Well I never thought it would happen, escaping bad weather in London for calmer climes of Scotland. We left London at 8am in the morning and made our way up where we were greeted by James and Alison of The Guitar Label, great people, had lovely breakfast and spent much of the day preparing for the performance. At about 5pm we had a soundcheck and I met up with all the other artists from the label: Martin Taylor, Marcus Bonfanti and Clive Carroll. I knew them all from before, but tonight was to serve as the launch of the label and what a dream team! In fact the whole night felt like a dream, sitting next to the world’s greatest jazz guitar player (that’s Martin Taylor for all you classical boffin people check him out and buy 10 of his albums – it may give you an idea of how the guitar is really played), not to mention Marcus and Clive who all did masterful sets.
Much to my surprise it was decided that we were all to play a piece or two together, just like that, 10 mins before the concert. I must say this was stressful as I usually precompose all my pieces. It was decided that one of my tracks would be used (Evie’s Song) and hence I breathed in some air, however just 5 mins before the concert the boys decided to also do a blues number and I was told that I be improvising (for the first time in my life!). Martin was trying to reassure me by saying that improvising is just like composing only faster. I tried to coax out the Mississippi Mili in me, God knows what it sounded like, but here a few shots, read the captions and enjoy!
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=8008&id=1701501980&l=5406838d76
