June 2025 Newsletter
- The Premises Studios
- Jun 6
- 6 min read
QUOTE OF THE MONTH
“These were musicians who had made a conscious decision to dedicate their lives to an art form and lifestyle that offered only two promises: that they would never master their craft and that they would never get rich. They were the purist artists that we had known or would ever know.” STEVE EARLE (talking about Bluegrass)
Gee, ya think? Here at Premises we have artists at all stages in their careers, and while not all might get rich, everyone here is honing, crafting, making their music sound better. Sure, it’s great to get rich and famous, but are those the only things by which we measure musical success? Mainly people come here to rehearse or record, and surely rehearsing over and over suggests an attempt at mastery, giving it their best shot. It’s a joy to stand out in the corridor and hear that process unfold, that a song that didn’t sound that tight at the start of the session is sounding stage or record ready by the end. Mastery is on a spectrum, and the more a band rehearses, the tighter they get. End of. We are just lucky so many great bands choose to do that, here. Lecture over. On to all things Premises:
JAZZ PIANO PERFORMANCE COURSE
We know we say this every year, but this really was one of the best years of Nikki Yeoh’s wonderfully crafted live jazz piano course, introducing bright new gunslinger on the jazz scene, Sultan Stevenson as one of the tutors.
What’s particularly lovely to see on performance day is the mutual support and respect of the students, who took jazz classics and put their own spin on them with a stellar band comprising Denys Baptiste, Dominic Howles and Miles Pillinger.
But we have to say, the standard of playing this year was particularly high, especially with our younger players. Laughlin, had a tremendously accomplished take on Softly as a Morning Sunrise and Marcus, who played a lively version of So What, astonished all of us.
If they are this good now, how will they sound when they’ve been playing a few more years? A question probably millions of watchers of Channel 4’s The Piano asked themselves when 13-year-old Marcus duetted with another contestant on Blue Moon. We found this out by watching it and sputtering, “There he is, our boy!” because he was too modest to mention it at Premises. Well done all the Premises Players. And we can't wait for…
JAZZ PIANO RECORDING WEEK
Last keyboard-related, item, but one for your diaries. We had firmed up dates with Nikki Yeoh for her 27th annual piano recording course. Five days of rehearsing jazz, blues, Latin jazz and getting recording ready for the fifth day when, backed by a professional rhythm sections, you will record in our state-of-the-art recording studio. Tutors to be announced very soon, but the dates are 27-31st of August. No price hikes this year either AND, this time everyone will have their own keyboards. You told us that’s what you wanted so we bought some more! For more information: michele@premiseseducation.org
CARLEEN ANDERSON’S BLENDED ROOTS OPERA
The most important thing you need to know about singer and composer Carleen Anderson is that she keeps on moving musically, and having gone from 80s Soul Queen to opera composer and scorer, she is now set to bring her opera, which is not like ANY you would have heard before, to the big stage.
What’s important to Carleen is not only switching things up, musically, but to inspire other artists who feel they are in an artistic pigeon hole, that they can switch genres if they do so with passion, belief, and the smarts to learn and create an entirely different form of music than what they used to do.
We sat down for a natter in studio one, where she kindly entertained my first question which was ‘Whoah! Opera! All those vowels! How? Why? What’s it about?’
“I am developing a new approach to traditional opera which is a dramatic music story telling style, with roots, blending the traditional opera form with jazz, soul and gospel. I grew up with this.It is called Melior Opus Griot, which means betterment through story telling. It’s part fantasy, with an ocean floor society with a girl, a mermaid, and an ocean world where the other inhabitants of the ocean encourage the girl to go back to the land and recruit land dwellers to make things better, to use art as a platform for making things better.
‘Wowser! Where did this idea come from?’
“My Aunt had been a Julliard scholar and I heard her blend classical and gospel styles and interchange them. My grandfather was pastor of his church, there was no entertainment and he did not want to just preach about the hereafter so he would create opera from the bible stories. It was roots but told through music, and people would make costumes, I saw all this from toddler age. I always wanted to do it but there was never an avenue for it, this all within three streets, in Houston Texas where we lived.
