The recording below is "There's A Long, Long Trail A-Winding", first published in London in 1914.
Featured on mezzo-soprano Patricia Hammond's 2015 release: Songs of The Great War (see discography), this is my creative arrangement rather than a faithful adherence to the conventions (and limitations) of Popular Song arrangement for commercial recordings, domestic/theatre/music hall performance and non-improvised dance music in the 1910s.
Musically is it foremost a tribute to the banjo orchestra, (a then-popular instrumental ensemble throughout the British Empire and U.S.A.), and to a lesser extent to the wider "B.M.G." movement (banjo, mandolin & guitar ensembles, or “plectral orchestras”) in general and its many tens of thousands of colourful members across the globe 100 years ago, whose ensemble sizes, the levels of musicality, craftsmanship in idiosyncratic arrangement and composition as well as technical proficiency of their multi-instrumentalist professional members, and, not least; the popularity of such ensembles with audiences (!): scarcely imaginable today.
The scenes of word painting in my arrangement range from the most subtle to the literal and the melodic fragments of the chorus are developed in a rhapsodic manner in the instrumental sections, being: the introduction, middle section and outro of the song. The opening fragment of the verse however bore enough resemblance (in my mind – 3 identical pitches in the same rhythm, in the same key, at a similar tempo) to the opening fragment of the chorus of Raymond Hubbell and John Golden’s “Poor Butterfly” published in 1916 (another Great War-Era popular song) for it to be quoted before each verse of “There’s A Long, Long Trail A-Winding”.
Aside from manipulation of the melodic material, my arrangement is a unique hybrid of the characteristics of the following musical vogues of the 1910s: Marches, Polkas, Ragtime, Chorinho, Orientalism, Impressionism, Romanticism, Mediterranean Folk, and Hawaiian. The latter genre being one by which North America became gripped from 1912 and one which was undoubtedly heard by its young composer Alonzo "Zo" Elliot and lyricist Stoddard King around the time the song was written in their dorm room at Yale University in 1913.
It is a multi-track recording on which I play all 18 instruments comprising of members the banjo-family, guitar-family and ukulele.
The complete score is available for view in PDF format here. (You may need to hold Ctrl/command to bypass pop-up blocker)
The recording below is "Neapolitan Nights" by J.S. Zamecnik, a "light music" and popular song composer, with words by Harry D. Kerr.
Orginally published in 1925, my modern arrangement seeks to reference the sound and style of the mandolin and guitar orchestras that were popular during the early 20th Century. As this was a creative commission from the Chap Magazine rather than a straightforward pastiche, numerous other instruments are used that weren't part of those orginal ensembles. The Southern Mediterranean theme is treated in a broad sense as I take the music to Greece and compose a section of new music for the instrumental in the middle, heard at 2:05.
This is a multitrack recording on which I play ukulele, mandolin, bouzouki, classical (nylon string) guitar, 12-string acoustic guitar, acoustic slide guitar and acoustic bass guitar.
Sung by "The Canadian Nightingale" - Patricia Hammond The complete score is available for view in PDF format here. (You may need to hold Ctrl/command to bypass pop-up blocker)
patriciahammond.com.
"Can't Help Singing" is a song by Jerome Kern/E.Y. Harburg from 1944. This version is my arrangement for two classical guitars, mandolin and voice. I am playing all three instruments and Patricia Hammond is singing. The complete score is available for view in PDF format here. (You may need to hold Ctrl/command to bypass pop-up blocker)
This song features on her album Our Lovely Day, available to purchase here.
This is "Shenandoah", a well known American folk song. This is my ever-so jazz-country-tinged arrangement of it and in it I'm playing electric dobro, 6-string and 12-string acoustic guitars, mandolin and fretless electric bass guitar.
The following video is a performance of "Colonel Bogey - March" composed by F.J Ricketts (Kenneth J. Alford) in 1916. It's a well known tune to whistle and has been used many times. Here is a new arrangement of mine in the original 1910s march style but with embelishment and obligatos. It's for tenor banjo/mandolin banjo, clarinet/tenor sax, drums/glockenspiel and piano.
