May News

Hello.

I have now recovered from mild snowboarding injuries and in the morning, Natalie Williams and i are off to Cheltenham Jazz festival for the weekend, performing with her Soul Family late on Friday evening and then playing with Natalie’s own small band project on Sunday lunchtime in the Jazz Arena playing our new material from the forthcoming EP – Kaleidoscope – which i have spent the last few weeks working on very hard, in the capacity of a mixing engineer!! It will be fantastic as it features all her usual band plus a bit of Jacob Collier on melodica and some Eric Appapoulay on additional guitars.

The other big news this week is that Eska’s long awaited LP is really here!! I mean it exists and you can buy it, like, now. Just read any review from the last few days if you need convincing, but seriously – not that i played any great role, but it is my proudest work. Congrats Esk. It is beyond everything we hoped!

If you listen to much 6Music (which you should) you will have heard Roisin Murphy’s new tracks from upcoming LP “Hairless Toys”. My good friend Eddie Stevens has imprinted his inimitable and uncompromising presence and i contributed some bass to about 5 tracks. So that is out on May 11th. Go here!

Then there’s Zero 7. The new EP may have got you excited again, but i can confirm that a full album is on the cards which will feature myself and Natalie Williams.

After that there’s (my old zero 7 bandmate) Dedi Madden‘s LP which i played on along with Jeremy Stacey and numerous luminous muso luminaries. The songwriting is fantastic and i will plug it further when it exists. Which will be soon.

I recently heard some mixes by the legendary Tchad Blake of our sessions at Realworld studios with Rioghnach Connelly and the manc boys which are genuinely exciting. Musically and mixically! Again more news as soon as i know more.

Apart from that, and our 3 nights as house band @ Ronnies with the Natalie Williams band then on to Budapest Jazz Festival, a gig in Bristol with Eska on May 27th and a couple more nights at Pizza Express with Jacob Collier on 31st May/ 1st June, there’s not much going on really. See you next month.

R

p.s. here he is

Messing around with the new harmoniser @ArianaGrande #lovemeharder pic.twitter.com/P1k9g5S0L1

— Jacob Collier (@JCollierMusic) April 30, 2015