Quick update from Bristol

Hey all,

it’s nice to be back. Let’s get straight to the point.

I moved to Bristol in October… well, really in December, as before I stayed in Hanham at Mark’s place and haven’t actually worked in Bristol until the last week of November.

That is when I got a job at this super hipster bakery that tries to be a restaurant as well called Pinkmans. It seemed like a place that’d be very on time with what’s going on in the world of coffee so although I’ve got a better position offered somewhere else, I decided to take on Pinkmans – as I really loved my coffee stuff.

I became a regular visitor of a few open mics in town, trying to find musicians interested in forming a band.

Then it turned out that Pinkies don’t actually care about the quality of their coffee and serve their beverages in cups smelling like a dirty dishwasher so I figured out I need to save money asap to get a battery-powered amplifier and get far away from there.

That’s when trouble at my flat begun but there’ll be a separate post for it cause it’s a long and interesting story, beautiful and disgusting depending on its moments. Anyway, I won, as always, and moved on. I still hang out at the flat all the time.

And then, after I bought my amp and asked Steven, the owner of Pinkmans to go part-time, I’ve got fired through an email, while on my holidays, with not a day notice for some bullshit about being sick/willing to go home early after I asked them for one day sick (first since three months) after working the whole day in fever and not being able to talk.

So if you’re planning on getting your chai latte from Pinkmans (note it’s not actually real chai tea latte, it’s just milk with spices), be aware that your money goes to such person. And that the stuff gets paid minimum for working 10 hours with 20 minutes break. In athmosphere in which general manager doesn’t speak to one of the employees (not even hi) for almost two months long. Where KP with a degree got fired for ‘lack of interest’ and where multiple people are getting fired through an email without earlier notice about the reasons. You’d support the place that exploits amazing amazing people – because the team that I had chance to work with was absolutely amazing. The girls on the counter, my colleagues on the bar and the beautiful bakers and kitchen staff…

If you’re vegan, don’t buy H&M, hate Nestle or work for Amnesty International or just care about hungry children in Africa – don’t be selective about changing the reality that surrounds you. Don’t support Pinkmans.

*****

Getting fired was the best thing that happened to me – ever since I’ve been busking/getting gigs for the summertime. Earning way more money, wasting no time and not having to eat/drink from smelly dishes.

I’ve been meeting so many people and my perspective has changed a lot.

Not being opressed on every day and put in a situation where someone judges all of my actions while not having any competitions in the field (coffee) and burning their milk every time, I’ve relaxed my muscles, my throat, my soul. New songs are being composed, new opportunities are coming my way, I get a lot of sunshine, have time for vocal practice and finally get to see my friends. I’m also playing my first-ever-in-the-UK festival! … but that’s material for another post, a pure musical update with no bullshit low-class evil in it 😉

Here’s me (and my third eye, hence the enlightment!) with a friend that I made while busking:

IMG_2270.JPG

Quick update from Bristol

Just a small self-advertisement

Hey everybody,

today’s post a little bit different. I know I’ve got a story to finish but recently I’ve been putting all my creativity into music and may need another moment before I sit down to write.

For today – back to the music. I’m just starting and therefore need to promote it anywhere I can.

I am now offering to compose music for you.*

Have you got a poem that you’d like to sing out to people? Do you want to tell something the person you love? Have you got a musician friend who’s better with the lyrics than the music? Or maybe it’s just an artist’s block and you just need a little kick?

Please, send it to your friends and family, post on your Facebook, twitter or blog… I would really love it, if you helped me make it roll.

You can find the offer here:

https://www.fiverr.com/ninasaw/compose-music-to-your-lyrics?funnel=89766dce-aa78-4547-871f-7e4f424017ab

 

*Commercial use costs extra but then you never know if it doesn’t make a #1 😉

13227727_1019978778081728_3137232147184873727_o

 

 

 

Just a small self-advertisement

Ornette Coleman dead at 85

I’ve just received news that Ornette Coleman, my favourite sax player died yesterday at the age of 85. According to New York Times the cause of his death was cardiac arrest.

What I love Ornette for:

1) Tomorrow is the question!

2) Grafton Saxophone

In the 50’s he was rather broke, working in LA as an elevator operator, Coleman swapped his tenor saxophone for the cheapest option. He stuck to it until early 60’s.

3) Free jazz*

Ornette Coleman is a major innovator of the free jazz era. In 1960 he asked himself a question: ‘what will happen, if I bring into a recording studio two different quartets [of a similar construction] and tell them to improvise?’. Of course there had to be some meeting points. He lead one of them (Don Cherry – pocket trumpet, Scott LaFaro – bass, Billy Higgins – drums), Eric Dolphy (bass clarinet) the other one (Freddie Hubbard – trumpet, Charlie Haden – bass and Ed Blackwell on drums) <– click the name and listen to the music.

Ornette’s quartet was recorded as the left channel, Dolphys – as the right one. There were two tracks released on this LP: Free jazz (part 1) on side one and Free jazz (part 2) on side B, being the lengthiest recorded continuous jazz performance to date (almost 40 minutes!).

What was the final piece? For some genious, for some disturbing. I love it.

* Some critics try to convince the world that Free Jazz wasn’t free jazz because you could sense the pulse of rythmic sections, there are solos and blah blah blah. I say – the guy who called his album Free Jazz first, claims the right to set what free jazz is. **

** No, I don’t seriously think that. Yet in my heart Ornette’s ‘the guy who invented free jazz’.

4) Harmolodic

You invented your own music genre, it’s popular, people play it in China, Argentina and Nigeria. What do you do? Invent a new one!

Actually a whole philosophy of musical genre (and a nice name for your record label).

Coleman said harmolodics was ‘the use of the physical and the mental of one’s own logic made into an expression of sound to bring about the musical sensation of unisonexecuted by a single person or with a group.’ Basically this means that ‘harmony, melody, speed, rhythm, time and phrases all have equal position in the results that come from the placing and spacing of ideas’.

‘Get rid of tonal centres!’ yelled the jazz scene of these days.

In 1972 Ornette presented his idea in Skies of America (his 18th album! Recorded in Abbey Road Studios), where members of the London Symphony Orchestra played parallel lines as written, without transposition to their home keys.

I just can’t resist and need to share this video of harmolodics in Poland:

And here’s harmolodics:

There are dozens of reasons for you to love Ornette Coleman and his music. There are dozens of reasons for you to hate his music. I know that I will remember yesterday as the day when my dream passed away. He was my dream by all means. He was my inspiration and consolation. I’m pretty sure he was an inspiration for thousands of other people too. Well, I won’t see him live any more, yet the dreams of mine he owned are now free, to be taken. I’ll try.

Ornette Coleman dead at 85