Tom Ridout: Vegan Cheese, and Montepulciano d'Abruzzo

I have coffee with Nick Finlow over zoom and talk about all things musical direction, and the trials and tribulations of running a west end show.
Nick is  the UK Musical Supervisor for The Book Of Mormon London,  and Associate Musical Supervisor for Mamma Mia! – London and international tour.

Musical supervisor and conducting credits include Dreamgirls – London. Supervisory credits include Memphis – London,  Avenue Q – national tour and Les Misérables – national tour.

Arrangement credits include Dancing Shadows – Seoul, South Korea. Associate musical supervisor credits include Jersey Boys – London.

Musical director credits include The Book Of Mormon – London, Jersey Boys – London, Avenue Q – Noel Coward Theatre, Victoria Wood’s musical Acorn Antiques – Theatre Royal Haymarket, Mamma Mia! – London, Tonight’s The Night – Victoria Palace, Tell Me on a Sunday – Gielgud Theatre, Rent – Shaftesbury Theatre, Stairway to Heaven – Kings Head, Kiss Me Kate – Norwich Playhouse, and the BAFTA nominated film Tomorrow La Scala!

Nick graduated from the Guildhall School of Music and has a postgraduate diploma in Advanced Instrumental Studies (Piano).

I have a coffee with my neighbour, Hattie Rogers, and talk about all things sailing and foiling. 

Hattie Rogers is a very talented sailor, who used to be in the Youth GB Team for sailing. She is based in Lymington and has recently competed in the Waszp UK "Foil For Life" Challenge, where 6 sailors (3 French, 3 English) sailed from Lymington to France (100 miles) in a day. They raised more than £5000 for the NHS. She is an inspiration to me and those around her. 

Me And Michael Price talk about all things music, including our work with Michael Kamen, his work with David Arnold and much more. We also talked about the composition process. 

Michael Price:
Michael Price is one of the UK’s most sought after composers. His critically acclaimed debut album on Erased Tapes Records, Entanglement, released in April 2015, was described as ‘gorgeous’ by Rolling Stone, as ‘a neo-classical treat’ by Uncut, and Clash remarked that ‘the emotional clout of this music is quite staggering’. A new album, Tender Symmetry, was released on August 31st 2018. This ambitious musical project takes in a series of iconic National Trust locations across England as its inspiration, turning them into unlikely recording spaces.
Michael’s work for film and television has been also widely recognised, winning an EMMY award in 2014, and Royal Television Society, Music&Sound, and Televisual Bulldog awards as well as a BAFTA nomination and 2 further EMMY nominations for the critically acclaimed BBC series Sherlock, which he scores with David Arnold. Other recent TV projects include the 4th season of BAFTA-winning crime drama Unforgotten and the BBC’s new Dracula adaptation, created by Stephen Moffat and Mark Gatiss.

Prior to achieving acclaim as a composer himself, Michael enjoyed significant achievements as a music editor on a number of blockbuster films such as Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy, Richard Curtis’ Love Actually, Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason and Alfonso Cuaron’s Children of Men. As a music editor, Michael has been nominated for 4 MPSE Golden Reel Awards, winning in 2001 for The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring.
https://www.michaelpricemusic.com/ 

Locked Down With Simon Whiteside
Due to the Covid-19 crisis, we can't get together so me and Simon Whiteside talk over zoom about all things film, jazz and music! 

