auditions - vocalist

I am in the process of auditioning for a new vocalist...a difficult task as there are many highly talented ones out there. At the moment this is taking the shape of informal rehearsals, but who knows where it could lead? Paid gigs, wedding work, fame... make yourself known to me if this is something you are interested in! I'm particularly wanting to hear from those who can sing in other languages and can easily grasp wildly different styles.

performance - open mic, The Cricketers, Kingston

Super Sunday at The Cricketers! The set was:

1. Jamie Gray - Fantasia (excerpts from Iridescence Fantasia)
2. Jamie Gray - Someone to Love
3. Queen - It's a Hard Life

See y'all at the Rose Theatre tomorrow! Be there or...um...don't.

performance - open mic, The Cricketers, Kingston

Super night at The Cricketers! A squeeze to fit us all in but we got there, and the set was:

1. Jamie Gray - Fantasia (excerpts from Iridescence Fantasia)
2. Elton John - Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
3. The Beatles - When I'm Sixty-Four

performance - open mic, The Cricketers, Kingston

Another super night at The Cricketers! The set was:

1. Felix Mendelssohn - Lied Ohne Worte (Song Without Words), Op. 19 No. 4
2. Jamie Gray - Beseechingly
3. Elvis Presley - Can't Help Falling In Love With You
4. Queen - Don't Stop Me Now

Thanks to Ben Henderson on cajon for pieces 2-4!

Extra thanks to Thom Worth for manning the mixer tonight and making my keyboard sound bloody fantastic -)

See y'all next week!

performance - open mic, The Cricketers, Kingston

A fantastic open mic tonight with excellent singalongs and audience participation... I would expect nothing less at The Cricketers! My set was:

1. Jamie Gray - Someone to Love
2. Muse - Ruled By Secrecy
3. Queen - Bohemian Rhapsody

And then to round the night off...

4. Fountains of Wayne - Stacy's Mom (with Rob Winterbourne on cajon and Patrick Craig on vocals!)

performance - open mic, The Cricketers, Kingston

I got a middle-to-late time slot for this week's open mic, and decided to push some of my original material instead of being predictable by recycling covers. The set was:

1. Jamie Gray - Fantasia
2. Edvard Grieg - Småtrold (Puck, from A Midsummer Night's Dream), Op. 71 No. 3
3. Jamie Gray - Moonlit Beach (world premiere!)

performance - open mic, The Cricketers, Kingston

An abridged set, though I'm not sure why as there weren't excessive numbers of performers down tonight and some of the later performers got their 3 songs. Mysterious. Anyhow, the set was:

1. Katie Melua - Learnin' the Blues
2. The Beatles-  When I'm Sixty-Four

SoundCloud

I'm not exactly sure why it has taken me so long to pull my finger out, but at long last I can proudly say I have a SoundCloud presence. Feedback and constructive criticism of the pieces put up is always welcome as it will only help me improve.

Listen here

performance - open mic, The Cricketers, Kingston

I decided to go for a classical cover at The Cricketers this week, to mix things up a bit. The set was:

1. Jamie Gray - Fantasia
2. Reinhold Glière - Prelude Op. 43 No. 1
3. The Killers - Mr Brightside

performance - open mic, The Cricketers, Kingston

After the fiasco that was last week, I was determined to return with a belting set. So that's exactly what we did. The set was:

1. Jimmy Eat World - The Middle
2. Jamie Gray - Fantasia
3. Green Day - Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)

performance - open mic, The Cricketers, Kingston

An unusual one, this. The ridiculously confident genius that is Will Hosken managed to get the pair of us a one hour slot on Saturday evening via The Cricketers management, but when we turned up the pub was extremely quiet. We tried our best to get things going with an energetic starting set of songs but to no avail, and bowed to the inevitable. The abridged set, with Will performing on vocals throughout, was:

1. Bryan Adams - Summer of '69
2. Snow Patrol - Chasing Cars (Will solo)
3. The Killers - Mr Brightside

performance - open mic, The Cricketers, Kingston

I do get the feeling I play Queen at these nights far too much. Time for something a bit different tonight. Due to sheer volume of performers, everyone's set was cut by a song. The set was:

1. Elton John - Guess That's Why They Call It the Blues
2. Muse - Ruled By Secrecy

performance - open mic, The Cricketers, Kingston

Queen double header cover alert! The set was:

1. Elton John - Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
2. Queen - Don't Stop Me Now
3. Queen - Bohemian Rhapsody

performance - open mic, Brave New World, Surbiton

I didn't arrive in time at The Cricketers tonight to get on the performer's list tonight, so travelled a short distance up the road to the Brave New World instead...it was very quiet there indeed. The set was:

1. Randy Newman - You've Got a Friend In Me
2. James - She's a Star
3. Green Day - Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)

performance - open mic, The Cricketers, Kingston

Mixing up the covers at this week's open mic. The set was:

1. Queen - Don't Stop Me Now
2. Van Morrison - Brown Eyed Girl
3. Elvis Presley - Can't Help Falling In Love With You

performance - open mic, The Cricketers, Kingston

Managed to sneak in an extra song tonight! After the end of the second song I asked the audience for a vote on which crowd pleaser they would rather hear to finish my set - the consensus was: "both!"

