Music on Thursdays
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Thursday
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2022 Mole Valley
Arts Alive Festival
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Phil Hopkins, harmonica
Liam Dunachie, piano
Paul Morgan, double bass
Programme
Richard Charles Rodgers (1902-1979) Lyrics: Lorenz Milton Hart (1895-1943)
from the musical The Girl Friend (1926)
Blue Room
Jacques Romain Georges Brel (1929-1978)
Ne Me Quitte Pas Don't Leave Me (1959)
Charlie Parker (Charles Christopher Parker Jr, 1920-1955)
My Little Suede Shoes (1951)
John Barry (Prendergast) (1933-2011)
Midnight Cowboy
Joe (Joseph Guilherme) Raposo (1937-1989)
Sesame Street Theme (1969)
Hoagy (Hoagland Howard) Carmichael (1900-1981)
Stardust (1927)
Miles Dewey Davis (1926-1991)
All Blues (1959)
Antônio Carlos Brasileiro de Almeida Jobim (1927-1994)
Corcovado Quiet Nights of Quiet Stars (1960)
Toots Thielemans (Jean-Baptiste Frédéric Isidor, 1922-2016)
Bluesette (1961)
Concert duration approx: 50 minutes
Please donate to help fund these concerts at: cafdonate.cafonline.org/14455
Main picture credit: © Jos L. Knaepen
Richard Charles Rodgers (1902-1979) Lyrics: Lorenz Milton Hart (1895-1943)
from the musical The Girl Friend (1926)
Blue Room
Jacques Romain Georges Brel (1929-1978)
Ne Me Quitte Pas Don't Leave Me (1959)
Charlie Parker (Charles Christopher Parker Jr, 1920-1955)
My Little Suede Shoes (1951)
John Barry (Prendergast) (1933-2011)
Midnight Cowboy
Joe (Joseph Guilherme) Raposo (1937-1989)
Sesame Street Theme (1969)
Hoagy (Hoagland Howard) Carmichael (1900-1981)
Stardust (1927)
Miles Dewey Davis (1926-1991)
All Blues (1959)
Antônio Carlos Brasileiro de Almeida Jobim (1927-1994)
Corcovado Quiet Nights of Quiet Stars (1960)
Toots Thielemans (Jean-Baptiste Frédéric Isidor, 1922-2016)
Bluesette (1961)
Concert duration approx: 50 minutes
Please donate to help fund these concerts at: cafdonate.cafonline.org/14455
Main picture credit: © Jos L. Knaepen
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The Guardian, Obituary
Harmonica player who matched his jazz virtuosity with expressiveness and warmth You will find the full obituary article by clicking on the newspaper's logo: |
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Phil Hopkins
Phil Hopkins was a music scholar at King’s School Canterbury, graduated from Oxford University and studied chromatic harmonica with the great classical harmonica player, Tommy Reilly.
In a thirty-eight year career as a professional musician playing percussion and/or harmonica, Phil has played for more than 120 London theatre productions spanning over 4500 performances across the West End, Royal National Theatre, Shakespeare’s Globe and Royal Shakespeare Company.
Chromatic harmonica performances include: the BBC Concert Orchestra, London Sinfonietta at St John Smith’s Square, and West End musicals such as The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess (Savoy Theatre), Sir Tim Rice’s From Here To Eternity (Shaftesbury Theatre), the London premiere of Stephen Sondheim’s Assassins, and Gone With The Wind (New London Theatre).
Phil has toured the USA many times with various artists including performances at Carnegie Hall, New York’s Lincoln Center, and Symphony Hall, Boston. In 2018 he played the percussion part in the worldwide cinema broadcast of the Broadway production of The King and I from the London Palladium. He has recently been working on the Broadway production of Anything Goes at the Barbican Theatre.
Other West End shows Phil has played for include The Phantom of the Opera, Blood Brothers, Miss Saigon, Matilda, Oklahoma!, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and Seven Brides For Seven Brothers. He has been performance musical director for 21 productions at Shakespeare’s Globe.
Phil has recorded for films such as Iris, Anonymous, The Merchant of Venice and Dance of the Steel Bars, as well as many TV productions including Only Fools and Horses, Wolf Hall and Allo Allo, along with a harmonica solo on This Morning with Phillip Schofield on live TV.