My auntie was more progressive, coming up in the civil rights movement, so from either side I got the sense of arranging a music, storytelling platform. In my mid 30's I was offered to do something completely different in the musical sense, but it was never my first love. I could do it, I could deliver it, but it didn’t feel like it was me, though the theatre and opera worlds, which I am approaching, know me for that and they might be traditionalists and I would never try to to change that, but I think to move forward in music you have your tradition and do something new with it.”
‘It’s mighty ambitious. Apart from having it produced and fully formed and performed, what else do you want from this new avenue of creative flow?’
“I would like this to be a template for other artists to try something new and not to be told that one particular style is all they can do, but it does require independent thinking, and the industry is not based on that.”
‘This sounds like a big endeavour. Huge.’
“This is 12 scenes, four acts and I would hope to have a choir of 48 singers. It has taken some years in the making but I am now at a stage in my career where I feel driven to do this, to complete it.
I am transcribing from handwritten to digital so it makes sense to other musicians but I will need a copyist.The choir part is to me reflective of a village, you know demanding and it needs a lot of voices. And it is mixed media, with atmospheric sounds and the ocean as a backdrop, which is in the opera tradition, and helps present opera to the theatre world.
For more news on all fabulous things to do with Carleen’s opera: https://www.melioropusgriot.com/
WOMEN IN JAZZ
We had a wonderful time last month, hosting the first Women In Jazz recording/production course in Studio A, led by Lou Paley and her team. Full report in next month's newsletter!
FRIENDS IN HIGH PLACES
Congratulations to... our good friend of forty years Gary Crosby, recently honoured by the Royal Academy of Music.
A heads up that BBC Radio 3 will be airing Gary Crosby’s interview and his Africa Space Programme session in tonight's Round Midnight. The session was recorded in Premises Studio A. Here is the link to listen in from 11:30pm
WHO’S BEEN IN?
In May, we hosted a bevy of beautiful bands and artists, some getting ready for the summer festival circuit, and others, playing out elsewhere in a venue near you, hopefully. These included: Luis Warrener, Robert Fleming, Clive Langer, Billy Ocean, Snog, Arthur Hill, London Voice Academy, Fourmarks, 47 Soul, Cath Marsh, Fossils, Muzical Minds, Arthur Hill, Okikiade, Janelle Fraser, Arena, Jordan Li- Smith, Jamal, Ugly, Christopher Sheppard, Harry Nye, Laurel Smith, Nectar Woode, Even Owen, Stan Pratt, Jim Rattigan, David Robinson, The Bristows Band, A Guy Called Gerald, Alexander Gold, Lust Ritual, Zara McFarlane, Nieve Ella, Sienna Spiro, Dirty Rumour, Fay Milton, Pulp, PP Arnold, Martin Luke Brown, Clara La San, The Warehouse, Kneeslide, Joe Garland, Tomorrow’s Warriors, Erin Bloomer, Perry Homo, Neal Street Productions, Understudy, China Moses, Erin Bloomer, Samsara, Barry Can’t Swim, Alex Gold, Koteri, Urban Soul Orchestra, Barney Keen, Sunrise and Jupiter, Silver Gore, Mark Fry, Sofia and the Antoinettes, CSX Pistols, Blue Lab Beats, Murray Head, Rizzle Kicks, Alfie Whitbread, Leith, Hero Baldwin, Glenn Clarke, On That Note, Delta, Takashi Komine, Clover, Kawala, Timba Britanica, Say Now, Triggerfish, The The, Connie Constance, Nikki Yeoh, Nat Bartsch, Bea Elmy Martin, Linda Dawn, Anthony Mason, Daniel Avery, Erin Le Count, Eden, Israel, Asha Parkinson, Loyle Carner, Chinchilla, Daphne and Celeste, Melomaniac, Toyah Delazy, Springfield Quartet, Kelly Lee Owens, Wasia Project, Andy Meyers, and many others!
AND FINALLY...prove you are not a robot
