THE ESSENTIAL GUIDE FOR TOURING PROFESSIONALS

‘I wish this book had been around when I first started touring … It should be the first thing we all pack when we head out on the road.’ Philip Selway, Radiohead

This comprehensive manual will help musicians and those working in live music to identify and cope with the various physical and psychological difficulties that can occur during, or as a result of, touring. It covers topics including mental health, peak performance and performance anxiety, addiction, group dynamics, relationship problems, dealing with the media, physical health, diversity and inclusion, crisis management and post-tour recovery.

Written by health and performance professionals, this timely and essential book provides robust clinical advice, cutting edge research, practical strategies, resources and detailed illustrations. Each chapter is underpinned with personal recollections from musicians and prominent touring personnel, including Nile Rodgers, Justin Hawkins, Philip Selway, Charles Thompson, Katie Melua , Kieran Hebden, Jake Berry, Tina Farris, Taylor Hanson, Trevor Williams, Lauren Mayberry, Pharoahe Monch, Jim Digby, Will Young, Angie Warner, Dale ‘Opie’ Skjerseth and many more.

Touring and Mental Health is designed to be picked up, put down, read at length and passed around the tour bus.

‘This book can add decades to a career, give wisdom to the most exhausted mind, and offer encouragement to every burdened heart.’ James Ainscough, CEO Help Musicians UK

‘[it’s] like having a therapist in your back pocket. It helped deepen my understanding of myself as a performer and how the demands of the music business can take a toll’ Siobhan Donaghy, Sugababes

‘The perfect book at the perfect time.’ Marty Hom, Tour Manager Fleetwood Mac, Shakira, Beyoncé

‘A remarkable encyclopaedia of wisdom...  This impressive book needs to be read by every single artist and every single psychological worker as well.’ Professor Brett Kahr, Senior Fellow, Tavistock Institute of Medical Psychology

Publication Date: 23.03.23
ISBN: 9781913172343
Extent: 640 pages
Format: Paperback

Tamsin Embleton is an attachment-based psychotherapist and the Director of the Music Industry Therapists and Coaches (MITC). She worked as a music promoter, tour manager, and artist manager for ten years.

Link here

Vocalist, performer & composer **Vivienne Aerts’ **new album Typuhthâng will be released March 3, 2023 in conjunction with International Women’s Day. Together with 100 next-generation female musicians, and in collaboration with Original Beans Chocolate, Typuhthâng aims to empower the female cacao farmers of Virunga State Park in Congo and replant the rainforest.

The album features 3 sampled soundscapes made from field recordings from Virunga State Park, Congo and 6 original songs with arrangements by Vivienne**, Zahili Gonzalez Zamora**, Ines Velasco Montiel, Ga Young Bae, Linnea Lundgren, Camila Meza and Mariel Roberts as well as recordings by 100 female musicians from over 40 countries.

The songs featured in Typuhthâng are meant to empower women to participate in every role of the project including performing, recording, arranging, mixing, and mastering. Vivienne aims to create a larger collective awareness about sustainability and female empowerment, and how we can work together to make the world a better place.

The album will be available physically, and digitally. When ordered physically, buyers will get a bar of chocolate with the album. The initial pressing of 500 exclusive copies will feature Cacao nib paper and screen print.

Aerts’ music translates feelings into song and connects with people of various backgrounds on a deep and personal level with a light-hearted approach. It contains themes of self-appreciation and the ability to create your own path in life.

“My work with Vervool, a bespoke multi-sensory experience launched with my pastry chef husband, Ted Steinebach, connected me with Original Beans Chocolate,” says Aerts. “Talking with Philipp Kauffmann, the founder, I was inspired by their passion for sustainability, The Femmes de Virunga are a cacao farm collective of 1500 women in Virunga State Park in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The collective, initiated and supported in 2008 by Original Beans, gave women the tools and opportunities to overcome extreme hardship and political unrest. These women, often victimized and routinely left to undertake hard agricultural labor, were empowered through literacy campaigns and leadership training, invited to cultivate cacao and set up a tree nursery. In cultivating this crop, they cultivate their communities. Continued learning, regenerative farming and stable "living wage" from Original Beans enables them to elevate their standard of living.”

“I wanted to use my music to raise awareness of this project. I wanted to use my music, not to inspire charity but to match their entrepreneurial spirit and generate business, ‘Let’s make an album that sells their chocolate.’ And of course, chocolate and music are a bit of a magical combination, right?”

