Bryan Chalmers

Some very rough recordings that were made at a recent gig at the Lemon Tree with Marisha AddisionQuintet.

Marisha Addison Quintet at the Lemon Tree by bryanc

The Marisha Addison Quintet will be playing at the Lemon Tree this Friday lunchtime (11th September) as part of the Northern Edge Jazz Festival.

We will probably start playing about 12:30 and finish 2:30 (approx).

Entry is free and according to the Lemon Tree website, food will be available.

I am looking forward to playing with Marisha and the band and the first gig is at the Blue Lamp on the 27th August. The line up for this band is,

Marisha Addison - vocal
Graeme Stephen - guitar
Garry Gibb - sax
David Innes - drums
Bryan Chalmers - bass
 

We are also booked to play in the Northern Edge jazz festival in September which should be fun.

There will be a a Sunday Lunchtime gig at the Lemon Tree featuring members of the Aberdeen Jazz Orchestra playing jazz standards. This should be a fun gig and it can be worth booking a table as it sometimes gets quite busy.

This will have a different flavour from other AJO gigs as it will be a small group rather than big band concert.

I never knew Stewart as I joined the Aberdeen Jazz Orchestra after he died but I wish I had known him. It was evident from last night’s concert that he left quite a legacy of music and an impression on all who knew him.

The concert was organised by Ashlea Gilmour, Stewart’s daughter, and featured a variety of bands and musicians who had played with Stewart. Ashlea did a great job of organising what turned out to be a great night of music.

Kay, Stewart’s wife, and Bethany, their daughter, both sang during the evening. They have great voices and I hope that we will hear more of them in times to come.

The evening started with a set from the Aberdeen Jazz Orchestra, followed by sets by Bethany Gilmour (with Gary Gibb, Alan King and Pete Lowitt), Aberdeen University Big Band (huge band actually), Kay Gilmour with band, Granite City Brass and finally another set from the Aberdeen Jazz Orchestra with Ryan Quigley as soloist.

Ryan Quigley is an amazing performer and soloist who not only captured the Maynard Ferguson style of screeching trumpet solos flawlessly but also projects that performance in a way that engages with the audience.

The whole night was a vision of what mucic can be in Aberdeen at its best, i.e. lots of people enjoying lots of music by a variety of musicians, playing various styles of music.

I have uploaded a track that was recorded at the Mill Studio, near Crathes and engineered by Niall Mathewson.

The name of the track is Hallamacadu (but I have no idea whether that is spelled correctly or not).

I have only uploaded the second half of the track as I selfishly wanted the fretless bass Swedish Chef impersonations at the beginning but hopefully the full track will be uploaded later.

The line up of Stooshie at that time was

• Elaine Stewart and Elaine Henderson - vocals
• Pete Henderson - Cittern
• Andrew Davies - Guitar
• Stuart Davidson - Drums
• Bryan Chalmers - Bass

I have just uploaded another track - SW Groove, which was recorded with the Simon Abbott Band a couple of years ago in my studio. We liked the way the track turned out even though it is hard to identify exactly what made it work.

Simon has unfortunately moved to Australia where he seems to be doing well but we hope soon to be playing again with a new drummer. Watch this space for more information.

This will be at the Beach Ballroom, Aberdeen and will feature Ryan Quigley, Aberdeen Jazz Orchestra, Granite City Brass, Aberdeen University Concert & Jazz Bands, Marisha & Jim Addison, Alan King, Garry Gibb, Kay & Bethany Gilmour and friends.

All proceeds go to Cancer Research UK and CLAN.

To book tickets, go to the Aberdeen Box Office

This is sure to be a great evening of music and the Aberdeen Jazz Orchestra set will include quite a few Maynard Ferguson numbers.

Some more details can be found at the Aberdeen Council Website

Initial Website now added with one number to play/download in the tracks section.

The Heptile was written by Dave Roberts and recorded in my home studio a couple of years ago with Simon Abbott on drums, Vijay Pillai on keyboards and Dave on sax.

I will add more tracks over the next couple of weeks.

Gigs calendar now loading from my google calendar which has been updated with my next couple of AJO gigs. The rest will follow ASAP.

First practice of the season tonight in preparation for the forthcoming gig at the Beach Ballroom.

Updated:
Oops! The practice didn’t work out quite as planned due to lack of school janitors. However, it was good to see and chat to the other band members.