Happy Saturday all! Hope u are having a good one.The great Vortex Jazz club, London invited me to say a little of how my life’s been since lockdown & to pick 10 pieces of music. Hope u can check out my choice of vids & tracks from: Renee Rosnes, Jen Shy, Bartok, Tina Turner & Herbie Hancock, Julian Joseph & Matthew Barley, Adam Mohamed, Lafayette Gilchrist, Izumi Kimura & Gerry Hemingway, The Gloaming and Laura Nyro at this link: 
https://mailchi.mp/vortexjazz.co.uk/whats-on-836988
Tour Summary!
What a fabulous roller coaster the PELT tour was! I’m still digesting everything that happened on it & it took me a while to get back into day to day life. Having planned the tour for so long in advance with Right Tempo, when these things come & go, it’s always a little hard to let go for a while, especially if it’s your own project & music, but what amazing fun we had!
https://www.facebook.com/UKTour2018/videos/1211198592345104/
It began officially with rehearsals on Jan 23rd at ‘The Premises’ on Hackney Road, London. https://youtu.be/t73u6ty-KJw This rehearsal studio has lots of great memories for me as it was the studio all the jazz musicians used through the 90’s and they still do as well as musicians from all kinds of genres. The café has always been a place to run into old muso friends & catch up on the gossip & nothing has changed there! I also recorded & mixed my first album ‘Aililiu’ there when it was owned by Colin & my good friend Dill. After the initial excited greetings we got set up & stuck into the music.
Straight away the music felt good & we had thoroughly gone through all of the material by the end. We had only ever played the music live once before, on the album launch gig at the Pizza Express, Dean St, Soho in December 2016. We also had the amazing Steve Hamilton joining us from Scotland on piano as Liam Noble, who had played on the album, was touring with his own band. Steve instantly slotted in & it was a great pleasure to get to know him better as the tour progressed & as with all great musicians, to hear him bring his own personality to the music more and more as we went along. I had worked with Steve many years ago in the band ‘Lammas’ so it was a wonderful reunion for me. The rest of the line-up was as the record, with Gareth Lockrane, Phil Robson, Kate Shortt, Richard Jones, Dave Whitford & Simon Lea. What monsters they all are, in the best possible way of course! I wanted the tour to be an opportunity for the music to grow & develop further from the original recording & I could already hear that this would happen naturally with all these incredibly creative & sensitive players. Our friend, the great young alto sax player, Rachael Cohen also came along to the studio to get some pics & video clips for our social media pages, which was so kind of her. Anne Rigg from ‘Right Tempo agency’ & PELT tour project manager was sorting out all the travel logistics with the band & giving lots of support as always. Some of us went for a Turkish meal after the rehearsal in Stoke Newington where another friend, Liz Roth, from NYC (my US agent & also agent for ‘The Gloaming’ ) who was also in town taking a vacation, joined us for that. (Liz later came to our gigs in Exeter, London & Gateshead as part of her trip!) I lived in the N16 area for many years before moving to Margate & always go straight for the Turkish food when I’m there! It’s one of the many things the area is renowned for.
The tour the began the following day with 4 gigs in the South West (Bridport, Calstock, Torrington & Exeter). I’ve always loved this part of the country so it was really nice to be down there. I enjoyed all of the gigs & the music really grew a lot throughout this block of concerts.
A particular highlight was Exeter Phoenix when Paul Muldoon joined us to read. Paul has enormous stage presence when he reads & a lovely aspect of this was him reading some poems over a bluesy musical backdrop set up by Phil, Dave, Richard & Kate & this was a pleasure to see. https://youtu.be/KVH-0PoPl0s We saw lots of sights such as on a beautiful walk we had in Torrington & seeing the river Tamar in Calstock etc & were put up by lovely people in Bridport, Calstock & Torrington. Most of us stayed in a hotel in Exeter where we toasted Richard Jones who was turning 30 the next day!
