Archive for February, 2009

Busy week – had a meeting with Emily Eavis and we’re on for another big Unconventional Means show at Glasto Park Stage this year… time to get some artists together…!

Also had my first visit to the houses of parliament…. talking about setting up a national music education project using beatboxing….

Then today had a meeting with the BBC Electric Proms… talking about some potential collaborations, seems like they have a great brief.. they book massive names (including james brown’s last show before he died) but always get them to something a little different – a collaboration or something else a bit unconventional…. right up my street!

Just arrived at the Indigo2 where I’m doing a mini-collaboration as part of Evelyn Glennie’s show. Tomorrow I’m going to hear Gauri’s kathak choir for the first time. Spring seems to be upon us so bring it on!!

A few days ago I had my first experimental session with Gauri Sharma Tripathi in preparation for our collaborative concert with Susheela Raman which takes place in a few weeks. It’s the first Unconventional Means show in a while and I’m really excited about this one – it is different, and combines disciplines which are remarkably similar even though they were born in opposite corners of the globe.

Gauri is an exponent of Kathak – a form of classical dance from North India. I first witnessed a Kathak performance when I watched the graduation ceremony of two of Gauri’s students, presenting a piece which had taken them a year to create. The dance focuses on intricate rhythmic footwork with bells around one ankle, and the result is captivating.

Gauri Sharma Tripathi

The dancing is accompanied by the rhythmic vocal syllables known as bols. I first tried to perform these last year in a collaboration with Nitin Sawnhey, and was amazed at the similarities to beatboxing. Just as in beatbox, you use phonetic sounds to create a rhythmic pattern, holding a groove and creating a beat.

So here’s the juicy bit of this collaboration – Gauri has amassed a 35-strong ‘choir’ of her Kathak students, and has spent the last couple of months focusing on the vocal element of their training. They’ve put the bells on their arms and have been working on rhythmic soundscapes. I’m going to meet them next week to hear what they have been working on. The plan is to incorporate this group with some of my beatbox students and create a Kathak beatbox choir, which we are calling ‘Urban Vani’.

In the meantime, Gauri and I have been experimenting with merging the two vocal disciplines. Here is what it sounded like:

Shlomo and Gauri – Kathak beatbox rehearsal (MP3 2.3MB)

This is going to be by far the most developed collaboration in the series so far.. normally we only get a chance to work on things at the last minute. Although Susheela and her band are out of the country at the moment so who knows how ‘organic’ that part of the collaboration will have to be!

I’ll post up more about all this once I’ve met the choir. But right now I’ve got my grin back

Had a hectic day yesterday, felt like the first day back at school after a break from working in January.

We went to see Simon Hughes MP, a senior Liberal Democrat. He came to the anti-knife crime gig and it seems he was really moved by the cause. He has a plan to help us out which is exciting. I’ll keep you posted.

Then it was over to the Tate Britain, an amazing building, where Cape Farewell were hosting a night time arts event. Really I should have been looking to forward to it, some great artists were performing including Ian McEwan, KT Tunstall and Robyn Hitchock, plus an opportunity to hang out with some of the crew from the voyage. But I think because it was the first time I’d performed for nearly two months, I was dreading it, surrounded by a familiar performance anxiety that I usually push away with adrenaline…. I just felt like I had nothing new to say or do.

The gallery were being quite tight on volume levels. Fair enough, they didn’t want to damage the art on the walls…. but what about my art i thought? beatboxing needs to be LOUD. Or at least audible to more than the front two rows.

I think I might be through with solo looping shows… I recognised quite a few faces in the audience who I knew would have come down after hearing about the event on this site, and I knew they were all about to see something they have seen before, some of them many times. And I have done it over and over… I’ve tried to work out new stuff on my own but i’m starting to think i was born to collaborate.. i like bringing stuff out of other people.

Luckily there was no problem with the Russian Art Terrorists that have been plaguing the Late at Tate nights recently… apparently they like to take their clothes off and dance on stage (doesn’t sound too bad) and then slash paintings (not so cool).

Videos from Shlomo’s recent ‘Concert Against Knife Crime‘ are now online in HD. You can see Shlomo and the Vocal Orchestra collaborate with loads of stars including Jarvis Cocker, Teddy Thompson, Ashley Walters, Mutya Buena, Martina Topley-Bird, Cleveland Watkiss and Get Cape Wear Cape Fly, plus a hilarious beatbox battle between Bellatrix and comedian Marcus Brigstocke.

Here’s Jarvis singing ‘Fat Children’ with the Vocal Orchestra (with Bellatrix on bass!)… and the rest of the videos can be found on the Concert Against Knife Crime project page.

Big shout to Matt Wainwright for shooting and editing the videos!

Hey all.. I will be performing live and talking a bit about my recent voyage to the Arctic at the Tate Britain this Friday evening as part of Cape Farewell’s takeover of Late at Tate. Other performers include Max Eastley, Ian McEwan and one of the superstar musicians from the trip who is apparently “confirmed but shy”.. aaah secrets….

More info here: http://www.capefarewell.com/news/latest/347-late-at-tate.html