December 2007

Spring Awakening just had its first anniversary on Broadway. Happy Birthday!! Here’s to many more…

Just heard that Hotei’s MTV Unplugged show we recorded in Tokyo this January won the award for “Best music programme” at the Asian Television Awards 2007. Congratulations to all involved – it does sound & look amazing.

Got to see Ian Brown in concert – no live strings of course but still a fantastic show.

The Lang Lang arrangement I did never got broadcast as it was due to segue with Kanye West’s “Stronger” where Lang Lang would finish his cadenza out of Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsody and then play a transition piece I wrote, around the themes of “Stronger”. The track then started and Lang Lang played in & out of Kanye’s vocal using themes & adaptations from the Liszt piece. Very cool idea. I’d done some unplayable stuff (VERY flashy) too and he was able to do it whilst grooving with the track and turning one of the many pages at the same time! Sadly, Kanye West’s mother had very recently passed away following surgery so he was unable to perform on the show for obvious reasons.
Here’s a brief extract anyway…

November 2007

Spent a week in New York for a workshop performance of Duncan Sheik and Steven Sater’s musical The Nightingale. It was a lot of work to get all the arrangements and orchestrations done in time but well worth it. We had a wonderful 7-piece band of violin, viola, cello, bass, harp, percussion and piano. There were times when it sounded like many more players than that! Some fabulous songs and a great show. Was hoping to see Spring Awakening while I was over, but most of Broadway was dark due to the strike. Hoping for an early settlement.

Working on an arrangement for Lang Lang, the amazing virtuoso pianist from China. They might need to send out for more ink when we print the part out… The one time when less is definitely not more.

October 2007

Lots of preparation for the concert that Claire & I have together at the Weill recital hall at Carnegie Hall! 2 sets to put together, orchestrate and rehearse…

OK, we’ve done it now!! The concert was a great success with everyone who was there enjoying the material & experience. It was amazing to see friends from New York and also so many friends & family who had come over from the UK to support us. We were lucky to have Olivier Manchon, Hiroko Taguchi and Ben Kalb from the Spring Awakening band to play with us, so although they got a night off the show, they ended up with even more of my charts to play! They were fantastic and made the evening even more special. As well as lots of songs we did a couple of my compositions too and I was delighted to get some wonderful feedback about them that will definitely prompt some recordings in the near future…

September 2007

Wrote and recorded arrangements on ten songs for Tina Arena’s next solo CD. She’s planning on touring the arrangements with various Australian orchestras too at the end of the year. All recorded at Angel with Steve Price & Niall Acott.

Did two arrangements for Madness at Miloco Studios with Clive Langer. Even managed to include a 2 octave chromatic scale up and down… Never imagined when I practiced them that there would be a practical use!

Recorded 3 songs for The Storys www.thestorys.co.uk at my studio and all sounded great. Jon Kelly producing and Steve, Dai & Rob came down from Swansea. Everyone enjoyed the recording and the room worked really well. OK, it’s not Real World but not bad for an old stable! These guys deserve to have a lot of success, they write great songs and it was a pleasure to be involved in the project.

August 2007

Just finished a two-week session at my studio for Japanese percussionist Nobu Saito. We recorded & mixed 7 pieces in 9 days. Great fun for the whole time, especially really putting the studio through its paces. Tom Jenkins www.tomjenkinsaudio.com recorded and mixed everything for me on Pro-Tools and it wouldn’t have been possible to do it like we did without him there – thanks Tom – nice Tuna salad…! Nobu was great to work with and loved being in the environment here away from it all. He’s a fine player too, though it’s always handy to have a spare djembe skin kicking about…We had strings in for a day, guitars, bass, lots of percussion, trumpet (my son Ben’s first proper session!), many wonderful flutes courtesy of the amazing Phil Todd, got my old Fender Rhodes out of retirement, an incredible choir moment thanks to having Claire Moore’s inspiration on hand and everyone around to do handclaps (thanks Anna & Lisa!) and foot stamping at a moment’s notice. Almost everything on the record is completely live and sounds all the better for it. Look forward to seeing the finished product when it’s out & hoping for a worldwide release too…

Made a quick dart over to Prague to record orchestra on a song for Katherine Jenkins. Written & produced by Gary Barlow & Andy Hill for a show later in the year.

July 2007

Added strings and Hammond at Metropolis to a track for Gabrielle’s new record. A great song called “Why” produced by the Boilerhouse Boys. Also featuring Paul Weller!
Recorded two arrangements for Wallen at Angel. What amazing music and a wonderful voice! She unfortunately couldn’t be there at the session but we set up a webcam link to the office in Paris and it made such a difference. Instead of receiving the hard drive with the finished parts as a fait accompli, she was able to hear the different takes and the process of tweaking and getting the best take – nearly as good as being there and a whole lot better than listening over the phone….

It’s also been busy getting 11 arrangements written for Jenifer (Universal France). I met her & Maxim Nucci in Paris to discuss the songs and talk about ideas but then it was down to me to plan it all and co-ordinate the recordings. We had a day at Angel to do 8 songs with strings (4 with harp too). The last one was scored for 4-tet and vibes; I’d written out a small solo which was a bit hairy and to see Frank Ricotti practicing was proof! All sounded great.
The next day we were all at my studio to record brass & woodwind. Tom Rees-Roberts on trumpet, flugel and piccolo trumpet, Fayyaz Virji on trombone and Phil Todd on Alto, Tenor, Baritone and Tubax (Eb Contrabass Sax – it sounded incredible!), Alto and Bamboo flutes. They all played wonderfully across the wide styles that I threw at them. Tom Jenkins came in and engineered for me on Logic, which meant I could concentrate on the music – thanks Tom! Jenifer, Maxim, Xavier & Thomas all enjoyed the recordings here (& at Angel of course!) – it was good to give the studio a challenge. Bob Clearmountain currently mixing the album in LA.

