Andy Scott

1st November 2007
Just a reminder to check out the diary page as November has some good events! Including; SaxAssault concerts at the Lighthouse (Poole) & the Brindley (Halton), performances of 'Dark Rain' (RNCM & Birmingham Conservatoire), World Premieres of 'Eighteen' (Andy Scott) & 'Out of Line' (Adam Caird), the 7th RNCM Saxophone Day with guests Andy Sheppard & Habanera Quartet, World Premiere of a new Big Band chart by Andy, performed by Big Bands of the RNCM & Sandbach School.

 
8th October 2007
Produced a recording session for singer/songwriter Paul Wilkes. Four string arrangements that I completed were put down, and will be mixed next week. Check out Paul's web site, he's a very talented guy! www.paulwilkes.com.

 
2nd October 2007
First day teaching back at the Royal Northern College of Music in a new academic year. I played with Dave Hassell's group 'Apitos' a couple of days ago at the Freshers Ball. Exciting times for all these first year students! I've cut down on the teaching, I'll be in the RNCM five times a term, coaching quartets, presenting classes for the saxophone students, and giving tenor sax lessons. I've loved every minute of being associated with the RNCM since I arrived in Manchester in September 1985 - as a student, visiting guest, being commissioned to write charts for the big band, and for the last six or seven years teaching saxophone! The saxophone department goes from strength to strength ; Carl Raven and Julian Arguelles joining myself, Mike Hall, and Rob Buckland. Rob continues to do a fantastic job heading the department! The reduction in my teaching hours is a direct result of more writing commissions and focusing on playing projects. SaxAssault & 'Summer with Monica' are beginning to get a big promotional push, commissions are in the book up to August 2009, and for the first time in a long time I'm getting down to some proper sustained and consistent saxophone practice. Music is such a challenge, always so much to learn, I feel very fortunate to be a very small part of it.

 
1st October 2007
I'm giving a Composition Masterclass at Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts. LIPA opened in 1996, it cost £20 million, and is based on the site of Paul McCartney's old school. I've worked there on projects before & Lipa has an air of positive creativity about it. The main composition tutor at Lipa is Paul Mitchell Davidson (a composer that saxophonists may know from his nine quartets that he wrote for the Apollo Quartet). www.lipa.ac.uk.

 
23rd September 2007
Apollo Sax Quartet plays at 'Colourscape', London performing the World Premiere of Barry Guy's 'Gaia II' (scored for bass, brass & saxophones) with the composer. Great music!

 
25th August 2007
The 4th Harrogate Summer School has just finished. Hard work and great fun! Thirty saxophonists were put through their paces by myself, Rob Buckland, Helen Sweeney and guests Ingrid Laubrock and Dave Hassell. Special thanks go to Andrew Woodhead at Windstruments & Stuart Angel, who between them make sure that the Saxophone Course, Clarinet Course (directed by David Campbell) and the Flute Course (directed by Paul Edmund-Davies) happen! Also thanks to sponsors Rico & Yanigasawa. Good Summer Schools are a great way to focus on your instrument and music, not being distracted by other things! and making new friends.

 
3rd August 2007
Studio session with Liverpool-based singer/songwriter Paul Wilkes. I produced the session and arranged string parts for four tracks. Watch out for Paul's new CD this Autumn!

 
28th July 2007
SaxAssault plays at Manchester Jazz Festival. A great turnout and the band was roaring! Special thanks to Dave Walsh, Carl Raven & Mike Smith who all played their first gig with the band.

 
27th July 2007
Back from a couple of days at Woldingham Saxophone Summer School, which is directed by Rob Buckland. Great fun! Clare Southworth runs the Flute Course which runs concurrently with the Saxophone Course. Sponsored by Jonathan Myall Woodwind. www.summer music.org.uk

 
21st July 2007
Launch of the North West Real Book at Manchester Jazz Festival. Published by Astute Music & edited by myself, the NWRB comprises 100 tunes from 60 North West based composers. Eb & Bb books to follow this Autumn. Composer Pete Meechan did a fantastic job with all the copying and editing as well. Please visit www.astute-music.com & take a look at North West Jazz Works web site www.nwjazzworks.org.

