remix & a moan! Posted: Jun 28, 2010
I've just spent a hard week re-mixing a track which I thought I'd finished months ago. It's the fifth track on the songs page here at www.grahamrobb.com, called "Brollachan", and it features my old friend Brian Elrick's stylish bagpipe playing, multi-tracked four or five times.

A few weeks ago I played it to another friend, also a piper, and whilst he seemed to enjoy it very much, I thought it was a bit boring, mostly because the various pipe melodies were somewhat submerged by each other, and by the end it was just a bit of a confused jumble.

So, I thought, a quick re-mix would only take a couple of hours. Hah!

A week later, even the dog flees when she hears these damned pipes, but despite protests from everyone here, I've persevered, and I've just posted the new version - and I think it's a lot better. The pipes are much more up front, and the whole thing grooves more than it did previously, largely because the detail of Brian's playing is clearer. And I've played around with the gates on the rhythm textures, added a bass guitar, and I even fired up the slave PC and used some Vienna Symphonic Library sounds, the Bosendorfer piano, soprano saxophone, and some strings.

The bass punches the thing along, the sax beefs up a couple of the melodies, and the piano does what pianos do in a texture.

So far so good.

But the reason it took me a week to finish this essentially pretty straight ahead track was the b****y strings.

Now, whilst I am quite proud of some of the things I've done over the years, I'm not boasting, I'm just relating history here, when I say that back in the day I was a good orchestral string player. I was a member of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra for most of the seventies, and at that time and subsequently, I've played in all the orchestras in Scotland. I was the principal double-bass player in the City of Glasgow Philharmonic for all of its existence and even played "Phantom" for a year. So I know what strings do. I know how punchy and rhythmic and downright groovy a good string section can sound when the music is right!

So I'm going to write to the Vienna Symphonic guys to complain about their string samples!

I've got used to the idea that cheap string sounds, sampled and synthesised, depend to a large extent on a slow attack to create their string-like impression. That's why I haven't used string sounds much in the past, the "attack" part of the ADSR envelope (the shape of the sound of each note) is always slow, so that the synthesised "strings" sound gentle and romantic - ahh! - but the effect can easily be that the strings just sound late against a rhythm section.

One of the reasons I spent the huge amount of money to buy the VSL was the assumption that these arco strings would be different.

They're not.

Even using pizzicato bassi I've had to move the string lines 20 or 30 milliseconds early, and the arco sounds, even the fortepiano and sforzando ones, sound late unless they are triggered very early - 50 milliseconds or so. It works but it's messy. And yes, before you ask, the piano and saxophone are fine, so there isn't a problem with the setup, it's just that the strings sound late because the attack on each note is lazy.

But everything else about the VSL is great. I've got used to re-mapping so as to use MIDI controller 11 as a volume control, and the system is very receptive to the tiny programmed pitch changes on individual soprano saxophone notes which are necessary when it plays in unison with the bagpipes.

End of moan! I hope you like the remixed track - "Brollochan"

Vienna Symphonic Library (again!) and other things. Posted: Jun 1, 2010
Once again I have to apologise because it's over two months since I updated this news page, but I do have a good excuse. I have been REALLY working, and the "master plan" (quitting full time paid work and just getting on with the real business of writing music) is beginning to come together.

Starting with the most recent things and working backwards, I note that it's over a year since I bought, at huge expense, the Vienna Symphonic Library. Studio-type musos will already know what I'm talking about, but just in case you're in the dark, the VSL is a huge, HUGE library of orchestral samples (and the attendant software to play them) specially recorded by many of the stunning symphony musicians who are the backbone of the music industry in Vienna. The whole thing resides on a slave PC and comes up via LAN as a plug-in on my Mac - in Logic! The quality and range of these sounds is simply astonishing! Add a bit of sampled reverb and wow!!

So I'm really pleased to have at last made time to sit down and start to use it, and, after a VERY steep learning curve over the past four weeks, I've created a new piece and learned how to use the software. Or rather, I've learned how NOT to use the software. I started this little piece, "grazioso", for chamber strings and harp, which is a kind of homage to Ennio Morricone, three times, using different methods each time. And as I finished the thing late last night I realised that there is yet another, better way of doing things, but I'll save them for the next piece. I simply don't have the energy to start this one all over again.

"Grazioso" lasts less than a minute and a half and is on the songs page of this site.

So the VSL software is really great , but the lack of a proper printed manual is crippling.

I would have said that the VSL guys should take a leaf out of the Apple guys' book, but they've stopped including a proper manual with the latest version of Logic, and Sibelius decided to make their manual an expensive optional extra years ago. Honestly, what's an overwrought, harassed composer supposed to do? Oh for the time when the current manual was open at the relevant page as I found my way around Logic back in the days of C-Lab and eMagic.

