Down To The River” at the end of the gig and contemplating the beautiful stained glass window at the back of the church. It seemed very fitting! We also did our first public performance of “Don’t You Worry About A Thing” by Stevie Wonder, arranged by Joe from our tenor section. It’s something we’ve been working on for quite some time, so it was good to finally get it out there.
What’s coming up?
This Friday 3rd June will be my last gig with the group RiverMan, the band of my accompanist Chris Manley, before he disappears off to Corfu for half a year. So I’ll be losing an accompanist, but gaining a holiday home…and hopefully there’s a new accompanist in the pipeline. The gig is at Bar Place, 10 Crown Street, Hebden Bridge, West Yorkshire, HX7 8EH. Music starts at 9ish. Entry is free and you can check out the facebook event for full details.
Then the next evening (Saturday 4th June) you can catch me singing with The Voice Collective at fundraising event for Mustard Tree, a Manchester-based charity that works with homeless people. The night starts at 8pm, and the entry fee is a suggested donation of £5.00. We’ll be on in the second half at around 9.30pm, but there’ll be some great acts on before that including an Afro-Jazz band so get there early! The event will be held at The Mustard Tree, 110 Oldham Rd, Ancoats, Manchester, M4 6AG.
And finally…I’ll be singing with Diáspora at Prestwich Festival this coming Tuesday the 7th June. At 7.30 I’ll be doing half an hour of bossa novas, then at 8.15 we’ll be moving on to the full big band Diáspora brass percussion Latin extravaganza, so if you like to dance the salsa, this is the one to come down to! It’s £6.00 in advance, £7.50 on the door. You can get tickets by emailing white548@btinternet.com or calling 07980092311. The venue is St Mary’s Church, Prestwich, M25 1AN. For full details click here.
Thanks for reading. Hope to see you at some gigs soon,
Alyss