Aerts is a Dutch New York-based vocalist, conductor, and composer with a focus on electronics and multi- sensory experience design. She studied on a Fulbright and graduated Suma Cum Laude at Berklee College of Music (Boston, USA) where she worked with renowned jazz artists such as Danilo Perez, Joe Lovano, and John Patitucci. Since then, Vivienne has shared the stage with both national and international Jazz icons such as Lee Konitz, Kenny Werner, Chris Potter, Peter Erskine, and Florian Weber. Vivienne released her first album Roofgarden in 2009 and her second album Polaroid in 2012. Vivienne has been residing in New York City since 2015 where has performed at the Blue Note Jazz Club, Jazz Standard, Metropolitan room and Mezrow. Together with her husband she organizes events and performances under the name Vervool using jazz, haute cuisine, and modern art.

Aerts also works with Kenny Werner and the Effortless Mastery Institute at Berklee. Before moving to America, she graduated as a jazz/pop choir conductor and got a master's degree in Clinical Psychology after which she worked several years as a psychologist, a teacher, and a conductor of several choirs besides performing with different bands as a singer. In 2018 Aerts spoke at the National Fulbright conference in Mexico at two TEDx events and recorded on Kenny Werner’s 2019 Vinyl release Church On Mars with Dave Liebman, Terri Lyne Carrington and James Genus for NewVelle records.

Available here

Already nominated as “most innovative concert experience of the year” in their homeland of Denmark, hotly-tipped Neo-soul group ‘Tigeroak’ present their debut album ‘Living and Living’ (Feb 24th on April Records).

Denmark’s vibrant scene is among Europe’s finest in its diverse and forward-thinking nature, as displayed in full force by the young group. Led by the duo of Laurits Steen Møberg, an electronic musician, producer, and guitarist, and Anna Prinds, a vocalist and lyrical composer, the music is inspired by underground jazz, hip-hop and neo-soul. Combined with their Nordic roots, the music is crafted with a nuanced palette of sounds and bridges the gap between accessible songs and an experimental jazz spirit. Propulsive grooves, melodic choruses and figurative lyrics grab the attention, but dig a little deeper, and you’ll hear intricate rhythms, complex lines and ear-catching effects.

Recorded at Abbey Road, Living and Angel Studios, ‘Living and Living’ features exceptional modern production which combines warm, jazz musicianship with immersive electronic and atmospheric textures. Thick vocal harmonies, intimate recordings of acoustic instruments, and hard-hitting drum beats effortlessly come together to form a dynamic and immersive sound world.

Tigeroak was selected for Jazz Denmark’s National Jazz Competition and performed twice on the popular national television show DR’s: “Sammen - hver for sig”. Along with their Danish Music Award nomination for “most innovative concert experience of the year” their debut looks to bring their immersive live show to a wider, international audience.

Laurits Steen Møberg | electronics, guitar Anna Prinds | vocals

Martine Bak Toldam | piano, rhodes Peter Marott | trumpet Jakob Marker | drums

Ditte Warrer Bech | Flute

Available here

Jazz flute meets hammond organ trio on Isabelle Bodenseh’s “Flowing Mind” (GLM Records) this February, in a celebration of the reinvigoration and relief shared by many after the Coronavirus pandemic.

The period saw the flautist face adversity on two fronts. The first, a total shutdown of performances,  was shared by many. But the virus also caused her to lose her breath, the basis of her craft and livelihood as a flute player. The waves of adrenaline she felt travelling to her first gig post-pandemic released an inner dam, both of creativity (hence the album's name) and by easing her breathing.

Historically the preferred soloist of the classic organ trio lineup has been the tenor saxophone, but Bodenseh’s stylistic idioms and extended flute techniques provide a refreshingly new take on the format. Influenced by her classical training, love for the jazz tradition and time spent in Cuba studying the Afro-Cuban style, the album presents a series of original compositions performed by an ensemble of long-term collaborators and dear friends.

Frequent shifts in texture and mood create the space for each member of the ensemble to make their mark on the record’s voice. Adventurous improvisation, bubbling, laid back grooves and confidently lyrical compositions come together to convey Bodenseh’s sense of joy through embracing her creativity after a long period of darkness.

