Leader of the LVP choir and famed educator and arranger Pete Churchill often provides advice to NYJO, so we were interested to find out what effect Kwabena’s and Emma’s involvement with the Bobby McFerrin project had had on them and, looking back, how they saw their contribution to this famous gospel jazz groove collective.

Q. How were you approached/did you get involved with the London Vocal Project?

Kwabena Adjepong: Up until the beginning of the Bobby McFerrin project I’d not been able to join the LVP, because I rehearsed with another choir on the same day. Thankfully this opportunity gave me enough reason to join, at least temporarily, and work on this great music. Pete Churchill called me to let me know that LVP would be doing the gig and I just knew I had to go for it.

Emma Smith: I was approached by Pete Churchill, my teacher at the Royal Academy, to sing with the LVP in December 2009. I started as a soprano but gladly became an alto for Bobby’s gig.

Q. Was this your first public performance with the LVP as a group?

KA. Yes it was my first performance with the LVP. The group ordinarily do groove jazz and gospel material for their gigs but I was thrown in at the deep end when I joined – most of Roger Treece’s (the man who composed, arranged and recorded the material on Bobby McFerrin’s album) music consisted of unfamiliar words and syllables. I felt like I was learning another language.

ES. In the short time I’ve been with the LVP I have performed at the 606 Club, Pizza Express Dean Street, Fairfield Halls in Croydon and taken part in Christmas concerts and school workshops.

Q. How long were you rehearsing before the Bobby McFerrin event?

KA. We rehearsed for about three months before the gig. The rehearsals were extended (between 3¹/₂ to 4 hours long) and we had bass, tenor, alto and soprano sectionals outside of rehearsal time to concentrate on our specific sounds. It was intense.

ES. We calculated over 60 hours of rehearsal time before the gig and that’s not including extra sectionals. Roger Treece, the composer of all the music on the new album, came and spent three days rehearsing with us before the gig and it was an incredible experience to spend time with the man who actually wrote this music! The concept of ‘Circle Songs’ (the improvised choral music which Bobby did a touch of on the gig) was introduced by Roger and we spent a long time with him exploring the different texture tonalities and time feels that can be created through this technique.

Q. Did you have much interaction with Bobby before the concert?

KA. We saw Bobby at around 5:30pm on the day of the gig – such is the on-the-hoof nature of his style. I can’t say many of us talked to him but I was quite content with just being in his presence. He is just ridiculously good.

ES. Playing at The Barbican was amazing, everything was so professional (and they fed us!) Bobby McFerrin was great and is always an inspiration and it’s a shame that we did not get chance to rehearse the music any deeper than a sound check with him, although the time we spent with Roger was worth the months of rehearsal!

Q. Have you ever performed at the Barbican before? What gave it the extra buzz?

KA. I’ve never performed at the Barbican before. It’s special because when you watch performances at The Barbican, the Royal Festival Hall or other venues of repute you never imagine, even for a second, that you might end up performing on the stage. It leaves me speechless even to think about it. Also, the sound check adds another dimension to the whole experience – it’s scary! The soundmen have very honest comments about how you sound when you sing into the microphone: good or bad. It’s then that you realise you have to perform better than you have ever performed.

ES. The Bobby gig was the BEST musical experience of my life so far. The music was so well written by Roger Treece, it was a privilege to sing it.

Q. Has the experience made you think differently about your voice, your direction in music, how you perform as a vocalist?