Just for a bit of silliness I made my recording debut as something other than a bass player. I recorded a version of one of the songs from "Eternal Xmas" with me whistling the tune! There's no lyrics, just me whistling. You'd be surprised how hard that can be, especially in the double tracking bits. The short track, approximately two ands a half minutes, took all day to record and mix. But it was fun, a bit of light relief from the seriously heavy writing I've been doing on other parts of the show - not heavy music, I hasten to add, but just one hell of a lot of it. The show won't write itself!

By the way, that track's called "Whistling Jack", and it's on the songs page of this site too.

Other than that, apart from the writing, I've had long phone calls sorting out lyrics for "Eternal Xmas", a meeting with Bob Robinson about an idea for another show, and also a meeting with an animator in Dundee about a really "left field" idea we're developing. All a bit hush hush at the moment, but watch this space.

Oh, and there's also a series of concerts I've been asked to organise to mark Richard Demarco's birthday later this year.

Busy, busy!

I shouldn't be doing this! Posted: Mar 25, 2010
I shouldn't be writing this news item. Instead, I should be hard at it, knocking out more tunes for "Eternal Xmas", the show I've been living with, on and off, for the last couple of years. But hey, we creative types need a break from time to time!

Not that I have any right to complain about lack of time off.

I'm just back from five weeks in New Zealand, which was the last bit of the "gap six months" I decided to allow myself when I quit my job to become a full-time tunesmith. (I can't afford a full "gap year", and anyway I'd get bored, but it's been great - Romania, France, some bits of Scotland, Florida, New Zealand - and I missed some of the bad winter, although while i was away the water pipe to the washing machine froze and the resultant leak had to be dealt with by eldest son Ben, who unfortunately crashed his Beemer on the ice at Dunblane when he was on the way up from Glasgow to take charge of the situation. He's OK, by the way, and we're getting his car back today!)

So, selfishly, I'm glad I was down-under when all this was going on, but music is the thing, and as well as the globe-trotting, I have actually done some work too; there's one new song on the songs page, "Kindness/ Greed", which is the opening number of the new show, recorded here at Robb Towers and sung by Jill Davidson. There's twenty four (24!) tracks of her singing and one (1) of me whistling (yes, whistling) four bars of music. Guess which artiste took more time and needed more re-takes!

The next track from the show will be recorded next week, and I've booked a session whistler in the shape of Seumas Begg to sing this one. Life's too short to put up with my own vocal shortcomings; in future I think I'll stick to programming the stuff and (maybe) playing the bass. And then Jill will be back to sing the next couple of numbers, including a duet with Seumas, as soon as possible. Only another ten songs to go after that lot!

And then I can get on with some other things - two new ideas for shows (secret-ish for now), new stuff for HEAD2HEAD, getting to grips with the Vienna Symphonic Library sample library and software, which cost a fortune, the least of which was the slave computer to run it on, and generally building up the library of new instrumental & vocal compositions so there are tracks ready to pull off the shelf as required.

Well, that's the plan. A lot to do before going to France for September.

Kids today! Posted: Nov 23, 2009
A quick note (it's 3.00 am, for God's sake, and I'm still buzzing) about a kid's band, called "Jazz Juvenocracy" that I just heard for the first time, playing standards in the excellent "Irish Rover" pub in Sarasota. They're a great sextet, apparently lead by the trumpet player, a girl who looks as though she's about ten years old (she IS a little older than that, but not much!) and features two young guys on saxophones, flute, and a MIDI wind controller (the Yamaha WX5 I think), all more than ably supported by an AMAZING young rhythm section.

And I'm not the only person to rate them highly - they've been accepted, out of six thousand applicants, to play at next years Montreux Jazz Festival in early July. I'll be very tempted to fly over from Scotland to Lake Geneva to hear them - and to catch some of the other jazz heavyweights who will also be playing. The list of performers for next year's festival has still to be announced, but these Sarasota kids will be in good company; in previous years performers at Montreux have included Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock, B. B. King........ you get the picture!

Well done to Rodney, Brent, and all you others, and your teachers; have a good time in Switzerland and thanks for a positive and inspirational evening!

....oh, I've been on a cruise to the Bahamas and writing some new stuff, as usual. I'll post some recordings from the gigs with Verona and Alex soon, as soon as the volatile mixture of the cruise cocktails and the "Irish Rover's" Guinness wears off!

Hard at work! Posted: Nov 7, 2009
Really? Really!

OK, I know I'm sitting on the deck at the back of the house in a leafy condo by the Gulf of Mexico, and my biggest problem is having to move the laptop from time time to time because the bright Florida sun is too much for it, but I'm hard at work too.

And there's plenty to do.

Last weekend, while I was still in cold, wet Scotland, playing some gigs with London chanteuse Verona Chard, her ace pianist, Alex Stanford, kindly recorded some seriously groovy electric piano tracks for me for an instrumental version of one of the settings of Shakespeare sonnets I wrote for Verona. I'm just editing them down to prepare for the soprano saxophone melody & jazz which will be recorded when I'm back home in December, and very cool they are too. In fact, each recorded track is so good it's difficult to know which to keep and which to mute. (Just mute, I never throw anything away' cos you never know when it might be useful, and anyway, it would seem rude to throw away recordings of such fine piano playing!) Still, some tough choices to be made though; apart from anything else, Alex recorded some good things in the jazz section I'd originally earmarked for the soprano.

