Stratford-Upon-Avon

I conducted a group from a truck tire company in Stratford-Upon-Avon last week.

Its interesting the power of the name Stratford-Upon-Avon, that when I mention this to people, everyone remarks. - Its like “Oh, you’re going Shakespearean now?”

Well no. But they do have a very nice grand old hotel with conference facilities and fine gardens and a golf course, on the outskirts of the town. And this is where we worked.

I had decided to have two accompanist musicians join me, JK on guitar and Eliot on violin. I have worked with Eliot a few times and we have been friends for years. He composes and plays his own music. He is a fine fiddler and has played with some rocking bands, and he has given me musical insights that have changed the way I listen to music

JK is eighteen, a really gifted guitarist and kit drummer. As a friend of the family I have watched him as he developed in his teenage years. I have sat with him in his room sometimes with the instruments that I make for my audiences, and he instantly seemed to understand the kind of progressions that I could use as accompaniment, and I have been hoping for a while that he could join me for some sessions.

He has played with groups around London but had never done a corporate gig, so we did have to scramble around in he cupboard for a suitable ‘smart-ish’ sort of trousers and a pair of black sneakers that would do. .

I often don’t even register the detail of what is being played by the musicians behind me, on stage The aim is to have a musical or rhythmical foundation (like a tight jam session) from which to work as I face and orchestrate the audience. There is often great discussion between the musicians or percussionists, after the sessions, about what they have played, the detail of which I did not even register, and I am often amazed when I listen to recordings afterwards. There is incredible stuff happening.

If I were to explain to a business audience, as a team-building idea, using a simple musical metaphor, I would say “Keep in the rhythm and play in the right Key” (which is of course easy to say but a bit more complex to apply) But sometimes a special combination of talents comes together in just the right way (and there’s a lesson in that too!), and so it was with Eliot and JK, both improvisational and both with a feel for African sounds and rhythms – and the session rocked.

I used chimes, and tubes for the audience, a combination I have not used before. The chimes are tuned in C and lend themselves to a more delicate kind of music, even though their sound is piercing. And the tubes, in G, are softer in sound but one can really get physical with them so playing can become a kind of dance as well. In Africa, music and movement always go together.

As usual, the audience see the performance they are part of as being the norm, but sometimes something special happens musically, that is out of the usual, and this was one of those times. and I hope I can expand on this in future with Eliot and JK.

They had never played together before but the chemistry was right, and the audience responded, and they got it! And therein lies the question of what happened right, and how to apply the principals to other walks of life?