KA. It has made me think completely about my voice. There are sounds on Bobby McFerrin’s album that I never realised I could or would ever have to make. I suppose you could say it’s added to my library of vocal sounds. It has taught me how to get extra musicality out of a phrase and how to get more meaning out of words. There were not many English words in the music but I think a lot of the music and the syllables we sung were chosen to signify certain emotions. It’s probably worth listening to ‘Messages’ or ‘Brief Eternity’ to understand that a bit better. In addition, singing material this difficult requires you to really memorise it – even if we were reading it on the gig we’d still have to have memorised all the most difficult lines. It’s really not ear-led stuff. I suppose doing this project has increased my ability to learn and improved my musical memory. Also when I consider that, in a way, singing is just muscle memory, it has also helped that as well. Also, as a bass in the choir, my ‘useable’ vocal range shifted downwards about a tone, which I as fairly sure wasn’t possible but you live and you learn. I might start calling myself a Bass. All these factors, plus Bobby’s amazing level of ability lead me to believe that I can really acquire a lot of skills as a singer – skills that I had not thought about acquiring before.

ES. The attention to detail on this music has changed my approach to singing; Roger talked a lot about finding the ‘place in your life’ from where you can create an authentic sound – it has made me think about how much music I just throw away that could be explored deeper.

Q. Who is next on your list of vocalists that you’d like to perform with?

KA. I just have no idea. I would love to work with Roger Treece, who is also an amazing singer as well as composer. To be frank I’d be interested in singing with any singer who has worked as hard as Bobby, Roger, Pete Churchill – people who have worked on their trade. They would have to be people who had skills and ideas to share, and then I’d have a great learning experience as well as an enjoyable time.

ES. I’d love for the LVP to get the chance to work with groups like Take 6 and the New York Voices – that would be great for developing our sound even further.

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Next year NYJO is planning to collaborate on certain projects with the LVP – more news on this exciting 2011 development nearer the time…

The Band: Bill Ashton

The Music: Fifty Thousand Flies Can’t Be Wrong (Steve Titchener) : Miss Pankhurst Protests (Alan Hare) : La Muchacha De Colombia (Martin Williams) : Our Love Is Here To Stay (George Gershwin) : No Moon At All (v) (Evans & Manne, arr. Dave Foster): You’d Be So Nice To Come Home To (v) (Cole Porter, arr. Mike Townend) : Rosie (Anthony Adams) : Indiana (James Hanley, arr. John Dankworth) : Ma (He’s Making Eyes At Me) (Sidney Clare/Con Conrad, arr. Gareth Lockrane) : Ballad For Saturday (Evan Jolly) : One For Oscar (Andy Vinter): Abbey Gale (Evan Jolly) : As Close As You Are (Tubby Hayes) : Rose Room (v) (music by Art Hickman, lyrics by Bill Ashton, arr. Evan Jolly) : Too Close For Comfort Now (v) (Jerry Bock/Larry Holofcener/George Weiss, arr. Tommy Laurence)

The Gig: A somewhat different NYJO line-up for this month’s outing at The Manor, with an all new sax section, guitarist and percussionists – although some of the new faces have appeared here before with NYJO2…

 This afternoon’s concert was a bit of a trawl through the NYJO back catalogue, starting with a 1992 Steve Titchener composition whose title refers to a typically wry Ronnie Scott comment about the standard of the cuisine at his eponymous club… Fifty Thousand Flies Can’t Be Wrong featured solos by Jack Coward, Luis Mather and Chris Eldred, and had some nice sax section writing into the bargain – there’s nothing like throwing the new chaps in at the deep end!

Alan Hare’s Miss Pankhurst Protests, based on the chords of the Johnny Mandel tune Emily, refers to the suffragette Miss Emmeline Pankhurst, who was often referred to as Emily and didn’t like it much. It was a front mic feature for Alex Paxton (left) and also incorporated some delightful muted section playing from the trumpets and trombones, with some nice guitar support from Rob Luft.

La Muchacha…. is Martin Williams’ unforgettable legacy to NYJO, whose ranks he graced for quite some time. It’s always an audience favourite and the first notes from the bass trombone identify it immediately – thanks this time to Barry Clements! Nadim Teemoori and Reuben Fowler (appearing at The Manor for the second week in a row) duetted and played solos. Then the spotlight was on Rob’s guitar before Scott Chapman and Simon Whittaker proceeded to hit everything in reach of their sticks and mallets prior to the coda.

