Tunde Jegede answers a few questions from LS …

kora player Tunde Jegede

Tunde Jegede is a composer and multi-instrumentalist, playing cello, kora, piano and percussion. Uniquely placed between the worlds of contemporary classical, African and popular music, he is a prolific producer/songwriter and a virtuosic performer who has worked with artists as varied as Courtney Pine and the Brodsky Quartet.

Tunde performs with the London Sinfonietta on Thursday 10 March, and took a few minutes out of his hectic performing schedule to answer a few quickfire questions for us …

What – or where – is perfection?

In the transcendental musical moment.

Who is your favourite hero from fiction (book/comic/film/opera)?

Macbeth. I like his complexity!

What’s your favourite ritual?

I always try and have a silent moment alone in complete stillness before a concert.

Which mobile number do you call the most?

My wife.

What do you fear the most?

My own anger!

What other talent or skill would you like to possess?

To be able to drive.

Tell us about a special memory you have of Southbank Centre.

The premiere of African Classical Music was given by my ensemble at the Purcell Room, Southbank Centre on 22nd October 1991.

Tell us about a special memory you have of working with London Sinfonietta.

I recorded the title track to my debut album, Lamentation with Members of the London Sinfonietta including Christopher Van Kampen who was a fantastic cellist but has sadly passed away now.

What’s your favourite website?

Mobile Me as it allows me to do so much on the move. I am rarely on one place!

If you could programme your ideal show, which artists (living or dead) would you bring together?

I would love to bring to the Southbank Centre a show I did in Paris for the St Denis Festival which brought together the legendary Malian artists, Oumou Sangare, Toumani Diabate, Kasse Mady, African Classical Music Ensemble and the Brodsky Quartet for the first time. The show was an amazing collaboration of some of the world’s greatest artists and has yet to be performed in the UK.

What is the most important lesson life has taught you?

Patience.

What is the most played piece of music on your MP3 player or in your CD collection?

Tomorrow by Salif Keita.

Tell us about your part in the London Sinfonietta concert in Southbank Centre’s Queen Elizabeth Hall on 10^th March.

I am performing a couple of pieces for solo kora drawn from my album, Still Moment.

Tunde performs a selection of pieces for kora, the traditional African lute-harp, at London Sinfonietta’s concert Adès and The Origin of the Harp on Thursday 10 March, 7.30pm. Click here to find out more, or click here to listen to clips from Tunde’s album Still Moment on LastFM.

www.tundejegede.com

Music for 18 Musicians in Glasgow & Birmingham

Serge Vuille was our percussionist at the very first London Sinfonietta Academy in July 2009, and since then he’s graduated and regularly joins the ensemble for our landmark events and touring projects.  This weekend, he performs master minimalist Steve Reich’s Music for 18 Musicians for the first time, and told us a bit about how rehearsals are going…

Wednesday 9th February

The good thing about Henry Wood Hall (a rehearsal space in Borough) is that they serve a brilliant cooked breakfast within the building. So on Wednesday morning, once all the instruments were in the right place, I went down to the ‘crypt’ in the basement and ordered a double egg on toast with tea to make sure I would have plenty of energy for the rehearsal. I have never played Music for 18 Musicians, but I know the piece and know that energy will be required.

I am the only one in the piano-percussion section who has never played this piece, and when the rehearsal starts I still don’t know exactly which part I am going to play. Although there is a music part on each stand in the room, this piece is rehearsed following more of an ‘oral tradition’. The players change from one instrument to the other (including pianists playing marimba, singers and percussionists playing piano), and share the music. So David Hockings (Principal percussion) and Micaela Haslam (director of Synergy Vocals) introduce the piece to me with much expertise and enthusiasm as we go along. I like this way of working, where experience is the main source of information, and printed music acts more like a reminder.

It takes a few moments for me to find the right feel to the music: relaxed but right on top of the beat. It feels safe anyway to be surrounded by great musicians who know exactly what they are doing. I am fortunately familiar with Steve Reich’s music, and after a little while it starts to feel comfortable. I can then concentrate on communicating with the other players, and enjoy the waves and turns of the music.

 

Thursday 10^th February

The singers join us today, but the violinist is ill (he’ll catch up in the afternoon)… This means we can’t run the whole piece as he cues both the beginning and the end, but we can deal with it as this music never really starts or stops, it mainly evolves. There is no conductor and no bars to count, but there are cues and signs from one player to another. During rehearsals, when we take up from a certain place, there isn’t a ‘1-2-3-go’, but one of the players starts (probably a melodic part on the marimba) and the others just come in in no particular order. The two ‘cue masters’, showing the big changes between parts are the vibraphone (Tim Palmer) and first clarinet (Tim Lines).

