Nuff tings happened this year
So finally 2009 is coming to an end and 2010 will start! I for one can't wait as I have come stuff coming up that I am really looking forward to! Before that I will do a recap on some of the stuff that I have been up to since I last blogged!Well I used to ask myself how come I have never done a musical,finally I got the call to be involved in one.But what a mistake that turned out to be.Death by music I'm afraid.Seriously Stabbed in the back by a so called fellow musician!Where do I start?Who cares?It definitely wasnt for me and I finally escaped the second night with another 86 performances to go!
Still I needed to know why I had never been involved in one of these!It's a whole other world to what I am used to dealing with,Politics,loyalties are not the same as in other areas of music.Egos!!!!! Wow! Anyway got out and headed back to London where the first gig I did was an improv one that just brought me right back down to earth and made me really appreciate just how lucky I am to know and work with so many fantastic musicians and people.This was quickly followed by the Beggar & Co funk gig at Summer Soltice that I have written about in an earlier blog!!
Saying all of that, I was asked to appear 3 months later in "Misterioso" A musical about the life of Thelonious Monk Written by celebrated Italian Writter Stefano Benni and adapted and directed by Filomena Campus the Sardinian Director and Musician of note! Awesome music from a band that swung hard,Tony Kofi on Alto,Winston Clifford on Drums,Pat Thomas on Piano and David Leahy on Bass.The whole cast and Crew Delivering a piece of theatre that I could genuinely relate to and pay money to see! Help to Restore some of my faith in the medium called Musical theatre, as I saw first hand that you could combine great Multi-media curtuosy of the best in the business (SDNA), Actors,Musicians,crew and a Director with great ideas to make something that not only told a worthwhile story but moved away from the tired formulaic why of expressing musical theatre that is the norm in the West End of London and Broadway!!Reviews were fantastic and the run at the Riverside theatre in Hammersmith was very successful for Filomena Campus and her team.
Here is a review from Arts Website KultureFlash:
London-based collective Theatralia inject Stefano Benni's play Misterioso with a dose of beatnik heroin. Misterioso explores the relationship of legendary pianist Thelonius Monk with aristocratic arts patron Baroness Rothschild (Pannonica). Jazz aficionados will by thrilled by the ensemble of seasoned musicians, who will transport them to an NYC Jazz club in McCarthy-era America. Tony Kofi blows away the cobwebs with his sax, Orphy Robinson competes with a projection of a '50s cartoon character on vibes, and Pat Thomas' subtle piano invokes the presence of the late Monk, who spent the last seven years of his life in silence. Magical music and audience toe-tapping is given a menacing undertone with Pannonica's tragic anecdote, about a cop hitting Monk's hands with a baton after he asks for refreshment in a whites-only hotel. Misterioso culminates with a projection of Monk rotating like a whirling dervish, a metaphor for
mounting racial tension. Sympathetic direction and uplifting vocals by Filomena Campus, evoke the feel of the Beat Generation's Big Apple Ex-drum and bass MC Cleveland Watkiss brings Monk's narrative to life with his booming voiceover, whilst Thomas is the physical embodiment of the silent Thelonius, chiaroscuro highlighting him like a Zurbaran painting, giving
gravitas to the myth of a musical legend.
Still I needed to know why I had never been involved in one of these!It's a whole other world to what I am used to dealing with,Politics,loyalties are not the same as in other areas of music.Egos!!!!! Wow! Anyway got out and headed back to London where the first gig I did was an improv one that just brought me right back down to earth and made me really appreciate just how lucky I am to know and work with so many fantastic musicians and people.This was quickly followed by the Beggar & Co funk gig at Summer Soltice that I have written about in an earlier blog!!
Saying all of that, I was asked to appear 3 months later in "Misterioso" A musical about the life of Thelonious Monk Written by celebrated Italian Writter Stefano Benni and adapted and directed by Filomena Campus the Sardinian Director and Musician of note! Awesome music from a band that swung hard,Tony Kofi on Alto,Winston Clifford on Drums,Pat Thomas on Piano and David Leahy on Bass.The whole cast and Crew Delivering a piece of theatre that I could genuinely relate to and pay money to see! Help to Restore some of my faith in the medium called Musical theatre, as I saw first hand that you could combine great Multi-media curtuosy of the best in the business (SDNA), Actors,Musicians,crew and a Director with great ideas to make something that not only told a worthwhile story but moved away from the tired formulaic why of expressing musical theatre that is the norm in the West End of London and Broadway!!Reviews were fantastic and the run at the Riverside theatre in Hammersmith was very successful for Filomena Campus and her team.
Here is a review from Arts Website KultureFlash:
London-based collective Theatralia inject Stefano Benni's play Misterioso with a dose of beatnik heroin. Misterioso explores the relationship of legendary pianist Thelonius Monk with aristocratic arts patron Baroness Rothschild (Pannonica). Jazz aficionados will by thrilled by the ensemble of seasoned musicians, who will transport them to an NYC Jazz club in McCarthy-era America. Tony Kofi blows away the cobwebs with his sax, Orphy Robinson competes with a projection of a '50s cartoon character on vibes, and Pat Thomas' subtle piano invokes the presence of the late Monk, who spent the last seven years of his life in silence. Magical music and audience toe-tapping is given a menacing undertone with Pannonica's tragic anecdote, about a cop hitting Monk's hands with a baton after he asks for refreshment in a whites-only hotel. Misterioso culminates with a projection of Monk rotating like a whirling dervish, a metaphor for
mounting racial tension. Sympathetic direction and uplifting vocals by Filomena Campus, evoke the feel of the Beat Generation's Big Apple Ex-drum and bass MC Cleveland Watkiss brings Monk's narrative to life with his booming voiceover, whilst Thomas is the physical embodiment of the silent Thelonius, chiaroscuro highlighting him like a Zurbaran painting, giving
gravitas to the myth of a musical legend.
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