Subsequently, both the tempo and decibel count were reduced for part-time shepherd Michael Lack’s front mic tenor feature – Our Love Is Here To Stay – played before his extended family flock: a piano/tenor duet intro led into the theme before the backing band joined in and the number culminated in a diminuendo fade – lovely!

Emma Smith being sidelined with laryngitis, Kwabena Adjepong was the sole vocalist this month. He gave us a fine rendition of No Moon At All, which was arranged by Dave Foster in 2002 as one of a number of songs written in 1952 that were added to the band’s library to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the Queen’s reign. It started with Kwabena accompanied by just Sandy Suchodolski’s bass guitar before Luis played the solo; the piece finished quietly with just piano and guitar. Kwabena followed up with another standard, Cole Porter’s You’d Be So Nice To Come Home To, in an arrangement by Mike Townend that featured a well-wrought alto solo by Nadim.

For a while now Bill Ashton has been trying to make contact with the composer of the next number and, after much searching, Ian Fielding managed to track him down. Thus it was that Anthony Adams was present in the audience to hear one of his early compositions, dedicated to his then young (but now grown up) daughter Rosie. It was a guitar feature for Rob, backed by some intricate muted trombone writing, and Anthony was suitably moved…

The first set ended with a tribute to the former Vice President of NYJO, Sir John Dankworth, which featured his own arrangement of that old standard – based on the chords of Donna Lee – Indiana. Taken at a superfast clip, this was another alto showcase for Nadim – excellent stuff!

The second set started with ex-NYJO flautist Gareth Lockrane’s fast-paced arrangement of that old warhorse Ma, which was attacked wholeheartedly by the band from bar 1. Not surprisingly there was a lot of flute featured and Helen Wilson (right) played a blinder! Alex also gave us a classy solo and the whole thing was wrapped up with some nice drum interjections from Scott.

This was followed by Evan Jolly’s Ballad For Saturday, so named because Bill had once asked Evan to write something for a  NYJO  rehearsal  along  the  lines  of:  “…could you write me a ballad for Saturday”.  Whatever the provenance of the title, it was a lovely vehicle for some mellifluous flugel playing from Reuben.

At this point Bill felt Chris (left) needed a feature, so Andy Vinter’s One For Oscar, written as a tribute to the late Oscar Peterson, was excavated from the pad – and it’s the perfect piece to demonstrate Chris’s remarkable keyboard technique. An ensemble start to Evan Jolly’s Latin-tinged Abbey Gale, with trumpets well to the fore, led into an extended flute solo for Helen. Reuben followed with a fine trumpet solo before lots of duetting drums and percussion brought proceedings to a close.

As Close As You Are is from the pen of the late Tubby Hayes, written for the Centre 42 Big Band some forty years ago. It started with some subtly-written sax section stuff over muted trumpets and trombones before Luis, Jack and Sandy supplied the solos.

Keeping with the old tunes, Kwabena’s penultimate vocal on possibly one of the oldest number in the pad gave us a glimpse of Art Hickman’s Rose Room which, based on the chords of In A Mellotone and with new words by Bill and in a lovely arrangement by Evan Jolly, also featured a tricky sax section soli passage.

Finally, Tommy Laurence’s insistently swinging arrangement of the classic standard Too Close For Comfort, which offered Luis the opportunity for a wonderful tenor solo and gave Kwabena an eagerly-grasped showcase for his maturing vocal talent, provided the rip-roaring climax to a wonderful afternoon of big band magic.

Review: Steve Harris/Ian Fielding : Photos: Alan Tagg/Bill Ashton

The shocking death of 38-year old Chris, who was one of the busiest musicians in London, has robbed British jazz of one of its most respected and best-liked performers. Bright, friendly and conscientious, he was a crisp, hard-swinging drummer who took great pride in his work.