1. Nat King Cole - L.O.V.E.
2. Randy Newman - You've Got a Friend In Me
3. The Killers - Mr Brightside
4. Queen - Bohemian Rhapsody

composition - string piece

Genuinely sorry for the lack of updates on this blog. I will definitely try and exploit the potential of the blog a bit more in future - it's not always easy finding time to fit everything in. I'm sure a lot of readers can empathise with that!

I am working on a piece for strings at the moment, particuarly concentrating on viola and violin. (ie. the more melodic end of a string orchestra.) I do think a lot of music I hear on radio and in the charts nowadays is very bass heavy, so this is a deliberate move away from having an overly rambunctious double bass or cello part.

For those who wish to know the detail, there are two main albums that have inspired the thinking behind this piece. The first is actually a set of piano pieces - Philip Glass's Metamorphosis. The main thing that struck me about this, and in fact all minimalism, is how themes and motifs are slowly revealed through the repetition of texture and shading. The second is Madeleine Peyroux's The Blue Room, another excellent 'crossover' (what an awful word) from the American. In this album there is a palpable sense of shedding her staple diet of Billie Holiday's back catalogue and learning how to find her own voice in the overall canon of performers. The two tracks that really stuck in my head on this album were Bird on a Wire and Desperados Under the Eaves, both of which feature quite dramatic use of strings at various points. In the latter, a nod to the late American singer-songwriter Warren Zevon, the humming motif is reprised several times across various instruments before fading out to just the strings. It's obviously carefully orchestrated, a great moment. We all know strings are now overused and cliche, appearing in everything from Pop Idol to Disney films. It's my main aim to capture this kind of delicacy and elegance in my piece and remove some of the 'cheesiness' label.

performance - open mic, The Cricketers, Kingston

Tonight I returned to a place that has always been very welcoming to me, and that I had neglected for far too long. It was very nice to get a warm reception. The set was:

1. Elton John - Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
2. Elvis Presley - Can't Help Falling In Love With You
3. Queen - Bohemian Rhapsody

performance - open mic, Brave New World, Surbiton

A little bit of a hiatus, following Amanda & Alan's wedding. I thoroughly enjoyed being part of their big day, and will be looking to perform at more weddings in future, which will include setting up a wedding pianist website with special discounts for recommendations/word-of-mouth clients.

I got back into the 'groove' with two mini-sets at the Brave New World, normally they only give every performer one set of 3 songs but for some reason I was popular on the night. -)

Set 1:

1. Queen - Bohemian Rhapsody
2. Reinhold Glière - Prelude Op. 43 No. 1
3. Rob Cass - Never Stopped Loving You

Set 2:

4. Jamie Gray - Fantasia
5. Bryan Adams - Summer of '69
6. Elvis Presley - Can't Help Falling In Love With You

performance - Amanda and Alan's wedding: review

Venue: Holiday Inn, Surbiton

Date: Saturday, 3rd August

Showtime: 17:00

Around 180 guests gathered at the Holiday Inn in Surbiton for Amanda and Alan's wedding ceremony. There was a pretty opulent blue/lilac colour theme for the day. A last minute hitch meant that the new couple did not show up until nearly 6pm though! I was hired to play during the evening 3 course meal, and was informed I would be sharing a stage with David the DJ, who was kind enough to loan me some of his lighting rack for a bit more ambience. The set went down pretty well, although Amanda's mum said the volume was a little on the low side from the opposite corner of the room! I had prepared some business cards as Amanda had helpfully hinted there were 4-5 other brides in waiting at the ceremony. Afterwards I found they had made arrangements for me to have dinner 'on the house', which was very generous (and much needed after whipping up an appetite playing!)

The set was:

Marry You (Bruno Mars)
The Way You Look Tonight (Frank Sinatra)
L O V E (Nat King Cole)
Greatest Day (Take That)
Amazed (Lonestar)
Love Lifts Us Up (Joe Cocker/Jennifer Warnes)
Your Song (Elton John)
Canon in D (Pachelbel)
Dancing Queen (Abba)
A Moment Like This (Kelly Clarkson)
She's a Star (James)
Summer of '69 (Bryan Adams)
You Raise Me Up (Westlife)
Heartbeats (Jose Gonzalez)
What a Difference a Day Makes (Jamie Cullum)
The White Cliffs of Dover (Vera Lynn)
You've Got a Friend In Me (Randy Newman/Lyle Lovett)
A Whole New World (Alan Menken)
Ave Maria (trad)
Edelweiss (Rodgers & Hammerstein)
Chasing Cars (Snow Patrol)
Don't Stop Me Now (Queen)
Mr Brightside (The Killers)
Sit Down (James)
Pretty Woman (Roy Orbison)
Crazy Little Thing Called Love (Queen)
Can't Help Falling In Love With You (Elvis Presley)
Fields of Gold (Sting)
True Colours (Cyndi Lauper)
I Say A Little Prayer (Dusty Springfield)
Moon River (Henry Mancini)
Stand By Me (Ben E King)
Unchained Melody (Righteous Brothers)
All I Ask of You (Lloyd Webber)
Music of the Night (Lloyd Webber)
Prelude (Gliere)
Sonata in C, Op. 36 No. 3 (Clementi)
Gymnopedie I (Satie)
Le Onde (Einaudi)
Lied Ohne Worte (Mendelssohn)
Prelude 'Raindrop' Op. 28 No. 15 (Chopin)