"Yours" is by Gonzola Roig, Albert Gamse & Jack Sherr and is a song dating from 1931. Here is a recording which I co-arranged for a small ensemble with Nick Ball. Our arrangement is an allusion to what an arrangement of such a track could have sounded like in the 1930s and features an original tango composition sandwiched in the middle. On this recording I'm directing the ensemble and playing electric guitar, bouzouki (featured at 2:52) and mandolin. Patricia Hammond's album "Our Lovely Day" on which this features is available to purchase here.
"Yearning For A Valentine" is a pop-rock song with a hint to the 80s in which I play organ (entering at 0:28) and electric guitar (entering at 1:00). I also devised the arrangement. Have a listen closely to the guitar figure in the second verse (1:00)- the combination of two electric guitars is used to create sustain between ajacent notes in a scale which wouldn't be possible on only one guitar. This is a completely live demo recording.
'Monarchs of the Sea' are a novelty early jazz duo who revive the golden era of cruise ship entertainment, the early part of the twentieth century. This arrangement is our light-hearted rendition of Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance" - imagine its year of composition to be somewhere around 1920. I am playing the banjo in the top hat.
This is a celtic folk tune rather appropriately titled "Out On The Ocean" yet anachronistically played on a "jazz" tenor banjo tuned C-G-D-A (rather than G-D-A-E as is customary for Irish tenor banjos). This was because I was at sea and this is all that was available. We were in the Bay of Biscay so thought it fitting to add flamenco-style clapping as an accompaniment.
"Here Comes The Sun", a well known song from Abbey Road by the Beatles I'm playing here on classical guitar. I devised this instrumental arrangement myself though it lends itself very well to the guitar, using lots of open A, D and E strings and thirds and sixths on the top three strings so I shouldn't be surprised if you find a similar version.
"Enganche", as any Spanish-speaking Latin American football lovers would know, refers to something like the star player or striker. It is also a the name of a blog about Latin American football, AND the name of the tune below which was a comission for a podcast theme tune for said blog. It is co-written by Nick Ball and I and aims to fuse together tango and funk which are the favourite genres of the blogger. On the recording I'm playing electric guitar, bass guitar and piano.
An original composition entitled "Neverland". Think Peter Pan. Played here by guitar (me), viola and harp, with some vocals thrown in. It's in an ambient, slightly West African kora-influenced, soundtrack style.
"Operatic Rag" is a composition by Julius Lenzberg from 1914. The arrangement you hear is also by the composer, though I devised the banjo part. The recording is by my band 'R.M.S. Lusitania Ragtime Orchestra' and I am playing piano and banjo. Weaving in several famous opera themes along the way it is one of the more original pieces of the instrumental ragtime orchestra genre which enjoyed popular sucess from the end of the nineteenth century until it was superseed by the "hotter" music - jazz, in the early 1920s - involving more improvisation.
"Everything" is an adult contemporary grammy-nominated single by Michael Bublé from his album Call Me Irresponsible. This is a duet version in which I am playing the piano. I intended the part to be more lively and rhythmic than the original record. I am not singing.
The video below features an improvised jazz-rock fusion electric guitar solo from a recording session for "Catholic Sports Day" by Nick Ball. I had previously recorded the acoustic rhythm guitar you hear in the accompaning parts.
The full solo can be heard below at 3:30
As an hommage to the style heard on jazz innovator Pat Metheny's solo guitar albums I re-harmonised and arranged "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" for steel string acoustic guitar and recorded it in a stone staircase.
An expanded version of this arrangement for classical guitar is available for view in PDF format here. (You may need to hold Ctrl/command to bypass pop-up blocker)
"Nice Cup Of Tea" was written by the English humourist and playwright A.P. Herbert for his musical revue 'Home & Beauty' which was first performed in 1937 to celebrate the coronation of King George VI. It amazes me how many people know this song. I co-wrote the arrangement and I'm playing the ukulele and whistling, which along with the glockenspiel gives it a Disney touch I always think. I am not the creator of this very literal and slighty amusing video.
The complete E.P. on which this features can be purchased here.
"Therapy" is an ambient/soundtrack/chill out song to me and on this recording I am playing the mandolin. Listen out for the very high artificial harmonics, not a sound often heard in mandolin music.
"Moldaveneska" is by the same band as "Therapy" though rather different. On this fiery version of a tradional European gypsy tune, which has balkan as well as country elements I am playing the electric guitar. At 2:38 I take a solo which alludes to the African hi-life style. I am responsible for parts of the arrangement.