On Jan 31st the band went into the BBC Maidavale studio to record a broadcast for ‘Jazz Line Up. Dave was ill so we had the great Oli Hayhurst step in at the very last moment! Oli did a heroic job, especially considering he had never heard or played the music! Thanks so much to him. The session went very well & it was great to see presenter (& pianist extraordinaire) Julian Joseph & producer Sushil Dade. We actually recorded 9 tunes for the show so we were very happy to get it all done in an afternoon. I was interviewed too as part of it.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09sqqcz
The next gig section involved more traveling around as the shows were in Southampton, Derby, London & Gateshead. My good friend Eva Salzman the poet joined us in both Southampton & London to read. She too read a couple of poems over a musical backdrop & she was fabulous at this. As a trained dancer, she has a great rhythmic sense so it had an almost rap like quality. Eva is from Brooklyn but lived in London for many years & is now backwards & forwards between the two. The band was soaring up & up in musical gears with each gig and we really enjoyed them all. Turner Sims in Southampton is a lovely venue to play as is DEDA in Derby which is a studio theatre. Phil & Gareth’s parents came to the Derby gig & we always get a great reception there being Phil’s home town. Gareth is from Leek which is not too far away. We had a wonderful concert & turn out in King’s Place London, at which lots of close friends attended so that was a brilliant night all round.
Pic from Kings Place by Monika S. Jakubowska
We also got a fabulous review from the gig in London Jazz News. http://www.londonjazznews.com/2018/02/review-christine-tobin-pelt-at-kings.html
The next day most of us got the train up to Gateshead apart from Dave & Simon who drove as they had to get back after the gig. It’s a long trip by car but fairly pleasant by train! The Sage is a wonderful venue & it was great to be there again. The people who came really loved it & the atmosphere was great. The North East is another one of my favorite parts of England as the people are always so welcoming.
The final leg of the tour was in Cardiff, Bristol, Nottingham & Birmingham. In Cardiff, we played at the Royal Welsh College of Music where we also did a workshop for students in the afternoon as well as the gig at night.
It was wonderful to hear & meet all the young musicians there. Also present was the great pianist/composer & dear friend Huw Warren. Huw played in various projects of mine over the years, most recently doing my new arrangements of Leonard Cohen songs called ‘A Thousand Kisses Deep’. The concert went well. This was the first time the whole band had stopped over in the hotel so we had great fun grabbing a bite & seeing the night sights of Cardiff after the show. You can see the meerkats below putting in an order!
Bristol was next in the great Colston Hall Lantern venue. Myself & Phil stopped into BBC Bristol radio on the way to play a quick tune & do an interview with Claire Cavanagh which was fun. At Colston Hall we had a support band called The Duval Project who were a great jazz funk band & we had a really nice audience for our show. The Bonnington theatre in Nottingham is a venue which holds great memories as I’ve played there a lot so it’s always a pleasure to play there & see everyone. We had a day off after Nottingham so myself & Phil stayed at Phil’s Dad’s place in Derby & had a great day with his parents.
We’d come to the final gig! I was very sad about this but also wanted to give it my all. The CBSO centre is another fab place to play & the whole band enjoyed the concert very much as did the audience. It was nice to see some good friends there. After the show, we didn’t want it all to end so we stuck around for a while talking to pals before making the trip back to London and I said my fond goodbyes to all of the musicians except for Kate who we had arranged to see the following night. I felt exhausted & exhilarated at the same time! The tour had been a really informative process musically. With each performance, the music took on a magical depth because of the intensifying chemistry between us all & because we were able to plough further & further into the compositions every night & strengthen our musical relationships. With a larger block of gigs like this, a band develops a musical trust & empathy with each other & the material, which is hard to attain in normal one-off gig circumstances. Each concert had it’s own truly unique moments.
Thanks so much to my incredible band who played amazingly throughout the entire tour & did so with the utmost professionalism & good humour. We had so many laughs!
Thanks to all the promoters who put the gigs on. Without you all the jazz & wider music scene in the UK would be a considerably poorer place & I really admire your dedication to live music which is the greatest thing in the world!
