Earlier in the day (in fact from 12pm to 7pm) head over to Lombard Street in Digbeth for PST’s street party. This here flyer says there’s going to be food, live art and heavy bass. And face painting.
Capsule have got an event at Kings Heath’s Hare and Hounds on Saturday night called Wedlock. Dunno what that’s a reference to but I like the pretty picture.
There’s loads of other stuff happening too. Have a look at Live Brum for listings.
On 23 February, Mostly Jazz were set to launch their 2011 Festival at The Rainbow, with a performance from a trio of contemporary Jazz performers; local, world class drummer, Tony Levin (above), saxophonist Paul Dunmall and young bass player Nick Jurd.
Sadly, Tony Levin passed away earlier this month, and so the gig is now set to go ahead in tribute to him, featuring the musicians originally booked to play alongside the legendary drummer.
The first set at 9pm will feature the Nick Jurd Quartet with Rachel Cohen on saxophone, Sam Wooster on trumpet, Nick on bass and Jim Bashford on drums. The second set will feature Paul Dunmall on saxophone, Mark Sanders and Tony’s son, Miles Levin on drums and Nick Jurd who Tony had personally chosen for the original gig.
Tickets for this event are £5, for more information, visit Birmingham Jazz, where they’ve also posted a tribute piece.
Birmingham music groups urged to share facilities and staff
BCMG and Birmingham Jazz: “following concerted lobbying, the two music groups will be given an extra six months funding if they make moves to join a cost-saving music hub with the Symphony Hall, CBSO, Town Hall, Ex-Cathedra and other groups”
Creative England
First glimpse of Creative England – the new configuration of the regional screen agencies. Sign up to their mailing list to keep up with news/opportunities/etc
SOUNDkitchen | Feed your ears!
This is “an organisation dedicated to the promotion of composers and artists working in the field of sound”
Matt Edgar – Green Sand and Subterfuge
A story about Matthew Murray from Leeds and his battles with Boulton & Watt of Birmingham – dirty tricks in business during the Industrial Revolution
Michelin Guide recognises West Midlands restaurants
“Birmingham’s trio of Purnell’s, Simpsons and Turners all retained their one-star rating in the guide, as did La Bécasse and Mr Underhill’s in south Shropshire”
Considered somewhat jazz pedigree, as the nephew of saxophonist Donald Harrison, Scott has become one of the great innovators of his generation as part of an achingly cool new wave of contemporary jazz artists. He arrives at the Hare & Hounds in support of his new album ‘Yesterday You Said Tomorrow’.
Tickets are £13 (£10) and are available online via theticketsellers, by calling 0844 870 0000 or in person at Polar Bear Records, Kings Heath.
A bit more news in the follow-up of Artsfest, this time on the musical front. Over the weekend BBC Radio 3 recorded two homegrown jazz performances for the Jazz Line Up programme, which was broadcast last weekend, on Sunday 26 September.
Recorded at the Symphony Hall, Birmingham bands led by Ben Markland and Percy Pursglove played at the special edition of Rush Hour Blues. The show is currently still available to listen to on BBC iPlayer.
Mike Connolly is an award-winning documentary filmmaker with over 10 years experience in factual and arts television production.
William Ellis is at the vanguard of music photographers and is widely recognised as having created an important document of the contemporary jazz scene in Africa, Europe and The Americas.
Alyn Shipton is an award-winning author and broadcaster, who is jazz critic for The Times in London, and a presenter/producer of jazz programmes for BBC Radio.
To read more about these guys and their extensive careers working around jazz and the media, visit the event page.
I saw Mother India: 21st Century Remix in 2008 and it was honestly one of the best things I saw that year. It’s been off on tour since but will be back in Birmingham on Sunday (11 April) to crown Mother India weekend – a bunch of events happening at the Town Hall and Symphony Hall.
This version of Mother India is:
A reinterpretation of the 1957 Indian cinema classic as a 45 minute silent movie with new musical score will be performed live by DJ Tigerstyle, drummer David Shaw and cellist Matt Constantine with Josh Ford as visual editor.
MI21 is a compact, powerful and sensual take on Mehboob Khan’s Hindi masterpiece – a hugely important film in South Asian cinema, known for its iconic imagery and powerful storyline: the common shorthand is to reference it as India’s ‘Gone with the wind’.