No such problem with the other new track I've been working on recently, a new funky bagpipe track called "Brollachan" recorded for me by virtuoso player Brian Elrick, and which I found time to post on the songs page of this website just before I flew out to the States. No problems with choosing tracks for this recording because after we'd sorted out the sound during the session, Brian just played the tracks the way they wanted to go. The whole thing was nailed in about an hour! And it's got me thinking - it would be good to play some of this rock 'n roll bagpipe stuff live. Maybe it's time to put a new band together as well as HEAD2HEAD?

So, a few more weeks of very welcome sunshine, then back to earth with a bump! I'll be back to dark, rainy Scotland, when I simply MUST sit down and get to grips with the Vienna Symphonic Library. I bought it months ago, and it cost thousands, but what with trips to Europe, the States, and getting on with writing (& re-writing) the songs for Eternal Xmas, I haven't even booted it up since sometime in August. Still, I suppose having too much to do is a good problem.

But first there's a four day cruise to the Bahamas and Key West. It's a hard life!

How time flies..... Posted: Oct 11, 2009
It's suddenly over a month since I last added some news - not the way ahead at all!

But my excuse is busy-ness, and settling down to my new lifestyle since quitting Glenalmond College. All the little darlings will simply have to get on without me - and the pupils will have to survive as well! (corny joke - sorry)

As I recently write wrote to one of my ex-pupils (a singer who's having to take a year out from the main business 'cos she's got the dreaded nodules), its' amazing how much I can get done writing-wise when I only have my own compositions to worry about.

So what have I been up to? Writing the last few songs for this long-awaited show "Eternal Xmas", that's what. Actually, to be strictly accurate, the writing of the songs doesn't take so very long, although, of course, I put my heart and soul, my LIFE into every note. It's preparing the demo and backing tracks that really pushes the time-frame. Oh for the old tin-pan-alley days of hawking the the stuff round the publishers by simply going round the doors, singing and playing piano. (Way before my time, of course!)

But thank you God for Logic Studio and Sibelius - both seriously cool software packages that make it possible for me to travel the world with the laptop and a wee keyboard (which caused no end of comment at Schipol) and write the stuff wherever I find myself. Well, not actually on the aeroplane, but you get the idea. I spent a really productive two weeks in Busteni, an out-of season ski-ing resort in Romania (think Auchterarder without the night-life!) where there was really nothing else to do but sit by the balcony with the door open, and write four (yes 4!) new numbers in about ten days. Mind you, the headphone-created mixes needed some attention when I got back home. I blame the palinka, a legally home-made triple-distilled plum brandy that freezes the front of your face and which you could use to de-coke diesels. The generosity of all the Romanians I met is unparalleled!

Back to business; the grind of completing "Eternal Xmas" continues, but I'm beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel! Whew!

What else is new?

A recording very soon with virtuoso piper Brian Elrick - he's recording the melody for my latest "funky teuchter" pipe tune playing highland pipes, and I have a few jazz gigs at the end of this month (October), playing bass & bass guitar with Verona Chard, the brilliant and lovely singer who came up from London for the Edinburgh Festival with her pianist, the equally gifted and equally lovely Alex Stanford, both of whom are coming up to perform in my home village of Birnam and in the Jazz Bar, Edinburgh, (full details soon on the gigs page of this website).

And then I'm off to Florida (with the inevitable travelling studio kit) to start on the next big project. (Surely I'll have finished "Eternal Xmas" before November! Pu-leese!) I'm in the States for a month, and whilst I'm there I'll be finishing off some choral arrangements, and writing some new jazz numbers for HEAD2HEAD, but the big task will be to start on the new show I'm planning with Bob Robinson, who directed "Lush Life" for the Edinburgh fringe, a show about a genuine "Boys' Own Paper" Victorian hero who was one of the first pupils at Glenalmond College when it first opened round about 1850.

Lot's going on, and I'd better get on with it!

PS. For the geographically challenged, Auchterarder is a ribbon-development village that used to be on the road between Glasgow & Perth. It's close to Gleneagles, but doesn't really share much of the limelight!

Edinburgh Festival report Posted: Aug 30, 2009
What a great Edinburgh festival!

I met, and worked with, a host of new musicians and also some old friends.

It started for me when I met Verona Chard for the first time and we played for about two and a half hours every afternoon for a week in the Jazz Bar, Chambers Street. Verona is a wonderful jazz singer who brings a new light to some great standards and who also very kindly performed three of my songs; settings of three Shakespeare sonnets. It was also good to meet and work with her pianist, Alex Stanford, who came up from London specially for the week, and who is one of the best jazz pianists I've worked with. With my old friend Bill Kyle playing drums it made for a very happy and hugely enjoyable week. And it looks as though we may repeat the whole thing again in November.

