Posts tagged “southbank”

Southbank Centre has been buzzing this week with Ornette Coleman’s meltdown festival. It’s been amazing having all these jazz legends wandering the corridors of the building!

I was asked to create a support act for blues guitarist James Blood Ulmer. I wanted to take a look at Harmolodics, which is Ornette’s method for free improvisation. Nobody could tell me what it really means though, so I decided to recruit a quartet of unconventional vocalists who could handle anything that was thrown at them.

Shlo, Marcina, Cleveland and Bellatrix at the QEH

My recruits were jazz singer Cleveland Watkiss, world female beatbox champion Bellatrix, and Marcina Arnold, a vocalist who leaps from kathak to soul to jazz and beyond. The plan was to completely improvise the 30 minute set without discussing a thing.

In the soundcheck we started doing a quick improvisation for about 30 seconds. The groove we came up with sounded amazing so I decided to stop it there so that we wouldn’t give too much away to each other before the set. We then went to watch a short documentary about Ornette Coleman in the sixties, during one of his most out there crazy free jazz phases. The music was so intense, nothing the band were playing seemed to be connected to each other. I wasn’t sure if I was getting it, but it seemed to make sense to everyone so I kept quiet.

As soon as the film finished we walked out onstage and went for it. What came out of our mouths was nothing like what we’d done in the soundcheck. It was choppy and changing and hard to follow. Like Ornette’s crazy disconnected sound had infected us.

I walked away from the stage bewildered. Lots of people said they really enjoyed it, and I thought hey, how can you say you got it.. you must be faking that, because even I didn’t get it and I was the one performing it.

James Blood Ulmer

But maybe there was nothing to get.. you listen to the sound we made, and it means something different to each person who is listening to it.

ANYWAY… the next day I was back at Southbank because Mike Patton was performing an improvised set with Fred Frith and I wanted to meet up with him. He invited me to sit in on a couple of tracks which was incredible.

Me with Patton and Frith – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQMLcblw54E

Later on I had dinner with Robert Wyatt who was on the same bjork album as me.. he has real difficulty with performance now but has come out of retirement for one last gig. His hero is the legendary bassist Charlie Haden, who invited him to do a song at the Festival Hall. Robert said it would be the last time he ever performs in public, and it was moving to watch them perform together.

The evening finished with Patti Smith at the Festival Hall with Flea rocking out on bass. This place is on fire!

Mark Sainsbury's shot of the view of London skyline from Southbank

Meltdown is all over now, and festival season has officially started. this weekend is GLASTONBURY!!!

One of my favourite things about being ‘in residence’ at Southbank is hanging around in the Riverside Room. It’s a hub of activity set up by Southbank for all the residents to work from.

There are a few of us resident artists now, so whenever I am in, there are others in too.

We’re right by the London Eye

and just above the skate park

This is my desk… note the recent addition of a piano! (loving that)

This is Lemn Sissay who is writer in residence. He has writing on the walls.

Creative Connections are also based here – they are a team of speed artists who create ‘visual minutes’ at meetings.

Also based here are Gauri Sharma Tripathi who is a stunning Kathak dancer, and Bellowhead, the folk collective. They weren’t in today but these lovely people above are the team from Cape Farewell. They take artists out to the Arctic to get them thinking about climate change. Got some exciting news about these guys coming soon!

One problem with the office being right by the river amongst all the Southbank art galleries, public concert halls and theatres, is that people often think we are some kind of public space. They come in asking for a table for two, or just wander in during a meeting to just ‘browse’.

I’ve hardly been in lately because of the festivals but I am really looking forward to when the next season of unconventional means kicks off so i can hide in here and drink peppermint tea.

Taken from AFTM Press release:

We are pleased to announce that Shlomo, the acclaimed British beatboxer, has been appointed as Artist in Residence at the Southbank Centre, Europe’s largest arts complex.

By the age of 23, Shlomo has already done much to change perceptions of the art of beatboxing – expanding the possibilities of the vocal discipline that grew out of the hip-hop scene. As well as recording music with Bjork for the Athens Olympics, and creating the UK’s first human beatbox choir, he curated the International Human Beatbox Convention, part of Southbank Centre’s annual Ether festival, in April 2007.

Shlomo was invited to become an Artist in Residence by Jude Kelly, Artistic Director at Southbank Centre, after she saw his live solo show which includes beatboxing through a loop sampler as well as beatboxing and drumming at the same time.

“I’m excited and honoured to be here” says Shlomo, “I see this Residency as an opportunity to challenge preconceptions of beatboxing, and boost its profile as a genuinely creative art-form.”

Shlomo’s residency at Southbank Centre is set to include a range of educational events, as well as a series of concerts entitled ‘Music Through Unconventional Means’. At each concert a different guest artist collaborates with Shlomo to create new and unusual ways of performing live. December 2nd sees Shlomo collaborating with folk stars Martha Wainwright and Teddy Thompson at the Queen Elizabeth Hall (see details below).

The nature of these collaborative concerts creates a unique atmosphere, as artists are forced to engage, improvise and perform away from their usual comfort zones. This creates a performance like no other – a special opportunity to see a side to artists that will not be seen anywhere else.

The series sees Shlomo set to collaborate with artists across the musical spectrum, many of whom you may not expect to see on stage with a human beatboxer. Other artists lined up for 2008 include Mercury-nominated drummer Seb Rochford, a special AV show with DJ Yoda, the return of Shlomo’s beatboxing choir The Vocal Orchestra featuring the Swingle Singers, and a whole host of world, jazz and folk music stars.

There are also plans to create the World’s Largest Beatboxing Choir for Southbank Centre’s Choral Festival in May, plus the return of the International Beatbox Convention as part of the Ether Festival in April 2008.