Wednesday, November 20, 2013

Rehearsing with Helen and the Horns

We had a good Helen and the Horns rehearsal last night and we did manage to nail Happy Ending and Twice Brewed; and Secret Love, and it looks like we'll be playing Pioneer Town too. Stephen Joy is an excellent trumpet player and he brought along his new custom-made flugelhorn, which looks as though it's made of copper with brass fittings.
There's something very Thomas Heatherwick about it (I'm thinking Steampunk, not neo-Routemasters) and it closely resembles a Steampunk USB that I sent off for about a year ago, except it hasn't got a little flashing red light on it; or if it has, I didn't see it. And of course, it's much bigger.
The blend of the players, Paul Davey on sax and Dave Jago on trombone, both original Horns, was absolutely superb in the section parts. I wonder if we sounded this good back in the day?
We will be playing for a full hour at the Lexington on 8th December. I will have to do a lot of practising with The Green Goddess because she's so different to play from the Telecaster; the neck is skinnier and a bit shorter, the frets are more prominent and she's so very big. But she is still an amazing beast.
Thanks to the three guys for a really great (and tiring) evening.
From the Jazz Caff a couple of years ago, with Martin:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJOzHmS6Zqk

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