Home About Bands Programme Venues Facilities & Advice Workshops & Education Sales Interviews Links
	MMUSIC COMMISSION
	In 2001 we commissioned world music / dance trio Elephant Talk and bluesman Ray Stubbs to co-operate in the writing of an hour length piece designed for performance, recording, and (if we can raise the necessary finance) as the soundtrack for an experimental work in film and music. (Developing the scope of work researched in the production of "Jazzfilm" - Outstanding Film of the Year, London Film Festival) On this page we'll chart the progress of this Project. November 2001 Contracts have just been signed - more to come December 2001 - March 2002 Working to a brief Ray Stubbs composes a 27 minute journey mirroring a history of the blues, from African drum rhythms to field chants to early country blues to delta to Chicago to freeform rhythm. This contribution is designed to cross-fade into a continuation by Josef Greenfield, John Maybey and Adrian Sykes of Elephant Talk. Urban chaos leads into screaming angular discordance into world rhythms into dance grooves into ambience into gentle transcendence. The entire piece, 52 minutes in duration, opens and closes with a heartbeat. In parallel Peter Bell writes draft shooting script. Thursday 21st March 2002 Ray and ET meet up for the first time at the Lion Inn, Blakey, rehearse the piece, and perform it to a packed house. The audience are blown away. "That crossover between Ray and Elephant Talk, when the two merged, was one of the best musical moments I have ever experienced " (Kevin Mundy) This first performance was recorded using a Roland hard drive VS1680 taking a pair of stereo direct lines from two dedicated mixing desks. A digital video record of the event was filmed by LGF. April 2002 We're in edit - the audio recording to be archived by Yorkshire Arts as per our partnership agreement with them. May 2002 1st CD copies of master mix archived by Yorkshire Arts and at the National Archive Next the shooting script will be firmed up and we'll attempt to raise film production finance Music commissioned with assistance from Purchase "Jazzfilm" or "K.491"
Home About Bands Programme Venues Facilities & Advice Workshops & Education Sales Interviews Links
All pages © 2001 Cultural Foundation