Thanks also to the Arts Council of England who made it possible to take such a large ensemble out on the road in difficult times. May they always continue to support Jazz and other creative musical projects.
Thanks to Riot Squad for doing such a great job with the publicity for the tour.
Thanks to all of the wonderful people who came out to see us, often in nasty weather & for supporting live music.
Thanks to Liz Roth for making us part of your vacation! It was great to see you there.
Finally the biggest thanks go to Anne Rigg of www.righttempoagency.com who was both the agent & project manager of the tour. She did an incredible job of coordinating all the elements of the tour such as accommodation, travel, contracts & so much more & her positivity & belief in the music is so inspiring & highly valued by me & all the band. It couldn’t have even begun without you!
I’m now beginning to think hard about my next project & great things have already come about as a result of doing the PELT tour. Please watch this space!!!
“… not since that winter
I’d worn the world
against my skin,
worn it fur side in.” from PELT by Paul Muldoon
Happy New Year everyone! Wishing you all the best for 2018! Hope you had a great Christmas. Mine turned out to be quite eventful! To begin with, we’re still getting our apartment together in Jersey City where we stay when we’re in the States. I like to make places my own & homely so I’ve been painting walls & furniture. I particularly went to town with the colour on my sideboard cabinet & mirror, but I’ve given it the distressed look, to tone it down a bit & I just need to add a light coating of wax to finish them now.
Mainly though, we’ve had some very nice gigs in NYC over the last few weeks. I’ve been putting on a regular little Sunday brunch gig in Hell’s Kitchen in the Brazen Tavern & it’s building up a reputation in the area nicely. We mostly do them with our English pal Mark Lewandowski on bass but another close friend, Joseph Lepore did the new year’s eve one. Meistro Jed Levy came and joined us on sax on one of the gigs before christmas! The Brazen Tavern is a fantastic Irish bar/restaurant just down the street from Birdland.
Mark.
I also had a lovely trio gig with Phil Robson on guitar & Peter Brendler on bass at the legendary 55 bar in Greenwich Village on Christmas day itself. We didn’t know what to expect in terms of audience with it being Christmas day but it turned out to be really packed & the atmosphere was fantastic! We hung out in our favorite bar, ‘the kettle of fish’ which is right next door after, so it was a really fun night.
Peter Brendler, Phil Robson & Christine taken at the 55 bar by Kyra Kverno
…at the ‘Kettle’ later!
We also played the venue called the ‘Bar Next Door’ (just to add confusion!) on new year’s day with the same trio. It’s in MacDougal St, in the village & we play there quite often as it’s one of our favorite places. It’s an intimate venue which is part of La Lanterna Vittorio Italian restaurant. The food is fab too!
Myself & Phil joined the great singer Roseanna Vitro at trumpets in Montclair, NJ on Dec 29th for her ‘celebration of life’ gig/party! Gabrielle Stravelli, another great singer, was also on the bill, as well as a host of NY’s finest musicians including bass legend Ratzo Harris & pianist Mark Soskin. It was a fun evening, made perfect by our dear friend Billy Hart turning up towards the end with his daughter Imke, who is about to visit London for the first time. Billy sat in & played the standard ‘Detour Ahead’ with us which was great.
Phil & Billy Hart – with kind courtesy of Chris Drukker
There have been a few other gigs but particularly worth mentioning is that Phil did the 55 bar for the first time as band leader on Jan 3rd which he did as a trio with the great Peter Slavov on bass & Colin Stranahan on drums & the show was fab. He was also asked to stand in for the great Peter Bernstein at The Django on Dec 27th playing solo.
Another notable aspect to Christmas was looking after our neighbour’s dog, Duke! He’s a gorgeous 6 month old puppy, Collie crossed with possibly dalmation, who gave us quite a run for our money! We had great times with him in the dog park in Jersey city in the freezing cold winter weather!! We really enjoyed the social scene of dog walking & got talking to all kinds of people doing it. It was great fun being with him. We tried to introduce Duke to our cat, Orsini but that didn’t go well at all! They met too late sadly!