Then there were some gigs, also in the Jazz Bar, with my own band, HEAD2HEAD, and once again there was a mixture of faces old and new. As ever, Bill played drums, and other familiar faces were Mike Nisbet on guitar and Allan Wylie on trumpet. Musicians new to me were Leah Gough-Cooper playing alto and Brian Molley playing tenor. Fantastic jazz improvisors all, they also mastered my not always dead easy charts in one forty-minute rehearsal! A live recording of this band playing "Putting it together" is on the songs page. Enjoy!

Whilst all of the above was going on I was also rehearsing the Glenalmond College production of "Lush Life" by Paul Sirett. Directed by Bob Robinson, it's an enjoyably dark play with a twist, and it features sixteen of Ella Fitzgerald's greatest hits, which were performed superbly, with great style and maturity, every night for a week by the frighteningly young cast, once again in the Jazz Bar.

But the Festival is over once again and it all suddenly seems very quiet now! Still, it's good to not have to drive up and down the M90 every day!

Oh well, back to writing the last couple of tunes for "Eternal Xmas".

Festival gigs - update Posted: Aug 18, 2009
Yesterday (it's Tuesday 18th today) was the first day of the Edinburgh fringe for me this year.

Verona and I met for the first time on the stairs down to the Jazz Bar and no, we didn't burst into "Che Gelida Manina", instead we were straight into a real baptism of fire. For various reasons we had to do the first three numbers as a duo - yes - double bass and voice only. "Summertime", "Misty", and a third song the title of which I can't remember for the life of me, were given the pared-down minimalist treatment. It was scary but great to do!

We're on again this afternoon, and every other day this week at 2.00pm, with (hopefully) the whole quartet, but I'm going to suggest that we keep at least a couple of the bass & voice duets in the show. It's really fab to work with a good singer especially - plug, plug - when she's singing three of my settings of Shakespeare sonnets!

Thank you, Verona.

(That's in the Jazz Bar, Chambers Street.)

Then on to an amazing rehearsal for the late evening HEAD2HEAD spot.

Let me explain.

For the last few years HEAD2HEAD has really consisted of Bill Kyle (drums) & myself playing bass guitar, the pad (that's the pile of music scores for all you squares), and Bill's compendious knowledge of the phone numbers of every musician in Scotland and much of the rest of the known universe. He knows everybody! So more often than not HEAD2HEAD meets for the first time for a three hour rehearsal on the afternoon of the first gig.

'Cos it's Festival time we could only find a one hour rehearsal spot.

Hats off to the musicians folks!

Alan Wylie (trumpet) and Mike Nisbet (guitar) have done the gig a couple of times, but Leah Gough-Cooper (alto) and Brian Molley (tenor) were seeing the charts for the first time. Nonetheless, we nailed THE WHOLE THING in about 40 minutes.

Incredible professionalism!

And last night's gig was brilliant.

Catch us again tonight (HEAD2HEAD's only other Festival gig this year) at 11.00pm. It'll be loud and brash. You'll like it!

In the Jazz Bar, Chambers Street - tonite!

WHEW! Posted: Jun 30, 2009
I've just updated the gigs page - it's taken me about an hour 'cos I'm gonna be busy in this year's Edinburgh Festival. (Which, as I've just quit a good full-time job in order to devote ALL my time to writing and some gigging around again, is just as well!)

It all happens during the last two weeks of August, and whilst the full details are on the events page, the executive summary is that in the week beginning 17th August I'm on every afternoon, playing bass in the trio with London chanteuse Verona Chard, during some of the evenings HEAD2HEAD (my own six-piece jazz/ rock band, just in case you've missed that bit somehow!) are playing at 9.30, and every evening of the following week (W/C 24th), at 7.30 I'm MD-ing a brilliant production of Paul Sirett's musical "Lush Life", which features sixteen of Ella Fitzgerald's greatest hits, performed by the girls of Glenalmond College.

So, be there or be square! (How corny can you get?)

A very warm, sunny day in downtown Bucuresti Posted: May 24, 2009
... or Bucharest as it's known to us decadent westerners.

Here for a week 'cos the College has a half term break, mostly on holiday, but also checking out the VIBRANT live music scene here in Romania. People I've talked to like the band (HEAD2HEAD) and the music on this website, so maybe an H2H tour of eastern Europe is on the cards.

This is certainly and interesting town, full of contradictions, as you might expect of a country that's been under various kinds of crazy, despotic ruler for years - until quite recently -and is only now beginning to enjoy the fruits of corrupt capitalism! (it's a change from corrupt communism or the simple craziness of the Ceausescu era!) But the packs of wild dogs fighting in the street at night are pretty wearing; and if you ever drive here, make sure you have a Chelsea tractor; the roads are hellish! My SLK would lose its exhaust in minutes!

