Twinkle twinkle little spacestation

Much has been written about how so called smart devices such as iPhones and iPads have interfered with our social and family interactions.
On occasion I myself have been guilty of allowing my mind to wander away from a conversation in order to check something on my latest smart addiction.

In contrast to this, once in a while we get it right, and the worlds of the internet and smart phone create a magical tool for building unique life experiences that can be shared.

I've always been curious about space and technology, but recently my interest was piqued after downloading the NASA app for iPhone, which in turn led me to download an app for locating the International Space Station in real time. 

The ISS coming over a backyard near you!

The app, called ISS spotter not only shows the position of the ISS but it will also let you know in advance when you will be able to see it over your earthly location and from what direction it will appear.

Catching a glimpse of the ISS is not as straightforward as it sounds. During the day, the reflection of sunlight from the station is not bright enough for us to see down here in daylight and in the middle of the night there is no sunlight reflecting from the station back down to earth. To be seen from the earth's surface, the ISS has to pass overhead at dawn or dusk when the suns rays still catch the station and the earth below is in shadow.

A few weeks ago the ISS spotter App predicted that the station would be passing over Barbados in the early evening. My youngest son and I shared a magical moment on our back patio, tracking the ISS on my iPhone as it passed over Canada then the United states and finally made it's way over to our corner of the world. As it's orbit brought it closer, we looked up in the direction the app indicated and there, passing over us, was the most amazing man made achievement silently sweeping through our tropical sky.

The somewhat geeky fun didn't end there. On April 30th NASA made the video feeds from four cameras attached to the outside of the ISS available to any earthling with an internet connection. The link to the website and video feed is here.
I hooked up my computer and TV via an HDMI cable while my family gathered around to see our beautiful planet filmed from space in real time.
Using the ISS spotter we were able to see its position and figure out what part of the world we were looking at. The icing on the cake came when the ISS passed over the Caribbean and in the comfort of our living room we caught a glimpse of our beautiful island home from the edge of space.

Harrison College music department running low on quarter notes and sharps.

Two fund raising concerts in tribute to the late Harrison College headmaster Albert Williams and music education icon Janice Millington will be held at the Frank Collymore Hall on March 7th and 8th 2014.
Proceeds from the concert will be in aid of the HC music department which I understand is running dangerously low on quarter notes and sharps after recent funding cuts.

Students tell me they can only play pieces in flat keys and are having to tie eighth notes together in order to perform certain passages. The cost of music notes has been badly hit by the global recession, clefs can be expensive to ship and a recent tax on repeat signs are adding to the challenges faced by today's young Barbadian musicians.











Here is a promo clip for the event;

We had a wonderful rehearsal on Saturday, no temper tantrums or ego trips, just lots of great music and poor jokes.

I hope we can raise enough money for those notes.....

Good evening at New Morning

Fal Frett, the Martinique group with whom I've enjoyed a wonderful association for the past 15 years recently performed in a very special place - the New Morning Jazz club in Paris, France.
Opened in 1981, the New Morning has featured performances by such jazz legends as Art Blakey, Pat Metheny, Stan Getz, Chet baker and Dizzy Gillespie just to name a few. Considered by the French to be the equivalent of New York's Village Vanguard or Blue Note, the New Morning is one of those marquis venues that every European jazz musician aspires to perform in.
While still coming to grips with jet lag and the fatigue of the previous day's red eye flight from Martinique, we stepped out of a cold grey Parisian February afternoon into the darkened club. The New Morning's subdued lighting, decor and aroma could only be that of a classic jazz club and we were all struck by the atmosphere and history that seemed to exude from it's walls.

A panoramic view of the club from the entrance hall

If the decor and ambiance were warm, the temperature definitely was not! and our group of thin blooded Caribbean musicians for the most part kept their sweaters on.
The first task was to assemble the vibraphone - isn't that what everyone does when they go in a jazz club?

We had to be quiet while the piano tuner tuned the Yamaha grand piano, this gave me an opportunity to walk around and check out some of the pictures...

We had a long afternoon setup and sound check, then another long wait for our performance at 9:30 (Or 21:30 if you are French).

Having spent so much time living in the Caribbean, it was interesting to again work in a colder, less humid environment. My alto sax behaved differently, the middle register G suddenly grew stuffy and the tuning on all three of my horns was a challenge. The experience reminded me of my time at Berklee College of Music in Boston where cold fingers in winter were par for the course. It would be nice to have more opportunities working under these conditions and particularly situations where I'm moving between performances in the Caribbean and much cooler winter jazz clubs and festivals.

