This time last week I was in Mo i Rana, a beautiful town (as shown above) just outside the Arctic Circle in Northern Norway, rehearsing and working with Helge Sunde and Ensemble Denada ahead of the premiere of a new collaborative project between ourselves and Denada during the London Jazz Festival. We’re playing two gigs on Sunday 11th November at the Purcell Room, and tickets on are sale NOW! Go here for the 3pm show or here for the 7.45pm show.
The gig will feature brand new music from both bands, including new pieces by me and Helge where we’ve taken inspiration from one of each other’s existing tunes. My trip out to Norway to rehearse my piece with Denada followed a visit by Helge and the band’s manager Anders Eriksson to England in August, where Helge worked on his piece for us with the guys and took in our gig at the Canary Wharf Jazz Festival – here he is rehearsing with us in Manchester, and then during an epic Norway vs England table tennis match against our trombonist Simon after our set in London!
Both my trip to Norway and Helge and Anders’ visit to England were supported by funding from the Artists’ International Development programme, a new fund jointly funded by Arts Council England and the British Council – thanks! Really excited about the November gigs which are going to be a lot of fun, don’t miss it…
Here’s some more pictures from Norway, including some really amazing scenery I saw during the long train journey north from Trondheim (apparently the Nordland railway line is recognised as one of the prettiest in Europe, and you can see why) and some of me and Denada rehearsing in Mo before their concert there:
Posted by on 02/10/2012 at 18:34 in gigs, news and tagged ensemble denada, helge sunde, london jazz festival, norway.