Here I'm playing nylon string guitar in a medley of two tunes - "Tenura" and "Um A Zero" from the Brazilian genre chorinho which is not usually played on the instruments that are in this band and we interpret it as theoretically played by North Americans in the early 1930s, so not entirely authentically Brazilian. I'd been wearing a hat that's why my hair is like that!
"Five different Jobs I should Never Have Done" is a novelty song which features my bossa nova and samba accompaniment on nylon string guitar.
"Tomorrow's People" is an electro-pop cover version of a relatively obscure song from 1970 by McDonald and Giles, which I jointly led from its first rehearsal to the live demo version you hear here. I am playing glissandos, cascading arpeggios (heard at 1:03) and repetative octaves and fiths backings on a keyboard imitating an arpeggiator and sampler which wasn't available at the time. I am using a sine wave synthesizer sound, an hommage to the original electro sound of the 1980s. I also play a chordal break on the mandolin at 2:14 which develops to bring the band back in for another chorus just leaving myself enough time to get back to the keyboard - more fun to watch than to listen to.
"Lucky To Have Me" is a live demo recording and an orginal composition by the band who covered "Tomorrow's People". My joint arrangement is influenced by the sound of the Eagles, Shania Twain and other country and Americana artists for which I orginally engineered five-part vocal hamonies but the final version features only three-part vocal harmonies in the chorus. I am singing the highest of these harmony parts and playing an acoustic rhythm part on the 12-string guitar. At (2:51) I switched to electric slide guitar to play dramtic backings to the bridge.
"You're Driving Me Crazy" is a resoundingly popular song composed by Walter Donaldson in 1930, shooting to #1 in the UK in 1961 in a version by The Temperance Seven. The playful version here is influenced by both periods of time and on it I am playing acoustic guitar.
"Your side", a guitar-led pop song, is presented here in two versions; the first of which is the album version and the second, a live rooftop version. I am responsible for aspects of the arrangement including the vocal harmonies. On the album version I play the electric guitar heard in the right side, sing the highest harmonies and in the outro I play the slide guitar starting at 3:20 and build to a brick wall ending. On the rooftop video I am playing the 12-string acoustic guitar and singing, (with very long hair).
This is a live, alternative, atmospheric version of Purcell's celebrated air "Dido's Lament" from "Dido & Aenaes" composed around 1688. What you're hearing playing the ground bass is not a cello but me bowing the classical guitar held like a cello between my legs, producing that rustic bass fiddle sound. Due to the fact that the fingerboard of a guitar is not curved like that of a bowed string instrument, it's only really possible to play either one of the outer two strings or all six at once, futhermore the bow must be smothered in rosin which makes a mess of your guitar strings and the resultant sound is very quiet and further notes I play as left-handed tapping as you can hear in the opening. Here the guitar sound is amplified via the built in piezo electric pick up. I don't think I came up with this technique but it's certainly not often heard.
I sometimes bow the banjo too when the music calls for it (and put the plectrum in my mouth), as can be seen from this picture
"26 Hour Baby" is an ethnic pop song with its roots in Bangladesh. In this showreel/rehearsal video I am playing 6-string fretless electric bass guitar. I am responsible for parts of the arrangement including the samba feel and breaks.
"Misty" composed by Erroll Garner in the mid-fifties remains as popular as ever today with jazz musicians and jazz fans. So it's time to do new versions of such material! This is one such interactive version in which I'm playing the piano. The swanee whistle style is an hommage to the once over-the-top, over expressive night club singer.
This chaconny composed by Purcell in the mid-to-late seventeenth century is used in "The Fairy-Queen" and "Dido & Aenaes". This is a fairly modern interpretation but I'm playing it on 11-course baroque lute.
"I'll See You In My Dreams" is one of my favourite melodies. It was composed by Isham Jones and Gus Khan in 1924. This is a rhapsodic version I am playing on the piano. An arrangement I did of this popular tune for voice, violin, two clarinets, acoustic guitar, piano, double bass, drums & percussion along the lines of the 30s sweet dance orchestra style can be heard on Patricia Hammond's album Our Lovely Day which can be purchased here.