 
19th July 2007
Gigging with Giles Rimmer's group 'Bluejuice', in Geneva then straight back to the floods in the UK and a gig near Oxford just off the M40, where the floods were at their worst!

 
11th July 2007
A performance of 'Dark Rain' at one of the Gala Concerts of Wasbe, Killarney (Ireland). This was interesting in that for the first time I played one of the solo parts, along with Rob Buckland. The Chethams School of Music Wind Band were fantastic, expertly directed by Dave Chatterton. Every time 'Dark Rain' has been performed it provokes a reaction - people love it or hate it!! This is fine by me, I'm just grateful that it's programmed. A legendary figure in the Wind Band world is Tim Reynish, someone that I respect immensely, and he said to me after the performance that he personally didn't like the piece……. 'Dark Rain' is full on in terms of density of sound, deliberately so, and some people can find it disturbing! Before I started writing the piece in 2005 I thought about Harrison Birtwistle's 'Panic' that John Harle and percussionist Paul Clarvis premiered at the Last Night of the Proms. A piece that ignores (only my opinion) a more usual balanced relationship between tension and release, in this case it's mostly tension, which is reflected in the title of the piece. For 'Dark Rain' I aimed to maintain tension for all the piece except a final 'chorale' section. This tension surfaces in different ways ; rhythmic tension in the first soprano saxophone feature, dynamic tension in the raucous big band sections, tension in the opening very angular unison saxophone cadenza which screams in the harmonics…… but, hopefully a well earned 'release' during the final 'chorale'. Lots of people came up to me and said that they loved 'Dark Rain', if people don't like a piece they normally don't tell you! I admire Tim for being honest and thank him for his feedback. Performances of 'Dark Rain' are programmed in Manchester and Birmingham this Autumn. Please see the 'Diary Page' for more details.

 
5th July 2007
It was a pleasure working with the young students at Cowley College in St.Helens. I was the guest in their Summer Concert, joining various groups and the students also played some of my compositions. The enthusiasm, creativity and energy displayed by the students has to come via a very good music teaching team, in this case led by Shaun Chambers. Maybe one of these young musicians will be the next Robbie Williams or Joss Stone?!! At least they're being given a chance…..

 
22nd June 2007
Sean Miller invited me to be guest with the University of Huddersfield Big Band & Saxophones at the Lawrence Batley Theatre. I was honoured to be invited, and the first set featured the saxes playing SaxAssault charts with the big band rhythm section and myself, whilst the second set featured Sean directing the Big Band through its paces! The Big Band also gave their first performance of 'Spill the Beans', a ten-minute chart that I wrote for them and the Hull Youth Jazz Orchestra. I used to teach Saxophone at Huddersfield University, and direct the Big Band for a few years, so it was a pleasure returning, thanks for having me at 'the Hud!'.

 
16th June 2007
Drive down the night before to the gig, leave all mobile phones in parked cars, helicopters flying overhead, lots of security…… it could only be a footballer's wedding! In this case England's Steven Gerrard, marrying Alex Curran. 'Bluejuice' played during the ceremony and then for the drinks reception. It was all carefully timed during the ceremony, 1 minute 35 seconds for the bride to come down a spiral staircase, 15 seconds to walk down the aisle…… Nothing like that goes to plan so we 'opened up' a four-bar vamp as the bride still hadn't made it down the stairs after three minutes!! It was an amazing occasion, good luck to the happy couple. The band had a quick chat to them, both lovely down-to-earth people.

 
May 2007
The Apollo Saxophone Quartet collaborated with the Goldberg Ensemble (strings, directed by Malcolm Layfield) to premiere 'Convergence', a virtuosic work written by the amazing composer/bass player Barry Guy. These were the first gigs that Carl Raven had played with the ASQ, and he did a brilliant job! A CD recording of 'Convergence' is planned for 2007/08.

May and June saw a series of about ten gigs for my jazz funk group DB5+Laura. It's always a pleasure working with these fine musicians, and in the five years that the group has been operating we're getting to know each others playing pretty well. The group sounds like an ensemble of listening musicians, not six individuals. We're not trying to take over the world, far from it, rather making music as well as we can, whether it's with our own compositions or arrangements of other peoples music. Every gig I learn something with these musicians as I try and move into a musical period of my life where I can hopefully put some hard work into improving as an improvising musician.

[back]