Otherwise Orsini is doing great & we’ve organised for a friend to stay & take care of her whilst the tour happens. You can see her helping me to learn my words here!
Yesterday we found ourselves in the middle of a ‘bomb cyclone’ which was an experience. It’s basically a minor slow blizzard but it doesn’t feel very minor when you go out to get milk & the wind hits your face! In celsius terms (still wrestling with farenheight!!) it was getting to about -8° in the daytime & -20° at night! Ok not Siberia but enough for me!
We’re very excited about coming back home to London soon & starting the tour. Can’t wait to see friends too! Hats off to Anne Rigg of ‘Right Tempo’ who is project manager (as well as my agent) & who is still dealing with all kinds of last minute practicalities! A special tour like this is quite a thing to organise but she does a great job.
A fantastic thing that happened over the holidays is that Paul Muldoon won the Queens gold medal for poetry!!! Massive congrats to him for that. Don’t miss him reading with us at the Phoenix, Exeter on Jan 28th! http://www.exeterphoenix.org.uk/events/christine-tobin/
That’s all I have to say for now, but there will soon be some vid stuff from the rehearsal before the tour begins & we’ll be doing a video diary as the tour proceeds as well as all the usual kinds of pics & updates so please keep following us here, on facebook, twitter & instagram. If you search ‘tobin’ & ‘pelt’ together in any of those apps you’ll find it easily enough. We really hope you can join us on one of the gigs.
It’s been a fairly crazy 2 months for me & Phil Robson! We did a tour of trio gigs with Dave Whitford (plus a couple of Quintet ones) around England then came to do stuff in NYC (incl ‘Muldoon’s Picnic at the IAC) before going to Ireland to take part in Jazz On The Terrace’s ‘Return Flight of the Earls’ concert series, which was all great fun & then back to NY! On top of all of this we’ve moved house!!! As many of you know, I’m based between London & NYC now & spend a lot of my time in the US. We split the moving into two parts due to the schedule, on either side of the Ireland trip. As always, we’d accumulated more stuff than we realised so it was quite a job to do it, but we were lucky to have the help of our good friend Mark Lewandowski who is doing the post grad diploma at Julliard at the moment in NY. Phil hired a U Haul van & took on the mean streets! We’re now staying in Jersey City when we’re here, which is in New Jersey of course, but is very close to NYC & overlooks the financial district across the river Hudson & connected by the Path trains. We have musical pals in the area & so far we’re liking it a lot. Orsini our cat is also getting settled in now after being here for 5 days & the boxes are gradually being unpacked!
I’m happy to get that move out of the way so that I can concentrate on the PELT tour! I have lots of gigs & stuff to do before that of course, but that’s the big thing on the horizon & we’re all really looking forward to it. While we’ve been doing our thing over the last few weeks, Anne Rigg from Right Tempo agency, (the project manager for the tour & my agent), has been sending out posters/flyers, organising transport, hotels & all sorts of crucial background jobs so it’s a real team effort. Meanwhile Riot Squad publicity are plugging the gigs & organising radio interviews & lots of other stuff. Busy bees!
One thing I want to mention here is that the gigs will include a small element of signing for the deaf! This is because we are lucky to have the amazing Kate Shortt in the band! Not only is she a great cellist, singer, comedian etc but she’s a level 3 signer using BSL and provides music workshops in a deaf school. She’s also often signed ‘Peter and the Wolf’ with the Northern Lights Symphony Orchestra, most recently with composer Thomas Ades narrating! Obviously Kate will be pretty busy playing cello & doing BVs on the gigs but she’ll sign for some announcements & where ever she can during the shows. We really hope that this will encourage some local deaf community groups to come along.