Simon Whiteside: 

Simon Whiteside has worked in the music industry since Graduating from the UK‘s National Film and Television School (NFTS) in 1995. His lists of credits as orchestrator include Harry Potter and the order of the Pheonix, Brighton Rock, Over the Hedge and Harry Brown. He has worked on many TV series from Love in a Cold Climate, Persuasion and other Jane Austen Adaptations, Little Dorrit and other Dickens and more recently on Downton Abbey and Mr Selfridge.  He has also arranged and plays in many Jazz bands which lead him to be on set Music supervisor for Jazz on Downton and Mr Selfridge. He also played a monthly gig at London’s Ronnie Scotts club with the Jive band Kai’s Cats for 7 years. In recent years Simon has been involved in many Live orchestra and Film projects including Wallace and Grommit and Brassed Off at the Royal Albert Hall and The Italian Job which premiered at Theatre Royal Drury Lane.  Simon has also worked on concert hall music, particularly in the Jazz Crossover area for artists such as Gwilym Simcock and Trish Clowes with the BBC Concert Orchestra, Caro Emerald and the Metropole Orkest and BBC Proms with Jamie Cullum, The Heritage Orchestra and Metropole Orkest.

http://simonwhitesidemusic.com/ 

We talk about everything from Metal Music to adventuring, and our compositional process. 

Tommy: Tommy Andrews is an award-winning multi-instrumentalist, composer and educator. Graduating from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama with a First Class degree in Jazz saxophone, he is now sculpting a varied and busy career.

 As a bandleader and composer, his first major mark on the U.K. contemporary jazz scene came about with his ‘smart, sophisticated’ (John Fordham, The Guardian) ‘mature’ (All About Jazz) ‘cinematic’ (AP Reviews) and ‘cool and collected’ (Ivan Hewitt, The Telegraph) album release ‘The Crux’ (2014, Jellymould Jazz). This debut release gained glowing press in the U.K. and U.S. along with national radio play, notably on Julian Joseph’s ‘Jazz Line Up’ for BBC Radio 3. The quintet promoted the release with two successful U.K. tours during 2014 culminating in the quintet’s debut London Jazz Festival performance.

https://www.tommy-andrews.co.uk/ 

THIS EPISODE: David O'Mahony, who is currently in Mamma Mia , in the West End, and I have coffee and chat about our most powerful musical experiences, the trials of doing an 8 or 9 show week, the stigma around movie musicals and much more!

David trained at the Central School of Speech and Drama culminating with a performance in their 2006 Centenary concert at the Old Vic. Prior to that he read Drama and History at Brunel University.
2013 saw David’s debut on the West End in ‘The Bodyguard’ with the roles of ‘Douglas’ and ‘Skip’ and covering ‘The Stalker’ (35+ performances), ‘Ray Court’ (50+ performances) and ‘Frank Farmer’ (The Bodyguard). The cast included Beverley Knight, Alexandra Burke, Tristan Gemmill, Debbie Kurup, and Stephen Marcus.
In between theatre contracts David has appeared in over 10 short films in the last three years, with many being entered in to film festivals; these can be seen featured in his show-reel. Characters have included a lover (inept and adept!), a drug addict, a zombie, an alien and a hit man. 
Prior to ‘The Bodyguard’, David toured the USA with ‘Batman Live’ in sell out performances at Arenas across the USA including the Staples Centre in LA, the American Airlines Centre in Dallas, and cities including Kansas City, Anaheim, St Paul and Las Vegas.
He has performed all over the World: From Florida State Television to Pitcairn Island in the South Pacific. 
In the UK, he has performed in the West End, filmed at Pinewood Studios, appeared on TV dramas (being killed in 2/3 of them) and on live TV. He has appeared at theatres up and down the country in plays, musicals and variety shows. Most recently he played the ‘Prince’ in ‘Snow White’ at the Alhambra Theatre, Bradford for Michael Harrison and Qdos Entertainment.
David continues to develop his skill set by regularly attending workshops at the Actors Guild and Actors Centre working with Directors and Casting Directors and in 2015 he is learning to horse ride! He has a long running association with Leontine Hass's Associated Studios programme as a student and workshop leader and trains with Emma Trow, Nikki Laurence, Leontine Hass and Stuart Barr.