Isabelle Bodenseh | Flutes Thomas Bauser | Hammond Organ Lorenzo Petrocca | Guitar  Lars Binder | Drums Hilde Singer-Biedermann | Violin (Track 9) Ruth Sarrazin | Cello (Track 9)

Track Listing

1. Confluting
2. ASAP
3. Flowing Mind
4. Molecular Cooking
5. Dog Rose
6. Mediterranean Sea
7. Sans Moi
8. Chilli Challi
9. Flowing Mind (Bonus Track)

Available here

16th January 2023: BBC Jazz Award Winner Anita Wardell and Australian Jazz Pianist Dave McEvoy have just self-released the first single 'Wouldn’t It Be Loverly?' through the distribution company, Distrokid, from their up-coming album “Stars”. You can now hear this track on most platforms including iTunes, Spotify, YouTube andmore. Anita and Dave will continue to release some more singles before the whole album comes out.

'Wouldn’t It Be Loverly?' available here

Having known and performed with each for many years, they decided in May 2022, to record a duo album exploring love and loss; the vulnerability of human experience; and the vast expanse of sky that can at once liberate you or bring you undone.

Anita and Dave released the album in Melbourne, Australia on Dec 8th 2022 with a live performance at the Melbourne Women’s International Jazz Festival. The album “Stars” is set to be released in the EU on the 29th April 2023 with a performance at the amazing Birdland Club in Hamburg, Germany. There will also be performances of this project in the UK.

Stars features some beautiful re-worked jazz standards and some originals including a dedication to the late, great British jazz singer Tina May.

How the record came about…….

The idea for the record originated in late April 2022 when Dave and Anita got together around the piano and talked about what we each wanted to convey with the music. “A connection with our respective authentic selves, our vulnerable selves, was something we both wanted so, we set about describing to each other, what the lyrics and the melodies represented to us. After ruminating for some time on the colour of the harmony and how it would enhance each song, and the way we heard it, we worked on reharmonising the chords, marrying it all together “

The Recording then took place on May 10/11 2022 at Wizard Tone Studios in Adelaide Australia with the talented engineer Jarrad Payne who totally captured the essence of this set of songs.

Anita, recipient of the prestigious BBC Jazz Award, was once described by Mark Murphy as ‘a gift’. Lauren Henderson (2020 winner of the National Jazz Awards) writes, ‘Anita Wardell is my hero; a world-class storyteller and improviser. Dave McEvoy embodies everything I believe jazz to be—honesty, heart, and playfulness—all the while maintaining impeccable technical command of the instrument. Don’t miss your chance to see two of the greatest living jazz musicians do their thing. It will change you.’

Canadian-born California-based singer Kari Kirkland teams up with four-time Grammy nominated producer and pianist Shelly Berg for the release of her sophomore album if (when you go) this January 13th, 2023.

Breathing fresh life into a range of classic songs, the all-star line-up is brought together by lush arrangements and immaculate production at one of Los Angeles’ premiere recording venues. Kari’s journey to the legendary Capitol Studios in October 2021 was by no means orthodox though…

Growing up criss-crossing the States as the child of two touring musicians, her roundabout route to jazz singer includes time as a professional trapeze artist, circus producer, and private chef. The next step was no less surprising either; the day after wrapping at Capitol, Kari flew to Seattle to donate her left kidney to a fellow musician, and spent the remainder of 2021 recovering. The session itself, though, was just what you’d expect from such an array of jazz talent. Collaborating once again with Shelly Berg, the duo assembled an all-star ensemble featuring the legendary Peter Erskine (Weather Report), Terell Stafford (McCoy Tyner, Christian McBride), and Carlitos del Puerto (Chick Corea, Quincy Jones, Bruce Springsteen) amongst others.

Led by Kirkland’s intimate, honest vocal style, the unique arrangements encapsulate the essence of a collection of contemporary songs including Sting’s Fragile, Coldplay’s Fix You, and Jeff Buckley’s Lover, You Should’ve Come Over. In a refreshingly new context, the vocals soar above a sonic landscape of pristinely recorded, masterful jazz musicianship, big-band-esque horn lines, lush string arrangements, and top tier production. On working with Kirkland, four time Grammy nominee Shelly Berg said: “There is a depth of truth and heart in her singing that is very, very compelling. I’m proud and blessed to have done this project with her.”

Kari Kirkland | Vocals Shelly Berg | Keyboards, Arrangements Peter Erskine | Drums Dean Parks | Guitar Brian Kilgore | Percussion Kevin Axt | Bass Terrel Stafford | Trumpet Carlitos del Puerto | Bass Jason Arkins | Saxophone David Mason | Saxophone Camilo Molina | Trumpet  Michael Gutierrez | Trumpet  Brandon Bryant | Trombone Budapest Scoring Orchestra | Strings

Purchase the album here