Rowley Gallery Blog
Matt Wilson’s Christmas Tree-O: NPR Tiny Desk Concert
A seasonal selection of festive favourites, all of which have appeared on our Twitter feed in recent weeks. Please be sure to retweet your favourites by following the links. Continue reading “A Christmas Album”
What A Wonderful World: Robert Wyatt, Gilad Atzmon, Ros Stephen & The Sigamos String Quartet
What A Wonderful World – Robert Wyatt/Gilad Atzmon/Ros Stephen
Two women appear on a hill. Free, they run down the hill together. Still free, they choose to run back up, and then run some more.
I only just discovered this little video by Adam Lerman a couple of days ago and already it’s my favourite movie of 2014. Trees, women, freedom, plus a great soundtrack. What more do you need?
Akram Khan and Sylvie Guillem after their final performance of Sacred Monsters at Sadler’s Wells. They gave it their all and got a rapturous response from the audience. We were fortunate to be there. Continue reading “Sacred Monsters”
Happy House: Don Cherry, Dewey Redman, Charlie Haden, Ed Blackwell
When we drove to Italy last summer I thought our journey should have an Italian soundtrack, so I loaded the car with all the Italian music I could find. It was a mixed bag, some of it dubiously Italian. There was Louis Prima’s Just A Gigolo; a Christmas album of Vivaldi, Corelli and Scarlatti; Monteverdi’s Vespers with Jordi Savall; Stefano Scodanibbio’s Reinventions; the soundtrack album from La Grande Bellezza; Mike Westbrook’s Rossini; Spaccanapoli, Lost Souls; Ernst Reiseger + Tenore e Cuncordu de Orosei, Colla Voche; Orchestra Jazz Siciliana Plays The Music Of Carla Bley.
But unfortunately none of it was road trip music. Don Cherry Quartet Live In Nervi 1979 was the best. Not really Italian music but recorded there. This quartet were also known as Old And New Dreams. They’d all previously played alongside Ornette Coleman and together they reinterpreted his music. Happy House is one of their best and it kept us on the right track.
Here’s a wonderful new album by the Frank Harrison Trio, recorded live at The Verdict in Brighton. It’s not very hi-fi, Frank simply put his digital recorder on the stage and pressed the record button, but it manages to capture the enthusiasm and the energy and the empathy between the three musicians. It’s available free from Frank’s website, but if you want my favourite track you should buy the CD. And there’s a great drawing by Andrew Walton on the cover. Here’s a little taste…
Jitterbug Waltz: Frank Harrison, piano; Dave Whitford, double bass; Enzo Zirilli, drums.
Frank Harrison Trio | Live At The Verdict
A walk on Hampstead Heath a couple of weeks ago, just as the leaves began to turn, trying to catch the low sun shining through golden leaves, the dappled light that takes your breath away. Continue reading “Autumn Song”
YouTube keeps telling me to watch these cats. I surrender. They can walk all over me.
Duke Ellington, piano; John Lamb, bass; Rufus Jones, drums. Denmark 1967.
This large watercolour was painted by Andrew Walton to celebrate 12 walks with David Attwooll on Oxford’s Port Meadow. Their journeys were documented in Ground Work, an exhibition of painting and poetry earlier this year at Art Jericho. Moon Arc was not included in that exhibition but it is now on view in the window of The Rowley Gallery. Continue reading “Moon Arc”
The Cutty Sark at Greenwich was a good place to start. It was the weekend of the Greenwich Tall Ships Festival, the biggest gathering of tall ships in London for 25 years. They had all set sail from Falmouth to race to the Isle of Wight before celebrating in Greenwich. Continue reading “A River Walk”