https://www.davidomahony.co.uk/ 

THIS EPISODE: We eat Cheese, and talk about Journalism, Negative Reviews, London Jazz News, and our favourite live events of 2019/2020. 
Sebastian Scotney: 
LondonJazz News was started as a blog by Sebastian Scotney in 2009, and has gone on growing ever since. It now involves a substantial team of contributors and helpers. The site publishes a daily flow of news, previews, reviews and interviews. The archive of published articles now stands over 8,000 pieces, with up to 100 new pieces per month, and a record of 11 on a single day. The unmediated voice of the musician is a feature. One commentator wrote: “LJN has given musicians a voice in the jazz press.” The site provides what has been called “the most in-depth local jazz coverage on the planet” — The Jazz Line (May 2013). The team has editorial control; up to 20% of the content forms part of advertising packages, and is discreetly marked as such. LJN also covers jazz and jazz-related news from way beyond London (just as the London Review of Books is not restricted to books on, from or about London).
https://londonjazznews.com/ 

THIS EPISODE: We drink coffee and talk about musicals, trials of being a pit musician, producing, our most powerful theatre experience and many more.
Flick has currently got a go fund me page for a new show- check it out here!: https://www.gofundme.com/f/uk-tour-of-growing-pains 

 THIS EPISODE:
We eat cheese and drink wine, and talk about lots of different subjects including her eclectic music background and experiences with Middle Eastern music, her album "Long Story Short", Free Music, her doctorate and the so-called "prejudice" against Jazz Cello. 

Shirley Smart: 
Shirley Smart is recognised as one of the UK’s most versatile and creative cellists – being equally at home and well versed in jazz and Middle Eastern music, as well as classical music.

Originally trained under Raphael Wallfisch at the Guilldhall School of Music, and Janos Starker in Paris, she subsequently moved to Jerusalem, where she remained for 10 years, studying and performing a wide variety of musical traditions from the North Africa, Turkey and Middle East. She was also highly active on the jazz scene, working with artists including Avishai Cohen, Omer Avital and Yasmin Levy. Since returning to the UK, she has quickly become known as one of the most creative cellists on the music scene and has worked with many leading jazz and world music groups, including Antonio Forcione, Mulato Astatke, Gilad Atzmon, Neil Cowley, Julian Ferraretto, Robert Mitchell, and Alice Zawadski.

She leads her own trio, with John Crawford on piano, and Demi Garcia Sabat on drums, and band Melange.

Shirley teaches Improvisation and Jazz at the Royal College of Music and City University, and is a visiting tutor for the National Youth Jazz Collective.

https://www.shirleysmart.com/

Giles Thornton:
Giles is a composer/arranger based in London who has recently worked with as an arranger and musical supervisor for “Adventures In The American Songbook”, performed by postgraduate vocal studies students from the Guildhall School Of Music And Drama . He has also worked as in the music team for the Heritage Orchestra BBC Prom “New York: Sound Of A City”. Recently graduating from Guildhall School Of Music And Drama, studying Jazz Composition and Arranging, Giles released his debut big band album in July of last year. 
Giles’ original compositions are influenced by Vince Mendoza, Maria Schneider, Gill Evans and Mike Walker, among others.
He has performed in prestigious venues , such as The Royal Albert Hall, Sadler’s Wells, LSO St Lukes, Milton Court Concert Hall and The Barbican Hall.
Giles has worked with many artists, such as Jules Buckley, James McMillan, Liane Carroll and John Harle, among others.
As well as being a composer/ arranger, Giles has also been a copyist for the ITV drama,”Cheat”, composed by Edmund Butt, and orchestrated by Julian Kershaw. Giles has also been a copyist for the upcoming Guildhall Studio Orchestra concert, “Jeremy Lubbock - A Life in Music”.
Giles set up his Jazz Orchestra in January 2018, in order to record his debut big band album, “Be In Today”, and had a very successful launch at the Vortex Jazz Club, on July 4th 2017.
https://www.gilesthorntonmusic.com/

This Episode: We eat Vegan Cheese, drink wine and Talk about NYJO, Practice, Composition, our favourite ECM recording and our love for George Martin, among other things! 