Here is a video of our first song for the evening - the Fal Frett composition Cha Pistache

Our trip was made possible by Fal Frett's producer and label owner Don Miguel Elizabeth of Dons Music.
As you can tell from the video, Don Miguel's promotional efforts paid off and the room was filled with fans of Fal frett. Here is a pictorial review by Marie-Claude Bewa 

I should also mention that our hotel, the Hotel Magenta, was very nice with small but recently renovated modern rooms in an ancient but tastefully decorated building. Interestingly the elevator went to the 6th floor and my room was on the 7th which meant that I had to lug my suitcase up stairs that reminded me of a Harry Potter film. The staff were very pleasant and the breakfast was excellent. On the return journey I had to overnight in my Martinique home away from home - the Centre International de Séjour.

view from hotel in Martinique

view from the Hotel Magenta, yes this is a color picture and that is the sun!!

Here are two pictures, views from the two different hotel's windows capturing the contrast between the worlds of wintery Europe and the sunny Caribbean. Where would you prefer to be?

Mi Fugue - Filming the music video

In August of this year, the Martinique group Fal Frett, along with their producer Don Miguel, decided to create a video of the song "Mi Fugue", a beautiful yet mournful ballad featured on the 2013 release "Histoire d'un Vie"

The producer, Don Miguel of Dons Music, engaged Patrice Aboulicam of Radix to direct the video. Patrice chose to film the band on two full day sessions in two locations. The first location was a rehearsal space in Fort-de-France Martinique, and the second was the stunningly beautiful grounds of the JM Rum refinery in Macouba.

The first day of filming was fairly arduous to say the least. I arrived in Martinique early in the morning and was driven straight to the first location, an old, colonial building in the suburbs of Fort-de France which was obviously used as a music school and rehearsal space.

Fal Frett's instruments were already set up and we got straight down to work. The audio was played from a cd player and under the hot lights we began miming or playing along to the track as Patrice and his assistant filmed us. We were all fairly enthusiastic and bushy-tailed as we performed the first few times through the song. As the day wore on and the number of our run-throughs or 'takes' increased, we realized what hard work it can be filming a music video. By 5pm at the end of the shoot we were jokingly in agreement that we would never play the song again - ever! That same night we played a gig at La Croisiere, a local Martinique jazz club, and sure enough Mi Fugue didn't show up on the set list!

The next day's filming location was the JM Rhum distillery in Manicou, the most northern area of Martinique. The 90 minute drive to Manicou was interesting as I saw the rugged east coast of Martinique with it's isolated fishing villages and undulating countryside. Every turn in the coast road presented another spectacular view of an aggressive sea patiently trying to wear away the formations of volcanic rocks.



Nestled under a volcano and framed by a stream, well kept lawns and gardens, the distilliery was the ideal place for a video shoot. Even though we started in the morning, the air was steaming from the heat and we glanced anxiously skyward watching the occassional rain clouds making low passes over the hills around us. Patrice made some quick decisions about our wardrobe and the locations for each individual musician then he got to work filming us in turn.

My location was a beautifully manicured lawn next to a large stream filled pond. I followed my directions, walking and playing along to a battery operated cd player taking great care to not step into a puddle, fall into the pond or walk too far and fall off the edge of the lawn.

We were so hot our clothes clung to us like street beggars and in two minutes our faces were covered in perspiration. Fortunately during both days of the shoot we had a charming makeup artist Stéphanie Montlouis-Calixte who kept us looking good in the heat of the day without resorting to plastic surgery. It turned out that Stephanie was also skilled in the sandwich making department creating tasty baguettes for us at the end of the day.

After our filming was complete the kind staff at JM Rhum distillery unlocked the massive doors to their huge warehouse that contained hundreds upon hundreds of rum barrels stacked to the ceiling.

As we eagerly stepped inside, the smell alone was enough to give us a pleasant high - the perfect ending to a very special video shoot!

Fal Frett in the 2013 St. Lucia Jazz and Arts Festival

My trip with Fal Frett to the St. Lucia Jazz and Arts festival earlier this year has been nicely documented by a video reporter who traveled with us.

The You Tube clip is mostly in French however if you watch @ 18:58 you will see a surprise appearance by my friend and fellow Bajan musician Andre Forde who happened to be in the audience ready to offer a very articulate opinion on the show - go Andre!

Thanks Andre!

Getting down to business

Tired, hungry saxophonist who wants to eat!

Towards the end you can also hear my mangled Franglais as I wearily eye my dinner, knowing that the sooner I say something for the camera the sooner I can start to eat!

The food was really tasty and the spiced rum was even better!

On the edge

Last Sunday, the Original Unit and I spent a wonderful evening at the Water's Edge restaurant performing our original music to a capacity crowd of enthusiastic jazz fans.

