end of year 1

It's coming up to a year now since I moved to London and this whole music adventure started. Taking a summer break and will be back playing sax and blogging in September. 

Thank you to all that have been following my music adventures.

An even bigger thank you to those that have come out to see me play sax in London (and in Munich). You know who you are (but I prefer the personal touch). Many have come out, many more said they would but never did. So thank you (in no particular order to) Christy, Helen, Maria, Nick, Emily, Frank, Sharon, Tracy, Karen, Fred, Nicole, Jenny, Andy, Emma, Bianca, Owain, Jim, Ryan, Rhys, Colm, Sunny, Rhian, Megan, Philip, Nikki, Michael, Esi.

Also got to meet a lot of interesting people and some very talented musicians along the way. It really has been a year of musical education. Will be refreshed and ready to go again in September.

Roots

Recently, I was served a reminder of how much childhood, family, religion and hometowns can be huge musical influences. I visited an exhibition in the Jewish Museum in Camden, North London called "Amy Winehouse - A family portrait".

There were several childhood artifacts kept by Amy Winehouse (school ties, old records, essays written, family photographs) as well as set-lists, early tour posters, dresses she wore, stage passes and her first guitar.

What was very clear from this exhibition is how her roots shaped her music and how despite all that happened to her with the life choices she made, she was essentially the same girl she always was. The strength of her desire to perform, to be heard right from her early years to her late years was consistent. These were displayed in many of her quotes. The most telling of which was an essay she wrote when young writing about how she wanted to remembered and what she wanted to do when she was older.

As I've written many times in this blog, Amy Winehouse is a massive hero of mine. She wrote and performed incredible music.By all accounts she was an incredible young girl and incredible person - reminds of a young version of my sister somewhat. Both her albums, as well as her posthumous album "Lioness - Hidden Treasures" are incredibly true to her roots. The nine-year-old Amy would approve, I'm sure.

Studying your musical heroes was one of many stellar pieces of advice given to me by Professor Livingston Taylor. It gives a special insight the journey of how their music came about. This I find fascinating.

This experience has heightened my awareness of the impact of my own childhood, family, religion and hometown has had on my musical output.

In a very reflective way, I dug-out my own memories, memorabilia and the music I listened to when young. It made for a very interesting, very personal realization. Maybe one day I'll have my own exhibition, hopefully that is a long way off, but I'm excited to share bits of it in time with the people closest to me. 

For those interested, I've posted a link to the exhibition site. It runs until September 2013.

http://www.jewishmuseum.org.uk/Amy

Be jamming

Less of an article and more of an advert.

Going to be playing saxophone at Jetlag bar in Fitzrovia this Wednesday (10th) from 8pm.

Looking forward to returning to this place - one of the first venues I played at in London.

Come join the jam night and support live music jam nights in London.

The blues jam community needs you.

http://www.jetlagbar.com/index.php/home