MiltonlineGreat to hear Alexia Coley played, interviewed – and majorly bigged up (embiggened?) – by Craig Charles on BBC Radio 6. I really enjoy playing with her, great singer, great performer and a good, good person. Album on Jalapeno Records out in the autumn.
Listen (from 1:37 here
Out of nowhere (well somewhere obviously) I’ve been asked to step in the guitar shoes with The Spike Orchestra. I’ve not heard of these people before, but I’m glad I have a quick listen reveals a sophisticated, witty, complex and satisfying original blend of Naked City, cartoon composer Carl Stalling, Kenny Wheelery contemporary jazz, rock and something unnameable. My first concert with them will be Sept 13th 2013 at the Forge, Kingston and I can’t wait to get stuck into/get roasted by the spaghetti charts.
After a slight hiatus while half of the band reproduced themselves the VTQ are back in the studio, reroasting chops for some summer gigs. I love the people, (Paul Thorpe, Nathan Thomas, Richard Watts, Pat Symes, Liz Mitchell, ‘Frank’ Watkins and Mat Duke) and am moved by the ego-less humour and creativity of the music.
With 3 Albums down, festival gigs and a bucket of TV syncing it’s infectious, eclectic and irresistible music, and I’ll continue playing with them until they find me out.
It’s wonderful to be involved in classical guitar virtuoso John Williams’ latest recording project. Details to follow, but the energy, enthusiasm and skill he continues to deliver after 200 CDs, all the accolades and well over a half-century of professional musicianship is astonishing and inspiring in equal measure.
In May, I’ll be recording a second instructional Guitar DVD for Future Publishing. Not Jazz, like the last one and it will involve a lot of research and work, but am looking very much forward to it. Now I have to beg, borrow or steal* a Gibson 335…
*possibly buy
It’s a real pleasure to be Alexia Coley‘s guitarist. She has the most wonderful and authentic blues soul voice. After her fresh signing, there’s a slew of gigs coming up including a monthly residency at the luxurious Paradise Club Next Gig: 3rd May.
“If Otis Redding had a child with Sade, Amy Winehouse and Etta James, She might sound something like this.” says Mike Benhaim of Metro Canada with no respect for current fertility technologies.
I can say without bias that Bridget‘s classical guitar playing and arranging is exquisite and widely admired by musicians from Julian Bream to Tim Minchin. It was an absolute pleasure to record and produce her debut solo album, and the next is just around the corner.
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Composition for Martino:Unstrung (Sixteen Films 2008) Full length documentary of the extraordinary life of jazz guitar legend Pat Martino.
“Perhaps the best documentary about a jazz musician ever made” – Victor L. Schermer All About Jazz – read full review and interviews here.
Here’s Tim Minchin’s masterpiece Storm, animated and produced by DC Turner and Tracy King, for which I had the pleasure of providing production & arranging services.
A Chimera Network project Bloodlines is a performance that traces the microscopic drama that plays out between a serious disease and medical treatment in the human body. It draws on its makers’ personal experience of Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia (which I developed in 2004) and its treatment through intensive chemotherapy, radiotherapy and a bone marrow transplant (donated by his sister Alex Mermikides, who is directing the performance). Also collaborating in the performance is Ann Van de Velde, a clinical haematologist involved in the care and treatment of blood disorders such as Leukaemia, and Anna Tanczos, a digital artist specialising in science communication.
‘…is the human body a soul-less, self-less object at the mercy of automatic internal processes…or is it a precious vessel containing a unique individual…?’
Sian Ede Art & Science. London and New York: Taurus Books, 2010. p.145
Bloodlines was presented at the 2013 European Bone Marrow Transplant Conference and will premiere at the Dana Centre on 18 July 2013.
My sister, Dr. Alex Mermikides, and I have recently won funding from the AHRC to set up a network of scientists, artists, writers and musicians to collaborate on Art-Science projects.
The Chimera Network brings together a network of scholars and professionals in arts and science disciplines. Through a series of events and artworks, the network explores collaborations between artists and scientists, asking:
How might collaborating with scientists generate novel creative methodologies, artistic forms and modes of spectatorship in artistic practice?
How might collaborating with artists prompt new understandings of scientific ideas and forms of science communication for both scientists and the general public?
Exciting projects afoot.
On May 9th, I’ll be playing with the fab (almost) all-Australian Orchestra Ruthless Jabiru under the directorship and baton of Kelly Lovelady.
I’ll be performing live electronics with the 18-piece ensemble, for Brett Dean’s fabulous Carlo. Which interweaves multiple fragments of renaissance composer Carlo Gesualdo’s vocal works (of which I am great admirer) among the live orchestral passages. Originally written for sampler and CD, I’m reworking the electronics for Ableton Live to be triggered via Launchpad (assuming my Push won’t reach me by then). It’s quite a tricky score and electronic fiddle but potentially very powerful.
We’ll be performing in the incredible Exhibition Hall of London’s Australia House (which you may recognise as Gringott’s Wizarding Bank).Ticketing info here. Magic.
Here’s the theoretical section of my PhD Changes Over Time (2010)
Changes Over Time:Theory – Milton Mermikides by Milton Mermikides
And the practice portion:
Changes Over Time Practice Milton Mermikides by Milton Mermikides
Jazz Guitar Instructional DVD published by the good folk of Future Publishing
In their words…
From the makers of Guitar Techniques this magazine and DVD package is especially for guitarists that can play from lower to upper intermediate level. It’s for those that want to strike out on the path to jazz – or who simply fancy adding some cool jazz chords or some juicy jazzy licks to their current arsenal of chops.
