Corey Mwamba

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Briefly...

I found this on the Wayback Machine. I'm going to pull some of the articles off there and put them here!

My goodness, I feel a bit under pressure at the moment; I'm supposed to be starting an Master's degree in Library Studies and Information Management and I'm nowhere near getting on one for October; finished one bid for work and have another one to write; and whilst that's happening for work, I've got the Ignatius Sancho project stuff to do and a quartet gig to prepare, each one requiring new music.

I love the approach to autumn... it just gets busy for me [maybe it's different for everyone else; they tend to get busy in the summer, I've noticed] and before I know it, I don't know where I am.

The summer has been kind to me, though [I know it's not over yet, but have you seen the amount of rain we've had?]; I played at my first ever wedding! I'd never done one before, and was going to write something, but I opted for playing standards instead, and got Josh Blackmore and Nick Jones to accompany me on drum kit and bass respectively.

It was very hot that day; we played in the full sun in the beautiful setting of the South Lawn of Kedleston Hall. I thought I might lapse into chops-playing as I hadn't played any standards for about six months, but strangely I didn't; not only did I think of different things to say on each tune, but I also found myself happy with what I was doing. Maybe it was the occasion; but I just felt very pleased about what I'd played for each song. There were quite a few jazz fans in the audience who showed their appreciation, Jim and Fiona [the beautiful new couple—congratulations again, if you read this!] invited me back to their party afterwards! A good day all round.

That's... er... ALL I have to say.

Decibel Live Commission: update!

I got ANOTHER official confirmation letter—I got a Grant for the Arts from the Arts Council, receiving £4960 to help me fund the rehearsal and writing for Nature's Glory, Fancy's Child and [briefly put] looks at the life of Igantius Sancho, using the Symbiosis Ensemble. It's STILL very exciting... will put up mini-site eventually when time allows.

Talk talk

Where have I been? I've finally sorted out the Internet connection at home, so I can tinker more... but with work and living, I'm restricted to the mornings only.

I don't suppose I really need mention this—we all have to balance things in our lives—but trying to keep on top of everything is quite difficult. My day job [which I KNOW I said I wouldn't talk about here] involves getting out there and communicating; nice, [I hope] you'd think, and it is. But because it is such a "round the clock" job [I never stop talking to people, and they don't stop talking to me], it can feel a bit draining. Music is now more of a liberation for me than it used to be.

I've just finished doing three talks—one quite short and for the Arts Council here in the East Midlands; the other fairly long and for a cultural diversity celebration; and the third as a guest for the Lottery Heritage Fund. The first two talks were concluded or interspersed with a solo set.

I had the same feeling at both events; everything I wanted to say and how I was feeling condensed into my sound, getting to know my instrument again, and this strengthed my monologue, made it more alive.

The last one was hard; although I'm quite passionate about heritage and culture, it felt like I was wading through treacle to be understood. Raised voice discussions and digressive statements mixed in with way-too-long explanations of the same thing over and over again... "the way of local government" as I have heard my boss say. What makes it weird is that the audience in the last two talks were exactly the same people.

Maybe if I'd just set up the vibes in the corner, I'd have done a better job. Quicker.

On record

Just checked in my local independent music shop—Quantic's new album, Mishaps Happening, is out. I hadn't heard the track that did a part for, so I thought I'd listen to it, and it was pretty darn good, really funky and soulful and with nice string parts [I hadn't remembered them from when I did it]. The bits that I played had been treated really well, I still felt like it sounded like me. I loved the whole album as well, so although I haven't bought a copy yet, I definitely will do so—maybe you could too [no hints or strange plugs on this site, eh?]?

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