Tag: Steve Lawson

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sleeping with the enemy…

…actually, that’s too horrid a metaphor to use. Writing to the enemy, more like…

Having just had another read of TurnUpTheHeat.org, I emailed David Cameron. Here’s what I wrote (check out me with my not swearing or calling him Tory scum!)

“Dear David,

it’s been wonderful to hear you highlighting the dangers of climate change in your many public engagements of late. It’s quite clearly the single biggest issue facing mankind over the next few years, and your assertion that there are things more important than money was surprising for a Tory leader but deeply heartening.

In the light of this, I’m decidedly puzzled by your choice of John Redwood as Shadow Transport Minster, a man who is a climate change denier who is clearly more in favour of promoting private car usage than providing incentives to promote mass transit in the form of trains and trams (I’m a musician and travel regularly on the continent by train to avoid flying, and the trains there put ours to shame – surely we need a transport policy that would reinvigorate the train system in order to give people a positive incentive to use them as an alternative to cars, which are such a huge contributor to our climate change emissions problem).

As I said, I’m utterly delighted that you are so concerned (and informed) about Climate Change, but it is definitely going to require a joined up set of policies that regulate the aviation industry, the car industry and house building.

I look forward to seeing your concern coalesce into a strong defined environmentally minded set of policies.

yours,

Steve Lawson
www.stevelawson.net “

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Top jazz fact…

Thelonius Monk’s middle name was Sphere! What fantastic parent’s he must’ve had, to name their son ‘Thelonius Sphere’.

And I think therein lies my problem – Steve Turner always said that he’s childhood was too stable to be a ‘proper’ poet (well, he wrote a poem about that, anyway), and I think my name is too normal for me to ever be a jazz legend.

So, a list of possible jazz middle names – tree, crumbs, glassware, trousers, tarmac, risotto, kneecap, jupiter, enema, chimney, armchair, poppins, cuffs, anglepoise, aldi, betamax, combustible, sludge, tabasco, compost, certified….

nope, just going to stick with ‘steve lawson’ for now. though it must be said, steve ‘anglepoise’ lawson has a certain air of mystique…

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singer/songwriter genius shows Street Team how it's done…

Juliet Turner, fabulous singer/songwriter and Recyclist from Greenbelt, sent this out to her mailing list yesterday –

“Hey. For any of you who are in London, try and check out this gig. Super amazing bassist Steve Lawson gathers together GREAT musicians and they play off the cuff/of the moment/who knows whats going to happen next/ music. I did some singing with Steve at the Greenbelt festival this summer which was a lot of fun. There’s a Recycled gig on the 21st Sept at 182 St John’s St. Clerkenwell, London when Jason Yarde (saxophonist, very celebrated jazz musician) and Leo Abrahams (guitarist, Brian Eno, Ed Harcourt, Roxy Music) will be joining Steve. The music will be extraordinary. More details on their myspace site.”

How lovely is that? The date is a day late (MySpace quite often lists gig dates a day late for some reason – always click on the gig and check the ACTUAL date of any gig you get off MySpace), but that’s the kind of support and encouragement that any musician craves but rarely gets.

As I’ve said numerous times before on this ‘ere blog, you REALLY need to check out Juliet’s music – her website is julietturner.com and her myspace address is myspace.com/burntheblacksuit – all three of her albums are beautiful, and her new single is utterly gorgeous (if you were at the Greenbelt RC gig, you might recognise the words to ‘Joy’ as she used it as the basis for the improv she did with Harry Napier, Huw Warren and I.)

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Recycle Collective recommended in Time Out again…

Next week’s Recycle Collective gig gets the recommended gig treatment again in Time Out this week. Here’s what they say –
Steve Lawson’s Recycle Collective/Jason Yarde/Leo Abrahams –
“Improvised, organic electronica from a fabulous trio featuring bassist and live sampler Lawson, producer/saxophonist Yarde and Brian Eno’s guitarist Abrahams.”

so there you go – we’re fabulous, it’s official, so you can’t miss it!

