About Me
*** News:
JUNE 2008"CARAVANSARAIL" are happy to have signed with Saphrane Records, a major player from Holland in the world music scene. Please visit Saphrane Records' Website
I'll post the link here very soon for those of you who'd like to buy/download the CD :) Meanwhile you can hear a premix HERE
"Synop-sis" ( LINK ) are currently recording their 5th Album. Synop-sis performed at The Fès Jazz Festival in Morocco as support act for Didier Lockwood on the 16th November 2007, and hosted the "After Hours" concert/jam session. You can see LIVE VIDEOS of Synop-sis on YouTube
"JOGA" ( LINK ) is going from strength to strength, with the amazing Tony Sgro on Bass, and the welcome addition of Ronnie Rae Jr. ..boards, and many new compositions. We have a series of dates lined up for you in the area this summer, full details above in my "Events"
"Andrei BODNARTCHOUK" trailogue+ featuring Felix Sabal-Ecco ( LINK ) Well we're still working on our forthcoming album which is taking longer than expected... Once again, I'll keep you posted here. We are playing the Moscow Jazz Festival this August 2008 and will be touring Russia in the Autumn for 2 weeks.
CMCA : I'm teaching Saxophone and Jazz theory on mondays and tuesdays at the Centre Musical de la Côte d'Azur. For anyone who is interested please get in touch with the school on their website HERE .
JUNE 2007:
Well we just got back from the Oldenburg Promenade Festival in Germany (near the Danish border!) where we played to packed house with "Triologue", otherwise known as the Andrei Bodnartchouk Trio (see links below). I couldn't play sax owing to recent dental work... so I learned all the tunes on my trusty whistles - no mean feat considering the chromaticism of Andrei's compositions ;)
Anyway, the gig was a success, and the journalists were full of questions about Jazz, Celtic music, and the European cultural identity... They particularly liked my theory about the disgraceful replacement in schools of the traditional whistle by the baroque recorder, so I'll blog here on that one when I get the time. We have now started recording the album with this group which comprises a Russian, a Scot and a Frenchman - and I reckon we'll be adding a Camaroonais on percussion before too long (see below!). We have a lot of dates coming up with this band, and I'll be adding them to the "Listings" as soon as the venues are confirmed.
Locally I'm now playing, rehearsing and recording a lot with "JOGA" featuring Tony Sgro, Linus Olsson, myself and Alain Asplanato. This is a great line up - one of the best rythm sections I've had the good fortune to work with - and I haven't had so much fun playing in a while: http://www.myspace.com/jogajazz
After a couple of months work we have a repertoire of over a dozen superb original compositions with a "European" sound... We'll put up some recordings here as soon as they are ready, and I'm sure there will be at least one album forthcoming in the near future... probably more as Blue Note and Dreyfuss fight over us :) I'll try and keep the "gigs" section up to date too, and for anyone living in or around Nice.You can also come and hear me playing with Folk/Rock singer Theresa Rhodes , featuring many of the same excellent musicians you can hear with "Synopsis". Theresa's band also features the talented and charismatic Drummer Felix Sabal-lecco - check his space out in my friends below.
Last summer Synop-sis performed with a new line-up at the Cap d'Ail Jazz festival, and at the Fés Festival in Morroco (see dates). Synop-sis now also features Felix on drums ( can you tell how much we love him?), and the music has taken a new and interesting turn towards Celtic and African musics. I'll be playing the Akai 4000s EWI (Electronic Wind Instrument), Whistles and Low Whistles, Alto and Soprano Saxophones.
Biography...
I studied clarinet and saxophone at the age of 9, and started playing semi-professionally aged 17 with guidance in my formative years from such great British players as Geoff Simpkins, Alan Skidmore, Paul Dunmall, Stan Sultzman, Phil Bancroft, Kevin Flanagan, and Gordon Cruickshank (1949-2002). My first real gigs were in Cardiff's "Four Bars Inn" & the Brecon Jazz Festival with the likes of the great Brighton drummer Ron Parry and Welsh bassist Paula Gardiner... avant-garde stuff and way ahead of my ability at the time (considering I couldn't really play standards), but I couldn't have had a better introduction to the world of live improvised musical experimentation. I then decided to take a gap year playing in France with various bands that your mother wouldn't really want you hanging out with, followed by four years of studying Chinese at Cambridge University from 1988-92.
