Saturday 25 June 2016

Three Fresh Shouts (Music & Photography)


A couple of years ago I wrote some ‘shouts’ to people I knew or had met who was doing something creative worth mentioning on this blog. The shouts are back and there should be another post before long. This time I cover new music from Leeds-based producers, and a recent Norwegian photo exhibition. The key people are Daniel Woodward, Neil Innes at ATA Records, and photographer Theodor With. Hope you enjoy!



Daniel Woodward – New Album



In the Funk, Soul and Jazz community in Leeds, Daniel Woodward is probably best known as a top-of-the-range drummer, and for Groove Labs Studio. Last year Daniel released his solo album 'The Long Walk Home.’ On ‘The Long Walk Home,’ we get introduced to Woodward the composer and keyboard-player. Woodward plays keys and drums on all tracks. The album features a variety of jazz vibes from the contemplative and atmospheric, to vintage Blue Note moments and up-tempo tracks. His star-spangled team include Joe Tatton, Malcolm Strachan, Atholl Ransome, Kenny Higgins, Simon Beddoe and Garry Jackson. Between them they have an impressive list of credits which include (to name far too few!): New Mastersounds, Haggis Horns, Jamiroquai, Corinne Bailey Rae and Submotion Orchestra. The album was recorded at Daniel’s own Groove Labs Studio apart from the track ‘Sunday Sermon’ which was recorded at ATA Studio (more on ATA elsewhere in this post). Being deeply in love with the Hammond-sound since childhood, I fell totally in love with ‘Sunday Sermon’ and played it again and again when Daniel first shared the YouTube link before the record was released. The sound is recognizable to lovers of Hammond-jazz, and the drive and feel is reminiscent of Quincy Jones’ ‘Killer Joe.’ In spite of the jazz-scene of Northern England holding an internationally rather anonymous position, ‘The Long Walk Home’ is a an album that displays not only the quality of the North-English jazz music scene, but also flickers of its diversity in both styles and personnel.
Link to album on Tidal
, Link to album on Amazon
, Link to album on Spotify.





ATA Records - New Tracks



One night some years ago I was introduced to Neil Innes at the Sela Bar in Leeds. We swiftly got talking about music and recording. Neil had just set up his recording studio 'All Things Analogue' (ATA), which as you might have guessed, is an analogue recording studio. In 2014 the studio expanded to include its own record-company (ATA Records). The vintage gear collection includes RCA R44 microphones, germanium pre-amps from the original desk at Olympic Studios, a Swedish radio-broadcast console from the 1960s, and naturally, tape-machines. The instrument collection is equally vintage. Recently, ATA Records have started on an ongoing album of free downloads appropriately named ‘Hard Work, No Pay.’ The tracks are soulful and danceable retro-tracks and few will guess they have been recorded recently. They will eventually be pressed to limited edition on vinyl. The tracks include:

· ‘Somebody Stole My Thunder’ with The Yorkshire Film & Television Orchestra feat. Martin Connor. —Imagine an alternative Starsky and Hutch theme with vocals!
· ‘The Name Game’ with Maggie Somers. —­­Fun track that it’s very hard to sit still to!





Theodor With Photography



Theodor is not only my brother-in-law, but also a dashing and talented young photographer. He recently held an outdoor exhibition at the area of ‘Nyhavna’ (literally: New Harbour) in the city of Trondheim. It was covered in an article in the Norwegian newspaper Adresseavisen (see article on this link). Humans of Nyhavna has its own web-page and Facebook-page, and the name is as you might have guessed inspired by the famous photo-blog ‘Humansof New York.’ Theodor's recent exhibition was set up as a part of a festival celebrating the creative talents in the area of Nyhavna. The area houses a wide pallet of small-scale creative industry. In addition to professional photography, Theodor has run a small web-design company together with a friend for years, and his wife (my little sister) is a costume designer who works with stage, film and TV. This naturally produces the potential for broad collaborations and a portfolio where theatre and creative costumes is a common feature. Theodor has also turned his camera on myself and other friends for collaborations. Some of these will be featured in blog-posts to come.
Find ‘Theodor With Photography’ here: Webpage, Facebook-page.

(Photo: Finn Walther for Adresseavisen)

(Photo: Theodor With from Humans of Nyhavna)

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