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one year on

Yesterday was the first anniversary of the death of Eric Roche. On Tuesday night, TSP and I went to see Nizlopi play at KoKo in Camden, and one of the support acts, Newton Faulkner studied with Eric, and commented after the gig when I mentioned that Eric had been a good friend, ‘I pretty much owe everything to Eric’.

I’ve spent a lot of time this last year thinking about Eric, saddened by his death and by the thought that we’ll never get to play the music we had planned, to do the gigs we’d talked about, to record a duo version of ‘Deep Deep Down’. It’s funny, when he first told me he’d wanted me on it, I thought it was an after thought and as I was there he just said ‘yeah, I wanted you on it’, but quite a few people over the last year have said ‘ah, Steve Lawson, Eric told me about you’ and then mentioned that tune as the one he picked out that he wanted to do with me.

I now do a solo version of it, and as much as I enjoy playing it, it doesn’t sound the way it would if it were both of us…

Anyway, spare a thought for his wife and kids, and what they must be feeling – regrets about missed collaborations are infinitesimally small when compared to the loss of a life partner, parent, child…

And if you haven’t already got Eric’s CDs, head over EricRoche.com and order them, they’re all great.

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Tuesday Random 10…

Didn’t get to do a Friday random 10 for the last few weeks, and this Friday I’ll be at Greenbelt, so here’s one on a tuesday…

Juliet Turner – Vampire
Steve Lawson/Jez Car – WhateverWhatever/Migration
Paul Simon – Late In The Evening
Iain Archer – The Shadow
Shawn Colvin – If These Walls Could Speak
King’s X – Goldilox
Pixies – Gouge Away
Anja Gabarek – Dizzy With Wonder
Jonatha Brooke – Secrets And Lies
Kate McGarry – But Not For Me

there you go – that’s my iTunes random function’s gift to me today.

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Album review…

The new issue of Bass Guitar Magazine has a nice review of ‘Behind Every Word’ in it, written by Stuart Clayton. Here it is, reprinted for your pleasure –

“Behind Every Word is the fourth studio outing for acclaimed solo bassist Steve Lawson. With the intention of combing [I think that’s meant to be combining – steve] the ambient soundscapes of his previous efforts with a more structurally composed approach, Lawson had created a solo bass album that sounds… nothing like a solo bass album. The opening trafck, ‘Blue Planet’ offers up a silky smooth fretless groove which Steve punctuates with ghost notes in order to provide a rhythmic accompaniment. This line is them looped and becomes the foundation for the entire piece. Over it Steve adds piano like chordal parts, and a lilting ‘guitar’ solo. The diversity of sounds that Lawson coaxes from his bass and armory of gadgets is truly impressive here and indeed throughout the album. In fact, almost two minutes of ‘Jimmy James’ go by before anything that is recognizable as a bass guitar surfaces through the ambient, swelling sounds! Lawson has invited two guest musicians to join him on this record. Pedal steel guitar legend BJ COle guests on the track ‘Scott Peck’, his slide guitar playing being the perfect understated accompaniment to Steve’s chordal bass work. Julie McKee’s vocals add variety to the ‘One Step’, which in all honesty, at almost fifteen minutes in length is slightly over indulgent. Behind Every Word is unlike any solo bass album you will have heard before and is all the more fascinating because of it. I quickly forgot that it was a solo bass record and found myself enjoying it in the same way that I would enjoy a ‘chill-out’ album. It is in this way that Lawson has succeeded where many have failed – to make a solo bass record where the music truly comes first. Check it out – but keep your mind open.”

There you go – that’s rather nice. Clearly, I don’t think ‘One Step’ is over-indugent. I’m not even sure there is such a thing as ‘over-indulgence’, just good or bad music (and that was the shortest of the three takes that we did of the track! :o), but it’s nice to read. Thanks, Stuart!