However, all the local Romanians I have talked to, from tour guides to folk in the street we've asked for directions, are charming, helpful, and delighted to talk English, a skill at which they display an alarming and embarrassing fluency. It's a compulsory subject at all schools apparently, whilst my knowledge of Romanian is zero I'm afraid.

On a more conventional "music bizniz" note - thanks everyone for keeping my music high in the Broadjam charts for so long. I'm still No. 4 on the Classic Jazz chart, and at the top of the New Age and Classical charts. Think where I'll be once I have time to settle down to mastering the Vienna Symphonic Library I bought about a month ago and have barely had time to even glance at ever since!

There'll be more about the VSL over the following months, although I'm almost beginning to feel guilty about buying it. I've been playing bass again on a couple of "classical" dates and really do believe in the old UK MU slogan "Keep Music Live!"

But hey! I'll use live musos on all my movie music recordings once they start to come in, I promise!

Until then, it's time to explore the amazing open air restaurants again. It's a tough gig, but somebody has to do it!

Vienna Symphonic Library Posted: Apr 23, 2009
Well, I've done it at last!

After a great deal of thought, I've bitten the bullet and bought the VSL Super Package, and, no surprise, it's been quite a learning curve so far.

And I haven't even tried using it yet.

For interested geeks, let me explain.

My studio/ composing set-up is Logic 8/ Sibelius 5 running on a totally spec'd-up MacBook Pro with my trusty old MOTU 896 sound card. Firewire rules OK!

With the Soundcraft desk, good near-fields, and the Bose cans, it's a cool working environment.

A couple of years ago I had a good and patient friend, Walter MacAulay, make me a high-powered PC as a slave to run GigaStudio, but what with one thing and another I never properly got to grips with it, and so until now it's hardly been used. A few weeks ago, Walter spec'd it up for me to take the VSL - maxed the RAM and put in two one terabit drives and a second ethernet card! He even made me the ethernet cable to connect the Mac to the PC, master to slave!

Ready to rock!

I wish!

The first task is to set up Remote Desktop on the Mac so as to save space & clutter by having only one monitor & mouse; I'd never heard of crossover cables (I'm a bass player really. You have to make allowances!)

Once that little problem was identified it still took us the best part of a day to get the two computers talking to each other - why, oh why don't I have two Macs!

However, as of now the system is up and running, my own little network. I'm so proud! (But I still need the other monitor to power down the PC - Remote Desktop offers "log out" or "disconnect" but not "switch off"! Seriously, if you have any suggestions please email me here at: mail@grahamrobb.com. I need your help!)

Then I spent an evening registering the library, each instrument separately - type in the code, send it to Vienna, get the activation code back, paste it in, register the instrument with VSL, copy the code into the Syncrosoft Licence dongle...

Fun times!

And now I'm loading the instruments. In the time it's taken me to write this it's loaded one DVD, only about another eighty to go....

Will I live long enough to learn how to use this stuff? It really is going to take weeks to load this lot up.

Oh well, twenty-six Microsoft minutes to go and I can put in the third disk of this collection.

Will I ever write a note of music again? Should I dump all this technology and get out the old manuscript pad, a pencil, and a rubber? Actually, I use them all the time anyway, but, "help ma boab!", this is taking a while.

But it will be cool to have Logic and Sibelius driving the VSL when it's all up and running, but it will be cool to have Logic and Sibelius driving the VSL when it's all up and running, but it will be cool to have Logic and Sibelius driving the VSL when it's all up and running......

Mad Wifie's - BROLLACHAN Posted: Mar 28, 2009
At last I've had time to compliment Brian Elrick's great bagpipes by adding 12-string, bass, and drums to "Mad Wifie's". The band is called BROLLACHAN

I've only just posted the track to my songs page, so it will appear there shortly. Immodest, I know, but I think it sounds great! (If I don't like it then I really am in trouble!)

I wonder if Brian would like to join the band - without him there will be no band called BROLLACHAN

Jazz/ funk and pipes? Why not!

BROLLACHAN!

Lush Life! Posted: Mar 7, 2009
It seems ages since I posted any news - blame my day job at Glenalmond College - there's just been too much to do, trying to drag the final effort out of some absurdly recalcitrant students before their exams!

But never mind, I quit in July!

But some aspects of the job have recently been excellent, none more so than the show we're touring, "Lush Life", which features sixteen of Ella Fitzgerald's greatest hits, and which we put on at Balgonie Castle in Fife last weekend. The show went well and the venue was (is?) wonderfully wierd - a candle-lit upstairs room called the Great Hall which holds about sixty or seventy people. It was packed!

And we raised a grand for a school which is being built out in the bush in Africa, so that feels good too.

We have another couple of gigs in the Perthshire area before we take the show to the Edinburgh Festival in August, where we'll be playing for a week in the Jazz Bar, Chambers Street. More details on the events page of this site, and in time also on the Glenalmond College and Jazz bar websites, and through the festival Fringe Society.