The Mid-day Mantra thing sounds quite good – a variant on the Rush Hour Blues series, I guess. That’ll be happening once a month from now on and will be a freebie.
MySpace – ::The Other Woman’s Club
“The Other Woman’s Club are a creative women’s collective of talented DJs, Photographers, Musicians, Jewelery Designers, Clothes Designers, Journalists, Promoters…and one man”
FREESTYLE Exhibition | Hare and Hounds
I missed this – a showcase of twelve different photographers and illustrators from around Birmingham. I’m going to do some short posts on them instead (if I can find em online, and I think I’ve found most)
BASS 2010 commissions « Punch Records
“For BASS 2010 Punch are opening up the commissioning scheme and we are offering awards of between £500 – £3000 to support new work developed for the festival. We are looking for innovative and creative projects that explore the theme of DNA”
Mostly Jazz line-up
I don’t think I’ve linked to this yet. Anyway, the acts performing at the two-day jazz fest in Moseley have been announced. It’s being organised by the folks behind Moseley Folk and Birmingham Jazz and The Yardbird are pitching in too
One More Take
Tommy Pearson does the CBSO’s podcasts. This is his blog
Tom Binned over Queen’s speech gag
Mixed fortunes for (ex-)BRMB DJ Tom Binns – he got engaged on Christmas morning then went to work and got himself sacked
Vote for Created in Birmingham (another shameless plea)
If you’ve not yet voted, please do.
If you have voted please vote again (you can vote DAILY until Tues 13 Jan)
Birmingham Photospace: Choose a Photographer
Birmingham Photospace, the people looking to establish a permanent photo gallery in Birmingham, are asking which photographer you’d like to see exhibiting in the city
Young People Arts Project: New Project Opportunity – Audiences Central
“Audiences Central, with arts consultant Kerry Endsor, is looking to develop and deliver a high-profile, public-facing, arts project that will encourage and inspire young people in the West Midlands to engage with the arts and culture”. If you’re interested in getting involved then register your interest on the Audiences Central site before 19 Dec
Welcome to BYPY
Nominations for the Birmingham Young Professional of the Year are open
heavy handbag
Ramjeena Aujla is a “split-second-stealing snapper” and she blogs at Heavy Handbag
B(l)og
A couple of the Audiences Central peeps have started their own blogs recently, with this one from Fiona likely to be the most, um, quirky. She has/had a secret obsession – rating the city’s (and likely other cities’) toilets. So far pubs and restaurants feature highly
Make and Do at The Edge
Antonio Roberts went to “the first Make and Do Party over at The Edge, which was hosted by Friction Arts. There were about 20 artists present and there was a strong emphasis on just having fun creating art!”. He has a quick write-up and some pics
Birmingham Jazz and Birmingham Town Hall‘s resonance events are well worth catching when they’re on. The last one was in October and featured the Heritage Orchestra and Lizzy Parks among others. A vid’s just gone up on YouTube with a couple of interviews that captures things really rather well.
I saw the The Heritage Orchestra at the Town Hall (one of their rather good resonance events) last month and they were great, so I was chuffed to hear about Birmingham Jazz’s plans for celebrating Stan Sulzmann‘s birthday:
Stan Sulzmann has had a long relationship with Birmingham Jazz and is a Honorary Fellow at Birmingham Conservatoire. So when Stan mentioned that he will be 60 this November, plans were immediately put in place to mark the event in Birmingham with a concert with a small version of The Heritage Orchestra (THO) and with arrangements of Stan’s material by both Jules Buckley and Stan himself.
Stan will be playing with THO’s 13-piece string section plus an extended rhythm section with piano, bass, drums, guitar and percussion. There will also be new material written for the occasion by Stan himself and by THO members Tom Richards and Sam Bullard
Info about Stan Sulzmann’s 60th Birthday Celebration is here along with all the other stuff Birmingham Jazz have got on this month (ooh, Portico Quartet on the 28th).
The second resonance events soiree will happen at the Town Hall on Friday 3 October featuring a host of local talent as well as the very excellent Heritage Orchestra performing the songs of Amon Tobin. Musically, we’re talking jazz and hip hop but soul, leftfield, classical and any number of other styles will feature.
