What a proud and exciting moment! This beautiful album is the first to be recorded here at ThePlayroom, Arundel using the recently acquired Yamaha Grand Piano (more about that on our previous blog entry here).
The Full Circle Quartet is made up of award winneing musicians and writers and are based in Sussex. They came to The Playroom, Arundel for 3 days in late 2022.
Once settled in, microphones in place, headphone levels set and tea made, the Quartet had a very relaxed and enjoyable few days recording tunes they had previously played live, expanding ideas and tweaking arrangements as they went. (The engineer enjoyed it very much too!!).
All of the members of Full Circle write and arrange, so 12 of the 13 tracks on the album are written and arranged within the band. One track, ‘One January Morning’, was written by friend of the band, multi-reed player Julian Nicholas and was arranged by members of the Quartet.
The album is called ‘The South Downs Suite’ and the music is inspired by and reflects living and working in the South Downs of England.
Josephine Davies – Soprano and Tenor Saxophones. Joss Peach – Piano and Percussion. Terry Pack – Double Bass. Angus Bishop – Drums
You will hear magnificent playing from all involved with ensemble cameos from Kate Hogg (Flutes) and Michelle Andrews (Clarinet and Bass Clarinet).
‘The South Downs Suite’ album is definitely worth a listen if you are a lover of Jazz and Soundtrack-style music. Pure escapism.
The album cover art is detail from a mixed painting named ‘Amberley’ by local artist Polly Dutton, who is working with the Quartet on a companion set of artwork which will be launched at Petworth Festival 2023. More information on this through Polly’s site: www.pollydutton.co.uk.
The Quartet will also be playing at the festival and various other venues through the South, details of which can be found though their website.
The South Downs Suite by The Full Circle Quartet – Recorded, mixed and mastered at The Playroom, Arundel.
Excerpt from ‘Flight of the Dragonfly’ by Josephine Davies
Further information about TheFull Circle Quartet including live dates and album details can be found here: www.fullcirclequartet.com
Reviews – What ‘they’ say
Some pre-release comments that the album has received (via Bandcamp):-
fairman*****6
Bought it almost blind because I love Jo’s sound and inventiveness in her playing. However, I now have listened to this whole album. Wow ! what an album. Pianist, Bassist and Drummer are all top draw. A very classy album indeed. Thoroughly recommended for any jazz enthusiast. Go and buy it . You will not be disappointed. On this basis, I would gladly book the band for my Jazz club.
Groo*****8
This is a superb piece, it flows in a wonderful way. Great playing and recording. Just sit back and enjoy.
New at The Playroom, Arundel – Yamaha C7 Acoustic Concert Grand Piano
Built in 1979 in Hamamatsu, Japan for a Japanese customer the piano then came to England early in the 21st Century and was sold to a concert pianist in Oxford. In 2022 the concert pianist decided to upgrade so we were able to secure its purchase from Roberts Pianos, Oxford at the end of the summer. Roberts Pianos arranged to store the piano for us while we started to build a new space at the end of the Playroom’s live room to house it.
By the middle of September the booth was complete with all its bespoke cabling (including microphone lines, headphone mixer feeds and talk-back) and controlled heating in place. We took delivery of the piano late in September 2022.
Whilst we finished off the building externally and tidied up, the piano was able to aclimatise and was still beautifully in tune when Marcus from Roberts Pianos came to visit and give the piano a post-delivery once-over, and it was ready for action.
The piano plays beautifully and is in pretty much mint condition. A number of respected pianists from the South of England have been to play and record the C7 all ready and are extremely happy with the results.
We are using three microphones to record the Yamaha. Two AKG-214s just behind the music rest for a standard stereo image left/right and a third (an AKG-414) at the very bottom end of the bass strings to enhance the low end.
The Piano booth itself has an acoustically treated ceiling but we have left the walls and floor with only gentle treatment to allow the piano to sound alive and acoustic, not dampened to the point of losing its personality. So far we are very pleased with all the recordings we have made.
Here is an example of the piano in an excerpt from a new album to be released during 2023 of music by Terry Pack and The Full Circle Quartet provisionally called ‘The South Downs Suite’.
‘River Runs’ piano-only excerpt. Played by Joss PeachYamaha C7 in relation to the live room and vocal booth
Drop us a note or give us a call if you would like to arrange to come and record with the Yamaha C7. Rates dependent on amount of time booked and other studio usage requirements. All contracts discussed on and individual basis.
