Guitar Emporium

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From the recording Phases - about 2003. Using the midi guitar setup- a Godin Multiac with Roland GR33 controller and a Yamaha Martin Taylor Jazz guitar. How do I know that ? - for some reason I wrote it down. I managed to get a quite good saxophone sound on the synthesiser - and it worked OK .  Support the show

1806 to 1856 spanned the relatively short life of this Austro - Hungarian guitarist and composer. A piece I recorded for an online exams support company ( not sure if they are still going) to help with exam preparation for students in about 2011/2012. The 19th century repertoire is vast and varied but this is an attractive piece. Notturno. Support the show

Lullaby, Song and Dance - three pieces forming the Suite in E major. The three were published as pieces to play in notation form, originally - but later on in tablature form.  Support the show

So here we go - a new term , a new academic year, a fresh start for teachers ( like me ) and for pupils alike . This song was addressed to our three boys - but looking at it again - it seems to be addressed to me just as much. From about 2014 when teaching started to become more tricky( as I got older !) . Making a Start Support the show

On June 13 I put an excerpt up from this longer piece. I've now got more time allocated by Buzzsprout and I'll keep the podcast going ( the first 3 months was a trial run) This is the whole of Running Scared , 3 movements: Running Scared, Scared and Scared of Running. From Worlds Apart - 2002. Recorded on a Godin Multiac guitar and Roland GR33 guitar synthesiser. Support the show

From Argentina - a simple 2 chord Milonga in upbeat style by Abel Fleury. Recorded on Rob's Hybrid Guitar in 2013.  Support the show

From the recording Can't Stop in 2008 /2009 another attempt at the close mic style - again influenced by Jack Johnsons intimate approach to acoustic music. A quieter Friday song - but thank goodness its Friday !  Support the show

The rest of the suite in D minor by Baroque guitar player and French Court musician Robert de Visee. Louis XIV and Louis XV were his patrons.  The prelude I put up some time ago. Clive on bass. Prelude, Allemande, Courante, Gavotte and Menuet 1 and 2 returning to Menuet 1 to complete the recording. This was from about 2006 / 2007 I think.  Support the show

In about 2006/2007 I had the opportunity to work with a very talented Nigerian master drummer. We did a few concerts with a Jazz player Tony. They went OK but there was a certain resistance to hiring Lekan amongst some venues that you could sense and I'd never experienced before. He totally ignored it - to his credit - and he's still out there doing some great work and breaking down that...

Suite in the old style - Three pieces composed/ arranged in 2020 in the style of  Renaissance lute music.  Stella Caeli - Chant in times of pestilence or plague, Pavane and Round Dance. Stella Caeli is from the Middle Ages recalling a plague in Jerusalem  - Chant - one line of song . I have harmonised it - not sure the purists would like it. Listen to the original it is very haunting. No lute at t...

From about 2016 re- mixed in 2020 . This is this songs first playing. Support the show

I thought about putting the 12 studies up one at a time - but they are intended as a collection of concert studies and that was how I recorded them. It may be a bit of a hard listen - and I apologise for that, But they are individually wonderful pieces and collectively a very strong representation of just how good a guitar composer Villa Lobos was. Apparently they were written between about 1924 a...

A recording taken from a collection of pieces recorded in 2000 on a CD called Worlds Apart. Midi guitar, the 4 themes - Why? When? How ? Where ? ( see earlier recordings on 21 st August  ) . Da Capo - Back to the Start - as we approach - every September - the beginning of the academic year we get a chance to reset. For me this time of year is the beginning of everything( as opposed to January ). A...

3 Dances finish the week . I am an appalling dancer - so I 'm told by almost everyone. A Slow dance is about all I can get away with. Moonlight in Magaluffe is light hearted and up tempo a bit and Milonga you've seen before. The Milonga was put up on July 26th . The YouTube link to a performance in 2016 in St Albans with Clive Batkin's improvised top line is here: https://youtu.be/a...

From a recording called A Luarca - made in the lockdown of 2020. Jakes Bark ( a play on J.S Bach) is intended to be a " Hamlet moment " like the ( very) old TV cigar advert . Last thing at night Jake would remind me he needed a walk as we sat on the balcony in Madrid.  Support the show

From about 2012 a light hearted tune to get through the middle of the week - Wednesday - not my favourite day.  Support the show

Lachrimae Pavane perhaps the most beautiful of John Dowland lute pieces here arranged by Brian Jeffery for the guitar, is paired with a Fantasie - a 2 and sometimes 3 part contrapuntal piece. An Irish Catholic Dowland worked in the Renaissance Courts of Europe for virtually everyone except the English monarchs - their loss. His dates 1563 - 1626 -  right across the reign of Elizabeth I. The Lachri...

I'm not sure that any white lower middle class male has any reason to be playing the blues - we really don't have that much to be protesting about. This is (another) one of my dislikes in the world of work - The Bosses Man. All things to all people -he's a creep, in it to win it - at all costs - and doesn't really care about who gets in his way. We've all met a few of them...

At the time I was trying to get going I made some recordings on an old Revox reel to reel in about 1986. The recordings were based around 4 themes or ideas : why would I want to try to do music, ( Fragment ). When ( Ferdinandos 6th's) , How ( Regression - or Back to the Start ) and finally Where ( definitely not In London where I was based at the time but couldn't afford to live ) The pi...

The tune Chapter One, which I put up on the podcast on 16th August, was the starting point for Close Your Eyes. The lyrics are nearly the same - but Close Your Eyes is less about the idea of "the book of life" but more about the ending of the book. Rob on cajon, recorded in 2013 and re-mixed in 2020.  Support the show

Recorded about 2004 the 3 Cuban dances are , El Velorio ( the Fiesta ) Los Tres Golpes ( which I think is a district in Cuba- its also a much loved food !!) and Intima - ( closeness-intimacy). I put up El Velorio a few days ago - but here are the 3 together. Cervantes lived in the second half of the 19th century and these are originally piano pieces.  Support the show

Melancholy. In Madrid in the lockdown of Spring 2020 all the buses in my part of the town , Alcobendas, kept running - with nobody in them. It seemed a bit sad, although perhaps a bit of a strange subject for a piece of music.. The Last Bus. Support the show

Recorded for a CD called St. Aidans Dance the piece is for guitar and acoustic bass guitar. I think we experienced being in the complete stillness of the centre of a storm on one occasion - quite eerie. For those of us experiencing the end of the hot spell and its thunderstorms.  Support the show

The initial idea for a song called Close Your Eyes which Rob and I recorded for the folk set a couple of years later. I'll put that up on the podcast later in the week. This is from a recording called Can't Stop on which most of the songs I've put up so far have come from.  Support the show