Phil’s harmonica recording of the theme from the film Midnight Cowboy has had more than 127,000 plays on the streaming service Spotify.
Phil has coached many actors to play harmonica for London theatre shows including The Night of the Iguana, Peter Pan, Girl from the North Country, and Assasins. He has played harmonica at many private parties for celebrities including Cameron Mackintosh, Victoria Wood and Sir Mark Rylance.
Note from Peter S: Before either of us had even heard of the word "lockdown" Phil Hopkins introduced himself to us as a professional harmonica player. Always keen to bring new instruments to these concerts, we fixed a concert date, and then we moved it as the original lockdown began and was extended, and extended again, until we gave up fixing dates and I invited Phil to record a concert for Music on Thursdays and 2020's Mole Valley Arts e-Live Festival.
We were finally able to meet Phil at his MoT concert in November 2021. His email address of phil.drum@... gave a clue to his other attributes. That led to today's exploration of the role of another "new to these concerts" instrument group - Percussion.
Phil Hopkins was a music scholar at King’s School Canterbury, graduated from Oxford University and studied chromatic harmonica with the great classical harmonica player, Tommy Reilly.
In a thirty-eight year career as a professional musician playing percussion and/or harmonica, Phil has played for more than 120 London theatre productions spanning over 4500 performances across the West End, Royal National Theatre, Shakespeare’s Globe and Royal Shakespeare Company.
Chromatic harmonica performances include: the BBC Concert Orchestra, London Sinfonietta at St John Smith’s Square, and West End musicals such as The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess (Savoy Theatre), Sir Tim Rice’s From Here To Eternity (Shaftesbury Theatre), the London premiere of Stephen Sondheim’s Assassins, and Gone With The Wind (New London Theatre).
Phil has toured the USA many times with various artists including performances at Carnegie Hall, New York’s Lincoln Center, and Symphony Hall, Boston. In 2018 he played the percussion part in the worldwide cinema broadcast of the Broadway production of The King and I from the London Palladium. He has recently been working on the Broadway production of Anything Goes at the Barbican Theatre.
Other West End shows Phil has played for include The Phantom of the Opera, Blood Brothers, Miss Saigon, Matilda, Oklahoma!, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and Seven Brides For Seven Brothers. He has been performance musical director for 21 productions at Shakespeare’s Globe.
Phil has recorded for films such as Iris, Anonymous, The Merchant of Venice and Dance of the Steel Bars, as well as many TV productions including Only Fools and Horses, Wolf Hall and Allo Allo, along with a harmonica solo on This Morning with Phillip Schofield on live TV.
Phil’s harmonica recording of the theme from the film Midnight Cowboy has had more than 127,000 plays on the streaming service Spotify.
Phil has coached many actors to play harmonica for London theatre shows including The Night of the Iguana, Peter Pan, Girl from the North Country, and Assasins. He has played harmonica at many private parties for celebrities including Cameron Mackintosh, Victoria Wood and Sir Mark Rylance.
Note from Peter S: Before either of us had even heard of the word "lockdown" Phil Hopkins introduced himself to us as a professional harmonica player. Always keen to bring new instruments to these concerts, we fixed a concert date, and then we moved it as the original lockdown began and was extended, and extended again, until we gave up fixing dates and I invited Phil to record a concert for Music on Thursdays and 2020's Mole Valley Arts e-Live Festival.
We were finally able to meet Phil at his MoT concert in November 2021. His email address of phil.drum@... gave a clue to his other attributes. That led to today's exploration of the role of another "new to these concerts" instrument group - Percussion.
Liam Dunachie
Originally from Shropshire, Liam Dunachie began his musical training as a treble chorister in Hereford Cathedral Choir and later studied music at Trinity College, Cambridge where he was a choral scholar in its world-renowned choir under Stephen Layton. At Cambridge he studied composition with Robin Holloway and Richard Marlow and co-directed the Cambridge University Jazz Orchestra.
After graduating from Cambridge, Liam won a scholarship to study jazz piano and arranging at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama where he studied with Malcolm Edmonstone, Nikki Iles and Scott Stroman among others. He has since gone on to play piano and Hammond organ in groups led by Jim Mullen, Dennis Rollins, Derek Nash, Nigel Price and Postmodern Jukebox's vocalist Aubrey Logan among others.