After scraping through university using advanced hypnotic memory techniques and an approach known as "cramming", not forgetting two six month stints studying chinese playing jazz in Taiwan, I began performing and recording on saxophones and whistles, mostly in France which I decided had the climate that Scotland (and I) deserve, but often in the UK and further afield. Over the last 12 years I've played with fantastic musicians here such as J-M Jafet, Amaury Filiard, Alain Asplanato, Felix Sabalecco, Ronnie Rae Junior, Franois Chassagnite, Fred D'oelsnitz, Stphane & Lionel Belmondo, Bibi Rovre, Sylvain Luc, Eric Sempé, Andrei Bordnachouk, Art Johnson, Akram, Yoann Serra, Marc Peillon, Robert Persi and many others... and at the same time I have continued to study both in France and the US with the hightly respected saxophonist John Purcell (World Sax Quartet, Jack DeJohnette "Special Edition", David Murray Group, sound consultant for D. Sanborn & M. Brecker). John has become a close friend over the last 8 or so years: he opened my ears to the music of the spheres... and there's no turning back.
As I said, I've been fortunate to play with many great musicians professionally around Europe, but also on stage at the legendary summer Jam Sessions here on the French Riviera during the Antibes and Cimiez Jazz Festivals: all the greats hang out here, and they love to get up and sit in with our band at the Meridien Garden Beach in Juan-les-Pins or in Nice - George Benson, Marcus Miller, Randy Brecker, John Pattatucci, Kirk Lightsey, Santi Debriano, Dan Gottlieb, Dave Kikoski, Al Foster, ... the list goes on. I must be one of the few people on the planet to have had the honour to play both Pennywhistle and Soprano Sax (though not at the same time) with Elvin Jones.
Where to find me.
When I'm not blowing, teaching or in Second Life I perform locally (south of France) and abroad with several groups including JOGA (see above),"Synop-sis" (CD "Home" featuring the one and only David Sanborn on the Snocap store above), a traditional celtic ensemble with the unforgettable name "Mike's Irish Band", "Nice Touch" featuring US singer/songwriter Scott Allen when he isn't in NY, and a World-Jazz Collective "Caravanserail" (CD to be released very soon). I record as often as I can, both at home and in the studio - and as soon as I have the time I'll update my mp3 extracts with some of the session work I've done for musicians such as Thierry Maillard (Entre Deux Mondes, Cristal Records 2004), Amaury Filliard (NadiaMori Electrojazz 2004), Jean-Marc Jafet ("Douceur Lunaire", RDC Records 2003), and of course some of my own material.
For the moment I hope you enjoy the sound of my Rampone & Cazzani "Saxello" on Andrei Bordnachouk's adaptation of "Moments Notice" with Andrei and Eric Sempé.. "Zamgrac" you'll recognize... it was an unexpected request on a gig during a live recording: that was the first but definately not the last time I'll be performing that tune on a susato low F whistle. Btw, I've added "Greensleeves" to the repertoire too recently :) "The Butterfly" is also a largely improvised live recording of a Tommy Potts tune, hence the slight tempo hiccup at the beginning. Ronnie Rae loves to play that one faster, but hey - I'm the singer! Yoann Serra is on drums for that one, and he's now really busy with Laurent deWilde and others
What else? Well I performed not too long ago at the Edinburgh Jazz Festival at the "Spiegel Tent" with John Rae's "Magic Feet" alongside such great players as Brian Kellock, Eilidh Shaw, Martin Green, Julian Arguelles, Mario Caribe, Paul Harrison, Mihaly Farkas, Robert Farkas... and of course the one and only Jon Rea. Got you there John, for what it's worth. And where's my money by the way?!
Anyway, we all had a great time, and the band won a prestigious "Herald Angel Award". Previous encounters with this fine crowd of heavy drinkers include the unforgettable Islay Jazz Festival (Russel and Ronnie, I owe you one), and of course the Queens Hall:
"Strange and wonderful things happen in this little-explored territory where jam meets rant. There was Brian Kellocks no-nonsense boogie, escorted by a swirl of sax and accordion, bringing in Raes smaller, Celtic Feet sextet for a sparking, sizzling opening set. There was Neil Gerstenberg, later to give us a fine, loose-limbed sax solo, warbling soulfully on that well-known jazz instrument, the penny whistle. And there was American trumpeter Warren Vache (aka Sporran Washy), looking bemused to find himself both be-kilted and reeling alongside full-tilt fiddler Eilidh Shaw, before tearing a full-throated solo out of the situation."The Scotsman, 6th December 2003, John Rae's Big Feet & Islay Pipe Band ****
So I hope to see you on a gig sometime soon, either in the audience or up on stage with us... or just for a chat at the bar. Or send me a mail and let me know if you enjoy our music.
www.caravansarail.com
www.celticjazz.com
www.bodnartchouk.com
Theresa Rhodes on Myspace
www.synop-sis.com
www.scottroyd.com
Musiciens dans ta ville
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