Christmas Carols
Clarence the water buffalo and Graham the grouse were decked out in santa hats, Clarence’s horns were festooned with newspaper paperchains, my slow cooker had been press-ganged into service to make mulled wine and we’d bought some extremely cheap snack-food because we didn’t have time for home-baking…. yes, folks, it was the West Port Book Festival Chrismtas Party!
We were lucky enough to have professional musicians, Ewen Maclean and Tom Pickles, serenading us. They specially arranged carols and then played them beautifully. Thank you chaps! To find out more about these talented guys please see the interview below, courtesy of Peggy.
Also a big thank you to Owen Dudley Edwards who did a fantastic dramatic recitation of a PG Wodehouse story and to Isabelle at the Owl & Lion Gallery who helped us all make stab bound books for Christmas.
See you all next year.
Interview
Q: how did you and Tom meet?
Ewen: We met through a singer called Kimi, who I was writing some material with and wanted some jazzy solo instrument to augment the tunes. I think Tom’s instinct and musicality immediately struck a chord with me (pun very much intended) and I could also see that humour played a big part, which is useful when you play as many wrong notes as I do.
Tom: Luckily on our first meeting Ewen misinterpreted my wrong notes as ‘comedy’, so he agreed to work with me again. I still don’t think he’s rumbled me.
Q: how long have you been working together?
Ewen: Not that long at all - in various guises I suppose about 6 months or so.
Q: where would we have seen you before? where could we see you again?
any gigs lined up? do others usually play with you?
Ewen: Before going off to live in Brazil, I used to play a lot with my old bands the Latin Quarter 5 and Felicidade with Kev Glasgow and Paul Mills which was amazing, and a few other great local bands like Goat Stew, but more recently I’ve been playing with function type jazz bands and with Tom in more interesting projects which I should really let him talk about. We both play with Calum McIntyre a lot, and I rate him as the most musical drummer I’ve heard. Recently I got to play with Martin Kershaw and Chris Greive together which for me felt a bit like being asked to play alongside Zidane and Ronaldinho in a football team.
Tom: My main ‘outlets’ are in a 10 piece ska band known as Bombskare, in which I play saxophone, and in an acoustic and (slightly silly) band called The Banana Sessions, where I’m seen on flute, melodica and whistle. Ewen is part of the extended Banana Sessions family, having playing piano and upright bass with us. He’s also a key member of my jazz projects: my jazz quartet, imaginitively titled the Tom Pickles Quartet, and my jazz orchestra, The Multiple Organism Jazz Orchestra, which he was roped into at horrendously short notice before our most recent gig. He learnt the material and performed magnificently, despite having much more clever and important things to think about, so he’s a permanent fixture of that now.
Q: what instruments do you both play?
Ewen: I play the piano and guitar, and I recently got a daft upright stick bass thing which I often torment my neighbours with, attempting ineptly to groove like Cachaito. I also play the clarinet, but that only happens when I have a serious grudge against the audience.
Tom: I’ve played the flute for 15 years, so that’s my main instrument. I also play alto and tenor saxes, and have a clarinet which I’d love to be able to play as badly as Ewen.
Q: how does one do a jazz carol arrangement?
Ewen: One should probably follow correct classical theory, and harmonise by attributing each note to either the 1st, 4th or 5th chord. Since the tunes are all mainly written just in the major scale, they are really very dull and tend to run into each other and the temptation to do a medley is great. However I tried to mess about a little bit with the rhythm to use a little bit of cheeky syncopation, and tried to shoehorn in some jazz progressions (like Coltrane changes) and make the notes match up to the chord in a less standard way.
Tom: One doesn’t. He has friends like Ewen.
Q: best/worst gig you’ve ever played?
Ewen: Probably the best was the first gig I played with the Latin Quarter 5 at the Blue Note or Beat Club, as it was then. The audience listened and was plentiful, the sound was excellent thanks to a sound man who knew how to twiddle all the knobs and it all went down pretty well. Worst one probably in St Andrews when we got asked to play by some students (apparently) in the Aquarium, and we spent the night freezing cold on a ledge above the shark tank, who I have to say were a great deal more congenial than the organisers.
Tom: My favourite gig this year was headlining the Knockengorroch festival in Dumfries with Bombskare, in front of nearly 3000 people, dozens of which I had met and had become friends with over the course of a long and messy weekend, during which The Banana Sessions also featured heavily. I also have very fond memories of the Multiple Organism Jazz Orchestra’s first outing, as it was the first time I’d really heard my own music performed properly. For worst gigs, see Fife. The ‘Kingdom of…’
Q: favourite book?
Ewen: If you ask me again next week it’ll be different, but for now since the Ragged Trousered Philanthropists is a cliché, I’m going to have to say Jonathan Coe’s “What a Carve Up!”.
Tom: Either 1984 or Iain Banks - The Bridge.
Q: the one song or piece of music that best represents me is…
Ewen: Beer Belly by Chas and Dave.
Tom: Hunger Strike by Estradasphere - it’s eclectic, chaotic and distinctly rambling.
Q: and where can we find out more about the bands that you play in?
The Banana Sessions: www.thebananasessions.co.uk
Multiple Organism Jazz Orchestra: www.multipleorganism.com
Bombskare: www.bombskare.com/
Posted by Hannah on December 24, 2008.