My part consists mainly in playing repeated chords on all the beats uninterruptedly during chunks of about 10 minutes and changing chord for each section. I love it. It is the backbone of the music (shared between several musician through the piece), and maybe the best position to listen and enjoy the rest (but not too much, because the slightest drop in concentration results in a very subtle but noticeable wobble in time). Just opposite to me is Olly Lowe, playing upbeats, right between my downbeats. We studied together at the Royal College of Music and it is great to play with him again ‘in the real world’. It is the weirdest impression to have this constant pulse of quavers going between the two of us while it is very hard for the ear to distinguish what I am or he is playing. It is sometimes better not to listen too carefully.

I was in the audience for the London Sinfonietta’s last performance of Music for 18 Musicians at Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall last year and loved it. One of the great things about a concert performance of this piece is that the listener can focus on many different layers and aspects of the music: the constant pulse, the melodies, the changes in texture, the waves, the visual aspects, the sounds coming from the ground, those flying just under the ceiling, the attack of the sticks on the marimba, or oppositely only the resonance. Steve Reich’s music can sound very simple, but it is extremely rich, and offers a very complete concert experience. I can’t wait to perform Music for 18 Musicians for the first time in Glasgow, and even more so with the London Sinfonietta.

Serge Vuille

Serge is one of the London Sinfonietta’s percussionists for the tour of  Adès’s In Seven Days alongside Reich’s iconic Music for 18 Musicians.

Click here to watch our short film about Music for 18 Musicians, which includes exclusive interview footage with Steve Reich.

Living Toys in Budapest- Part 3

On 29 January 2011, London Sinfonietta performed for the first time in the Palace of Arts in Budapest. Included in the programme was Living Toys by Thomas Adès, which has a particularly interesting part for trumpet.

Alistair Mackie, Principal trumpet of the London Sinfonietta, describes the concert day:

Saturday 29th Jan.

5.30am.

In a taxi to Gatwick-it’s a cold dark morning and I find it impossible to contemplate the reality that I’ve got to do a concert tonight. Budapest seems like another world from here.

7.20am

I’m sat on the plane which was due to leave at 7.40am. The captain has just found a scratch near the rear door. He suspects that stairs have been pushed too hard against the plane and engineers have been summoned to check for any structural damage. Possible two hour delay. Great.

9.45am

Finally taking off, two hours late. Wonderful.

1.15pm

We’ve landed and are taxiing to the terminal. The rehearsal started at 1pm and has to finish by 3.30pm as there is another concert in the hall before ours. It doesn’t look like we will manage a complete run through of tonight’s concert.

5pm

By the time we got our bags and had been driven to the hall we were really pushed for time. We did manage to play through the first piece in the concert. It’s the only other piece I’m in tonight and is called “At First Light”. It’s by George Benjamin and is a great piece with a brilliant high trumpet part. The Adès piece is 17 minutes long and was rehearsed for 7 min before we had to vacate the hall. I’d like to have done more, to say the least, but at least my lip is fresh!

Sunday 30th Jan.

The concert went well, better than I could have hoped. The group played with fantastic energy and the Adès, which closed the concert, felt really good. It seemed like a real performance and the people around me played with such panache that for long periods of time I did manage to forget about the technical terrors of the piece and just enjoyed the spirit and excitement of the moment. I love it when it’s like that, it’s why I’m a musician. However long you prepare, and for however long afterwards you retain the memories, music is an art which only really exists in the moment it’s played. There were some great moments last night. I think sometimes that as works grow old, performers become more and more able to master their challenges-The Rite of Spring for example is now a standard repertoire piece for most orchestras. The Adès, like most of the music the London Sinfonietta play, is still new to all of us and has certainly not grown into the comfortable experience of a repertoire piece. There is a vibrant edge to the performance of new works that brings with it a unique excitement. It makes me feel immensely privileged to be part of this amazing group.

At the end of the show I felt in a bit of an exhausted daze. I think people sometimes think I’m disappointed or flat when I’m like that. I’m not, it’s just my response to the intensity of a show like last night’s.  We had a party afterwards at a flat Mark van de Wiel keeps in Budapest. It was great fun, lots of Hungarian champagne and everybody in noisy high spirits.

