Congratulations to Ronnie Bottomley

6th December saw the first ever Yorkshire Jazz Awards at Dean Clough Mills, Halifax. What a fantastic initiative! Jazz is rife in Yorkshire at the moment and it is absolutely right that we need to recognise that.

Many worthy bands and people collected awards on the night, but my biggest congratulations has to go to Ronnie Bottomley, who won the lifetime achievement award. Ronnie is a fantastic man who I have had the pleasure of studying with for 2.5 years (and counting). Ronnie is in his 80s and is still a committed teacher and is still gigging! 

You can find out more about the Yorkshire Jazz Awards and the winners here:

http://www.jazzyorkshire.org/awards/

Ianep...

Check out this upcoming graphic designer Ian Edward Prentice who is currently putting together the artwork for Escort Knights' new single 'Saturday'.  Ian does do more than just brilliant pictures of animals, find out more here:

www.ianep.co.uk

I have also been informed that Ian is in need of a new coat (it is rather cold, don't you know), so make sure you check out his Christmas cards for sale here: www.ianep.co.uk/shop.html 

Golf and Juggling Balls

Friday was my official reintroduction to the world of big boys golf. After spending months cowering in the confines of the driving range, I finally plucked up the courage to brave the grown up's 18 hole course, accompanied by my good friend and band mate Ewan (singer in Escort Knights).

There was one major problem, aside from the fact that I am unable to hit the ball in a straight line (my swing technique restricts me to hitting the ball at 90 degrees to where I am aiming). This was that the golf course looked like a scene from Gorillas in the mist, just minus the gorillas, obviously. But we ventured forth, battled hard and emerged unscathed.

There are two points I have taken from golfing. Firstly, golf forces you to forget about everything around you. Any thoughts in your head distract your attention and you fluff up, so you must learn to empty your head. It is like a mini holiday away from life - brilliant. Secondly, as a band it is so important to spend time away from music and just be friends.

Things are always hectic with Escort Knights. Those of you who know me personally are surely aware that I love to use metaphors, most of which are not generally accepted metaphors, just ones I have made up myself. I don't think I have made this one up, but I think of what we are doing as having lots of juggling balls in the air and hopefully we will catch one of them.

Our most recent juggling ball is having our music featured in a brand new drama series, which might be fantastic for us, but we will wait and see. Anyway, this means that we spend all day discussing business and the band, even when we go out to the pub with each other we talk band. Everyone needs downtime and we are beginning to realise the importance of retaining a good friendship as well as being band mates.

Mini Aubergines

Whilst on tour with Hassan, we were talking about fruit in the bus, nothing unusual, just normal sized fruit. Also, it should be mentioned that the fruit we were talking about wasn't actually in the bus with us as could be misconstrued from my previous sentence, just fruit in general. I can't remember exactly what we were saying about the fruit, but whatever it was i'm sure was conversation worthy (as all tour bus conversations are... ).

Anyway, I suddenly remembered that while on a shopping trip a short time before I had seen what I thought were mini aubergines. To my amazement they were exactly the same as normal aubergines, but much smaller! I would guestimate around five times smaller.

At this point I was laughed at, severely ridiculed and much verbal abuse was thrown at me (this may be slightly exaggerated). I was even accused of confusing them with small purple grapes.

Now is time for my comeback... Ladies and Gentlemen, I present to you in their full dark purple glory... Mini Aubergines!



In their box for selling.



Compared to a normal aubergine.

Managing bands... it's relentless.

Escort Knights are just around the mid-point of our current UK Tour to promote or single 'I Don't Know Your Name'. Currently we have no manager, no booker, no label, no form of representation other than ourselves (apart from a bit of PR). We have been working our little socks off since July booking the tour, organising posters/flyers, sorting out the remix competition as well as recording and writing new tracks and more.

So it's time for a break right? Wrong.

Now it starts all over again. Emailing all the venues in various cities to get another tour organised for March/April time to promote our next single 'Saturday'. We have one date confirmed already and hopefully a couple more in the pipeline, so fingers crossed.

We have just uploaded all of our current tracks to SoundCloud so you can hear them in one spiffing playlist. Please let us know your thoughts - http://soundcloud.com/escortknights/sets/escort-knights-so-far

Keep posted for more details on the next tour and find out how we get on!... Alternatively if you know of any managers/bookers/major record label executives who would like to work with us let me know.

Being contented, but still wanting more.

At the moment, I am struggling with the concept with being happy with what you have in the present, yet still yearning for bigger things in the future.

Buddha said "Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment."

But what about determination, goals or aspirations? Should we just ignore these? If I cease to think about what might happen in the future, will I lose my drive to succeed? What does it mean to succeed?

Reading quotes like the one above makes me, personally, feel selfish for wanting more from my life. I am very candid about my goals, and simply will not rest until I achieve them. However, thinking back to when I was a young(er) musician, my goals were to have enough earning potential from drums that I didn't have to get a 'proper' job and get into music college. Well, here I am in the final year of my music degree with just about enough potential work in the pipeline to keep me in the black.

Am I content?... Of course not! And here is where I begin to feel selfish. I have so much to be grateful for, yet I still yearn for bigger gigs, in front of more people, for more money. How can I possibly justify this?

Quite honestly, I don't know and I don't think anyone really knows. Now, if I was to relax and look down upon myself and impart advice (what a weird concept) I would recommend that I:

- Be grateful for everything I have and have done. In hindsight have an understanding of why I have had my past experiences and what I have learned from them.

- Take every opportunity with grace and humility, don't feel selfish.

- Don't have 'ultimate goals'. Understand that they are experiences I would like to enjoy at some point, but relax and take life as it comes.


"Answers only make more questions..."

Too true.

Dan Weiss - Timshel

As wrong as it is to cry laughing at this... I did.

New Escort Knights Tracks on SoundCloud

Escort Knights have uploaded three brand new tracks on to SoundCloud for your listening pleasure.  


Check them out here:


http://soundcloud.com/escortknights

Dan Weiss Trio

Went to see the amazing Dan Weiss Trio last night at The Spin Off, Santiagos.  It was a pleasure to watch musicians who had been playing together for so long and clearly knew each other's playing inside out.


Well done Joost for putting them on.  Support Leeds jazz!