New trailer vids coming soon & background info about the rural side of the tour! Meanwhile please follow PELT on Face Book https://www.facebook.com/UKTour2018 twitter https://twitter.com/ctobinPELT & Instagram https://www.instagram.com/ctobinpelt
Until the next time…
Let me take this opportunity to tell you a little about the great musicians & poets involved with the 2018 PELT concerts:
Gareth Lockrane –Flutes
Artist’s website: http://www.garethlockrane.com
Staffordshire born Lockrane is a flautist, composer/arranger/educator. He’s one of the most extraordinary musicians on the UK scene & he brings a magical aspect to my music with his virtuosic soloing & joyful ensemble work as well as having a great palette of sonic options as he plays the entire flute family, from bass to piccolo! Whilst a student at RAM, his band The Jazz System was a finalist in the 1997 Vienna Jazz Festival Grande Concours de Jazz & in 2000 he was a finalist in the Young Jazz Musician of the Year competition. In 2006 he enrolled on the prestigious MA course in film composition at the National Film &Television School, graduating with a commendation in 2008.
He’s since gone on to win major awards with ‘Grooveyard’ which he co-leads with saxophonist Alex Garnett. He leads his own septet, whose 1st album ‘No Messin’ won best album in the2010 Parliamentary Jazz Awards. He recently formed his own 18-piece big band playing exclusively his music, featuring some of London’s top musicians. As a sideman, he’s been involved in many diverse projects, most notably as a key member of the late Bheki Mseleku’s group. Named a Rising Star on Flute in the prestigious Downbeat US critics poll, he’s also a notable educator & was appointed Head of Jazz Studies in the junior dept at RAM.
‘…Lockrane’s flute work is exceptional, combining a relaxed fluidity on the one hand with an acute adventurousness on the other…’ Peter Quinn, Jazzwise
Phil Robson – Guitars & Electronics
Artist’s website: http://philrobson.net
Phil is a guitarist & composer, originally from Derby UK. As well as being my life partner (!!!), he has had the longest musical relationship with me, being involved with most of my projects from the beginning. He’s highly respected both for his skill and inventiveness as a jazz musician and across a wide breadth of musical styles. His writing marks him out as a true original. He has led bands featuring jazz legends David Liebman, Mark Turner, Billy Hart, James Genus many more as well as working as a sideman with Donny McCaslin, Maceo Parker, Charles Earland, Barbra Streisand, The BBC Big Band & a huge spectrum of internationally renowned musicians. He’s co-leader of the celebrated band ‘Partisans’ with saxophonist Julian Siegel. They won ‘Jazz CD of The Year’ at the 2015 Parliamentary Jazz Awards and previously Phil won ‘Best Jazz Musician of The Year’ at the 2009 Parliamentary Jazz Awards. World acclaimed U.S. jazz guitarist Peter Bernstein writes, “Phil Robson is one the best guitar players in the world today. His musical ideas flow continually and with a seamless logic. He seems to be able to play anything that comes to his mind. His technique is flawless and is in service to his fertile imagination. One of my favourites and a source of inspiration! Don’t miss an opportunity to hear this modern giant!!”
Steve Hamilton – Piano, Keyboards & Laptop
Artist’s website: http://www.whirlwindrecordings.com/stevehamilton/
I played with Steve many years ago on a handful of occasions when we were both in Tim Garland’s Lammas. I’ve since followed his work carefully & knew that he’d be perfect for the tour as he has great ability to adapt between piano & keyboards, electronics etc & is a consummate musician. Originally from Aberdeen, he’s one of Europe’s most creative and experienced contemporary pianists, performing a multitude of music from the improvised to pop to film and session work. Steve grew up in a musical family and won a full scholarship to study at Berklee College of Music in Boston. After he moved to London where he became one of the most favoured pianists across the genres performing with legends such as Freddie Hubbard, Ray Charles, Joe Lovano, Gary Burton, Van Morrison, Pee Wee Ellis, Dennis Rollins and became a longstanding member of legendary drummer Bill Bruford’s internationally acclaimed group Earthworks. He has played on over 40 CDs including Kurt Elling’s 2015 ‘Passion World’ album, and recently joined the legendary drummer Billy Cobham’s band and has been touring with Billy throughout Europe.