.... and who knows where we might take the show after that?

HEAD2HEAD - Great gigs and a live recording with a great band! Posted: Feb 22, 2009
HEAD2HEAD has just completed a couple of gigs at The Jazz Bar in Edinburgh. They were great to play, and judging by the audience reaction, great to listen to.

It may seem immodest to call my own band "a great band", even though I think it is, but what I mean is that until I quit teaching at Glenalmond College (yes, of "Pride & Privilege" TV show fame!) I don't have time to promote the band, and to gig and tour as much as I and the guys would like to. As a result I'm not in a position - yet - to command a regular line-up, so instead, every time we have some gigs, we have to put together a group from whoever is available for those nights (and a rehearsal).

Realistically, at the moment, HEAD2HEAD consists of Bill Kyle and myself, a pad of my original compositions arranged for various combinations of three front line, guitar, bass, & drums, and Bill's compendious knowledge of every jazz musician in Scotland - and their phone numbers!

So whilst the guys who play for HEAD2HEAD to ALWAYS excellent, this particular line-up has been simply outstanding, so eat your heart out if you missed these two recent gigs; you missed Doug Tiplady - alto, Lorne Cowieson - trumpet, John Burgess - tenor & soprano, Mike Nisbet - guitar, and Bill & myself. The Friday night was great and the Saturday was even better, one of the best I've ever done, which is fortunate, 'cos it was recorded, both audio and video, for inclusion on a live sampler album of the bands which play regularly at The Jazz Bar and which will be for sale before summer. And well done the packed audience who rightly whooped, cheered and applauded these star musicians after every solo in true "jazz club" fashion. (It may seem corny, but actually, that amount of audience enthusiasm and participation really does help us to raise our game.)

This is the first of three sampler albums that The Jazz Bar intends to promote this year and I'm very proud that HEAD2HEAD should be invited to be on the first one.

Finally, as soon as they are available, some of those tracks which, even though they're pretty good, don't make it onto the album, will be posted on the songs page on this website, so come back and check it out regularly if you don't want to miss out! There is some great jazz coming soon!

Still top of the charts! Posted: Jan 16, 2009
This is going to sound like I'm boasting, but really I'm not - I'm just astounded and delighted and very grateful that I currently have seven tracks high in various Broadjam charts.

"Le Frelon" has been TOP of the classic jazz chart since October, "Step Back" is no.2 on the free music jazz chart (that's free download at the point of sale, not free as in unstructured improvised music), the three meditative New Age numbers are currently in positions 7,8, & 10 in their chart, and two tunes for solo bagpipes, recorded for me by Brian Elrick last Sunday - 12th Jan - are already numbers 9 & 10 in the Celtic World Music chart!

A huge thank you to all of you who've given these pieces such great reviews.

Now this really is something different Posted: Jan 13, 2009
.... or rather, two different things.

Let me explain.

As well as being an symphonic musician and jazz bass player, MD and composer, I've also had the pleasure and privilege of working with some of Scotland's finest bagpipe players, and ignoring the silly jokes we all crack about these guys (the definition of a gentleman being someone who can play the pipes, but doesn't, etc.) I really have nothing but the highest regard for these fine musicians and the wonderful music they play.

It is, after all, the traditional music of my homeland!

Over the years I've had a go at writing some pipe tunes, and just the other day, a good friend and colleague, Brian Elrick, has very kindly recorded my two most recent ones.

So, ladies and gentlemen, leading up to Burn's Night, I give you on my songs page - drum roll - two brand new original pipe tunes, Mad Wifie's, and Braes of Birnam.

Pour yourself a wee dram and enjoy!

HEAD2HEAD gigs in Edinburgh and more chill-out music Posted: Jan 10, 2009
Busy times!

The band is once again to play in the Jazz Bar, Chambers Street, Edinburgh, on the 20th & 21st of February. I'll post full details on the gigs page!

....and... I've just posted another couple of sections of the "therapeutic relaxation" track; there's about twenty minutes of it there now!

In fact, there's a whole albums worth of this stuff ready to go, with a half-hour voice-over which explains step by step what you have to do to to really benefit from the product. (The text is written by a couple of professional psychologists, but it's quite easy to follow.)

Do you think I should put the album together and market it on my albums page?

This isn't a rhetorical question and answers really would be very welcome, either on my guest page or direct to mail@grahamrobb.com

A real live pop star! Posted: Dec 31, 2008
Just at the tail end of the year I've posted one more song from the "archive" - a version of a song called "Break it to me Gently" sung in Gaelic, the ancient language of Scotland, by Anneka.

For those of you too young to remember, Anneka, real name Mary Sandeman, had a huge, world-wide hit with a sweet little song called "Japanese Boy" in the early eighties. "Japanese Boy" re-surface a few years ago as one of the tracks in that great game "Grand Theft Auto"!

I'm proud to have Mary as a friend and am indebted to her for recording this track for me as a demo for the Mod, which is a slightly bizarre Scottish Gaelic language festival which happens every year not far from where I live.