A collaboration with Mike Hall and Tom Hardwidge of Considered Creative brought about this super fun animation for the opening of the 2013 QED conference. Musically, I wanted to capture the relentless spirit of scientific exploration through the ages, so felt a perpetual motion chord sequence with the instruments changing in line with the ages. 50 points for identifying the sound when Cox throws the LHC switch.
Presenting at the Neuroscience of Imagination event at the British Library alongside Blind Summit Theatre, Pulitzer-nominated author Arthur I. Miller, Professor of neuroscience Vincent Walsh and Chiara Ambrosio was a real joy. You can hear my talk on the Myth of the Muse (essentially how composers and improvisers come up with stuff) in the video below.
The Institute of Neurology, UCL are looking for male professional classical guitarists or pianists, aged 30-65 to put through an MRI. A 2 hour study. I’ve done this sort of thing before and it’s bloody interesting. Expenses + anecdotes. Here are the details:
For pianists aged 30-65yrs: study using state of the art MRI techniques that aims to reveal how your brain achieves such high levels of motor performance.
* Neurologists and neuroscientists at the Institute of Neurology, London are currently recruiting for an imaging project in which they will study the neural signature of piano performance and excellence of fine finger control.
* This study uses a new fMRI analysis technique that allows us for the first time to accurately map individual fingers to different parts of the brain. This figure shows the activation of one the fingers in a region called the motor cortex in a healthy control … we do not know how this differs in pianists ….
* We ask for 2 hours of your time. We understand that we are ambitious to invite a group of individuals that are phenomenally busy with performance demands and teaching and hope to offer appointment times that are convenient for you. We can pay all travel costs and will also reveal all from the data we get in the study….
* We are also examining pianists that develop dystonia of the hand which will increase knowledge about this poorly understood condition and improve existing treatment techniques.
* Please contact Dr Anna Sadnicka if you are interested in hearing more about this study (0203 4488605 or skgtas2@live.ucl.ac.uk)
For Part 2 of the Beatless series lets look at a Beatles rework by one Joe Connor.
Here the motivic and harmonic elements of the piece are extracted and examined through repetition with gentle timbral variation – techniques borrowed from minimalist and process music.
This, together with non-quantisation rhythmic elements creates a compelling atmosphere. Electronic music has been refreshed of late with such artists as Mount Kimbie rejecting the dominance that strict grid-based (‘quantized’) time has had on the genre. ‘Loose’ (but not sloppy) timing has a huge effect on musical expression, and this latest trend in IDM is heartening.
Enjoy.
I thought I’d use this platform to share with you some of the great work my students are doing together with some commentary addressing compositional technique. Here’s the first of many to come.
As part of one of my coursework portfolios, I offered my talented and creative students at Surrey the option to rework a Beatles track. Beyond a cover or remix, the brief was to reinterpret and/or electronically deconstruct/reconstruct musical materials from any Beatles track. There was some great work such as Em Bollon’s modal reinterpretation of ‘Here Comes The Sun’ Remodalisation (invented term) is the technique of translating melodic and/or harmonic material into a parallel mode (set of notes or scale). The original track’s major tonality (with some modal interchange and secondary dominants) is really effectively (and intuitively) reinterpreted into mixolydian and dorian ideas, blended with electronic japery. Quite lovely.
A rehearsal of the fab (& lovely) livingroominlondon ensemble playing my piece for quintet and electronics The Escher Café, A musical representation of a set of M.C. Escher engravings.
The Voodoo Trombone Quartet’s latest album is OUT. Lovely, lovely post ska eclectica. http://open.spotify.com/album/3ViPhvhno2st63A6tSAVSn Personell:
Paul Thorpe – Keys, Vocals
Milton Mermikides – Guitars
Matt Duke – Bass
James ‘Frank Watkins’ – Drums
Liz Mitchell – Baritone Saz
Nathan Thomas -French Horn
Pat Symes – Trombone
Richard Watts – Trumpet
Here’s a video of the presentation at the British Library on March 12th 2012. In preparation for the lecture I was put in an MRI machine with a plastic fretboard (aka ruler) and improvised while UCL neuroscientist Dr. Joern Diedrichsen examined my brain’s working. For the event I performed to a video of my brain activity showing what bits lit up (technical) during improvisation.
On musical learning and Pat Martino.
And my brain on jazz.
It’s tempting to think that it’s only the domain of modernist composers, theorists and ethnomusicologists to talk of anything but 12 notes in an octave. After all if it was good enough for Mozart and Beethoven it should be good for everyone, right? Well, as it happens, Mozart and Beethoven understood F# and G-flat as different notes. A manuscript survives for example of Mozart’s teaching notes to his English student Thomas Attwood showing the difference between a major semitone (e.g. E to F) and a minor semitone (Fb to F). Almost universally considered as identical today, in his they were pitched slightly differently.
Very few musicians are aware that even into the 19th century fingerboard diagrams and scale exercises existed with two types of accidental (e.g. g# as distinct from a-flat) as well as keyboards with split keys so that the player could choose between accidental types.
It’s remarkable how efficiently this has been filtered out of the system so that even professional classical musicians and teachers – let alone students – are unaware of our microtonal recent history.