A drum prodigy since the age of 12, Chris was a long-serving member of NYJO. Coming from Solihull, he was only able to make regular attendances at the Saturday rehearsals by staying in Music Director Bill Ashton’s family home over the weekends. “He was one of the best drummers we’ve ever had,” Bill said, when Chris turned freelance.

Chris quickly established himself as an unusually gifted and versatile soloist, clinician, arranger, section player and sight-reader, working not only with jazz stars (Benny Golson, Randy Brecker, Jim Mullen, Don Weller) but also the BBC Big Band and big pop names including Liza Minnelli, Bette Midler, Lionel Ritchie, Gary Barlow, Westlife and The Osmonds.

He lived in Ruislip, Middlesex and leaves a widow, Jan, and three young children. He will be sadly missed by his many close friends at NYJO and we send our sincere condolences to all Chris’s family, friends and colleagues.

A more in-depth article about Chris and his association with NYJO will appear here in due course.

Original video produced by NYJO.

The recent problems faced by NYJO with funding have been well publicised.  With this new CD, we hear one good reason why it is worth ensuring that NYJO survives.  Sarah Ellen Hughes (right) was a notable member of NYJO for seven years, as vocalist and flautist, from 2001-2008.  I would venture to suggest that the benefit of being with such a fine band is here to see.  Would she have had the confidence and technical skill had she not had such a fine apprenticeship?  Maybe, but the evident skill and maturity in the work of one so young are rare indeed.

Sarah Ellen’s own backing group is normally piano, bass and drums.  On several tracks on this CD it is augmented by the addition of Dave O’Higgins, Jim Hart and the voice of Ian Shaw.  That Sarah Ellen is a musician first and vocalist second is very evident.  She understands the dynamics of improvisation and has a sympathetic ear (when singing) for the direction the instrumentalists take.  Her talents also extend to composition.  Two tracks written by her, the blues, Some People, and Workin’ Hard, a more funky number containing the line I never thought I’d hear, ‘It’s Tesco value all the way’!  The fifth track, Darning the Dream, uses a vocalise variation, by Sarah Ellen, based very obviously on Darn That Dream.  Indeed, the track ends as she reverts to the original.  The set concludes with a beautiful rendition of a hymn, Oh Love That Will Not Let Me Go, which was the favourite of Sarah Ellen’s mother.  For the purpose of the CD, Sarah has called it A Hymn For Janet (which I assume was her mother’s name.)  The choice of songs is wide-ranging.  The standards are there alongside her own work, and her approach is both conventional (when the song demands it) and entirely adventurous on other numbers.  Take, for example, the duets with Ian Shaw, where the harmonising demands, and gets, real skill.

Sarah Ellen Hughes is a real force as a jazz vocalist.  Since leaving NYJO, she is setting out on a certain path to become one of our top jazz vocalists.  The confidence, maturity, and sheer class, is astonishing in one so young.  The release of the CD coincides with a tour by her of the UK.  However, by the time this review is published (the July edition), the tour will have concluded.  Nevertheless, I would recommend that you keep your eye open for Sarah Ellen if she performs near you.  It should be worth a listen.  Her website is www.sarahellenhughes.co.uk

This is a notable recording of a fine musician with a great future.

The Band:

The Music: Caravan (Juan Tizol) : It Don’t Mean A Thing… (Duke Ellington) : You’d Be So Nice To Come Home To (Cole Porter) : [Small Group: Four# (Miles Davis) : Bernie’s Tune# (Bernie Miller/Gerry Mulligan) : Girl From Ipanema^ (Antonio Carlos Jobim)] : St Thomas* (Sonny Rollins) : Night Train*(Jimmy Forrest, arr. Gordon Goodwin) : On Green Dolphin Street (Bronislau Kaper) : New York State Of Mind* (Billy Joel) : Boplicity (Miles Davis) : MacArthur Park (Jimmy Webb, arr. Adrian Drover/Maynard Ferguson) : Moten Swing (Bennie Moten) : Manteca* (Dizzy Gillespie) : Four (Miles Davis) : Have You Seen Them Cakes? (Josh Daniels) : Blue Rondo A La Turk (Dave Brubeck). [Numbers marked; * were conducted by Mark Horton; # were played by the Ashley Hunt Trio; ^ were played by the Tom Gardner Sextet]