My eldest son Liam took charge of the camcorder and filmed our performance of a new song I wrote called "On the edge".
A big thank you to the management and staff of the Bougainvillea Beach Resort for making the event special and of course thanks to the Barbados Jazz Society and all the jazz lovers who came out to support the music!

Masterclass on improvisation, courtesy of the Wayne Shorter Quartet

Today's masterclass features saxophonist Wayne Shorter and his quartet performing his composition "Footprints" at the 2003 Montreal jazz Festival.

Wayne first recorded Footprints on his 1966 album "Adam's Apple". The song has become a standard jazz tune, one that is well known and often played by both professional and student musicians.

What I really enjoyed about this video is the manner in which the quartet move away from the traditional performance style of a jazz standard. In a typical jazz quartet performance the lead player would state the melody reasonably close to how it was originally conceived while the drums and bass would share responsibility for the rhythmic pulse while getting into a consistent tempo and groove for the duration of the song.

For example, here is Wayne's 1966 recording of Footprints;

 

And now, below, in astonishingly sharp contrast, is Wayne's masterful modern performance from the 2003 Montreal jazz festival. Here the pulse or groove of the song is anchored by bassist John Patitucci, allowing drummer Brian Blade to play almost like another lead instrument. The group freely changes rhythmic styles, tempos and harmonies based on the suggestions made in the moment by the ensemble's members. 

You can feel them listening to each other!

Wayne Shorter allows himself to explore his melody, to rhythmically displace it, add or subtract notes from it and repeat sections where they wouldn't normally be repeated.

Pianist Danilo Perez does a wonderful job of both re-harmonizing the composition and constantly suggesting new rhythmic directions, giving Shorter a generous supply of ideas and directions for his solo.

Wayne's sense of humor and playfulness is evident in the melodic quotes that he infuses into both the melody and his improvisation;

@ 00:34 he plays the nursery rhyme 'Rock -a-bye baby' which seems to fit nicely within the melodic structure of the tune.

@ 04:04 during his improvisation he quotes the Sonny Rollins composition 'Oleo', Brian Blade responds by changing to a swing feel for a while. Here is a nice example of the original Oleo.

@ 04:45 Wayne shows us how important it is to listen to as many different musical styles and sources as you can when he quotes 'If I Loved You' a beautiful show tune from the 1945 Rogers and Hammerstein musical carousel, (my mum used to play it on Piano, - thanks mum!).

After an inspired and inspiring drum solo from Brian Blade, Shorter states the melody and once again much to Danilo's suprise and pleasure, twists it, displacing it in time at 06:54. The 'Rock a bye baby' reference returns at 7:37. Wayne and Danilo conclude the piece by putting it through a classical melodic and harmonic filter.
I hope this is interesting and inspiring for all students and fans of improvisation out there - check out the rest of Wayne Shorter's incredible contributions to music.

Phew! what a performance! - time to go practice some more :)

Branford Marsalis and his saxophone teacher Harvey Pittel

While perusing the internet late last night, I came across this wonderful YouTube video of a masterclass featuring one of my favorite saxophonists Branford Marsalis (Courtesy of Amsterdam winds). You can see the video below or follow this link.
This masterclass is valuable for anyone interested in performing jazz regardless of your instrument...

                                                 

Branford speaks on a variety of subjects in his usual down to earth manner. At one point an audience member asks him if he currently has a teacher to which he replies "Yes, Harvey Pittel". So of course I had to stay up even later and search for Harvey Pittel on You tube and I found a treasure trove of videos from this interesting and highly accomplished teacher.

Here they are!

 

I've only posted the first 4 parts of the full 14 part series - obviously if these are useful to you then you can check out the rest. I'm still trying to digest them all myself...happy viewing!

New unedited video to celebrate International Jazz Day

Around our house, every day is International Jazz Day! It's wonderful that UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) has recognized April 30th as a day to celebrate "The virtues of jazz as an educational tool, and a force for peace, unity, dialogue and enhanced cooperation among people".
To help celebrate this event, I've released some raw unedited footage from my recent concert "One night only with Andre Woodvine & the original unit".
Here it is!

This original composition is called "One of our beats is missing" (Available here). In the coming weeks I hope to release more concert video, including performances of new compositions. The video was filmed with two cameras and is being professionally edited in barbados by Gatehouse Media.

Our performance took place on January 26th 2013 at the Divi Southwinds Beach Resort under the kind patronage of the Barbados Jazz Society. Accompanying me in this adventure were The Original unit, an exciting trio of Barbadian jazz musicians - David Carnegie on drums, Stefan Walcott on keyboards and Neil Newton on Bass.

Our concert was great fun for both the musicians and the audience. Click here for a comment from the BJS and here for a review by Natanga Smith of the Nation newspaper. Hopefully the Original unit and I can perform together again soon!