13th August 2013: Phil Robson Summer News Update
Below we have featured an in-depth blog update from WWR Artist, guitarist and composer Phil Robson, describing his recent touring in the USA with highlight performances in NYC and the Rochester Jazz Festival.
“I recently spent a really exciting 3 weeks in the USA, and here’s what happened!:
On June 19th, I set off for JFK with Christine Tobin & Dave Whitford. The prime reason for the whole US trip was that we had been invited to play at the Rochester Xerox International Jazz Festival in NY state with Christine’s amazing ‘Sailing To Byzantium’ band as part of ‘Made In The UK’. This is a series of UK bands which the festival showcase in the beautiful Christ Church venue in conjunction with UK promoter John Ellson & funded by Jazz Services. We were due to do this on the 23rd June but we went over early to acclimatise & to get our batteries charged up by getting into the NY vibe first, not to mention wanting to adjust from the endless winter here to the intense summer weather there! Myself & Christine were lucky enough to be able to rent a great apartment in Brooklyn from a musician friend for the bulk of the trip as he was away on tour so now we had our base!
I have to mention that it had been recommended that we ask the incredible Spencer of ‘Jazz car’ to collect us from JFK & he and his colleague Darryl became an intrinsic part of the whole experience as we had many trips to & from the airport. Spencer is someone who has taken up driving musicians to airports in his retirement as he loves Jazz & musicians so much. Even Herbie Hancock has checked him out with his people carrier, welcoming A.C. & lovely personality!
Before heading up to the festival, we managed to catch Mark Turner’s amazing band with Joe Martin, Marcus Gilmore & Avashai Cohen (tpt) at the Village Vanguard which got me,Liam Noble, Dave & Christine firmly into the zone & I finally got to meet Mark’s wife!
Two nights before leaving the UK, I had received a phone call from the ‘Made In The UK’ office, telling me that one of the UK bands had visa problems & sadly might not make the gig & could I help out? My friend (& drummer in my quintet,) Ernesto Simpson had been booked as part of that band & was not affected as he holds a US passport. He wanted to salvage his gig at the festival on the 21st as well as an extra gig back in the city on the 24th at the Zinc Bar. To cut a long story short, we ended up doing both of these unexpected gigs as a trio with myself, Ernesto & Dave at the last minute. Internal flights were altered & we had a fantastic time playing with the trio after flying up to Rochester on the morning of the 21st. The festival is really good fun, with so many great musicians playing & hangin’ there & we were looked after wonderfully. It was also great to see Anne Rigg from Jazz Services & long term friend, Sue Edwards, who had both come over to go to the festival. Christine’s gig was truly magical, culminating with Christine walking through the church singing acapella as the finale. She got a really big audience who were very responsive. Her band was completed by Liam Noble & a fab local cellist called Hilary Glen who slotted in as if she had been in the band for years although we were sad that we had been unable to take our regular brilliant cellist Kate shortt this time. RE Rochester, special mention must go to Moe’s Bar which is an amazing place to hang & also to killing guitarist Bob Sneider who runs the hotel jam & also accompanied Christine for her workshop. We left Rochester on the 24th hoping to have plenty of time to get to our 8pm slot at the Zinc Bar. Unfortunately we had a 2 hour 30 min flight delay but thanks to the heroic driving & problem solving of Spencer we managed to get to the gig on time, Dave having to pick up a bass in Brooklyn first! It was another fun gig & we had a great time with Ron Afif, Willard Dyson & lots of other fab musicians who were jamming at Ron’s regular Monday late slot after we played.
The next thing on the horizon was a gig I had got under my own name at ‘The ShapeShifter Lab’ in Brooklyn on the 27th with my quintet, a fairly new, hip venue, run by ace bassist, Matt Garrison. Before that, we had a couple of days to get back into the city vibe. This included seeing Liam play a great down town loft gig with Ingrid Laubrook & Tom Rainey as well as seeing the super swingin Sheryl Bailey Organ Trio at the 55 bar plus doing some laundry as it was seriously hot & humid by this stage!
For the ShapeShifter gig I booked John O’Gallagher (Alto), Boston’s Jason Palmer (tpt), Dave Whitford (bass) & my old friend Billy Hart (drums) under the name of ‘Robson’s Philanthropix’! Although we had not played together before as a group, I knew all the musicians individually & felt confident that it would gel easily & that I had a mega band. We rehearsed in the afternoon at the venue & then played after the Andrew D’angelo ‘Dna Orchestra’. We all really enjoyed our gig & it was great to see members of the orchestra such as Ben Monder & Bill McHenry stick around to check us out as well as being supported by friends including Liam, Jeff Williams, Ingrid Laubrook, Will Vinson, Sheryl Bailey, (poet) Eva Salzman & many more. Billy Hart was explosively creative from the first beat &, having not played with him for many years, I was reminded of how inspiring it is to play with a true master of the music. The gig was filmed & I may release some clips somewhere down the line if I can improve on the audio from the camera’s own mic. Dave & Liam headed back to the UK on the 28th. Over the next few days we soaked up the sounds & sights of the city which included catching some of the gay pride parade & enjoying lots of Mexican food (which I can’t resist over there) as well as escaping the heat in cool bars like the 11th St bar between A & B, The Kettle Of Fish & calling in at all the great venues like Smoke, Smalls etc with Christine & Anne Rigg who was in town by that stage, having come down from Rochester. I stayed in Astoria in Queens for a few days when my friend returned from touring & it is a really interesting part of town which I hadn’t seen before. I also played in a really enjoyable basement session in Harlem with Sheryl Bailey & some of her friends as well as catching up with Michael Mwenzo up at the Lincoln Centre etc, etc!
I was now looking forward to my final gig at ‘Smalls’ with the Jeff Williams Group on the 6th July, which was also Jeff’s birthday! On the 4th, I went to celebrate independence day on the roof of John O’Gallagher’s apartment in Park Slope where all the residents get together to have a big barbeque & party & watch the fireworks over Manhattan from their incredible viewpoint of the city. It was a real privilege to be invited to be part of normal family life in that way. With more trips to JFK I was now on my own so I went to stay with Jeff & Lionel Shriver for my final two nights, which was like being at home as they made me so welcome. Jeff’s gig was very exciting & in some ways was the one that I was a little nervous about. The reason for that is because I was so aware that it is such a strong unit as a quartet, with no harmony instrument. His band features John O’Gallagher, Duane Eubanks (tpt) & John Hebert (bass) who really interpret Jeff’s unique tunes brilliantly. Smalls has also become a very important venue & I had never played there before. Any self consciousness vanished as soon as we started to play as the musicians are so open & adapt so quickly, plus, the audience were great & I enjoyed having them less than 1 foot away from me! It really is a wonderful place to play.
I took my final trip to JFK with Spencer on the 7th feeling exhausted & very sad to leave NY but also very happy to have had such a great experience & in great anticipation of the forthcoming trip to Brazil with Jeff’s English band on July 23rd! Truly, it was the best summer I have had for many years & one which I hope will influence & enrich my future music making.”
Phil Robson’s WWR release The Immeasurable Code is available from the Album Page on the WWR site, and to view the album promo video please click here.