"Love Abridged" Workshop Sessions - Day I
Sunday February 10th 2013
Well... it was the first day of our series of workshops at the Music Room in New Cross and it was a very wet and rainy day in London! However..I was very much looking forward to meeting and working with the four young artists Savannah, Mark, Mansur and Andrew, who are part of the Love Abridged Project. So, I braved the weather jumped on my motorcycle and made the trek south, across the river via Tower Bridge, one of my favourite bridges in London.
On my arrival it was great to see Andrew and Mansur all enthusiastic and ready - instruments out and rearing to go. That's the spirit!
"Love Abridged" Workshop Sessions - Day II
Monday February 11th 2013
Another pretty chillily day in London town today but we had work to do with Love Abridged over at the Music Room in New Cross. Today was extra special because we had the additional support of the wonderful Eska and Tony Kofi.
The performances on Thursday will also include a selection of instrumental songs so, today we discussed which songs we will do. The Emirates cable car location in North Greenwich is were our final performance for that day will be. This will be extra special, as two couples who entered and won a competition put on by TFL in the Metro and Royal Borough Greenwich's Greenwich Time, will be individually serenaded in a cable car cabin by a duo from this quartet, as it crosses the river , very romantic indeed. So, today we discussed and ran through some of the duo songs. I tell you, there are some gems in there!
"Love Abridged" Workshop Sessions - Day IV
Tuesday February 13th 2013
This was our last session before our "Love Abridged" performances tomorrow. We decided that we would concentrate on the instrumental songs and today were also had Tony and Eska on board. It was additionally great to have Eska today as our vocalist Savannah wasn't at present this due to school commitments. Eska, sang through all these songs with grace and ease even reading from the lyrics sheet. That's the mark of a true professional. I could listen to Eska sing all day, what a beautiful voice! Tony assisted through the instrumental songs and gave objective criticsm and advice feedback to the group, where necessary.
We took a break and hit that nice Caribbean takeaway spot, Jade's, on New Cross Rd. They do a nice buffet selection and actually have a good vegetarian choice.
With a couple more songs to complete before we knew it we had go through everything and it it was all sounding good and like a band! We are all ready to go show London some LOVE tomorrow.
"Love Abridged" Workshop Sessions - Day III
Tuesday February 12th 2013
Today was more of the same - learning the newer songs that we hadn't looked at yet and would be the last day that our vocalist Savannah would be present as she would have to stay late at her school tomorrow - as she will be going to China with her school's jazz choir this week! In fact.. Friday, the day after our Love Abridged event! So she has a lot on this week! A Jazz choir at school that takes them to China? Wow.. how cool is that!
One new song that we brought in was, Leon Russell's 'A Song For You'. For those that know, the ultimate version of this great song is the one recorded by the late great Donny Hathaway. We actually touched on this song at the end of the rehearsal yesterday and
"Love Abridged" February 14th 2013 - Performances
Having had only a few ours sleep the day was going to be challenging on more than one level. London's weather forecast was said to be... reasonable, but rain was expected. however, since this is the UK weather where're talking about, it could've snowed again or come down with torrential rain and hailstones etc.. Which could seriously jeopardise our planned day of performances.