June 2007

Recorded two more arrangements for Alison Moyet’s next CD. Back at Angel studios with Steve Price & the London Studio Orchestra. The charts came out well but it was a bit of a surprise (pleasant!) to hear them, having been immersed in arrangements over the last few days for a new release by Jenifer (Universal France) and then suddenly being reminded of what I’d done on the songs for Alison. Even though it was only a week or so beforehand, the detail of what had been done had completely gone from my memory so it was cool to hear them being played for real!

Just returned from the Tony awards at New York’s Radio City Music Hall where Spring Awakening won 8 awards out of 11 nominations including….. BEST ORCHESTRATIONS! Wow. Saw the show 3 times while I was over there and ended up playing shaker on the Saturday matinee! Thanks Trey… Congratulations to everyone involved in the show – you deserve all the success you’re getting now & in the future.
Met up with Ian Brown, Tim Wills & Maxi while I was over there and heard a couple of the tracks while they were mastering with Howie Weinberg – awesome!

May 2007

Recorded strings on 4 songs for Gary Go. We worked together 3 years ago and he really is a very talented singer/songwriter making a great debut CD. We recorded one song completely live, vocals, piano (me) and string sextet. Just like the old days. Apart from Pro-Tools of course….

Conducted a session for Rich Martin at Abbey Road Studio 2 for The Discovery Channel. Many memories for everyone from that room, of course, but for me too, having recorded the East Fifteen suite on my solo CD back in 1992.

Got the news that Spring Awakening has been nominated for ELEVEN Tonys (including best new musical and best orchestrations), leading the 2007 nominations on Broadway. It’s wonderful for everyone involved in the show that it has been so well received and recognized by the panel – here’s to June 10^th!

Recorded strings on 3 songs for Alison Moyet’s new CD with Pete Glenister. It’s 5 years since I worked on Alison’s CD “Hometime” with The Insects but great to be working together again.

April 2007

Recorded an arrangement for Mauss, again for Universal France.
Wrote & recorded 5 more arrangements for Ian Brown – great to be asked to add more to this record (due for September release). Back at Angel with Steve Price. I asked Ian how many tracks were planned for the album (having done arrangements on 11 songs) and he said “eleven”. Cool.

Did 3 gigs with the amazing Serpentine Fire www.serpentine-fire.com and enjoyed it as ever! How can you not have a great time playing the music of Earth, Wind & Fire??!!
Spent a day with The Storys and Jon Kelly as they finished mixing their second album at Real World. Sounds wonderful. It was great to be back there after such a long time – nearly 20 years since recording there with Harrison and rehearsing with Seal!

March 2007

Finished recording with Jon Kelly and adding strings to 5 songs – up at Angel again with Gary Thomas and a pleasure as always.

Wrote & recorded arrangements for 3 songs on a new French CD with the help of Derrick McKenzie, Rob Harris and Matt Johnson (all of the Jamiroquai band). Had a few surprises for them on the day and all went down well! I played harpsichord on 2 songs too – which was nice.

Worked with Freemasons adding strings & brass to some of their productions. Down at West Point with Michael Zimmerling, Perry & members of the London Studio Orchestra and Noel Langley, Ben Castle & Pete Beachill. Disco-tastic.

Added brass (Noel Langley on Trumpet & Fayyaz Virji on Trombone) to a song for Jenifer (Universal France) and recorded it at my studio. Arranger, MD, engineer…..you’ll have to make your own tea.

February 2007

Just recorded 6 songs for a very talented new singer-songwriter Elsa Campbell with Glenn Skinner. Great songs and a fab voice. Watch this space…

January 2007

Spent a week in Tokyo rehearsing and filming a show for MTV Unplugged with Tomoyasu Hotei www.hotei.com/. All acoustic of course, with me on piano, Hotei on guitars & vocals, Terreon Gully www.terreongully.com on drums, Reuben Rogers www.reubenrogers.com on bass, Luis Jardim www.jardim.co.uk on percussion and Fay Ebony & Tiffany on backing vocals. A great band and a lot of fun to do – Hotei really is an incredible player and it was fantastic playing with him and enjoying the blend of guitar & piano that we made.

Recorded 6 songs with Ian Brown www.ianbrown.co.uk for Fiction records. All went down very well with everyone & it was great as ever to be working at Angel Studios www.angelstudios.co.uk with the amazing Steve Price engineering. 24 strings, 2 Horns, Harp & Timpani – he got a fantastic sound as ever! They filmed the session for archive purposes and when the director was chatting to me about the process involved he couldn’t believe that the first time the orchestral parts had been heard (other than by me in my head) was at that moment of the first read through. Obviously the talent of the musicians comes into it a great deal too!! It makes me feel that I am right to avoid producing “mock-ups” on synths beforehand. Yes there is more pressure on my shoulders that the charts should be right when they come off the page, but also it preserves that moment of pure magic when sheets of printed notes become a tangible thing that affects people immediately. I’m just not convinced that having heard, lived with, amended and got used to a MIDI score that you will ever have that moment of surprise and excitement…. IMHO ;)