This is a slightly amplified/modified version of the presentation that was given at the event Does Black Christian Music Matter? hosted on Zoom by the Centre for Black Theology at the Queens Ecumenical Foundation in Birmingham, UK on July 10th, 2020. There were one or two places where the speaker went ‘off-script’ in the live […]
This summer, the game changed forever. I was finally able to realise a dream that up until this opportunity (below) would be nothing more than talk. I am writing from both a practical-musical and theological-church perspective when I now say that musical audiences are still more divided and stratified across genre/context than ever before – […]
The previous post on this blog is a reflection of a music and worship conference – an event that was more than a shot in the arm in terms of my reconnecting to my vocation of sacred ‘musicking’. However, there was no doubt in my mind that I would be exploring ways of Christian congregational […]
Well. I have written blog posts about my jazz piano influences, but none about my saxophone influences – hence this blog post. My first experiences of Courtney Pine – in the 90s – were all unrelentingly positive. He is the reason why I play jazz on the saxophone – one evening I chanced […]
Twenty-one years ago, despite my having strong support from the Head of Keyboard and the Head of Woodwind, Brass and Percussion, I was rejected by the Director of Music for entry into the sixth form (this is two years before university here in the UK) at Chetham’s School of Music. The name of the man […]
Five years ago, I made a bucket list of works I wanted to have conducted – in five years. I can only say that I had no idea what it would cost me to realise those musical ambitions – and if I had, I’m not sure I’d have kept that dream alive. But this week, […]
For those of you that clicked the link on the ADM Productions jazz page, thank you so much for coming through to this blog – your desire to understand where I am coming from is not taken for granted in any way. For those of you who found this post by some other route – […]
Many years ago, I had a good friend whose focus and discipline as a musician used to act as a regular rebuke to me. Not her words – just how she lived her life as a musician. She possessed a basic certainty of drive and overall direction as an undergraduate music student that I knew […]
Last week, a huge door closed. [see this post for more details.] And in the days that have passed which have served as the (entirely necessary) processing time, it has become very clear that this is indeed the way forward. It is not that I will never once work with members of the Seventh-Day Adventist […]
In response to what has now become Part 1 on this subject, I was asked some searching questions by a friend, ministry colleague and brother in Christ. They were worthy of a serious response, so please see the dialogue below as follows. Q: Are you aware of a time within UK Adventism, when the depth […]