Thanks Mary.

So just relax.... Posted: Dec 29, 2008
I've just re-discovered the master tapes of a therapeutic relaxation cassette - yes, cassette!! - I produced many years ago, and I've posted the first five minutes or so of the music as the third item on the songs page.

Once I've got a hold of Martyn James, the fine Scottish actor who recorded the voice-over but with whom I've sadly lost touch, I'm going to re-issue the whole thing on CD.

Watch this space!

Oh, and have a "guid New Year!"

GR

hey, am I glad? Posted: Dec 19, 2008
....that I listen to advice...

the remix I did yesterday of "Step Back" is number 2 in the jazz chart!

How cool is that?

C'mon folks, lets make it number one!

Thank you Ray Iaea - your advice was good advice!

...and I've just checked to find that "Le Frelon" is still top of the clasic jazz chart too!

Maybe it's about time I gave up the day job - which is fortunate, 'cos I am.

I do listen to advice! Posted: Dec 18, 2008
Following advice from Ray Iaea when he reviewed it, I've just re-mixed one of my tracks, "Step Back".

Here's the text of the email I sent him:

Dear Ray,

Just to say that I have followed the advice you gave me in your review on 1st Dec of my soprano saxophone feature "Step back", which you called "Happy Days", and cleaning up the drums, spreading out the 3 sopranos, and adding some more reverb to them has made a big difference to what I think was already a nice track.

It's up on http://www.grahamrobb.com re-titled as a re-mix.

Thanks.

best regards.

graham robb

I hope I'll never be too old to follow good advice!

Thanks Ray!

Ella Fitzgerald - Lush Life! Posted: Dec 13, 2008
I've just finished (for the moment) with the Glenalmond College production of "Lush Life", a striking psychological drama by Paul Siret which features sixteen of Ella Fitzgerald's most popular songs. The play focusses on five facet's of Lottie Hanway's personality, an amusing but ultimately somewhat unstable character who has an unhealthy fixation on Ella Fitzgerald.

The show will tour in 2009 and is already booked for the Edinburgh Festival from 24th to the 29th of August in The Jazz Bar, Chambers Street at 7.15pm.

Don't miss it! The excellent cast acts its collective heart out, and individually the girls sing these great songs with a maturity which belies their years - and they look good too!

A good night out at the theatre! (Except this time it's in a jazz club so you can have drink too - how good can this get?)

There are some pics from the College performances on the photos page.

At last - the new video! Posted: Dec 12, 2008
For "technical reasons", it's taken a few weeks for the live video footage to appear of HEAD2HEAD at the Jazz Bar, Chambers Street, Edinburgh.

But at last.... Tan-Ta-Ra!! here it is.

Enjoy!

Once again let me thank fan from back-in-the-day Ian Harvey for shooting the footage on his mobile and for going to all the bother of sending it to me.

Thanks Ian!

A New Video Posted: Nov 22, 2008
A couple of weeks ago HEAD2HEAD played some gigs in The Jazzbar, Chambers Street, Edinburgh.

Ian Harvey, a fan from "back in the day" was there with some original publicity material from the old band, HEAD, way back in the mid-seventies (I did say he was a fan from "back in the day"), and he also used his phone to film the very last number of the gig, a real rocker called "Kick me Quick", which was originally recorded on the third HEAD album, "Blackpool Cool."

Obviously the movie - it last about ten minutes - is a bit rough, both picture and sound-wise, but I've just uploaded it and it should appear on the site in a couple of days.

This was the number that had the audience chanting the name of the band at the very end of the gig, but unfortunately there's no recording of that.

Trust me; everyone had a good time!

Still Posted: Nov 7, 2008
Last time I looked, "le Frelon" was still top of the Broadjam classic jazz chart, and "Exclusive" was number ten in the swing jazz chart.

I must be doing something right!

HEAD2HEAD, The six piece band I write for and play bass certainly did something right on the 31st Oct/ 1st Nov. We played a great couple of gigs at the Jazzbar in Edinburgh; we had a good time and so did the audience. There are some new photos of HEAD2HEAD taken on those gigs, and I'll post some live recordings too.

"Le Frelon" top of the Classic Jazz Chart on Broadjam! Posted: Oct 23, 2008
Much to my delight, "Le Frelon", the affectionate little pastiche of the music of Stephane Grappelli and Django Reinhardt that I wrote whilst on holiday in Aquitaine, has just made it to top of the Broadjam Classic Jazz Chart!

I've never been top of any kind of chart before.

My huge thanks go to violinist Alison Gordon and guitarist Phill Mellstrom - not forgetting "Drums on Demand".

As well as the audio recording we made in the studio at Glenalmond, there's a video too, shot by Stephen Bennet.

Cigar time!

