Retired - Not Out

Friday, 15 November 2019

London Jazz Festival - 1

The first day of the London Jazz festival and we're off to see the Marcin Wasilewski Trio at Cadogan Hall. This band has been together for 25 years; I first became aware of them when they were the rhythm section for Polish trumpeter Tomasz Stanko. By the time I saw Stanko playing some years ago he had a new band, so this would be the first time I had seen Wasilewski and colleagues in action.

East Midlands Railways, in their infinite wisdom, had chosen this weekend to perform maintenance and development work on the line to St Pancras; since neither of us likes using the provided substitute buses we switched to our Plan B for such eventualities.

After a straightforward drive to Luton Airport Parkway we booked into the Premier Inn and walked to the station, where we caught a local service (unaffected by the works) into London:

By tube to Sloane Square and then a short walk to the hall:

The annexe to the Oakley Room bar was empty when we arrived, so we were able to partake of outrageously overpriced drinks and snacks (Chelsea being but a stone's throw away):

Into the main hall for the obligatory selfie:

A great concert, and the band took their bows:

and your correspondent was a happy bunny on the way back to the Premier Inn:

Tuesday, 15 October 2019

Thaba Bosiu

To London - with some trepidation, as our last trip, ten days ago, had been seriously curtailed as a result of ill-health on my part.

On that occasion our plans to see Leonardo da Vinci: A Life in Drawing at The Queen's Gallery at Buckingham Palace in the afternoon and Hansard at the National Theatre had been reduced to Amanda seeing the exhibition alone while I nursed a cup of tea in a Pret a Manger off Buckingham Palace Road, followed by an early return home - the play unseen.

I later worked out that my discomfort was probably due to post-viral fatigue following a stomach bug three weeks earlier, and that all that really ailed me was complete exhaustion; the results of a recent raft of blood tests will hopefully confirm this self-diagnosis.

Against this background we caught the 16.13 to London, during which I started a (very quick) reading of "Broadsword Calling Danny Boy":

a 'stocking filler' present from Amanda last Christmas, acquired during a visit to Hatchards:

As I read it and recalled each scene of "Where Eagles Dare" I remembered and missed once again my late friend and colleague C, with whom I used to exchange entire scenes of the film's dialogue from memory...

An uneventful journey, and upon arrival in London we took a leisurely stroll to Judd Books on Marchmont Street, from where, for just £5.95, I acquired this item from my current wish list; it's out of print now, and a similarly new copy on Amazon is listed at £30:

Out, and another slow amble to Russell Square, where we hailed a cab to the junction of Dean Street and Oxford Street and then walked the last few yards to our final destination - the Pizza Express Jazz Club in Soho.

When booking our table back in September I had asked for a table close to the centre of the stage, and we weren't disappointed, having a great view of the piano at one end:

the drums at the other:

and all points between.

We were happy bunnies:

The reason for our visit:

I became aware of American pianist Lynne Arriale nearly 20 years ago, and have since acquired a number of her albums. The Guardian once described her as “One of the most exciting pianists in contemporary jazz” and this promised to be a rare treat.

With the gig not scheduled to start until 20.30 we settled down to some food ("Pollo Pesto" followed by "Chocolate Fondant" for Amanda and "Lasagna Classica" followed by "Chocolate Fudge Cake" for me), and to enjoy the ambience as the club began to fill up.

At the appointed hour the band took to the stage - Wisconsin-born Arriale on piano, Jasper Somsen from the Netherlands on double bass and Enoch Jamal ("E.J.") Strickland from Florida on drums.

After first apologising for the general state of the US ("we didn't vote for it"), Lynne announced that they would be playing two sets, with music in the first set taken from their recently released album "Give Us These Days" and in the second set from a "still being recorded" and "yet to be released" album, "Chimes of Freedom".

Some artists seem to delight in keeping their audience 'in the dark' in relation to what they are hearing, with some playing an entire concert without announcing the names of tunes, let alone how they came to be composed. Not so here; Lynne introduced each number and, for each of her own compositions, provided a vignette of its origins.

Set 1

Woodstock

Finding Home

Appassionata

Give Us These Days

Slightly Off Centre

Let It Be

Over and Out

In many concerts, even those played by musicians of this calibre, there are solos that outstay their welcome and other such longueurs during which I find myself checking my watch or thinking about the journey home. Not so here.

Throughout the entire first set my attention never wandered and I could only marvel at the flow of ideas from and interplay between the three musicians.

All too soon the interval arrived and Lynne announced that she would be staying in the room to sign CDs or just to chat with anyone who wanted to. I had hoped for just this, and had come prepared...

In the Maseru District of Lesotho there is a sandstone plateau called Thaba Bosiu. Its name can be loosely translated as "Mountain of Night" and it is a place of significant importance in the history of the country.

In the early 1990s, inspired by Thaba Bosiu, the South African pianist Abdullah Ibrahim (born Adolph Johannes ("Dollar") Brand) composed and recorded a tune called "The Mountain of the Night".

Around 10 years later, Lynne Arriale recorded an album called "Inspiration", which included "Mountain of the Night", and it was when I acquired that CD that I discovered this hauntingly beautiful tune for the first time. In the years that followed it remained one of my favourite tunes recorded by Arriale or anyone else.

With this in mind I had taken with me my nearly 20-year-old copy of "Inspiration", in the hope of getting it signed - which Lynne did with grace:

I told her how much I had enjoyed the first set, how much I was looking forward to the second, and then leaned in and said quietly "...and if you're stuck for an encore - "Mountain of the Night"!" She smiled, first at me and then at Jasper, who was standing nearby, and then gently indicated that they hadn't really thought about that...