SimplyJazzTalk.blog: “With a career spanning twenty years so far, Lewis Harding is a professional musician performing and writing in a wide array of styles, from jazz to EDM (Electronic Dance Music), rock to reggae. Palm Thievery is the debut jazz album release from Lewis and was recorded and mixed at The Playroom in Arundel, West Sussex.
Art direction and design by Darrell Krum.
The opening track, ‘George’s Salamander’, has a great big band sound about it with horns and vibraphone introducing the number before the sax takes over which, in turn, hands over to the guitar of Lewis Harding. There is a softer toned middle section that is a nice contrast to the opening. Martijin Van Galen gets to play a short solo before the band start subtly winding up the energy to bring the track to a close. ‘Above’ is a simple sounding ballad with Kate Hogg leading on tenor sax. Lewis Harding plays a beautiful sounding solo on guitar with nicely pitched accompaniment from Tom Phelan at the piano before taking his own solo. This is a delightfully lyrical piece of writing and the musicians involved play with finesse and elegance.
‘Octopods’ is a horn led mid-tempo number with more great sounding trumpet from Martijin Van Galen. Lewis Harding again adds some fine guitar work before the horn section gives a brief interlude leading to a wonderful sonorous baritone sax solo from Julian Nicholas. The horn section returns with more great lines to finish out the tune: a fabulous horn section number. ‘Hue 6’ is another stylish ballad with a delightful melody played out on the piano, there is a beautifully played sax into guitar section with piano accompaniment that is so well balanced that it would be churlish not to be impressed.
The title track, ‘Palm Thievery’ begins with an introduction that draws the listener into a false idea as to how the tune is going to shape up. Once the main theme kicks in the feel of the number changes to something with a party vibe, great guitar lines, a strong pulsing rhythm from drummer Dave Cottrell with horns moving in and out of the tune between well delivered solo spots. ‘Clues in Bhutan’ takes the tempo down again and presents a meandering sort of tune with subtle changes in tonal colour and texture. There is more to this number than first meets the ears: it is as emotive as it is relaxing. It has a wonderful melody that is unhurried, with a soft arch contour that emphasises the quality of the writing.
The final track on Palm Thievery is also the longest on the album – coming in at a little over nine minutes. The opening has a reflective quality about it that builds slowly with the delicate muted trumpet of Van Galen catching the attention of the listener as it fades in and then out again to allow for Harding’s guitar to take the lead. There is a delightful extended sax solo but what makes it so interesting is what is happening beneath the solo: the piano, vibes, drumming all adding their own layer of sound on which the sax can weave its melodic line before everything fades out to nothing.
Lewis Harding does not describe himself as a jazz musician but with the release of Palm Thievery I think he may have to reconsider his musical label. This is a well-balanced album in terms of structure, with some quite remarkable writing and a group of musicians who evidently understand how to put across Lewis’ compositions. This is a very good nine-piece outfit who know how to play refined, stylish contemporary jazz written by someone with a real feel for the art form.
LEWIS HARDING – Palm Thievery. Another fabulous review for Lewis Harding’s debut jazz album from Jazzviews.net.
Lewis Harding – Palm Thievery
“Lewis Harding (guitar); Dave Cottrell (drums); Terry Pack (double bass); Tom Phelan (piano); Richard Horne (vibraphone & percussion); Martijn Van Galen (trumpet & flugelhorn); Charlotte Glasson (soprano & alto saxophone); Kate Hogg (alto & tenor saxophone); Julian Nicholas (tenor & baritone saxophone)
While no recording dates are specified on the album cover, this is a lockdown album, and a very fine one at that. One would think that the idea of the musicians recording their parts separately or in pairs, and the recording being put together in post-production is not conducive to making a jazz album. Sure this is a time honoured tradition since the late fifties to use studio overdubs to clean up mistakes or re-record another take for a solo, but by and large much of the material would often be recorded ‘live’ in the studio and overdubs added at a later date. Covid and the enforced lockdown and restrictions that came with it made creative musicians have rethink on how to get things done, and adapting their working methods accordingly. This has produced some excitingly different albums, and Palm Thievery is one of them.
As a studio regular at The Playroom, Arundel, guitarist and composer Lewis Harding was recording some tracks with saxophonist Kate Hogg. The songs by Harding were meant for an ambient-guitar based project but with the addition of saxophone the music was leaning to more of a jazz feel with Kate Hogg’s improvisations. With two tracks, ‘Above‘ and ‘Hue 6‘ suggesting the path to follow Harding set about developing the material he already had with horn parts and arrangements, with the assistance of pianist Tom Phelan and resident engineer and orchestrator Mike Saunders, for the nine piece band heard here.
