{"id":1185,"date":"2020-03-17T08:28:24","date_gmt":"2020-03-17T08:28:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/?p=1185"},"modified":"2020-03-18T11:44:05","modified_gmt":"2020-03-18T11:44:05","slug":"olivia-moore-indian-raga-and-jazz-violin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/2020\/03\/17\/olivia-moore-indian-raga-and-jazz-violin\/","title":{"rendered":"OLIVIA MOORE discusses Indian Raga and Jazz Violin with Steve Bewick, who tells Norman Warwick"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

OLIVIA MOORE by Steve Bewick with Norman Warwick<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Indian Raga and Jazz Violin<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Olivia Moore<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Olivia Moore is a professional violinist based in Manchester, primarily dedicated to Jazz and Indian music. I broke away from western classical music at the age of twenty to explore these art forms as well as cuban music and flamenco. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

She is band leader for the Owl Ensemble which fuses many of these influences, described as “funky Bartok” by John Quail of Marsden Jazz Festival. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Owl Ensemble album<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Olivia formed the Owl Ensemble in 2008 and the group, that premiered at Manchester Jazz Festival that year, later released an album. They were well received, and Mike Hall, who is a saxophonist and jazz tutor at the Royal Northern College of Music identified them as continuing a long musical tradition. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00b4The lineage of the\nstring quartet goes back almost 300 years,\u00b4 he wrote. \u00a8The format is the\ncornerstone of classical chamber music and with good reason. The Owl Ensemble\nnow succeeds in continuing its development through brilliant adaptation and\nabsorption of influences from Indian, Flamenco, classical and much more, topped\nby startling improvisations. But it never loses the qualities that made this\nmusical format stand the test of time.\u00b4<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 
\nIn 2009, Olivia was one of eight musicians in\nthe UK to be selected for the Serious Take Five Artist development scheme.\nSince then she has become increasingly busy performing at festivals such as The\nBrecon Jazz Festival in 2010. She now regularly travels to India to study with\nKala Ramnath in Mumbai.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Miles Davis\u00b4seminal album<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Her influences include Hariprasad Chaurasia, Debussy and Kala Ramnath and she and I share an admiration of Miles Davis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have known Olivia\nMoore on the local jazz scene for some time and, coincidentally we have\neach recently returned from journeys abroad; Olivia travelled to receive\nclassical instruction in Indian music in Mumbai and I recently visited Israel,\nto see the jazz scene there. The music world is constantly talking about the\nmusic coming out of Israel so I had to see what all the fuss is about. So we\nhad much to enthuse about when we met up on our respective returns to the UK.  This brief summary, below, captures Olivia\u2019s\nthoughts on her music and challenges since her return to England.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I first met Olivia playing in Manchester with her\nband, Unfurl. Later she introduced me to her Owl Ensemble. Since then I have\nheard Olivia play in a number of quite contrasting settings and genres. Now fresh\nfrom her visit to India I wonder what new direction is calling Olivia\nMoore? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00b4I have sort of been taking a bit\nof a step back from band leading since my Mum died four years ago and, only a\nyear or so later, our Unfurl drummer Adam Warne also died. I am now focusing on\nmy own individual violin practice. I have, however, been experimenting in a few\ndifferent group \/ band situations for curiosity’s sake and in order to broaden\nmy experience as a musician. I have a very exciting concert coming up in Leeds\non 21st March which will very directly home in on new skills that i have\nbrought back from India.\u00b4 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Unfurl now have the legendary Dave Hassell on drums and will be recording at Matt Halsall’s studio in April. We already have four tracks from before that are pretty much unreleased  which also feature Norwegian vocalist Maria Lardardottir and our tabla player John Ball.\u00b4 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What outstanding memories do you have to\nshare from your time in Mumbai?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00b4It was so much fun working with Soma\nBanerjee, Ashis Biswas and Sanglap Sengupta during my recent trip to Mumbai. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We made this little video.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A video clip can be seen using the link below. I hope you enjoy it.\u00b4<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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