,

from EBOR SOUND-ARTISTS

from EBOR SOUND-ARTISTS

through JAZZ SOUNDS IN THE VINES

all the way to SUNSET BOULEVARD

by Norman Warwick

Ebor studio artists gathering field recordings

´As part of this year´s Manchester International Festival,´ wrote Steve Cooke his all across the arts page last week in The Rochdale Observer, ´artists working in a variety of sound practices, based at the local Ebor studios in nearby Littleborough will be installing new works in St. Chad´s Church. The venue is a stunning local landmark, on Sparrow Hill, that has been part of the fabric of Rochdale life for over a thousand years and even parts of the existing building date back to 1688.

Ebor Studio artists, including Alison Cooper, Sophie Cooper, Maryanne Royle, Matthew Quick and Natalie Sharp have created pieces of sound art which specifically respond to the building and its rich story.

The artists all come from different domestic disciplines, but have responded to the very essence of the ancient site to create a cohesive sound-experience. Visitors saw see interactive, self-automated sound and musical works placed throughout the interior of the building for a one-day only exhibition on July 15th. The pieces were subsequently transported the three miles or so back to Littleborough, to be re-installed at Ebor Studios´ ¨Gallery Frank´ and exhibited for a further week.

Three members of the artists´ collaborative previewed their exhibition by giving a talk at MIF´s Festival Square event on July 8th

How reassuring it was to read Steve Cooke´s piece, from 3,000 miles away, and learn how Manchester International Festival has not only revived, but has also shone a light on local artists for all the world to see.

Check out further information at https://www.eborstudio.co.uk/

As always, we are grateful to Michael Higgins (left) for drawing the above to our attention and for keeping us informed of what is being whispered and whistled of down the sidetracks & detours of North West England. As regular readers will know, Michael is a frequent contributor of cleverly structured news and views on developments in arts and culture. At other times, and behind the scenes, he stays in touch through regular e mails simply give us a glimpse of the who, what, when, where and why of events in his area.

Another such communication from him, received last night, enables me to provide a brief round-up of his local news.

The annual (except for last year, due to covid) walk by members of The Edwin Waugh Dialect Society, a group of lovers of the dialect poetry of Waugh and many others tool place last Saturday 17th July 2021. Waugh’s Well (right) was the destination of a walk that began, at Edenfield, (tha knows, t´were place Robin Parker found some owd scrolls) Paul Salveson, Alyson Brailsford  and Sid Calderbank were there, plus others. Sid was in fine form, apparently. setting Alyson to much giggling. Halts were made every few yards for a bit of a recitation or sing of Ned Waff’s works.

Michael tells us his own (only half) performance was of Ned’s  Wild and Free, sung to one of Michael´s own tunes. It has a chorus so all could join in. ‘…I wish I were on yonder moor/ And my own dog with me…’ Well his dog was with him, and there is photographic of said dog and this event now included on the EWDS website.

The Travellers Michael is also a member of the relatively recently formed creative writing and contemplation group, The Travellers, and he included attachments of  a couple of fliers,  all courtesy of Sharon Jones the co-ordinator. The group is now seven members strong and includes not only our friend Michael, but also Andrea Sarginson, a member of Touchstones Creative Writing Group that I facilitated for several years in Rochdale before coming to live on Lanzarote.

It seems members are to be issued with badges, (see our cover at top of this article) though representing what remains unclear to me from this distance. I do know that, although members are free to write on any topic, the group has a remit to explore Christianity and religion and its writers are currently writing disparate works entitled Jesus The Man. I wonder whether any of this will reflect the impact of such a global pandemic as this current one and discuss whether it might have strengthened or weakened Mankind´s relationships with its Gods.

Michael writes in his e mail of ´that nice kindly speaker in a white robe delivering the beatitudes in Monty Python’s The Life of ´ as a calm rational being in a whirl of misunderstanding, brawling listeners and the rest of the Python troublemakers´.

Another perspective is drawn by Michael´s fellow Traveller, Andrea Sarginson, (right) a winner of a Writing News award for short stories, a few years ago. We reviewed her debut novel, Man Of Glass, on Sidetracks And Detours and if you tap in her name on our archives page you will find an article entitled Words From The Writer, dated 5th May 2020.

Michael has just finished reading his friend´s novel and confirms the positivity of our own review by saying, ´Man Of Glass is well written, with engaging characters, plot line and period evocation. The ordeal of an apprentice glazier specialising in stained glass against the ecclesiastical foibles of the 14th century with its Bubonic Plague and economic uncertainty on the horizon is one writing challenge. But using stained glass iconography and spiritual hope and harmony as part of a family story is well achieved also.  It is ironic that the novel uses the Black Death as a sharpening character tool while the author was totally oblivious that Coronavirus would strike just as the book was published. Furthermore this uncanny coupling of times is reflected in the Aftermath part of Andrea’s book´. 

We can only hope Andrea might be currently writing a sequel that might similarly allow History to teach us how to now move on through what the press are already beginning to call PCS, or Post-Covid Stress.

Finally Michael reminded us that all Coronavirus restrictions were ended in England on Monday of this week (19th July 2021).

