CHARISMATIC singer-songwriter Gordon Haskell steps back into the spotlight later this month after locking himself away to produce his autobiography. The inimitable Gordon will be teaming up with old friend Robbie McIntosh to play a one-off concert in the New Forest at the Waterside Theatre in Holbury on Saturday November 22.
The phenomenal success of the single “How Wonderful You Are” which was just pipped for the No 1 spot by Robbie Williams in December 2001 and the album “Harry’s Bar” which reached No 2 in the album charts put Gordon up where he belonged, and both are still creating huge interest. “As we speak, “How Wonderful You Are” is No 39 on the Music Week TV Airplay Chart,” Gordon told me from his Dorset home. “It seems to be reaching a whole new audience - most of the letters and emails I am getting come from people in the 16-25 age range, who haven’t heard the song before. Not surprising as it only ever reached 25% of the airwaves compared to the 95% the competition were getting. It was a minor miracle it crept in through a hole in the perimeter fence. East-West deleted it two weeks after. Now East-West are reissuing the single and reducing the price of “Harry’s Bar” from November 9.
Gordon has spent most of this year concentrating on his autobiography, provisionally titled “It’s Nothing Personal,” a phrase which is somewhat of a cliche in the music business, according to Gordon. “I’m just completing the second draft of the book with the help of David Nobbs, the creator of Reggie Perrin,” said Gordon, “we’ve been pen friends for over twenty years and some of his letters will appear in the book. It’s been a joy working with David as my editor - authors are such lovely people. He sends me notes like a schoolteacher, usually criticising me for my “excessive rants” as he puts it and telling me what to cut out and what to expand on. I’ve written over 130,000 words so far.”
“Music is the path, the journey,” continued Gordon, “but the book is not just about my career, it’s about my life, which has had a lot of magic and spirituality in it. I’ve travelled to many strange places and have had many different experiences - there’s a lot of humour in the book, but it’s also philosophical and about spiritual destiny. I’ve written it with a movie in mind - I realised my dream of having a hit single, and my dreams always come true - I really think this book will become a film.” But who would play Gordon if this came to pass? After much deliberation Gordon chuckled in that familiar, wheezy way, saying “George Clooney?”
Gordon admits that he has not written any new songs while he has been working on the book. “”I’ve worked for the last eighteen months without pay, basically,” says Gordon. “I’ve been a lucky boy, I got a big break with the record deal, but after the initial payment, all I have received is publishing money. As soon as the book is finished, I’ll start writing songs again and start thinking about the next album. The Holbury gig is my only live appearance before the first of two UK tours next year. The first is during March and April, and the second will be in October and November, after the book has come out.”
Tickets priced £12.50 for the seated gig at the 300 capacity Waterside Theatre in Holbury are selling fast. Ring 02380 207900 right away to avoid disappointment. (© Peter Ashton 2003)

  Southampton Jazz Club welcome back the gifted saxophonist Andy Sheppard on Tuesday November 11.  The newly refurbished John Arlott Room on the University campus will ring to the stylish sounds of one of Britain’s foremost tenor and soprano saxophonists.
  Introduced to the music of John Coltrane at the age of 19, Andy immediately bought his own saxophone   Three weeks later, he was playing with the Bristol based quartet Sphere, which recorded several albums in the late 70s, and played extensively throughout Britain and Europe.  After leaving Sphere the next logical move in Andy’s career was to relocate to London, but instead he moved to Paris, working with French bands Lumiere and Urban Sax.
  Returning to the UK in the mid-80s, Andy signed to Island's Antilles label and released his eponymous debut album in 1987.??An immediate critical and popular success, it was  boosted by Andy winning the Best Newcomer at the British Jazz Awards, followed by Best Instrumentalist Award in 1988, Best Album and Best Instrumentalist in 1989 and the Big Band Award in 1990.
  Andy’s next album “Introductions In The Dark” was a stylish mix of
acoustic and electric sounds.  Around this time Andy was building an impressive reputation internationally, touring with his band  throughout Europe,  to Canada, and becoming the first Western jazz group to play in Outer Mongolia.  In 1987, he joined George Russell's Living Time Orchestra as featured saxophone soloist and also toured with the legendary Gil Evans.  In 1990 Sheppard formed his Soft On The Inside Big Band, which produced an album and video, and toured extensively in the UK and Europe.
  Andy’s next innovation was a punchier, electronic sound with the formation of In Co-Motion, a band which played a potent mix of jazz, funk and rock grooves.  Their first album followed in the autumn of 1991. In Co-Motion toured throughout the world:    Europe,  the USA, Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Nigeria, and a memorable trip to South Africa.  In Co-Motion also featured on Andy's first recording for Blue Note, Rhythm Method, in 1993. An expanded band, almost inevitably called Big Co-Motion, added five horn players to record a  live album at Ronnie Scott's  “Delivery Suite,” also released on Blue Note in 1994.  
  Throughout the 1990s Andy was busy with a number of projects - the trio Inclassificable with Steve Lodder and Brazilian percussionist Nana Vasconcelos, a collaboration with pianist Joanna MacGregor premiered at the Salisbury Festival in 1998 by Bournemouth Sinfonietta, plus music for the theatre, radio and television.  Often described as a serial collaborator, Andy has worked with an astonishing range of musical partners including organist Barbara Dennerlein, Danish pianist Maj-Britt Kramer, French bassist Michel Benita, pianist Keith Tippett, Dutch cellist Ernst Reijseger, and, in a  touring project “Terror and Magnificence,” alongside Elvis Costello and soprano Sarah Leonard.  Andy can also be found on an equally eclectic range of recordings playing on sessions with John Martyn, Baaba Maal, Basia, Nigel Kennedy, Bristol indie band Blue Aeroplanes,  even turning up on a tribute album to the New York Dolls.
  In 1998 Andy signed to Provocateur Records and formed a new sextet which, fuelled by his fascination with rhythms from Africa, South America and Asia,  recorded two highly rated CDs, “Learning To Wave” and “Dancing Man and Woman.
 The new millennium has seen no let-up in Andy’s work rate and eclecticism - one landmark was a commission from The Sage, Gateshead, to write and record music for the Gateshead Millennium Bridge project which opened in September 2001.  For the project Andy collaborated with the renowned Northumbrian pipes player Kathryn Tickell.  A new recording with guitarist John Parricelli was released earlier this year, with another major commission linking him with Joanna
Macgregor for “Cityscapes” at the 2003 City of London Festival.
  Tickets for the Southampton Jazz Club concert are £12 to non-members, £10 members. (© Peter Ashton 2003)

