Cosmo’s Cosmos at Pizza Express jazz club, Dean Street Soho on 26th June. Buy tickets here: Pizza Express tickets
Charlotte is a very busy multi-instrumentalist and writer, touring with the likes of Stornaway and Elbow in 2024 and brings a huge bag of tricks to play with her, and this album is no exception. Tenor Sax, flute and strings all feature, along with the Guitar of Chris Spedding, Mark Bassey on Trombone, Chris Kibble on Piano, Lloyd Coote on bass and sousaphone, and Sam Glasson on Drums and Percussion. Theirs is a contemporary jazz, free of anxiety, yet full of grace and fun, bringing to mind the endless skies of a summer morning, or the hot buzz of a glorious seaside sunset. This is music for a positive frame of mind.
Cosmo’s Cosmo is her eighth album, mining a rich seam of latin and world music influences, this is sunshine music, woven with smiles. Sharing the writing credits across the band, the tunes share the freedom of a child’s imagination, exploring the world with all its potential for play.
Musicians Charlotte Glasson – Tenor Sax, Flute, Violin, Melodica, Saw and percussion Mark Bassey – Trombone Chris Spedding – Electric guitar Chris Kibble – Piano Lloyd Coote – Double Bass/Electric Bass/Sousaphone Sam Glasson – Drums and percussion
Recorded, mixed and mastered here at The Playroom, Arundel during 2023.
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.