I’m on the plane back to London now. I’ve got a rehearsal this afternoon for a tour to Spain that starts tomorrow morning. It’s also my wife’s birthday today so we’ve managed to squeeze in a birthday meal with the family at a nice Italian restaurant. Although it’s been a hectic couple days, I feel good. It was an experience to tackle the Adès and however many more times I play it, I will never forget my first attempt in Budapest.

Living Toys in Budapest- Part 2

On 29 January 2011, the London Sinfonietta performed for the first time in the Palace of Arts in Budapest. Included in the programme was Living Toys by Thomas Adès, which has a particularly interesting part for trumpet.

 Alistair Mackie, Principal trumpet of the London Sinfonietta, explains how the nerves kick in as the rehearsals begin:

Wed 26th Jan.

The first rehearsal for the Adès has just finished and I’m now sat in my second rehearsal of the day-Bartok’s 1st piano concerto with the Philharmonia, Esa-Pekka Salonen and Yefim Bronfman. I feel shattered and unable to concentrate. All my confidence disappeared during the first Adès run through, when I began to understand the enormous challenges of fitting my part together with the rest of the group. For example, there is one extended solo passage where the group and conductor play in bars divided by three while the trumpet plays in bars divided by four.  At the end of the passage I was a full two bars adrift. The rehearsal was good though and by the end a lot had been achieved and my confidence was partially restored. I can’t make the next rehearsal because of my Philharmonia commitments so that’s it till Budapest now. Yikes!

Friday 28th Jan.

The group has left for Budapest this evening. Three of us- Mark van de Wiel (clarinet),  Byron Fulcher (trombone) and myself are committed to the Bartok series the Philharmonia is running at the moment so tonight we were repeating our Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall concert from last night in Basingstoke. It was a hard concert and I found it particularly difficult, partly because my mind was very much on the challenges of tomorrow-travel/rehearsal/concert, and partly because I had, today, to endure the yearly torture of finalising my accounts with my accountant. It took most of the morning and I was too tired to focus after a late dinner with sponsors after last night’s concert. The taxi is ordered for 5am tomorrow and I’m going try to make the most of another short night’s sleep. I’m feeling envious of my colleagues who I’m sure will now be finishing a splendid meal in a good Budapest restaurant before heading to bed for a good night’s sleep. I look forward to their smug humour when we arrive tomorrow.

To be continued…

Living Toys in Budapest-Part 1

On 29 January 2011, London Sinfonietta performed in the Palace of Arts in Budapest for the first time. Included in the programme was Living Toys by Thomas Adès, which has a particularly challenging part for trumpet.

Alistair Mackie, Principal trumpet of the London Sinfonietta, gives us an insight into how you go about preparing such a piece:

I got an e-mail last summer from the London Sinfonietta’s Chief Executive Andrew Burke highlighting a concert in Budapest on 29 January. The concert was going to include a piece by Thomas Adès called Living Toys, a piece that has gained a certain notoriety among trumpet players. As I was a new member of London Sinfonietta Andrew was flagging up Living Toys well in advance. I had the music sent to me and at first glance it really didn’t look too bad; some tricky rhythms, a lot of mute changes and a couple of jazz inspired solos with plunger mute. Good fun but nothing to stress about. It was clear, I concluded, that some of my colleagues had been exaggerating the difficulties of this piece.

My smugness was short lived.

I soon realised that most of it was written in piccolo trumpet pitch, which is to say it sounds an octave higher than written. Stamina is one of the biggest issues for trumpet players and high register playing severely restricts the amount of time you can play for. 

This part felt ridiculous, full of relentlessly high passages combined with all the usual complexities of contemporary repertoire. Living Toys surely wasn’t playable.

In order to prove myself right, I tracked down a recording made by the London Sinfonietta shortly after the piece was premiered in 1994. 

My heart sank – John Wallace, Principal trumpet at the time, could play it!

I put the music on my stand and began the long process of preparation. Part of that process was the usual technical work-fingers, tongue, pitch, rhythm. Most of it though was a combination of stamina building and brain bullying-trying to gain enough self belief that I could come close to playing it.

By mid January my kids were begging me not to practise it any more and, while not confident, I was beginning to feel better about my prospects. Inflicting some overdue revenge on my drum playing teenage son was an unexpected bonus! 

To be continued…

The London Sinfonietta’s recording of Living Toys, featuring John Wallace on trumpet was released on EMI Classics in 1998 and can be purchased here.