My Favourite 25 Songs Of 2011
I’m going to wade into murky waters here, by offering up my 25 favourite songs of 2011. Are these the best songs of 2011? Maybe, maybe not. OK, probably not. Truth is I’m not normally a big fan of “best-of” lists. And, listing best songs, as opposed to best albums, always makes it harder to [...]
Guitar Etudes – Warmup Exercises For Guitar By Pat Methany
For the past few weeks I’ve building my guitar practice sessions around Guitar Etudes – Warmup Exercises for Guitar by Pat Methany. This book is an exploration of Methany’s pre-show warm routine and features eleven studies, based on transcriptions of his actual pre-show playing. At first glance the book looks like a set of classical-music [...]
Singapore And SoundCloud Searches
Earlier this year I played a small part in helping kick-off HKSocial, a monthly breakfast meeting, for creative types in Hong Kong who are interested in better understanding Social Media. Despite having moved to Singapore, it’s nice to see they haven’t forgotten me, yet, as I was reminded on Friday when my Twitter stream lit [...]
Music Is Movement
Just over a year ago I started my music company, SoundWallah. It’s be a rocky but rewarding year. With the MusicMatters conference on next week and the move to Singapore around the corner I thought it was a good time to update the SoundWallah site. Thinking about where SoundWallah might go in the next couple [...]
Imogen Heap In Adelaide
Last night I had the chance to catch Imogen Heap in Concert here in Adelaide. It was a spur of the moment decision to check the local listings and book a ticket. It turned out to be a fantastic concert. She played to a rapturous audience in the comfortable environs of the Dunstan Playhouse. It [...]
Hong Kong Favourites (10-6)
Hong Kong is a bustling, noisy, crowded and constantly vibrant city. Industrial and heavy transport estates are surrounded by densly packed high rise and neon-lit shopping precicints that are not infrequently compared to Ridley Scott’s vision of the future in Blade Runner. But, like any city, Hong Kong has places where one can find a [...]
Ute Lemper And The Piazzolla Sextet
When the 2011 Hong Kong Arts Festival programme was announced, the pairing of Ute Lemper and the Piazzolla Sextet immediately caught my eye. Astor Piazzolla was the progenitor of the Nuevo Tango, or new Tango; which took traditional elements of the Tango form and combined it with new instruments (like electric guitar) and new styles [...]
Scott Henderson
Scott Henderson was in Hong Kong last week for two shows at the Skylark Lounge. In fact, we were lucky to see Scott at all, as he was in Northern Japan during the recent earthquake. He was due to give a workshop the day before the gig, but had to cancel that after issues with [...]
Elvis Costello
It has taken a while to write up this review of Elvis Costello’s stellar Hong Kong Arts Festival performance. I’ve struggled to do justice to his deceptively simple but powerfully crafted show. Elvis Costello entertained, cajoled shocked and seduced Hong Kong in a solo performance. He was alone on stage with seven guitars (though he [...]
Cecilia Bartoli (Hong Kong Arts Festival)
Tuesday was the opening night of the Hong Kong Arts Festival. Actually, festival events have been running for a few days, but as happens with these things sometimes, the “official” opened was made to coincide with a big marquee event. And, as far as classical music goes, they don’t get a lot bigger than Cecilia [...]
Eric Clapton
Friday night was a chance to see Eric Clapton live in concert. He toured Hong Kong a few years ago, with guitarists Doyle Bramhall III and Derek Trucks joining him on guitar. This time Eric was the only guitarist and it was a more straightforward, greatest hits oriented show (here’s the only other local blog [...]
Christmas Playlists
Every year I like to create some Christmas playlists. Right now there are three hundred and ninty one Christmas tunes loaded into my iTunes library. That might sound like a lot, but once you start making playlists, the gaps and inconsistencies soon appear. For example, I have eleven versions of The Christmas Song, but only [...]
Birthday Time
Another year, another birthday. Of course, I can’t really complain. This past year has been an extraordinarily full and rewarding one. Moreover, today, as far as birthdays go, has been one of the happier ones. That said, I’ve been in something of an ornery and frustrated mood of late, which accounts for the lack of [...]
MusicMatters – The Music
The recent MusicMatters conference featured a lot of live performances. We had artists on stage during the proceedings. Moreover, there were four consecutive nights of showcases – the final two nights of which involved free gigs across four venues in Lan Kwai Fong, on Friday and Saturday night, with at least five performance slots for [...]
Recommended Listening
As I mentioned recently, recommending music is something I typically over-think, for a variety of reasons. For this list I’ve crossed borders, of genre and geography, to come up some recent albums that have established themselves on my playlists. I don’t claim these are “the best” albums of the past few years – just a [...]
Ojos De Brujo
One of the most surprising inclusions in this year’s Hong Kong Arts Festival line-up was Catalan group Ojos De Brujo. Typically the HKAF organisers do a good job of showcasing internationally diverse music. However, Ojos de Brujo are a decidedly more pop offering than is typical for this festival. I suspect that a small percentage [...]
Making Music Recomendations
I’m not a DJ. That sounds like an obvious, almost frivolous thing to say. But, for a lot of musicians I know, the distinction between being a “creator” of music and a mere “selector” of music is an important one. Sometimes it carries with it powerful emotions about the role and prominence that DJs have [...]
David Murray’s Black Saint Quartet
It’s a credit to the Hong Kong Arts Festival organisers that every year they bring serious and challenging Jazz artists to Hong Kong. This year the festival brought as saxophonist David Murray – one of the clearest and most powerful voices in today’s Jazz scene. Sadly, these particular concerts are often disappointing – not in [...]
Café de los Maestros
For most of us, there is music we like, music we love and then music we carry in our hearts, as if it were a legacy given to us by former generations. Tango is an example of the latter for me. However, I grew up in Australia and during my childhood years Argentina was struggling [...]
Nina Simone Remembered
The 2010 Hong Kong Arts Festival is underway and, as in previous years, I will be blogging my way through various events. First up was Sing The Truth: Nina Simone Remembered; a concert showcasing four great vocalists, Lizz Wright, Simone (Nina Simone’s daughter), Patti Austin and Dianne Reeves, singing material made famous by the great [...]
John Williams In Concert
There was a moment, in last night’s concert, which really summed up the evening. John Williams, one of my childhood musical heroes was in town for a one off performance at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre. It was a sellout show featuring a musician who has many fans in this city. Williams did, after all, [...]
Looking Back On Three Years Of The Hong Kong Arts Festival
The Hong Kong Arts Festival happens in February and March every year and for many people in this city, it is the cultural highlight of the year. Last week I booked tickets for the 2010 programme, which promises to be quite memorable. I’ll be writing more about that in the future. But, for now, I [...]
Enrico Rava Quintet and Henderson/Berlin/Chambers Live In Hong Kong
Of all the shows on offer in this year’s Hong Kong International Jazz festival, the one that immediately caught my eye was the double bill of Enrico Rava’s new Quintet and the Henderson, Berlin and Chambers supergroup at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre. Enrico Rava is a superstar of European Jazz, perhaps Italy’s best known [...]
Best Year For Songs?
Neat little question from Waveformless, Have you ever noticed that some years seem to produce an awful lot of really good albums while others produce virtually none? What’s your favorite year for music based on the releases that came out during that time? For pop music, my guess, on this morning, would be 1979. Sure, [...]
Fernando Gros is a musician, photographer & writer based in Singapore. Born in Santiago de Chile, Fernando grew up in Sydney and has also lived in London, Delhi and Hong Kong.