The Gig: This Father’s Day session was originally scheduled as a NYJO concert, but an invitation for the main band to play a major festival gig in London gave the NYJO2 youngsters a chance to strut their stuff at The Manor instead.

The day before this concert some of the band had been privileged to attend a jazz workshop at The Barbican by Winton Marsalis’s Lincoln Centre Jazz Orchestra although, according to Paul Eshelby, all that they learnt was to tap their heels (rather than toes) to feel the ‘groove’ and, when soloing, to ‘play to the stars’!

The fortuitous by-product of attending the workshop was that the band had at least three numbers (the ones played at The Barbican) to start the concert with – the man entrusted with bringing their main music along (one M**k H****n) had apparently overslept…

Thus it was that the gratifyingly large crowd that had gathered at The Manor, many of whom were seeing NYJO2 for the first time, were treated to an initial selection of Ellington arrangements – Caravan, It Don’t Mean A Thing… and You’d Be So Nice To Come Home To – which set the mood nicely…

In the continuing absence of music for the full band, trumpeters Ashley Hunt and Tom Gardner, with their respective small groups, stepped up to weave some magic with Miles Davis’ Four, Gerry Mulligan’s Bernie’s Tune and Jobim’s slinky Girl From Ipanema – delightful!

Then Mark Horton (left) arrived and was immediately put in charge of conducting the band through a range of numbers as different as Sonny Rollins’ St Thomas, Jimmy Forrest’s classic Night Train, Billy Joel’s evocative New York State Of Mind and Miles Davis’ Boplicity – a quite eclectic mix, which the band negotiated superbly.

In amongst that lot Paul led the band through a couple of takes of On Green Dolphin Street, a trumpet feature for Tom (whose Dad Simon was in the audience) in which he was encouraged to remember to ‘play to the stars’!

The second set contained another interesting and varied selection of numbers, from Maynard Ferguson’s version of Jimmy Webb’s iconic MacArthur Park, Bennie Moten’s signature piece Moten Swing, Dizzy Gillespie’s renowned Manteca, a full big band arrangement of Miles Davis’ Four, a number from the NYJO back-catalogue by alumnus Josh Daniels, Have You Seen Them Cakes? and Blue Ronda A La Turk by Dave Brubeck – not a normal composer choice for bands at The Manor, but an indication that this band are not afraid to tackle anything, no matter how difficult.

All told, this was a lovely concert: the band acquitted itself with real distinction and the surprisingly original music programme was enjoyed enormously by a sizeable and appreciative audience – nice one, NYJO2!

Review: Steve Harris/Ian Fielding : Photos: Alan Tagg

His longstanding association with NYJO came about after he saw the band play Hull, back in the days of Guy Barker.

More recently he is seen here with a small group of NYJO alumni (from the right): Tom Cawley, Dave Foster, Corrina Silvester, Sumudu Jayatilaka, Paul Jones and Music Director Mark Armstrong.

Alan’s passion for jazz extended beyond NYJO – among the 200 full-length dramas he wrote and produced for stage, screen and radio were jazz infused dramas ‘The Beiderbecke Trilogy’, ‘Last of the Blonde Bombshells’, which boasted Dame Judi Dench playing saxophone (!), and ‘Misterioso’. He also produced two CDs of Jazz with Alan Barnes.