Kate Shortt – Cello, Backing Vocals & Deaf Signing
Artist’s website: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kate_Shortt
Kate is a Cellist/Pianist/Singer/Songwriter & Comedian! Having been involved with several of my previous projects incl ‘Byzantium’ she brings a fantastic presence both as an extremely versatile soloist & ensemble member not to mention keeping us all smiling on the road. She trained at the GSMD in cello and as a 2nd study singer & performs in various genres i.e jazz, contemporary, classical and free improv. A member of the Northern Lights Symphony Orchestra she’s toured/recorded with various artists incl contemporary composer Jocelyn Pook, Portuegese fado singer Claudia Aurora and Austrian contemporary composer Norbert Zehm’s group Line 3. Zehm composed a concerto especially for her & the Swarowski Wind Band, ‘Towards The Wind’, utilising her improvisation & vocal skills. Theatre work includes onstage cellist for the award winning West End play ‘Charles the Third’. She also works as part of Last Amendment, a spoken word and improvised music collective led by Penny Rimbaud and Eve Libertine. In the pop world she’s devised and recorded arrangements for Peter Green of Fleetwood Mac & collaborated with Gary Kemp and Simon Le Bon.
Kate also performs her own one woman comedy show! She combines with world cellist Shirley Smart as ‘Shortt and Smart!’ recently touring in and around England. Kate is a level 3 signer using BSL and provides music workshops in a deaf school. She’s often signed ‘Peter and the Wolf’ with the Northern Lights Symphony Orchestra, most recently with composer Thomas Ades narrating.
‘..A remarkable cellist ..’ The Guardian
Richard Jones – Violin
Artist’s website: http://www.richardjonesmusic.co.uk/home
Richard became part of my musical world for the 1st time on the PELT recording where I was very impressed by his natural musicality & instant ability to interpret my music. He is a dynamic, exciting young British musician who strives to forge and unearth musical collaborations between a wide range of musical contexts. Since completing his Masters studies at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, he has immersed himself in the London music scene and has found a seat within a plethora of different bands. His influences as a musician are ever evolving as he continues to play, though improvised music remains at his core. Far removing the violin from the orchestral setting, he delves into rock, folk, world music and jazz to find his sounds. Already,
Richard has had the pleasure of working with a host of renowned musicians, including: Nicolas Meier, Audrey Riley, Robert Mitchel, Alex Hutton and was a member of the alternative rock band Kill The Kid. Whilst working within such a rich tapestry of music, Richard has written many of his own tunes which he is intending to bring to life this later year leading his own project.
‘A Fiddle player who manages to make his instrument sound sexy’. NME
Dave Whitford – Double & Electric Basses
Artist’s website: http://www.davewhitford.co.uk/Home.html
Dave has worked with me & Phil for many years & as well as being like family is a crucial element in the band as he totally understands my musical ideas & aesthetic concept & can translate this to his instrument immediately. Born and raised in Falmouth, Dave held the bass chair in the award-winning Cornwall Youth Jazz Orchestra throughout his teens. He moved to London where he obtained a first class degree from Middlesex University on the jazz course and quickly established himself as an outstanding double bass player on city’s contemporary music scene. He received a scholarship to study at the Guildhall School of Music’s Jazz postgraduate diploma from which he graduated with a distinction. He also received the Paul Hamlyn foundation award which enabled him to tour and record with collective quartet Neverland. His distinctive sound, solid groove and exceptional musicality have made him an in demand player with a diverse range of musicians. He has worked and recorded with top artists including Steve Lacy, Marc Copland, John Taylor, Bill Frisell, Evan Parker, Bobby Wellins, Dave Liebman, The NDR Big Band, Christine Jensen, The BBC Big Band, Mike Gibbs, Jack Bruce, Evan Parker, Kirk Lightsey, Ed Thigpen, Billy Hart, Nikki Isles, Chris Cheek, Josh Roseman, Maceo Parker, Liam Noble and Byron Wallen.
