busy Blue Bear…

A big recording and mixing weekend at the Blue Bear Studio: ‘celtic big band’ Humbug is moving forward with their album of Irish and Scottish favourites, and I’m mixing totally new stuff from bassist Rafael Jerjen’s quartet, which features pianist Luke Sweeting, Niels Rosendahl on sax, and drummer Aidan Lowe: remarkable musicians all.

And in between, some rehearsing with Dave O’Neill and Jon Jones for a Shortis & Simpson christmasinjuly-type Buddy Holly show (it’s The Holly & The Jivey) at Canberra’s Teatro Vivaldi…

It’s great to be getting to grips with some fine fifties tunes; and I’ll be featuring a Pixiphone solo, which should draw the crowds. On a purely personal level, it partly compensates for having to do Tinkerbell with an ocarina. See yesterday.

This week, BBC Radio 3 is running my sister Lowri’s programme Debussy’s Summer of 1912. You can listen online at www.bbc.co.uk/radio3 until the 25th. Lowri says: ‘I will be talking to musicologist Robert Orledge about Debussy’s work during this very hot and irksome summer, and pianists Roy Howat and Alasdair Beatson will be playing and talking about Jeux and the Préludes, while Peter Hill recounts the encounter in Paris between Debussy and Stravinsky, and their reading through at the piano of Stravinsky’s latest ballet score, The Rite of Spring.’

Wendy’s shadows

My first lesson in shadowpuppetry today: for Jigsaw Theatre’s production of Wendy – a new twist on the Peter Pan story. I didn’t know I was going to be doing this – thought I was just playing music and attempting to act, but it’s a fun addition to the job description – which includes being a pirate and a Lost Boy skilled in archery, impersonating Tinkerbell via an ocarina, and flying. The flying bit still needs some work.

The show tours schools in the Canberra region with four performances at The Street Theatre in early August: good to be getting back into shows for kids.

And while we’re talking about kids’ shows at The Street Theatre: Chrissie Shaw with Gran’s Bag, with a cameo appearance by Baba Yaga…