Wandering Weaver
Preview by Peter Ashton

A big-bearded troubador from Minnesota wanders into The Railway in Winchester to entertain on Sunday November 23.  Ben Weaver is the name of a singer-songwriter who merges country, blues and folk in his songs and sings them in a voice “like gravel in a wound” according to Mojo Magazine.
  Biographical details of Ben’s life on his website are sparse to say the
least - presumably he likes his songs to tell the story.  He was born in Eugene, Oregon, 23 years ago, moved around a lot with his family during his childhood, ending up in St Paul, Minnesota.  Apparently he hated school and lasted a year at college, before taking off to sing his songs on the road.  
  So far he has clocked up three albums, “El Camino Blues,” “Living On The Ground,” and “Hollerin’ At A Woodpecker.”  He has only recently got a European deal for his records, and the last-named album has been picking up great reviews, and has led to Mr Weaver landing on these shores.  “Hollerin’” got four stars in both Mojo and Uncut with Mojo praising the strong lyrics and melodies which tell stories in spare ballad style or a warmer roots rock vein.  Uncut described Ben’s style as “crooked swamp blues and unadorned country folk,” while Bang magazine said it was “the sort of record that if played backward would cause your wife to come home, your truck to start, and your dog to wake from the dead.”  All good enough reason to go and see Ben at The Railway next month - I’ll be there, will you?
  For more details of the gig which also features local girls, Kate Stable
and Rachel Dadd, ring 01962 878812 or see the website www.liveattherailway.co.uk.  (©Peter Ashton 2003)

Diva Dame
Preview by Peter Ashton

Happy Birthday to Dame Cleo Laine who celebrated her birthday at the end of last month. The ageless jazz diva who has been around as long as I can
remember is an unbelievable 76 years old and appears with husband John Dankworth at Wimborne’s Tivoli Theatre on Saturday November 22.
Cleo was born Clementina Dinah Campbell on October 28, 1927 in Southall, Middlesex. Her father had come to England with the West Indian Expeditionary Force during the First World War and married an English girl. Her show business career started as a teenager when she was an extra in the film “Thief Of Baghdad” in 1940. But Cleo was destined to be a singer, not an actress. Encouraged by her mum and dad who sent her to singing and dancing lessons she showed early singing talent and she began singing in dance halls in the early 1950s.
She teamed up with the Johnny Dankworth combo in 1952, then his big band in 1953. Cleo was a fixture for the rest of the decade, marrying Johnny in 1958.
During the 60s Cleo became world famous for her stunning array of vocal styles and her scat singing in particular. The only singer ever to receive Grammy nominations in the Female Jazz, Popular, and Classical categories, Cleo continued to tour the world with her husband, and also branched out into the world of acting. Her debut as an actress was on the West End stage in “Flesh to a Tiger,” directed by Tony Richardson at the Royal Court Theatre. Later theatrical credits include “A Midsummer Night 's Dream,” and the title role in Ibsen's “Hedda Gabler.”
Later Cleo combined used her musical and acting talents in a diverse
collection of projects including “Showboat “ and “Colette” in London, “The Seven Deadly Sins” as part of the Edinburgh Festival and “A Little Night Music” in The USA.
In 1983 Cleo became the first British artist to win a coveted Grammy award, receiving the Best Female Jazz Vocalist Grammy for the third of her "live" Carnegie Hall albums.
A frequent guest on British and American television shows throughout her career, Cleo has also picked up more honours along the way - an honorary Doctor of Music degree from Boston's prestigious Berklee School of Music, the Variety Club's "Show Business Personality of the Year," along with her husband, by this time known as John, and an O.B.E bestowed by Queen Elizabeth. Cleo continued to pick up awards during the 1990s, notably a Lifetime Achievement Accolade from the British Jazz Awards in 1996.
Cleo seems to be touring continually, and is just as popular as ever in a
new millennium. Tickets for the Tivoli Theatre concert are available through 01225 752089.   (©Peter Ashton 2003)

