Charles Franklin Blues

Thought it might be interesting to have a slightly more in depth look at some of our tunes, starting with Paul Towndrow's composition 'Charles Franklin Blues'

The tune was written by Paul in 2008 and subsequently recorded on the album Deal With It (click here to buy this album)

The piece was originally intended to be a tribute to both soul singer Aretha Franklin, and the great bassist and bandleader Charles Mingus, hence the creation of the fictional amalgam 'Charles Franklin'. However, further research (i.e. Google search) by The Beauv, revealed that Charles Franklin (Kettering) actually existed as an inventor, engineer and head of research(i.e. a bit more than Google search) for General Motors.

The piece itself is a blues influenced tune in 6/8 time. Although it doesn't adhere to a traditional 12 bar form, the harmony is fairly typical of music written in this genre. Each instrument takes it in turn to state the melody and to improvise a solo break. On the final time through the tune everyone improvises together. When we play this live - we often take creative liberties with the melody, the harmony, and (occasionally) the form.

Here is what Charles Franklin Blues sounded like when we recorded 'Deal With It'

http://soundcloud.com/paul-towndrow/charles-franklin-blues

Here is Paul's alto guide part:



This recording is from our end of tour gig at Glasgow City Halls in 2009

http://soundcloud.com/paul-towndrow/charles-franklin-blues-live-1

And here is our recent reworking of the tune to feature trombonist Chris Grieve at one of our gigs at the 2011 Lagavulin Islay Jazz Festival

http://soundcloud.com/paul-towndrow/charles-franklin-blues-live

If you have any questions about any of our music or recordings, or if you'd like to see scores or lead sheets for any of our tunes, please get in touch.

ENJOY!

Islay Jazz Festival (Day 2)

Great gig today at The Outback Gallery,a beautifully renovated barn building is located at Sanaigmore Bay with views out into the Atlantic Ocean, and towards Mull



The room was packed full of lovely people, drinking coffee and medicinal measures of Lagavulin (after midday of course)

To finish the gig we wandered outside into the court yard hoping the audience would follow us out...and thankfully they did - it'd've been awkward if they hadn't.

(YES, I used the word it'd've - hopefully it'll catch on)

Big thanks again to Chris Grieve for bringing his stuff to Brass Jaw - we must do it again sometime. Thanks to audience member Brian Ferguson for this shot of Chris fitting right in with the Brass Jaw spirit!



If you want to hear more of Chris, check out his wonderful trio NeWt

Thanks also to Jazz Scotland and all the organisers and helpers from Islay Jazz Festival - congrats on another great year.

Islay Jazz Festival (Day 1)

So, a bit of drama in the Brass Jaw camp – Ryan has found himself stranded in Italy with George Michael. It could happen to anyone. Anyway, as a result Brass Jaw is temporarily down an important member, and with two gigs at the Lagavulin Islay Jazz Festival…who you gonna call?...GREIVSY!!



Yes, we have drafted in master trombonist Chris Greive to rescue Brass Jaw. Good choice, as not only was he able to bring his own unique and virtuosic trombone chops to the BJ set, but he’s also packed his surf board in the hope of catching a wave or two, coming in from the atlantic.



So after a quick talk through the arrangements on the ferry, and a bit of a rehearsal in the kitchen of Bunnahabhain Community Hall, we were 'ready'. Despite Konrad's visable disappointment at the lack of bar at the gig - this situation was more than compensated for courtesy of the festivals lovely sponsors who provided us with some complimentary Lagavulin to help our intonation!



Thanks everyone who came out to hear us last night - we've got one more gig today at the Outback Gallery, before heading home.

Welcome to our new blog

Hello everyone! Look!! We've set up a new blog with which to document all our 'to-ings' and resultant 'fro-ings' over the next however long. Hopefully forever.

So yeah, moo.

We've had a great year so far, with lovely trips all over the country, and the added loveliness of receiving awards at The Parliamentary Jazz Awards, The Scottish Jazz Awards and a wee nomination at The Scottish New Music Awards. Important not to take these things too seriously we know, but it's a nice feeling to know people are sitting up and taking notice. Hopefully it'll all help towards our single goal :

To keep making music and communicating it to the wonderful people who have enough love in their heart and enough openness of ear to make room for a bit of Brass Jaw.

At the moment we're gearing up for the world famous Lagavulin Islay Jazz Festival where, as well as drinking lots of wonderful whisky, we'll be playing twice - one gig on Friday 16th September and one (slightly more hung-over) gig on Saturday 17th.

In the meantime Konrad is preparing for his wedding, Ryan is off on tour with George Michael, Paul is...being Paul, and The Beauv is doing 8 hours of admin and 5 hours of practice a day, dude...but we'll all converge at the weekend and take it from there!

Sláinte!!