For another jazz-infused screenplay of anecdotes about his meetings with jazz musicians during the course of his life – ‘Doggin’ Around’ – he involved NYJO in the production of the soundtrack.  He also reviewed NYJO’s albums – his last review of the Big Band Christmas album in ‘News from NYJO’ included an appreciative: ‘O come let us adore them’.

Alan is quoted as saying “When I write, I put on Ellington’s Harlem Airshaft – that tells me all I need to know”… Co-incidentally, NYJO2′s recent workshop with the Lincoln Centre Jazz Orchestra also revolved around Harlem Airshaft, on the basis “that’s all you need to know”.

Another beautiful quote, from Theatre Quarterly 1977; ‘Twenty-Five Years Hard: a Playwright’s Personal Retrospective’, sums up why Alan liked Jazz so much: “I discovered what as a native Geordie I should have known all along – that in everyday speech there is a richness and music that makes the voice the most powerful and sensitive instrument for human emotion: and that this exists as a tool for the dramatist at its most useful when the voice speaks with a local accent or dialect”.

NYJO extends its sincere sympathy to Alan’s wife Shirley and all the Plater family.

He did his National Service in the RAF from 1955-57, where he learned Russian and the saxophone.

Going up to St Peter’s Hall, Oxford in 1957 he immediately co-founded The Ambassadors Dance Band with Andrew Hayman.  He took a degree in Modern Languages and during vacations worked as a fair-ground attendant, vacuum cleaner salesman, barman, sous-chef, baker, wholesale grocer’s warehouseman and tri-lingual tour guide in Switzerland.

His third year was spent in France as an English Assistant. During that time he played in The Stardust Combo in the Caveau des Fouleurs, Chateaudun and worked in Paris as a street photographer, office worker and gardien de nuit des Bateaux Mouches.

Returning to Oxford he co-founded the Oxford University Big Band in1960. He stayed on at Oxford to do a Post-graduate Diploma in Education and after university worked as a musician on the American bases in France.

In 1963 he came to London, where he played in Red Bludd’s Bluesicians with organist Jon Lord, whilst working first as a supply teacher and then as a French teacher in London Schools for 10 years.

In 1965 he founded the London Schools Jazz Orchestra with Pat Evans, Mike Kershaw and others. This rapidly became the London then National Youth Jazz Orchestra which for five years ran Easter Jazz Courses in London as well as rehearsing every week. Bill has missed no more than half a dozen weekly rehearsals in nearly 45 years.

To date, NYJO has made about 50 albums and Bill has taken the orchestra all around the world: notably to USA twice, USSR, Australia, New Zealand, Turkey, Bulgaria, Poland, Malta three times, Portugal five times, France and Germany several times each, Sicily, Madeira and Spain. NYJO has performed many times on television and in front of the Royal family, notably at The Royal Variety Performance and the Royal Celebration of Youth.

In 1978 Bill was awarded the MBE, the first time the word “jazz” had ever appeared in the Honours List. Bill has subsequently received the Silver Medal of The Worshipful Company of Musicians, the Radio 2 Award and the Parliamentary Special Jazz Award. He was made a Fellow of the City of Leeds College of Music.

He has written over 70 songs in whole or part, including notably Much Too Much, Wait and See, It’s Over, Looking Forward, Looking Back, New in London, Don’t Try Argue With Me, Let’s Settle Down, A Step Too Far, A Way With Words, Paris is for Lovers, London, No Flowers By Request, and several instrumental themes.

He served on the committee of The International Year of the Child, and the Association of British Jazz Musicians.
He married Kay (nee Watkins) in 1966 and has three children, Grant b.1967, Miles b.1968 and Helen b.1983. He has one grandson and three grand-daughters. He lived in Harrow since 1968.

Likes: Big Band Jazz (the supreme art form), snorkelling, songwriting, science fiction, English television, and real ale. Dislikes: football, opera, fizzy beer and mayonnaise.

Bill became Life President in 2009 and continues as Founding Musical Director of NYJO. He was awarded the OBE for Services to Music in 2010.