‘A highly competent player with formidable technical abilities. Whitford’s playing never fails to impress.’ thejazzmann.com
Simon Lea – Role in activity: Drums
Artist’s website: https://www.simonlea.net/
Simon was the drummer for both my earlier ‘Romance & Revolution’ & ‘Secret Life of a Girl’ projects & was chosen again for this one because he is such a solid & positive element in any band, with a great groove & ability to play many styles. He is a British touring and recording drummer based in London. Simon studied Jazz at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama. As well as working on the jazz scene Simon is a much sought-after drummer and MD on the folk, rock and pop scene. He is versatile and adaptable and his jazz sensibility along with his capacity to seamlessly shift styles and always nail the beat, make him the perfect drummer for PELT. He has toured and played with Seth Lakeman, JustJack, Ronnie Wood, Carleen Anderson, Saint Etienne, Dionne Warwick, The Herbaliser, Paloma Faith, Cara Dillon, The Webb Sisters, The James Taylor Quartet and many more.
Artist’s name: Paul Muldoon -Paul will be reading in Exeter Phoenix
Artist’s website: http://www.paulmuldoon.net
Belfast born Paul Muldoon is the prime inspiration for this project as explained . Muldoon is a highly acclaimed & celebrated Irish poet. He has published over 30 collections and won a Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 2003. In addition to the Pulitzer Prize, he has received an American Academy of Arts and Letters award in literature, the 1994 T. S. Eliot Prize, the 1997 Irish Times Poetry Prize, the 2003 Griffin International Prize for Excellence in Poetry, the 2004 American Ireland Fund Literary Award, the 2004 Shakespeare Prize, the 2005 Aspen Prize for Poetry, and the 2006 European Prize for Poetry.
Paul was described by The Times Literary Supplement as “the most significant English-language poet born since the second World War.” He held the post of Oxford Professor of Poetry from 1999 to 2004. At Princeton University, he is both the Howard G. B. Clark Professor in the Humanities and Founding Chair of the Lewis Center for the Arts.
He has also served as president of the Poetry Society (UK) and Poetry Editor at The New Yorker. Roger Rosenblatt, writing in the New York Times Book Review, described Paul Muldoon as “one of the great poets of the past hundred years, who can be everything in his poems – word-playful, lyrical, hilarious, melancholy. And angry. Only Yeats before him could write with such measured fury.”
Eva Salzman – Eva will be reading at the London & Southampton gigs.
Artist’s website: http://evasalzman.tumblr.com
I met Eva in the 1990s since which time we’ve collaborated several times. Multi award winning poet Salzman was born in NYC and grew up in Brooklyn, where, from the age of 10 – 22, she was a dancer and later a choreographer. She was educated at Bennington College and Columbia University, moving to Britain in 1985. Her eclectic background has led to work in cross-arts projects with artists, dancers and singers. Her teaching work has included projects in London’s East End & a residency at Springhill Prison as well as continuing work for the Poetry Society’s Poet in the City projects & codevising a Poetry course for the Open University. A professor at Goldsmiths University, she’s also co-editor with Amy Wack of forthcoming anthology Women’s Work: Modern Women Poets Writing in English.
Eva’s first collection of poetry, The English Earthquake, was a Poetry Book Society Recommendation & her second volume, Bargain With The Watchman, won a Special Commendation. Salzman’s celebrated poem “To the Enemy” was set for soprano and percussion ensemble by Australian composer Katia Tiutiunnik; the composition received its world premiere performance on August 26, 2010, at the opening, “Visionaries” concert of the Soundstream Festival, Adelaide, South Australia. This world premiere was broadcast live by ABC Classic FM.
“Ms. Salzman’s restless imagination, acute satiric intelligence and formal panache mark her out as one of the finest poets around.” Michael Donaghy.