Finding a way to navigate the frustrations of the restrictions imposed by the pandemic the guitarist set about building the album that was beginning to emerge, with the opportunity to get some of the South East’s premiere musicians into the studio. With the luxury of time on his hands Harding has melded what appeared to be disparate parts in to a cohesive whole with a series of strong compositions that feature some no-nonsense improvising. From the original two tracks laid down, ‘Above‘ is a lovely ballad that simply and effectively features Kate Hogg on tenor saxophone, with fine solos from both Harding and Tom Phelon on piano, while ‘Hue 6‘ with Kate on alto this time is another lyrical piece that allows the melody and subsequent solos over a gentle pulse from the rhythm section.
Upping the ante is the marvellous ‘Octopads‘ a tricky theme that appears to handled with little difficulty by the horns, and vibraphone of Richard Horne with a lovely trumpet solo from Martijn Van Galen and understated interlude from Harding before being ripped up by Julian Nicholas’ baritone solo. Equally fine is the swinging opening number with a barnstorming opening tenor solo from Nicholas, and a belting solo from the guitarist too. The tension is released with a tender yet tough alto outing from Charlotte Glasson, before the piece is knocked up a gear with Van Galen on flugel and drummer, Dave Cottrell.
Lewis Harding – Palm Thievery
A strong opening number, but it appears that Harding wished to keep the best until last with ‘Nine Steps‘. At nine minutes the longest piece on the album, but one which does not lose momentum or interest. From the pensive opening the composition builds slowly with Van Galen’s muted trumpet solo of particular interest supported by the saxophone section. Harding’s guitar solo is also a model of restraint, each note carefully placed. The tension is allowed to build as the music is held in check, and it is only with Nicholas’ tenor solo that there is resistance with his plaintive cries looking to disturb the tranquillity, yet ultimately subsiding to a whisper.
By his own admission, Lewis Harding is not a jazz musician by nature but has the intuition and good taste of knowing what should be played and when. His solos are often brief, and it is the architecture of these compact and neat musical statements that are a compelling component of his playing. With the quality of compositions and playing throughout, this is indeed a very fine album.
Reviewed by Nick Lea” Jazz Views July 2022 Lewis Harding Music LHM 001
We recorded, mixed and mastered ‘Bonito’ at The Playroom, Arundel earlier this year. Multi-instrumentalist Charlotte Glasson approached us late in 2021 to record her new album with her band. After some time playing calendar tennis we got the musicians together to record in January 2022.
Charlotte Glasson and band at The Playroom
‘Bonito’ is a collection of tunes in a ‘World-Jazz’ style depicting memories and influences from Charlotte’s life.
The very talented group of Brighton-based musicians spent a couple of days at the studio recording the 8 tracks on the album.
“This album is inspired by art and the people who are very close to me.” – CG.
Musicians Charlotte Glasson – Tenor Sax, Soprano Sax, Flute, Violin, Melodica, Saw and percussion Mark Bassey – Trombone Chris Spedding – Electric guitar Chris Kibble – Piano Sam Dorrell – Sousaphone Lloyd Coote – Double bass Sam Glasson – Drums and percussion
Peter Peregrine is the second album of original compositions that Terry Pack has recorded at The Playroom, Arundel and as we have come to expect it is a big one!
Peter Peregrine – Terry Pack
It is well-known that Terry writes, arranges and orchestrates for large bands such as his ‘Trees Ensemble’ project and Peter Peregrine, though not a Trees recording, is no exception.
Rather than being a collection of individual tunes, this album takes the form of an instrumental story. The music tells of Peter Peregrine, an Anglo-Saxon peasant, whose life is changed forever when he is enlisted as his Norman master’s squire. He is marched across Medieval Europe to take part in the Third Crusade of King Richard ‘the Lionheart’ to wrest Jerusalem from the forces of Saladin, the Sultan of Egypt.
Recording took place at The Playroom, Arundel during 2020 and 2021, in-between national lockdowns due to Covid-19. Basic parts were put in place by Terry using Sibelius and Logic Pro midi instruments that were ultimately replaced with live players.
Tom Phelan came in during the early days and helped give the album its sound, playing keyboards – Dolceola and Accordion. The album is littered with older traditional sounding instruments, the Dolceola (an early 20th Century zither-like instrument with a piano keyboard), Lute and Bansuri (a traditional wooden flute played brilliantly by Kate Hogg) being a few of them.
