The new album ‘Reflections In Blue’ (for Guitar and Orchestra) is now available on CD. It’s been a year in the making and I’m really happy with the result. I am not signed to a big label so I’ve chosen to release it on my own label of Dark Sea Records.

More details, snippets from the tracks and CD purchase options here.

‘Reflections In Blue’: A Creative Insight

The idea for the album title came to me in two ways. Firstly, the pieces were written as personal reflections on times and places in my life. Secondly, as so often in my music, I wanted to feature a colour. I actually see music in colour – but that’s a story for another time! Choosing the colour blue was easy because I purposely chose to include elements of blues and jazz harmony in most of the tracks. So there is a ‘story’ to each piece and I’ll share a couple of those with you now.

Track 2: The Enchanted Garden

This piece describes a magical day a couple of years ago just south of Paris when I visited a small village on the river Loing called Grez. I had wanted to find where the Yorkshire-born composer Frederick Delius lived and where much of his best music had been created. Many icons of 20th century music and art had been visitors there including Rodin, Elgar, Peter Warlock and Sir Thomas Beecham. I was lucky enough to meet the current owner and was invited in. The garden in particular made a big impression and had a truly magical atmosphere which will stay with me forever.

Track 7: Kamakura

Many years ago I played Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club in London and in the audience were some record company executives from Japan. After the concert I was offered a 2 week tour of Japan to help promote acoustic music. In between concerts I did a little sightseeing including a visit to the great Buddha statue at Kamakura. What made the visit particularly special was that my father had been there during his military service in 1947.

Visit the Music section for more about ‘Reflections In Blue‘.