John Surman Gig Southampton 12 June

rhysonsax

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I've just noticed that one of my favourite baritone and soprano players is launching his new album in Southampton tomorrow. http://www.turnersims.co.uk/upcoming-events/201112/spring-2012-promoted-events/june/john-surman

Here's how the website describes it:

Composer and multi-instrumentalist John Surman is an improviser of world class standard and acknowledged as the most influential baritone saxophone in jazz today. A mainstay of the ECM record label for the past two decades his captivating solo performances reflect the distinctive, evocative landscape of his music, a combination of his love of the jazz tradition with the inspiration of English choral and folk musics.

Tonight is the first chance to hear his new solo saxophone project.


I booked tickets and saw that there are still quite a few available. Anyone else going ?

Rhys
 
I did go and sat in the front row. The Turner Sims is a nice venue with a lovely acoustic, but I guess it was less than half full.

John Surman is a delightful chap with very good interaction with the audience and his technique shows no signs of fading at the age of 67 (I think).

The gig was absolutely great, from the first number on his school recorder (but doing things my recorder has never dreamed about) right to the encore, playing three folk songs on soprano as the audience sung a drone note and he wandered amongst us.

He also played alto clarinet and baritone sax. Quite a few of the songs were from his recently-released ECM solo album and were in a style that I would describe as 'ambient' or 'meditative'. The absolute highlight for me was John Surman's baritone playing, especially on a blues which was out of this world - incredible drive and sounds right up into the stratosphere.

Rhys
 
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I've just noticed that on Saturday 7 February and Sunday 8 February there is a John Surman weekend at the Turner Sims in Southampton. That's right, two John Surman gigs on consecutive evenings. http://www.turnersims.co.uk/events/categories/jazz/john-surman-weekend/

Saturday 7 February is a quartet concert, preceded by an hour's interview with the great man himself. http://www.turnersims.co.uk/events/john-surman-special-quartet/

Sunday 8 February John is leading the Southampton Youth Jazz Orchestra in a performance of the jazz suite "Tales of the Algonquin". http://www.turnersims.co.uk/events/tales-of-the-algonquin/

They should be great - anyone else going to either or both ?

Rhys
 
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Here is a great song by John Surma and Karin Krog that I stumbled on while looking for something else. He can really play the blues and has great time.


I've heard him play blues like this in solo concerts but never with a singer before.

Rhys
 
I've transcribed this blues now, all nine choruses of it. Quite fun and difficult in places, partly because of the echo effects that Surman uses.

I would be really please to send it to some other people to check over, as I'm sure that there are quite a few improvements to be made to the transcription.

Drop me a message if you would like me to send you my transcription as a PDF.

Rhys
 
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