OXJAZZ SPECIAL PART I: We’ve got the first in our roving-reporting-recordings of the splendiferous OxJazz Festival and it’s here NOW for your podcasting pleasure. Featured in this episode are: Alvin Roy, Seb Pipe and Dave O’Higgins. Click here for more info…

BBC INTERVIEW: The chaps at BBC Radio Oxford asked the GetJazzical boys to take care of an interview with Liane Carroll for them and for good measure they also decided to interview our heroes as well, have a gander at the video…

In our latest episode, Alasdair prematurely celebrated GetJazzical’s first birthday (our first episode was actually in March ’09) but it was around this time last year that we began to explore the net for other means of finding classical music in our bid to make it accessible, and understood by the masses, not just those with taffeta, once again. And this last year we’ve been astounded to find that we’re not alone. While there are some who throw up a little in their mouths if they thought about sitting next to someone in a t shirt while enjoying an evening of Mahler, the ones playing the music are thinking very differently.

Take James Rhodes for example. Classic FM described him as a “classical pianist with a rock star attitude”. Rhodes is a remarkable talent, and he’s also someone who doesn’t see that there is necessarily a link between bowties and piano playing. Rhodes is someone who would sit as comfortably in a bar in Shoreditch as he would on the stage at the Albert Hall. This incredible video of a performance at the Camden Roundhouse, gives an impression of the kind of performer Classic FM were talking about, and the kind of place he performs in:

As guys who are still in the cloakroom looking into the cocktail party of classical music we are able to observe that if  ”a programme that features Bach alongside Beethoven, Chopin and Moszkowski” is currently considered sticking their fingers up at the classical music establishment, we have a bit of a way to go. However, when thinking about bringing the music and the genre to the people, Rhodes is a leader. He’s Beethoven with an iPhone, he’s Carl Maria Friedrich Ernst von Weber* 2.0. In tweeting, myspacing and youtubing, we are not only invited into the music halls of the concerts when we can’t get a ticket, we’re also invited into the lives of the musicians and realise that actually, they’re just like us. Sometimes they are even more boring. While their use of social networking is no doubt a form of self promotion (hey, it’s why we do it – that and so we can interact with our lovely fans….please follow us…) they are, perhaps on some occasions unknowingly, tackling the bigger issue of knocking classical music of that imaginary pedestal that  some people at some point put it on.

We know we’ve only just scratched the surface when it comes to this grassroots movement of jazz and classical musicians. We’re only a year old, and are still in the dribbling, crying, and wetting ourselves stage of this project. So please help us – get in touch, whether you are directing our eyes to the musician who deserves the spotlight, or are that musician, trying to plug themselves here, there, and everywhere, because you know you have something important to add to the conversation.

*No, I’ve never heard of him either. But it was clever. AND funny.

Taking the silent movie of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde, Rossum has created a new soundtrack, performed by the Nicollet Circus Band. Check out the lab transformation scene below, then go to his youtube channel to watch the rest of the film.

Strangely he hasn’t had as many hits as the community channel, but maybe one day he’ll take one of that Australian girl’s “hilarious” videos and stick some gangster caper jazz on top of it so that hundreds of thousands of dull and bored people can enjoy some “scathing” and “culturally trendsetting” monologue about people who kiss in public while enjoying the genuinely brilliant sounds of Mr. Rossum.

While Olly is back in NY, living a life of pure hedonistic debauchery and espressos, I (Alasdair) have been plugging away, trying to find the best in new music and new musicians. Last night saw the LSO play at the Barbican, a fantastically “yes our building was built in the 60s and we love it” venue. It was an interesting, 20th Century composer set list, and if my tickets were not free I probably wouldn’t have risked the cash on the concert. Thank heavens for freebies then, as after 15 minutes of Charles Ives and me eyeing the nearest exit, we were introduced to, and I fell in love with, Yuja Wang…

A 22 year old “superhuman” piano playing prodigy, Yuja fired into Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No 3 in C major to a mesmerised crowd. The girl had passion, precission, and hair bouncing piano playing that put Myleene Klass to shame. What she also had was soul. She made the piece her own with her own flares and passionate body movement. The girl was gettingJazzical.

As an encore, Yuja returned to play Turkish March, but Turkish March like I’ve never heard it before. But then I suppose the last time I did hear it, was when my big brother played it in his first piano book. The crowd dispersed at the interval whistling the March on the way to the bathrooms, and proving that you can listen to as much atonal 20th century music as you like, it’s not going to be the discordant tubular bells we’ll be humming the next day.

Anyway, where words fail me in describing the beauty of Yuja Wang (and her piano playing mastery), this video might succeed:

An Aside

For those of you who are Spotify inclined, and who wish they had been enjoying a night with GetJazzical, we’ve created a playlist of the concert. It’s not as good as sitting next to us, but it’s probably the closest you’ll ever get.

Always determined to bring you further into the world of GetJazzical, we’ve taken the lens cap off the recording equipment one more time in our latest video. Yes, it does look like we record our episodes in a laundry room, and yes Olly does look so pale he’s kind of see through, but that’s why he took that al-expenses paid trip to New York.

Don’t worry folks, we’ll be back to doing what we do best very soon. NOT appearing in front of a camera.

By the way…

Neil Cowley Trio
“His Nibs” (mp3)
from “Loud..Louder…Stop!”
(Candid Productions)

Buy at iTunes Music Store

Here’s a taster of just how disgustingly brilliant the man is.

Today, however, some people still champion the technology, and are making “music videos” to go along with their music tracks. They’re a bit like that guy who keeps his betamax in his garage, waiting for its renaissance. And some of these people are in the Jazz and Classical community. And SOME of these people have been played on GetJazzical.

So, since we didn’t jump on the Britain’s Got Talent bandwagon and edited out out half hour discussion on Susan Boyle in our last episode (basically because Charlie Brooker did it so much better – heck, he’d do GetJazzical better if he had a spare half hour) we’ll jump on this one, and show you some music videos this week. Enjoy, while this flash in the pan technology still survives.

An impromptu look behind the scenes at your favourite jazz and classical podcast.  This is what Olly & Al look like in 3d and in motion.  Sorry for the disappointment.