Open studio: things that have caught my attention in music

Some music, videos, and books that are worth looking at

I have always been interested in the sketches and colour tests that surround the canvasses of paintings, as they provide insights into the artist’s process. So in the same spirit, here I wish to share experiments, ideas, and techniques that help inspire my work, and often take me in unexpected directions. I invite you to my studio in Valencia, Spain, to share sketches and studies that I hope may inspire you too. I call this Open Studio.

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I have had very little time to write as I have been busy finishing my album. However, I wanted to share some musical things that I have come across recently or had not shared previously. My next post will be the album, until then I hope you find something inspiring here.

Music

Shabaka Hutchins / Perceive its Beauty, Acknowledge its Grace

This is a composition called End of Innocence from the album Perceive its Beauty, Acknowledge its Grace

Anyone with a detective’s nose might have noticed some interesting events last year. First, the British jazz saxophonist Shabaka Hutchins announced he was retiring from playing the saxophone to devote himself to other woodwind instruments of a less brassy kind. Then rapper André 3000 from Outkast surprised the world by releasing a flute album. Were they connected? Yes.

This year Shabaka Hutchins will release his new album — Perceive its Beauty, Acknowledge its Grace — in which André 3000 appears. On the album, Hutchins plays flutes and clarinet, while collaborating with a large number of other American musicians. Flutes, it appears, are returning to prominence.

Ramon Andres / A History of Music and Humanity

The video has auto-generated subtitles for English.

A deeply enriching Spanish music discovery I made a couple of years ago was the musicologist and writer Ramon Andres. Trained as a classical singer of early music, he now mostly writes about music and comments on current affairs. He is well known in Spain, but largely unknown in the English-speaking world, since his books have not been translated. This is a shame because he is a fascinating thinker, deeply rooted in the classics.

The interview is a good example of intense and sympathetic listening, combined with thoughtful questions. Andres describes growing up with an angry father in a chaotic household, and how music acted as a salvation for him by helping bring order to his life. Andres is the rare case of a Spaniard who speaks slowly, so I have often used his lectures to help learn the language.

Ezra Collective / Mercury Music Award Acceptance Speech

This happened in 2023, but if you missed it I wanted to highlight it as its message is no less relevant.

Ezra Collective winning the Mercury Music Award last year was quite an event. It used to be the case that Britain was more comfortable mocking jazz than listening to it. As a child I went to lots of British jazz concerts, many of which were lucky if 200 people attended. There were some very talented musicians, such as Cortney Pine, Dennis Rollins, Jools Holland, Andy Shepard, Huw Warren, Sarah Gillespie, and Jason Rebello. However, it felt like a village compared to the metropolis of US Jazz.

British jazz has transformed in recent years, with the emergence of artists such as Shabaka Hutchins, Moses Boyd, Nubia Garcia, and Ezra Collective who have sold out 3000-5000 seat venues. When Ezra Collective won the Mercury Music Award it felt like an acknowledgement of this shift, and the band used their acceptance speech to attribute their success to community and education.

Ezra Collective represents something very special because we met in a youth club. Do you hear what I'm saying? And this moment that we're celebrating right here is testimony to good special people putting time and effort into young people to play music. Do you hear what I'm saying? And right now this is not just a result for Ezra Collective. This is not just a result for UK Jazz, but this is a special moment for every single organisation across the country ploughing their efforts and time into young people playing music. 

Samuel Andreyev / There has never been a better time to be an Artist

Do not be put off by the gold font and title of this video — which I doubt Samuel Andreyev had any say in — as this is a compelling and original speech that deserves attention. Andreyev is a Canadian composer of contemporary classical music, podcaster, and Youtuber. He is often critical of the excessive dependency on government grants to fund contemporary classical music, which can create a distance with other artistic and social movements. In essence he is a moderniser trying to make the culture more relevant by bringing it back into contact with a larger audience. If you want a contrast to the technological pessimism of our moment, Andreyev offers an intelligent and persuasive one.

Yarn​/​Wire Currents Vol. 8

I have not yet had the opportunity to listen to much new music this year, though I did come across this beautiful composition by the Canadian composer Sarah Davachi, performed by Yarn/Wire. The group describe themselves as:

Yarn/Wire is a NYC-based piano and percussion quartet dedicated to energetic and insightful performances of today's most adventurous music; Russell Greenberg & Sae Hashimoto, percussion and Laura Barger & Julia Den Boer, piano.

Davachi’s composition can be listened to attentively, or left on in the background, as its gradual crescendo reaches towards a powerful intensity.

My reading list

I am sharing a few books that are on my reading list, which have either been published recently or released in paperback. They are all written by British writers, although this was not deliberate on my part. I will not offer opinions on things I have not read, just a short description from me and another from the publisher.

Quartet / Dr Leah Broad

Dr Leah Broad is a writer, historian, and presenter who writes about music from a feminist perspective, In particular she has championed the music of the composer Ethel Smyth, who was an influential member of the women's suffrage movement.

The publisher describes the book as:

In their time, these women were celebrities. They composed some of the century’s most popular music and pioneered creative careers; but today, they are ghostly presences, surviving only as muses and footnotes to male contemporaries like Elgar, Vaughan Williams and Britten – until now.

Becoming a Composer / Errollyn Wallen

This is an autobiography by the celebrated British composer Errollyn Wallen, who lives in a lighthouse in Scotland. I first encountered her work at a performance of her mini-opera, the amusingly titled Are you Worried by the Rising Costs of Funerals?

The publisher describes this book as:

Part memoir, Becoming a Composer offers an intriguing glimpse into the mind and motivation of a composer and covers aspects of Wallen’s sometimes troubled childhood, and her experiences of growing up as a black composer in the UK.

Gavin Bryars / Gavin Bryars

Composer Gavin Bryars is most famous for his mesmeric tape loop piece ‘Jesus Blood Never Failed Me Yet’, that made him the closest thing Britain has to a minimalist composer.

The publisher describes the books as:

Arguably the most important British post-minimalist composer, this book celebrates Gavin Bryars’ 80^th birthday by bringing together musicians, colleagues, and collaborators who have worked with him, each discussing one particular aspect of his work.

That is all for now. Thank you as ever for reading. Please share this post with anyone you think may be interested.