Terry Pack, Francis Lickerish and Jonathan Beedle
Now that the recording of the album was underway, and there was a brief opening up of the country from restrictions, Terry called on old stalwarts from The Enid (a band he had played in with international success in the late 1970’s), The Cloggz and other musician friends to come to the studio individually or in pairs (socially-distanced in the booth and live room) to add to the recording.
From The Enid, Tony Freer (Oboe/CorAnglais) added melodic lines and motifs throughout. Nick Magnus wrote some beautiful keyboard parts, including strings and sound effects (The Chair Monster is a firm favourite!) which were added before Francis Lickerish and Jonathan Beedle (from Francis’ band Secret Green) spent a day recording electric and acoustic guitars and Lute. And, from Three Friends came Terry’s good friend, local guitarist Andy Williams playing acoustic and electric parts in his fabulous jazz/blues style.
Also from Secret Green came Fran Freer playing the Cello parts magnificently (and some Viola parts on Cello). The sound of the album was coming together nicely.
Terry Pack with Dave Storey
Drums and percussion play a huge part on this recording. Some of the tracks are very dark and full and needed a lot of rhythmic support to portray the gravitas of Peter Peregrine’s exploits. Dave Storey, from The Enid, came to the studio for a couple of days to record Drum-Kit bringing with him his classic ’80’s 6-piece Yamaha 9000 Recording Custom kit (green)… looked big… sounded big! The couple of days with Dave really changed the vibe of the recording by putting a lot more body and drive into the tracks. The temporary drum-sampler parts could now be deleted which, though useful in building the track, were linear and uninspiring.
Richard Horne – Percussion
Next up… percussion. Nick Magnus had created some marvellous percussion loops using samples at his studio. These added great feel to tracks such as Harbinger and Eclipse. We wanted to record these sampler-loops live so that we could mix the individual percussion instruments to suit the different sections of the album. After an hour or two listening to the pre-recorded percussion loops with percussionist Richard Horne (R.P.O., Raymond Gubby Orchestra, Evanescence and Hugh Jackman) we had worked out most of the individual percussion instruments and patterns required to make the recording. We arranged for a couple of days recording where Richard would bring a van load of gear to studio and we would piece it all together.
The magnificent orchestral bass drum Richard used is 36” in diameter with calf heads and has, for the techies, a significant low frequency range centred around 30hz. Fantastic!! … we have now rehung the pictures on walls of the studio and all the glass survived! You’ll hear this throughout the album but particularly in Brindisi and Harbinger.
Richard Horne – Timpani
The Timpani were also a challenge. The larger drums were too big to fit through the existing doors to the live room (new wider doors have been fitted since!) so the 4 timpani were set up in the Control room. We don’t recommend this! Even quiet, they are LOUD!
But, Richard played them brilliantly and no damage was done to anyone’s hearing… though we did immediately adjourn to the local pub after the final hit, to get over it – ears were definitely not going to be reliable after that onslaught. (Any excuse!)
Simon Webster came in for a day to play traditional Darbouka and Djembe on some of the tracks too. There is a full percussion list in the album booklet – it was hard work but we are pleased to be able to say that there are no sampled percussion or drum sounds remaining on the final recording and it shows by the natural development and tone changes throughout.
So to the blowers. With all the heavy duty rhythm work going on below, the album needed some powerful top-line playing. Trumpets (Chris Coull, Martijn Van Galen and Nick Trish), Trombones (Mike Hext and Ellen Campbell) and Woodwind (Beccy Perez-Rork, Kate Hogg, Charlotte Glasson and Andy Pickett) were added at various times during the period of recording and provided this.
On top of the sound some additional remote recorded violin parts from Richard Jones and Charlotte Glasson helped give the sampled orchestral string sounds a live feel.
Terry Pack – Bass
Mixing was a challenge as Peter Peregrine was more like one complete piece of music divided into 11 sections rather than individual tracks or ‘songs’. Keeping the overall picture in mind was key, like a soundtrack from a movie. Mike Saunders was at the helm, some of the tracks had 40 or 50 channels so sub-grouping made life a lot easier.
Keeping the low-end tidy was a particular focus. In addition to the bass drum, the rich string sounds, keyboards and the drum kit, Terry had played up to 5 double bass parts on some tracks so there were a lot of opportunities to end up with an undefined woolly mush.
It’s always easier mixing excellent musicians, which we definitely had on this recording, so that made the job a lot simpler than it may have been. Final mixing and mastering was completed late in 2021 at The Playroom, Arundel.
To complete the project, the fantastic original paintings by Jo Luckman (www.islandretreatswithjo.co.uk) and the full length story of Peter Peregrine, written by Terry Pack, were collated and put together in a 32-page booklet for the CD packaging and the album was complete.