HEAD2HEAD gigs in Edinburgh soon Posted: Oct 23, 2008
On Friday 31st Oct & Monday 1st November a new-look HEAD2HEAD is performing at the JAZZBAR in Chambers Street, Edinburgh from 9.30 pm on both evenings. The band will be a seven piece instead of the previously usual six piece - the rhythm section is now guitar, bass, drums AND piano, as well as the usual trumpet, tenor, trombone front line.

For these gigs regular HEAD2HEADER-ers Bill Kyle & I (drums & bass) will be joined by guitarist Mike Nisbet and pianist Pete Johnston, whilst the front line will be H2H favourite Doug Tiplady (tenor & soprano), James Marr (trumpet).

An old friend from our Glasgow BBC days, busy London session trombone player Gordon Campbell, is coming up specially to join us for these two dates.

Details of these gigs are on the events page.

Music for sale! Posted: Oct 6, 2008
A new feature on my website - you can download one of my tracks, "Le Frelon" for just one cent less than a dollar.

Yes! Just 99 cents will give you "Le Frelon" to keep - forever.

Enjoy!

Big changes in my lifestyle coming up! Posted: Sep 12, 2008
After trying full time education (as a teacher, not a pupil!) for about four years, I've decided it's not for me and I'm going to quit Glenalmond at the end of this academic year (4th July!) and go "back to the tools" as a bass player and full-time composer - basically what I've done for the last thirty-five years. Not, I hasten to add, that there's anything wrong with Glenalmond College, it's an excellent school with great staff and pupils and there's a lot I'll miss; it's really just that I have to be my own boss again.

And there are things I want to do - tour my six-piece band, "HEAD2HEAD", featuring my own music, finish writing some shows for Next Gen that I've started but simply can't complete while I'm at Glenalmond because there aren't enough hours in the day, and escape the school year 'cos flying during school holidays is extraordinarily expensive and a lot cheaper the rest of the time!

Moan, moan!

So here goes; back to the schedule D tax code for me!

"Fame Game" Demos Posted: Sep 7, 2008
I've been busy, uploading some demo tracks of the theatre show "Fame Game", for which I've written all the music. "Fame Game" offers a lighthearted take on TV talent competitions like "X Factor", and is intended to be performed by school, college, and youth theatre companies. It was performed, very successfully and to full houses, in the Edinburgh Festival by Glenalmond College a couple of years ago.

The show is published, and is available from NextGen publications; needless to say, there's a link to them on the links page. NextGen is the outfit for whom I'm hard at work writing the music for the next show, also written with school, college, and youth theatre companies in mind, called "An Eternal Xmas".

Rondo (theme only) Posted: Aug 29, 2008
I've just added a short orchestral piece to my songs page - it's the rondo theme from a much longer piece I'm still working on, but it works as a free-standing item as it is, so here it is!

Bad weather means good music! Posted: Aug 21, 2008
The weather in Scotland has been really atrocious since I returned from France - it's just as well we shot "Le Frelon" when we did - so I've had no excuses; I've simply had to get on with writing "an Eternal Xmas." I like it; I hope you will too, when it's finished - which will be soon I hope!

Really at last - Posted: Aug 6, 2008
After a month of internet problems - rural France is a great place but the broadband can be even dodgier than here in highland Scotland - the video of "Le Frelon" is up and running. Huge thanks to all involved.

Much to my embarrassment I'm reliably informed that a frelon is not a wasp, it is in fact a hornet - so I was close! Either way they breed 'em big 'n mean in Aquitaine!

Anyway, much as I like the music of Django and Stephane, that's done, and now it's time to get back to work! "An Eternal Xmas" won't write itself.

Le Frelon - the movie! Posted: Jul 5, 2008
Much to my delight, "Le Frelon", the Django/ Stefane pastiche, which is dedicated to the ubiquitous French wasp, and which I posted on my songs page a couple of weeks ago has appeared in the Broadjam jazz chart (it's currently No.4), the European chart (No. 9), and the UK chart (No. 6).

Who knows how well it might have done in the June instrumental competition if I'd taken time to understand how the competition works!

My mistake!

However, I'm working on a more authentic sounding mix and I'm editing the video of the three of us, Alison, Phill., and me - (the drums are by Drums on Demand) - shot against the trees of the Scottish highlands one windy afternoon.

.....and from my holiday retreat close to Bordeaux I've entered a much more "in yer face" fusion number "No Relation", in the July competition!

I've just added a new number to my song page! Posted: Jun 24, 2008
Yes, at last, I've just added a new piece of music called "Le Frelon" to my song page, and it's in a completely different style from the existing jazz-rock numbers.

Sure, it's still a jazz instrumental, but it's a new and affectionate homage to the music of Django Reinhartd and Stefane Grappelly. We've just shot some open air video footage of the trio, violinist Alison Gordon, guitarist Phill Mellstrom,with me on bass, playing the very same number. My first pop video!

Other than that, I'm just getting on with writing the new show for Nextgen publications, with a view to recording the demos in August, when I get back from south west France with (I hope) all the songs finished.