He has performed at all of London's major jazz and commercial venues and many others across the UK, including Ronnie Scott's, Pizza Express Dean St, Royal Albert Hall, Glastonbury Festival's Pyramid Stage, Wembley Arena, The Royal Festival Hall, The Palladium and many more.
Liam also works in musical theatre and has worked widely as both a Musical Director and keyboard player on a wide range of shows in both the West End and on UK Tours, including Hairspray, Phantom of The Opera, Gypsy, and many others.
As an accompanist and session pianist Liam has worked in a wide variety of contexts, including BBC2’s series The Choir with Gareth Malone and is featured as both a pianist and arranger on the 2015 UK Official Charts Christmas No1 Single with the NHS Choir. He has played keyboards for Radio 2's Friday Night Is Music Night, toured with Beverley Knight on her 2019 UK Tour and is currently on tour with veteran DJ Tony Blackburn's Sounds of the 60's Live.
As a composer and arranger, he has also written pieces and arrangements for the City of London Sinfonia, English Chamber Orchestra, violinist Charlie Siem, London Chamber Orchestra and Trinity College Choir, Cambridge.
Reviews and quotations:
"...his place was brilliantly and flawlessly filled by Liam Dunachie whose advanced sight reading skills allowed him to tackle Rollins’ often complex music without a single glitch. Some commentators remarked that his performance was probably the most remarkable one of the entire Festival" - thejazzmann.com
"Robb and Dunachie stay in the background to let Bush show off her phrasing... Brandon Allen’s doleful sax and Dunachie’s hushed piano cushion her ironic vocal..." Downbeat magazine
"What's even more to the point, she has in Dunachie a pianist of exceptional versatility, responsive to her every move and able to switch from rumbustious New Orleans style r&b to solid blues and rock ’n’ roll before calming down for something quietly lyrical, all with consummate ease" - London Jazz News
"Dunachie, is the kind of piano player that, at one time, seemed to have been washed away with the tide. Not so, he comps and solos - he swings for today" - Bebop spoken here
"Bush...is joined by an excellent trio, of pianist and arranger Liam Dunachie...and Dunachie's refreshingly original arrangement gives it a knowing humour. - All About Jazz.com (Bruce Lindsay)
"Next up is Dunachie with another sparkling solo. It’s particularly gratifying to hear Dunachie in such good form on this album... a gently swinging piece with a walking bass line that sees Dunachie lead off the solos with an elegant, subtly bluesy excursion on the piano" - the jazzmann.com
...Special mention should be made of Liam Dunachie's arrangements...Dunachie's creative and complementary arrangements provide the thread that draws the tunes into a cohesive whole... Some great solos from Dunachie, Kieran McLeod and especially Brandon Allen..." - jazzviews.net
Paul Morgan
Paul Morgan went to the Leeds College of Music on a jazz course in 1976. From 1979 to 1982 he worked with the National Youth Jazz Orchestra and became the Principal Bass with the BBC Radio Orchestra.
Paul has worked, and continues to work, with all types of groups and big bands. He joined the Don Lusher Big Band in 1986 and continued to work with them up to Don's demise. He grew up accompanying many visiting American and other international artists at Ronnie Scott’s Club, the Concorde Club in Eastleigh, Southampton, and many clubs and concert halls around the world. Paul has played bass for musicians such as Zoot Sims, Peggy Lee, Ronnie Scott, and many other artists.
Due to his phenomenal technique, intonation, and sight-reading ability, together with being equally adept whether playing pizzicato or arco on the double bass, many of the illustrious artists Paul has played with are not just in the jazz world. One of his main influences is Niels Henning Orsted Pedersen, from Denmark, who also shares the same kind of musical attributes as Paul does. Some recommendation, indeed!
Paul is now mainly active playing ‘straight’ orchestral double bass in film and TV studios, as well as jazz gigs at Ronnie Scott’s Club, the various Pizza Express establishments, the Bulls Head, Barnes, and other venues. He does not teach formally but is always willing to help colleagues and students, who have various problems playing the bass. Paul also plays with the New Jazz Couriers.