Of course our news from the UK has to travel a long way and, other than from Michael, we most often receive it in encoded messages from Whistling Jack Smith, in tunes that carry  from volcano craters down to the shorelines, in much the same way as islanders here used to be warned of Moor invaders. The whistler today is conveying suggestions that the UK government slyly wants everyone to do their best to stick to the old restrictions. That sounds like a cop-out, his melody tells us, and an attempt to make peer pressure do what they no longer wish to do. In its repeated refrain, this high-pitched, warbling sound, made by the forcible expulsion of the breath through a small opening formed by contracting the lips, or through the teeth, with the aid of the tongue, constantly reminds us that the republics of Scotland and Wales have kept their restrictions a little longer.

We gently take this opportunity  to remind readers of two up-coming events, featuring sounds of a different nature with Jazz In The Vines. Both performances take place at The Oaken Grove Vineyard, Benhams Lane, Fawley, Henley-On-Thames, Oxon, RG9 5JG

The Led Zeppelin Project, Saturday 24 July | 5pm – 10pm Ady Davey vocals, Denny Ilett, guitar, Jerry Soffe, bass, Sam Wilkinson  drums,  Andy Crowdy guitar and keyboards

The Led Zep Project is not a ‘tribute band’ – they do not look like they’ve stepped off the set of The Song Remains The Same. Similar to Led Zeppelin themselves, they do not play the music of Led Zeppelin note-for-note, and like Led Zeppelin, they are a band of disparate virtuosi from across musical realms who come together with the shared goal of performing great music as it was meant to be heard; tight but with the element of risk and improvisation that made each Zeppelin performance unique.

The Alex Clarke Trio play on Sunday August 1st,

The Art Theme Trio play on Monday 30th August.

Surrounded by ancient woodlands, Oaken Grove Vineyard is a family-run, boutique vineyard offering a range of award-winning English wines. Established in 1986 in the foothills of the Chilterns, the seven acres of Pinot Noir, Bacchus and Madeleine Angevine vines produce exceptional quality still and sparkling wines that are fresh, modern and packed with flavour.

Vineyard gates open at midday and guests are welcome to enjoy drinks on the wine terrace before the jazz starting at around 3pm.

Tables for 6, 4, 3 and 2 people are available. Wines from our own vineyard as well as some other local beers and guest wines will be available to order, as well as food offering (further details TBC). Every table of 6 will receive a complimentary bottle of wine.

Full Covid prevention measures will be in place, and we ask all our guests to follow guidelines.

Note: keep up to date with all events at the Oaken Grove Vineyard here.

If you want to travel to somewhere even moire exotic ti hear your jazz, how aboyt visiting The Catalina Bar And Grill, on the famous Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles? We are reliably informed by Jazziz, the award-winning, authorattive voice of Jazz culture that on Sunday 15th August there will be a special performance by Andy James and John Patatucci.

Music has been coursing through smouldering jazz vocalist Andy James’ being since she was a little girl. Twice blessed as a gifted singer and dancer, Andy decided her showbiz act one would be a career as a world-class Flamenco dancer, collaborating with the milieu’s most exceptional.

As a studio musician, John Patitucci has played on countless albums with artists such as B. B. King, Bonnie Raitt, Chick Corea, Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Michael Brecker, George Benson, Dizzy Gillespie, Was Not Was, Dave Grusin, Natalie Cole, Bon Jovi, Sting, Queen Latifah and Carly Simon. In 1986, John was voted by his peers in the studios as the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences MVP on Acoustic Bass.

Watch them perform with an All-Star band featuring Chris Potter (sax), Nate Smith (drums), Alex Acuna (percussion), Jon Cowherd (piano), Terell Stafford (trumpet) and more

Primary sources for this article were Steve Cooke´s recent all across the arts piece on Ebor sound-artists in The Rochdale Observer, (forwarded to us by Michael Higgins) and a newsletter from Jazz In Reading

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This article was put together by Norman Warwick, (left) weekly arts columnist for Lanzarote Information and owner and editor of the daily not-for-profit Sidetracks And Detours blog. Norman is a broadcaster writer and poet and is one of the four founding members of Joined Up Jazz Journalist, (JUJJ) formed in 2020. His three colleagues consist of Susana Fondon who is a frequent contributor to Lanzarote Information of interviews with musicians playing on the island. Steve Bewick, radio presenter, poet and recording artist and his pal Gary Heywood Everett, jazz historian and researcher, put together a weekly radio programme, Hot Biscuits, which can be found at

www.fc-radio.co.uk

JUJJ was formed to share our awareness of jazz to better inform our readers and to support those who provide listings and press releases in the UK to support the jazz scene and the JUJJ combined out-reach is to a growing audience around the world with special affiliations with The Canary ISlands, Tel Aviv, London, Vietnam and South Korea as well as Europe and the United States.

Organisations like Ribble Valley Jazz And Blues and Jazz In Reading professionally and diligently provide listings, and artist´s backgrounds on their great web sites and in their newsletters. It is the Sidetracks & Detours ambition to match and complement such organisations in jazz, even as we gather found objects from all over the arts fields. We now have over 400 articles in our easy to negotiate archives.

If you would like to share your news, interviews, previews and reviews from the jazz scene of any other art form, please do so by attaching your submission as a Word Document on an e mail to normanwarwick55@gmail.com

Unfortunately as a not-for-profit organisation Sidetracks And Detours are not in a position to pay for articles, but we promise that all submissions will be read, published if at all possible and will, of course, be fully attributed. so you should feel free to include a short self-biography, if you wish and a photograph of yourself. This photograph, and any others you might like to include to complement your text should be sent in a second attachment of a zipped folder, to your e mail

Thank you. We look forward to hearing from you.

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