Tom Ridout GIGS : 
Tristan Malliot Quartet (18th Feb- Olivers Jazz Bar, 20th Feb- Karamel)
Patchwork Jazz Orchestra- (21st Feb)
"Handel On Jazz"- (12th March- Aylesbury)
NYJO Nonet- (15th March- Barnes Festival)

Tom Ridout: 
Award winning saxophonist Tom Ridout was predicted by Jazzwise Magazine in 2012 as an upcoming jazz musician to watch out for. A finalist in the 2016 BBC Young Musician Jazz Award, recent graduate from the prestigious Royal Academy of Music, recent winner of the Lancaster Jazz Festival Youth Jazz Commission 2018 and a recent member of NYJO (the National Youth Jazz Orchestra), Tom is a prolific composer who fronts his own bands playing his original compositions.

Tom has performed at many venues across the country including Ronnie Scotts (both with his own Quintet and NYJO), The 606, Barbican Centre, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Buckingham Palace, Sage Theatre in Gateshead and many others. He is also on NYJO’s latest album, ‘NYJO Fifty’.

As an in demand saxophonist, performing with many different musicians and bands, recent highlights have included; various Clark Tracey ensembles, Patchwork Jazz orchestra tour and the ‘Tribute to Jon Hiseman’ gig at Shepherds Bush Empire followed by the ‘In Memory of Jon Hiseman’ gig in Hamburg, both with the iconic prog rock band Colosseum.

In 2018 Tom released his debut album “No Excuses”, which features a 13 piece band including traditional jazz instrumentation with a string quartet and brass trio.

The album had a fantastic launch at The Vortex Jazz Club, London to a sold out audience on Jan 2nd 2018 which was followed later in the year with a successful small tour of the country. Tracks from the album have been played on Jazz FM many times, as well as on The Jazz Report, TNGC Radio, Sennhesier Sunday Jazz Session and Radio 3’s ‘Jazz Record Requests’ and ‘Jazz Now’ show accompanying an interview with Tom. The album has a 4 star review in allaboutjazz.com, and Tom was featured in a 3 page interview in Recorder magazine in the Dec 2017/Jan 2018 issue; “His debut album is a fantastic showcase of the versatility of his writing, ability and imagination”.

Whilst at RAM, Tom studied with revered musicians such as Stan Sulzmann, Martin Speake, Iain Ballamy, Jean Toussaint and Gareth Lockrane, and through being at the Academy and in NYJO has had the opportunity to perform with the likes of Gregory Porter, Nikki Iles, Gwilym Simcock and Dave Holland.

Tom has been the recipient of The Craig Ball Award, the Richard Turner Jazz Fund Award, Lancaster Jazz Festival Youth Commission and the Essentially Ellington Outstanding Soloist Award.

Giles Thornton: 
Giles is a composer/arranger based in London who has recently worked with as an arranger and musical supervisor for “Adventures In The American Songbook”, performed by postgraduate vocal studies students from the Guildhall School Of Music And Drama . He has also worked as in the music team for the Heritage Orchestra BBC Prom “New York: Sound Of A City”. Recently graduating from Guildhall School Of Music And Drama, studying Jazz Composition and Arranging, Giles released his debut big band album, "Be In Today" in July 2018.
Giles’ original compositions are influenced by Vince Mendoza, Maria Schneider, Gill Evans and Mike Walker, among others.
He has performed in prestigious venues , such as The Royal Albert Hall, Sadler’s Wells, LSO St Lukes, Milton Court Concert Hall and The Barbican Hall.
Giles has worked with many artists, such as Jules Buckley, James McMillan, Liane Carroll and Evan Jolly, among others.
https://open.spotify.com/album/2EqLKK40CAJc1eZ8uwxrtZ?si=-4TSuIPKQlCc14zj3bAn6Q