Originally from Shropshire, Liam Dunachie began his musical training as a treble chorister in Hereford Cathedral Choir and later studied music at Trinity College, Cambridge where he was a choral scholar in its world-renowned choir under Stephen Layton. At Cambridge he studied composition with Robin Holloway and Richard Marlow and co-directed the Cambridge University Jazz Orchestra.
After graduating from Cambridge, Liam won a scholarship to study jazz piano and arranging at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama where he studied with Malcolm Edmonstone, Nikki Iles and Scott Stroman among others. He has since gone on to play piano and Hammond organ in groups led by Jim Mullen, Dennis Rollins, Derek Nash, Nigel Price and Postmodern Jukebox's vocalist Aubrey Logan among others.
He has performed at all of London's major jazz and commercial venues and many others across the UK, including Ronnie Scott's, Pizza Express Dean St, Royal Albert Hall, Glastonbury Festival's Pyramid Stage, Wembley Arena, The Royal Festival Hall, The Palladium and many more.
Liam also works in musical theatre and has worked widely as both a Musical Director and keyboard player on a wide range of shows in both the West End and on UK Tours, including Hairspray, Phantom of The Opera, Gypsy, and many others.
As an accompanist and session pianist Liam has worked in a wide variety of contexts, including BBC2’s series The Choir with Gareth Malone and is featured as both a pianist and arranger on the 2015 UK Official Charts Christmas No1 Single with the NHS Choir. He has played keyboards for Radio 2's Friday Night Is Music Night, toured with Beverley Knight on her 2019 UK Tour and is currently on tour with veteran DJ Tony Blackburn's Sounds of the 60's Live.
As a composer and arranger, he has also written pieces and arrangements for the City of London Sinfonia, English Chamber Orchestra, violinist Charlie Siem, London Chamber Orchestra and Trinity College Choir, Cambridge.
Reviews and quotations:
"...his place was brilliantly and flawlessly filled by Liam Dunachie whose advanced sight reading skills allowed him to tackle Rollins’ often complex music without a single glitch. Some commentators remarked that his performance was probably the most remarkable one of the entire Festival" - thejazzmann.com
"Robb and Dunachie stay in the background to let Bush show off her phrasing... Brandon Allen’s doleful sax and Dunachie’s hushed piano cushion her ironic vocal..." Downbeat magazine
"What's even more to the point, she has in Dunachie a pianist of exceptional versatility, responsive to her every move and able to switch from rumbustious New Orleans style r&b to solid blues and rock ’n’ roll before calming down for something quietly lyrical, all with consummate ease" - London Jazz News
"Dunachie, is the kind of piano player that, at one time, seemed to have been washed away with the tide. Not so, he comps and solos - he swings for today" - Bebop spoken here
"Bush...is joined by an excellent trio, of pianist and arranger Liam Dunachie...and Dunachie's refreshingly original arrangement gives it a knowing humour. - All About Jazz.com (Bruce Lindsay)
"Next up is Dunachie with another sparkling solo. It’s particularly gratifying to hear Dunachie in such good form on this album... a gently swinging piece with a walking bass line that sees Dunachie lead off the solos with an elegant, subtly bluesy excursion on the piano" - the jazzmann.com
...Special mention should be made of Liam Dunachie's arrangements...Dunachie's creative and complementary arrangements provide the thread that draws the tunes into a cohesive whole... Some great solos from Dunachie, Kieran McLeod and especially Brandon Allen..." - jazzviews.net
Paul Morgan
Paul Morgan went to the Leeds College of Music on a jazz course in 1976. From 1979 to 1982 he worked with the National Youth Jazz Orchestra and became the Principal Bass with the BBC Radio Orchestra.
Paul has worked, and continues to work, with all types of groups and big bands. He joined the Don Lusher Big Band in 1986 and continued to work with them up to Don's demise. He grew up accompanying many visiting American and other international artists at Ronnie Scott’s Club, the Concorde Club in Eastleigh, Southampton, and many clubs and concert halls around the world. Paul has played bass for musicians such as Zoot Sims, Peggy Lee, Ronnie Scott, and many other artists.
