Recently, I was lucky enough to perform with half of Hamer & Isaacs gypsy swing band at the Red Lion in Newquay and thought I’d share my favourite moments from the evening with you, so here goes…
5 favourite moments from The Red Lion gig:
Performing music with some wonderful people and smiling through every minute!
Howard Kahn‘s (bassist) brief moment of crazy dancing to club music in the interval. I’m sure he’ll demonstrate if you ask him *very* nicely. đ
Here’s a little video of Hamer & Isaacs gypsy swing band playing at the White Horse Inn in December! I was lucky enough to guest with them and Steve Jenner (guitarist) that evening and had a great evening of jazz, meeting new people and friendly banter! đ
At the time the landlord was running a 12 days of Christmas event which led to this brilliantly surreal image of inn, innkeeper and camel.
Anyway, Hamer & Isaacs have recently released their new live album “Live & Lovely” and you can listen to it all on bandcamp! Just click below to listen and download!
Open University coursework, music exams and life just carrying on as normal and have meant I’ve been desperately trying to meet deadlines (and not blogging much recently). This means that the cartoons have taken a bit of a hit, but the music keeps going!
Last Friday’s Gig with Hamer & Isaacs
We were playing at the Hermitage in Kingsbridge and at one point I found myself improvising hard-edged jazz flute to one of the fastest, liveliest (and most fun) renditions of “Summertime” I have ever played. Becky Brine was singing that night and her performances are always really good humoured, so we all had a brilliant night that only ended after not one… not two… but THREE encores.
Last Saturday we played a lovely birthday party for Greg’s (our lead guitarist’s) dad. Speaking to everyone after the gig it seemed like it went down really well and rumours of this crazy 8-piece spread as far and wide as East Allington pub, or so I’m told! đ
There was a really touching moment when one of the guests discovered that the tenor sax player is my dad. He made us both realise how special it is to just be able to play music together as a family – it can be so easy to take it for granted, because I’ve grown up playing music with my dad and grandpa, but I really love that we can all just get together and play and I love that they gave me the opportunity to learn and never worried about my mistakes. I don’t know who I’d be without all of that.
This Saturday we’re gigging on a farm, so we’re packing tarpaulins, plenty of extension leads and wellies and looking forward to a friendly, relaxed evening (including crazy, lively music).
Sunday is recording day! Apparently we’ve got a band backdrop (photos to follow) and we’re being helped out by an amazing team of people who all deserve a huge THANK YOU and a good pub meal. There’s also a band website in the works, so I’ll post links to that when it’s ready.
Anyway, here we all are, looking very smiley (and slightly orange). More coming soon!