27th February 2017, Another cold evening for a concert but we were treated to a comprehensive evening of great musical variety at the hands of John Cooper, hands which he was rubbing together to warm his fingers, two of the heaters in the hall were out of order. At least by the forthcoming March concert we should be moving into spring and perhaps warmer weather? John punctuated his music with a good sense of humour between pieces. As he started to play he slipped off his shoes to operate the pedals in his socks. He didn’t want to scratch the pedals… Whilst playing, John’s father maintained a projected video relevant to the music as an inset on the screened images of keyboard and pedals.
The evening opened with music in the stile of James last, the Elizabethan serenade, we heard music from Les Misérables, a variety from Disney, Hans Zimmer’s pirates of the Caribbean. Further pieces included, The Rose, Hero, Unforgettable, Bring him home, Conquest of Paradise, Palladio, and a very soulful rendition of ‘Morning in Cornwall’. Eventually the concert reached the end of the evening and John returned to play ‘Time to say goodbye’ as his encore.
The instrument John brought with him was a Yamaha Stagea ELS-02C. Apparently these are very rare in the UK perhaps only two models including John’s. It seems one can be purchased here for £25,000 or as John did, journey to Japan and bring your own back for about £6,000 or was it £8000? Well out of interest I checked and today you can buy one direct in Japan for 1,036,800 Japanese Yen or in good old GBP £7,862.96p
John’s Yamaha Stagea ELS-02C
Posted in Concert Review Tagged with: A concert - The Organist Entertains, BOKC, brentwood, concert, john cooper
Chris Jones
Perhaps it was the recent icy roads and fogy evenings or the particularly chilly night of the 23rd Jan, maybe the road closures after an explosion that evening, which took out the building front of flats in Ardleigh Green Romford. Something brought about an unusually low turnout for the music of Chris Jones.
Standing under a heater in the hall and rubbing his hands together he joked about how cold the hall was, it did though fortunately warm up during the evening.
As we perhaps expected, Chris produced a concert that provided music from many genre’s, from the classics of Gustav Mahler to Boyzone, TV themes including sleepy shores and Poirot. A comprehensive evening’s entertainment which even had his audience singing along with him.
The instrument that Chris brought with him had been adapted and reengineered by Chris to make it slightly more portable, he made a point of telling us that the equipment was 25 years old yet apparently, just as good as new.
Whilst I can appreciate good music my present knowledge of these keyboard instruments is limited and I have had to ask for details. So thanks to Dave for the following.
Chris had a self built 3 manual and pedal organ made from a Yamaha US-1 (dating back to 1990), a Technics KN7000 keyboard and a variety of Yamaha, Korg and Roland sound expanders including the Fantom XR which was used to provide some very good Theatre Organ sounds.
Chris’s Keyboard!
Posted in Concert Review
| A concert – The Organist Entertains
Members and visitors are invited to enjoy being entertained musically, whether they can play or just like to listen, probably only 25 per cent of our members/visitors own or play an instrument. Venue address : Mountnessing Village Hall, Roman Road, Mountnessing, Essex, (Click postcode for location map ) The club usually meets on the fourth Monday of the month at 8pm.New members or Visitors welcomeEntrance fee – £5 for members, £7 for visitorsAnnual membership is £8 single, £12 for a couple living at the same address (Entry, pay on the door) |
Posted in Concert Review