Due to his phenomenal technique, intonation, and sight-reading ability, together with being equally adept whether playing pizzicato or arco on the double bass, many of the illustrious artists Paul has played with are not just in the jazz world. One of his main influences is Niels Henning Orsted Pedersen, from Denmark, who also shares the same kind of musical attributes as Paul does. Some recommendation, indeed!
Paul is now mainly active playing ‘straight’ orchestral double bass in film and TV studios, as well as jazz gigs at Ronnie Scott’s Club, the various Pizza Express establishments, the Bulls Head, Barnes, and other venues. He does not teach formally but is always willing to help colleagues and students, who have various problems playing the bass. Paul also plays with the New Jazz Couriers.
2022 Mole Valley
Arts Alive Festival
Recordings of the works in today's concert
Richard Charles Rodgers (1902-1979) Lyrics: Lorenz Milton Hart (1895-1943)
from the musical The Girl Friend (1926)
Blue Room
Well, there's a bit of luck. First recording of the day and it's Phil Hopkins himself.
from the musical The Girl Friend (1926)
Blue Room
Well, there's a bit of luck. First recording of the day and it's Phil Hopkins himself.
Jacques Romain Georges Brel (1929-1978)
Ne Me Quitte Pas Don't Leave Me (1959)
Nobody captures the emotion of this Brel classic quite like Toots Thielemans.
Ne Me Quitte Pas Don't Leave Me (1959)
Nobody captures the emotion of this Brel classic quite like Toots Thielemans.
Charlie Parker (Charles Christopher Parker Jr, 1920-1955)
My Little Suede Shoes (1951)
This performance by Jon Eriksen comes from the West Coast Jazz Harmonica Summit of 2009 - that's Santa Cruz, rather than Weston-super-Mare.
John Barry (Prendergast) (1933-2011)
Midnight Cowboy
The credit on this recording says John Barry, but did he play harmonica? Or is this Tommy Reilly? Either way, it's an excellent rendition.
Midnight Cowboy
The credit on this recording says John Barry, but did he play harmonica? Or is this Tommy Reilly? Either way, it's an excellent rendition.
Joe (Joseph Guilherme) Raposo (1937-1989)
Sesame Street Theme (1969)
Another Toots recording, yes, he it was on the original recording for the show - Sesame Street. There is some classy playing here:
Sesame Street Theme (1969)
Another Toots recording, yes, he it was on the original recording for the show - Sesame Street. There is some classy playing here:
Hoagy (Hoagland Howard) Carmichael (1900-1981)
Stardust (1927)
Here's a song from 95 years ago, in a beautiful recording by the composer himself, Hoagy Carmichael.
Stardust (1927)
Here's a song from 95 years ago, in a beautiful recording by the composer himself, Hoagy Carmichael.
Miles Dewey Davis (1926-1991)
All Blues (1959)
Here's Mile Davis with his own composition, recorded at the Grande Halle de la Villette, Paris in 1991.
All Blues (1959)
Here's Mile Davis with his own composition, recorded at the Grande Halle de la Villette, Paris in 1991.
Antônio Carlos Brasileiro de Almeida Jobim (1927-1994)
Corcovado Quiet Nights of Quiet Stars (1960)
Another chance to hear a great piece of music in the hands of Toots Thielemans, here with the Leny Andrade Trio.
Corcovado Quiet Nights of Quiet Stars (1960)
Another chance to hear a great piece of music in the hands of Toots Thielemans, here with the Leny Andrade Trio.
Toots Thielemans (Jean-Baptiste Frédéric Isidor, 1922-2016)
Bluesette (1961)
At the age of 87, here is Toots playing his own Bluesette at the Night of the Proms, in Rotterdam Ahoy. What better finish to this tribute to Toots Thielemans, a gentleman, the leading player of his day - and it was a pretty long day. He died aged 94.
Bluesette (1961)
At the age of 87, here is Toots playing his own Bluesette at the Night of the Proms, in Rotterdam Ahoy. What better finish to this tribute to Toots Thielemans, a gentleman, the leading player of his day - and it was a pretty long day. He died aged 94.
Previous concert
Louisa Till, violin & Oliver Till, piano - click here
Next Thursday's concert
Gwenllian Llyr, harp - click here