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Fringe Friday.

Second last day, time to ratchet up the promo.

Miles walked – 174
Flyers handed out – 234,000, approx.
posters stuck up – 7,001
legs no longer functioning – 2 (rounded down to nearest whole number of legs).

Meeting lots of people around who had seen us play, either had come to the gig or seen us on one of the cabaret shows, which is nice – it’s always the case that if you do a one week show, you’re just picking up momentum when you leave. Next year, I’m doing three weeks, for sure.

So most of the day spent flyering. Went to meet the most lovely J for dinner, and bumped into Howard Jones’ marvellous guitarist Robin Boult on the way – Robin’s a fantastic musician and really lovely bloke, so I was delighted to get the chance to catch up and have a chat.

Dinner with J was equally delightful. She and Rev. G are two of my favouritest peoples, and part of what makes coming up to Scotland such fun. Everyone’s favourite sweary priest was off running a kids camp, no doubt teaching small children the art of ecclesiastical swearing, and TSP was back in London. So J and I headed to Henderson’s for much needed veggie marvellousness and chat.

From there, I hobbled on my by-now-completely-rubbish legs up to the famousSpiegeltent (famous?? Is that an official designation? Could I just start randomly referring to myself as ‘the famous steve lawson’? hmmm) to see Mich En Scene – a Belgian duo of accordianist/pianist Frederik Caelen, and singer Micheline Van Hautem. The show was the songs of Edith Piaf, Sarah Vaughn, Peggy Lee, Bjork, a few others and some originals, and was chock full of theatrical energy, humour and a strong sexual intrigue (which seems to be the defining characteristic of most cabaret, no? What made this ‘cabaret’ and not just ‘a gig?’ – methinks that sexy theatricality is the key…) – most of cabaret stuff I’ve seen here, and before, really didn’t do it for me. It seems like cabaret is where musicians go who can’t play well enough and comedians go who can’t tell good enough jokes to just do stand up. There are exceptions (The Midnight Carousel compere Dusty Limits has a big voice and did a gorgeous arrangement of Love For Sale, though the piano part was more conventional cabaret than it would have been in an ‘art’ gig.) But Mich En Scene were amazing. Definitely highly recommended.

it’s great, I haven’t seen a less than fab show this year – from Stephen Daltry before our run even started (who just got a fabulous review in Three Weeks, that really described his show to a t – go and see it!) through to Mich and Freddie, via Sue Perkins, The Allotment and Amy Lame. All great stuff.

If you’re around tonight, it’s big finale time – come to the show, bring your friends, and we’ll party like it’s 1985. :o)

thenewstandard.co.uk

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Friday random 10 on saturday again…

here goes –

  • Bill Frisell – Prelude (from Quartet – a really lovely album)
  • The Kinks – Mr Pleasant (from the best of – never before has one band ran the gamut of songs from ‘perfect’ to ‘dreadful’ quite so spectacularly.)
  • Kings X – Mudd (from Ogre Tones – major return to form)
  • Ry Cooder – Paris, Texas (mmmmmmmmmmm)
  • Hinda Hicks – When You Touch Me There (revealing my hidden love of 80s and 90s R ‘n’ B)
  • Steve Lawson/Jeff Kaiser – Track 4 (soon-to-be released duet project I recorded in California in January with trumpeter jeff Kaiser. probably the most ‘out’ thing I’ve ever done)
  • Mark Isham – Part iii (from Tibet)
  • Paul Simon – How The Heart Approaches What It Yearns (from One Trick Pony – another amazing PS lyric and vocal)
  • Finn Peters – Ballad Boy (from the album Su-Ling, just about to be released on Babel Label. Lovely stuff from a load of F-IRE collective players)
  • Paul Simon – Have A Good Time (always room for more Paul Simon, this one’s from Still Crazy After All These Years)

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