Peter Peregrine – Terry Pack
This was another huge project for The Playroom, Arundel, and we are very pleased to have been involved. Definitely a huge achievement for all involved.
The album is available to buy (CD Digipack with 32-page booklet) and download from Bandcamp:
This is how Lewis Harding’s excellent debut jazz album ‘Palm Thievery’ started, here’s the story behind the recording.
Lewis Harding – Palm Thievery
Regular client, Lewis, was at the studio one day having just recorded a couple of his new tracks with Kate Hogg featured playing Alto and Tenor Saxophones. The two tracks (‘Above’ and ‘Hue 6’) were originally destined for an ambient guitar-based album, but had taken on a definite jazz feel with Kate’s lyrical Sax melodies and improvisations.
“Maybe you should write a jazz album”, someone said to Lewis.
Kate Hogg – Saxes and Flute
As the world came to a grinding halt in early 2020 Lewis, out of gigs and the studio closed, used the time to write more melodies and chord lines with a jazz feel in mind.
Before long there was an album worth of tunes and as life briefly eased up Lewis came to The Playroom to start laying down guide chords and melody lines so that we could work on the arrangements. The challenges of recording an album when so restricted with opening hours and numbers of players at once became the next hurdle.
Tom Phelan – Piano
Next a call to Tom Phelan (another regular at the studio) who Lewis had met years previously and we were recording piano parts. This gave Mike Saunders (resident engineer and orchestrator) enough of a framework to write horn section parts. Later on in the process Tom returned to record some fantastic piano solos (‘Above’, ‘Octopods’, ‘Hue 6’ and ‘Palm Thievery’).
Terry Pack – Double Bass
In the meantime, taking the opportunity of being allowed out of our houses, we arranged for Terry Pack (Double Bass) and Dave Cottrell (Drums) to record for a couple of days (Terry in the booth, Dave in the live room) which gave all the pieces a real lift as well as finalising the feel and layout of the arrangements.
Studio friend Richard Horne popped in to record the fiendish vibraphone parts. ‘Octopods’ particularly was a ‘bit of a headache’, but as this was a ‘no cut, copy and paste’ album, (all you hear on the album is played for real by all the musicians), we took time to rehearse and perfect. His 4-mallet chord work on the ballads is sublime.
Richard Horne – Vibraphone
Time to get noisy! On to the horns. Mike had written parts for the horns for all the ‘heads’ and sectional work so it was easy to adhere to social distancing by having one player at a time come to the studio. With such a solid rhythm section already in place, timing was never an issue.
First up:- Julian Nicholas came to record Baritone Sax and Tenor Sax. After the heads and section parts were recorded we let him loose on some free solo sections in ‘George’s Salamander’, ‘Palm Thievery’, ‘Nine Steps Between’ and a marvellous show-stopping Baritone Sax solo on ‘Octopods‘.
Charlotte Glasson spent a morning recording Soprano Sax and Alto Sax to the sectional parts, and added some gorgeous clean lines of improvisation on ‘George’s Salamander’ and ‘Clues in Bhutan’.
Charlotte Glasson – Saxes
And finally for the horn section Martijn Van Galen, an old friend of the studio, came to top-off the sound on Trumpet and Flugelhorn. Great playing and marvellous solos on ‘George’s Salamander’, ‘Octopods’ and ‘Nine Steps Between’.
Martijn Van Galen – Trumpet and Flugelhorn
So to the finishing off. The beauty of being the boss was that Lewis could wait to add his final guitar parts and solo sections at the end of the recording process. A couple of weeks of popping in and out and trying ideas and we had them all down. Just right.
Lewis Harding at The Playroom, Arundel
The final stage of any recording is mixing. The secret of this album was to get the overall balance of each of the tracks to sound similar, to ‘join up’ the horn section and make the recording sound like the band were together and recorded at once, when actually, as we know, it was recorded in bits and pieces over a long period of time.
Mike Saunders – Orchestration and Mixing
‘Mixing great musicians makes the job easier,’ Mike said. So actually it didn’t take long. And, as the world was still ‘closed’ there was no real rush to finish which gave time for long breaks between listening and a real chance to find the little bits that would ultimately end up being annoying if left. Once finalised, the mixes were sent to Simon Gibson at Abbey Road Studios in London for mastering before being sent for duplication.
So, we give you ‘Palm Thievery‘, Lewis Harding’s debut jazz album – we hope you enjoy listening to it as much as we have enjoyed making it.