Hi everyone. I’m really getting more & more excited about the PELT 2018 UK, ACE tour as it draws nearer! Not too long until the first gig on Jan 25th. I thought I’d kick off my new blog by telling you a little about the background of PELT. As anyone who follows my work will know, I’m a huge fan of fine words & poetry. They provide me with lots of inspiration to write music & my own songs. Previous to recording PELT, my two albums before that were ‘Sailing To Byzantium’ (my musical settings of W.B. Yeats poems for which I was awarded a BASCA British Composers Award in 2012) followed by ‘A Thousand Kisses Deep’ which was a collection of new arrangements of Leonard Cohen songs (awarded a Herald Angel Award in 2013 for a live performance of it at the Edinburgh Fest). The British Composer award included a PRSF commission to write new music so I started thinking what this should be. As I’d enjoyed doing both these projects so much, I started to consider finding more great words to write music for. I was looking for something contemporary which would inspire a new sonic palette so Pulitzer prize winning Irish poet Paul Muldoon came straight to mind.
Actually, the seed of the idea for setting Paul Muldoon’s poems goes further back to when we were both invited to collaborate and perform a piece at the Kilkenny Arts Festival back in 2011. I had long admired Paul’s work and he was impressed by my settings of W. B Yeats. I had also set one of his poems, ‘Horses’ to music for my album ‘Romance & Revolution’ in 2004 so there was already a strong connection! When we discussed setting his poems, Paul gave me a copy of his collection ‘Paul Muldoon Poems 1968 – 1998’ and gave me carte blanche to choose the poems to work with. He also sent me new lyrics and as the project unfolded, the texts chosen ended up a being mix of poems and lyrics. This is reflected in the musical styles throughout. For example, the opening track ‘Zoological Positivism Blues’ uses a grungy, repetitive riff entwined with violin and cello pizzicato to capture the zany wit and rhyme of the lyrics. With the poem Wind and Tree, the melody line flows and winds over zen-like harmonies to convey the unseen. The short story style of the poem ‘The Big House’ reminded me of some the storytelling I’d heard in Beatles’ songs years ago and I feel this influence filtered through in my string arranging. The title track PELT is cinematic, dark and ethereal while the lyrics of San Simeon demanded punchy, indie-style guitar riffs with a tinge of Headhunters! All in all, I certainly got to a new musical vibe for me and I recorded the PELT album which was released in 2016. The project really took a while to fully materialise & this tour will see it fully realised as we have only performed the music live once before this, at the album launch at the Pizza Express, Dean St, Soho. I’m looking forward to expanding the music even further sonically & emotionally when we play the gigs & I have such wonderful musicians to do this with! I also have a fantastic team behind me with Anne from Right Tempo agency as project manager & Riot Squad publicity doing the PR and of course the financial support of the Arts Council of England.
I hope you’ll keep watching this space for future blogs. I’ll have more updates about the musicians, concerts & PELT related stuff, plus I’ll share more craic & my general thoughts about the world as we go along! You can also find the gig details here: http://righttempoagency.com/concerts/christine-tobin/ so I hope you’ll join us at a venue near you!
Hi. Welcome to this new blog page dedicated to my 2018 UK tour organised by Right Tempo Agency & funded by the Arts Council of England. My latest album, PELT is a collection of my musical settings of poems & lyrics by the Pulitzer prize winning Irish poet Paul Muldoon. The tour will be the first time to really explore this music live & the band I’m taking on the road is amazing! I’ll have Gareth Lockrane – flutes, Phil Robson – guitar/electronics, Steve Hamilton – piano/keyboard/laptop, Kate Shortt – cello/vocals/deaf signing, Richard Jones – violin, Dave Whitford – upright/electric bass, Simon Lea – drums & of course me on vocals. We will also be joined by Paul Muldoon for one performance as well as by NYC poet Eva Salzman on 2 other gigs. Full details will be on my dates page soon and the first longer PELT blogs will be up here! Hope you’ll join us on the tour! Thanks.
Christine Tobin's Blog 