Prime secrets
Preview by Peter Ashton

Anyone who hasn’t seen or heard Ezio better get down to Talking Heads in
Southampton on Saturday November 15. Despite the handicap of having Tony Blair choosing one of their tracks on “Desert Island Discs,” Ezio, a four-piece band, have built up a tremendous following with their passionate acoustic rock. Live, they are something else, as anyone who saw their last gig at the Heads will tell you.
The focal point of the band is the collaboration between Ezio Lunedei and “Booga” Fowell who first met over a decade ago in Cambridge. Ezio’s emotive songs and guitar playing were boosted by Booga’s fluid fret touch and the pair formed a mood-invoking duo who soon notched up over 200 gigs all over the British Isles. They signed their first record deal in 1994 with their debut album "Black Boots on Latin Feet" produced by Rupert Hine who had worked with Stevie Nicks and Tina Turner.
The highly acclaimed album resulted in support tours for Ezio with some big names including Paul Young, Les Negresses Vertes, Joan Armatrading and Big Country.
Ezio also found new audiences in South Africa, Germany and Holland where their powerful, exciting shows tempered with emotional ballads and haunting tales of love and longing were particularly well-received.
Ezio’s second album "Diesel Vanilla" was released in 1997. Produced by
Rod Argent and Peter Van Hooke it provided a more band orientated environment for the duo to work, with leading them to new directions. By adding drums and bass to the talents of Ezio and Booga the producers paved the way for live performances in a band format.
Peter Van Hooke himself played drums on Ezio’s 1998 tour with Lidia Cascarino on bass. The fun they had on tour was reflected in Ezio’s third album “Higher” recorded with a band line-up using basically the same arrangements they had used playing live. The result was a studio album which went a long way to capturing the spontaneity of their live act.
"Higher" was released in Germany, Austria and Switzerland in April, 2000, supported by a 28 show tour through all Germany and a big marketing campaign. The UK and Netherlands followed later that year, and Ezio have since developed a cult following as “a best kept secret” which seems set to expand following the release of their fourth album earlier this year. Called "The Making of Mr Spoons," it features a lot of grooves and subtle effects mixed in with the band’s acoustic guitar core to make their sound even more individual and contemporary.
Ezio will be supported by Southampton’s soulful duo Midway for their gig on November 15, as on their last visit. Tickets price £10 are on sale now through 02380 678446.  (©Peter Ashton 2003)

Music to lift your spirit and soothe your soul is promised when the South
African Gospel Choir play a couple of concerts in the South this month. The
ten-strong gospel choir raise their voices backed by a five-piece band at the Turner Sims Concert Hall in Southampton on Thursday November 27 and The Lighthouse in Poole the following night.
Formed in 1989 by Pinise Saul, one of South Africa’s greatest cultural
icons and vocalists, The South African Gospel Singers draw on Xhosa, Zulu and Suthu vocal traditions, embracing township and traditional harmonies, jazz and soul, underpinned by contemporary rhythms to produce music suffused with vitality that is characteristic of Africa's folklore.
The origin of this majestic choir can be traced back to the 1987
soundtrack of the film “Cry Freedom", Sir Richard Attenborough's award winning movie about South Africa's political hero Steve Biko and journalist Donald Wood.
South African composer Jonas Gwangwa and American composer George Fenton wrote the music and Pinise Saul was the lead singer. Africa's greatest jazz guitarist Lucky Ranku, the choir's musical director, was one of the key soloists. For Lucky this was an emotional project as he had met Steve Biko at Durban University where Steve was a medical student and Lucky was performing in the musical play "Into the Art of Negritude."
The South African Gospel Singers went on to headline concerts all over the world. Highlights in the UK include the Nelson Mandela Tribute Concert at Wembley, numerous festivals including Bath, Cheltenham, Brecon and Edinburgh, plus appearances at Royal Albert Hall Proms, and regular sell out concerts at the Royal Festival Hall and The Barbican in London. Earlier this summer they headlined the "Festival of Sacred Music" in Girona, Spain.
The musicians backing the ten singers include the legendary Lucky Ranku on guitar, Sami El-Salahi on electric bass, Mervyn Africa on piano and organ, Sibongiseni Mdima on drums and Thomas Dyani on percussion.
Tickets for the Turner Sims Concert are available through 02380 595151; bookings for The Lighthouse in Poole through 01202 685222.
 (©Peter Ashton 2003)

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