A concert I recently played with my band at the Norfolk & Norwich Festival was broadcasted on BBC Radio 3 two days ago. Have a listen! It features all my own compositions – some old that features on my albums, and some new ones that are yet to be recorded properly (including one brand new piece that had never been played before). So far this year the gigs with my band have been getting scarily good and so much fun – we seem to be getting a bigger audience each time we play and I am so grateful to James, Matthew, Sam, Liam and Scott for all the time, effort and great vibes.
Also on the programme is my mum Viktoria Mullova and I playing my arrangement of one of the movements from J.S. Bach’s 1st Violin Sonata – this is one of the pieces we play in our new duo programme that is soon to be performing all over Europe…
I have also had the pleasure of co-producing and playing on 4 albums that have come out this year so far. The Adventures of Mr Pottercakes by the Patchwork Jazz Orchestra was finally released in March, over a year after we recorded it at Air Studios, featuring 8 compositions by members of the band – one of which is my own and one of which I helped arrange. It’s A Boonie! is a wonderfully entertaining and top-quality album of songs for babies, all written and sung by the great virtuoso guitarist Rainer Scheurenbrand and with all the instrumental arrangements done by me. Odoyá is a collection of songs dedicated to the Orixás, mostly by the Brazilian group Os Tincoãs who were active in the 60s and 70s. The songs are sung by my friend Raja with the engineering and mixing by my old partner-in-crime Duncan Bridgeman and once again with my instrumental arrangements. And finally Sete Cores (Seven Colours) is the debut album by my partner Julia Gelpke – these seven beautiful songs are also dedicated to the Orixás and feature my first ever attempt at engineering and mixing an album. My trumpet-wielding friend James Davison happens to be playing on all of these creations, and various members of my band and my family are featured on most of these – the main reason why each of these albums has been an utter joy to be involved in. Enjoy!
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