A few minutes later, the band took to the stage again. Lynne began by announcing that, although they had their set-list planned in advance, "people are more important than set-lists" and that, following approaches by a couple of audience members, they would be playing a tune called "Arise" from another of her earlier albums, and (if they were encouraged to) might play "Mountain of the Night" as their encore…

Set 2

Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child

Journey

The Dreamers

Three Million Steps

Hope

"Of the People" (working title)

Arise

Reunion

and the band took their bows:

after which Lynne returned to the piano and announced, "And this, for the wonderful man who requested it, is "Mountain of the Night"":

and your correspondent finished the evening in Seventh Heaven. A video of Lynne playing "Mountain of the Night" with a different band a few years ago can be found here.

With the bill paid and our coats on I briefly sought Lynne out again to thank her, after which a brisk walk back up to Oxford Street, where we caught a cab back to St Pancras.

On the 00.15 home - Amanda seemed also to have enjoyed herself:

while even the thought of having to fast for nearly 12 hours until after my scheduled morning blood tests couldn't wipe the smile off my face:

Home safely and to bed around 02.50; still smiling...

A short video taken in the club by Jasper Somsen on the previous evening can be found here.

Friday, 16 August 2019

A Midsummer Night's Dream - Bridge Theatre - London

To London on the 16.13 to see Nicholas Hytner's production of "A Midsummer Night's Dream" at the Bridge Theatre:

As far as I could recall, I hadn't seen this play since I was a member of the lighting crew on a school performance back in 1971.

By tube to London Bridge, into the Hays Galleria branch of Costa for a quick snack and then, dodging the drizzle, we made our way along the Thames to the Bridge Theatre:

Coats checked, we made our way to our seats in the front row of Gallery One:

We were both somewhat stunned at the transformation of the theatre since we were last there in March. The raked 'stalls' had been removed to create a 'pit' (à la Globe) and two galleries of seats now filled the space previously occupied by the stage; this would be an immersive theatre production. The pit started to fill up:

After a couple of minutes of scanning the growing crowd in the pit it occurred to me that this was not the most obvious play for a group of conservative Christian theatre enthusiasts to attend:

and so it proved; these were members of the cast. As another review described it, "a group of singers dressed like refugees from Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale entered the performing area and processed through bemused promenading audience members, singing a dirge-like song".

This beginning to the play did nothing for me, and I really didn't see the point of it. On the other hand, the movement of the singers, every couple of minutes, to face a different quarter of the auditorium did provide a chance for the standing audience to get used to the fact that there were, amongst them, a number of highly skilled and effective "movement stewards", whose job it was to ensure that none of the audience impeded the action of the play by being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

The first half sped by, and after drinks and exorbitantly expensive ice-creams we retook our seats for the second half, to find members of the fairy kingdom already engaged in energetic pre-performance acrobatics suspended from the ceiling:

This is the most impressive Rachel Tolzman (as Bedbug):

and here she is in rehearsal.

So what of the performance? I should say, first and foremost, that I thoroughly enjoyed the play - or should I perhaps say "show", since this was not an experience for purists. Much of it was extremely funny and cleverly staged. Certainly it has garnered lots of rave reviews.

Still, at the back of my mind, a little voice was asking me "but how much of this is due to Shakespeare's original play, and how much to the modern day add-ons?" Retaining Oberon and Titania as traditional male and female characters, but then exchanging not only their lines but their actions as well, resulted in Oberon, and not Titania, falling in love with Bottom. Cue lots of knowing looks, a shared bath, etc, etc - and lots of laughs - but did this enhance or reinterpret the play, or did it feel a bit like a traditional sit-com where the straight man (in both senses of the word) provides the laughs by ending up kissing another man?

In a similar vein, Puck was played as an athletic, camp, Northerner - with the diction to match ("come, my furry Queen..."). Was his performance funny because of Shakespeare or because of the way he had been cast?

Does it matter? Clearly not, to most of the audience and the vast majority of reviewers (see the list below). I, on the other hand, couldn't help feeling that Hytner and some of the cast were sometimes going for cheap laughs.

Perhaps this is unfair carping - as noted above I did enjoy it, and would encourage anyone else to go and see it - especially since it is being broadcast live to cinemas on 17th October - the clip here may help you to decide if it's your cup of tea.

Reviews

Although all the information available had indicated that the performance would be over by 22.10, at 22.20+ we were still in our seats and applauding, which meant that the chances of getting back to London Bridge to catch the tube to St Pancras for the (booked) 23.08 home started to look increasing slim.

A snap decision to flag down a cab which, in spite of the rain and the Friday night traffic, got us to St Pancras significantly poorer but with around 8 minutes to spare.

There was just time to capture this:

before we boarded for what turned out to be a somewhat extended journey, as line works meant that we were re-routed through Melton Mowbray and eventually approached the home station, counter-intuitively, from the north.

Home, and bed by around 02.00.

Saturday, 10 August 2019

Measure for Measure - RST - Stratford-upon-Avon

Dinner at Miller and Carter:

Reviews

Saturday, 20 July 2019

The Taming of the Shrew - RST - Stratford-upon-Avon

Dinner at Edward Moons:

Time for a pre-performance stroll around the theatre and its environs:

These illuminated discs now advertise all the past, present and future plays in the current plan to perform everything in the First Folio:

Reviews

Breakfast at Loxleys the next morning:

A leisurely walk around town before heading home. On the way I was struck (not for the first time) by this impressive scarfing in on the newly restored Hotel Indigo (formerly The Falcon Hotel); love the way the carpenter has gouged out areas on the end of the new timber to match those on the corresponding end of the old: