The Concert Review: Charles McPherson

"I'd like to collect my tickets for the concert I'm here to review," I remember asking as I walked through the entrance to The Venue at the Leeds College of Music last week. "Are you press?" asked the man behind reception. "Well, kind of," I awkwardly replied, "I'm a blogger..."

Luckily, my credentials were deemed sufficient to receive my tickets and proceed to the concert. And, wow, was it worth it. Charles McPherson, an alto-saxophonist, is known as one of the all time greats of the jazz world, with a career spanning from the 1950s to the present. He is most well known as a member of Charles Mingus' band in the '60s and for his recordings in the soundtrack to the Clint Eastwood film 'Bird.' This concert was a rare opportunity to see him perform and a bargain at £15 (£13 concessions).

Tonight he performed as part of a jazz quartet, leading Barry Green (piano), Jeremy Brown (bass) and Stephen Keogh (drums) through two challenging yet enjoyable sets. The musicians kicked off with a cover of 'Billie's Bounce' in a suitably vibrant fashion to start the night. All musicians were immediately given a chance to demonstrate their solo skills, along with their communication and connection with each other. Barry Green on piano was particularly good, capturing that 'effortless cool' which so defines jazz and effectively carrying the band as McPherson took the opportunity to change his reed.

McPherson followed this with an original entitled 'Nightfall,' a entirely different tone of piece which demonstrated the versatility of the musicians on the stage. My personal favourite, I found this piece to be sonorous and lilting, evoking the image of its namesake effectively thanks to the mellow tones of McPherson on saxophone. The rest of the set was well balanced with its mix of slower tempo and more upbeat works, including both covers and originals. McPherson frequently gave his musicians the chance to shine which gave the night a laid-back and involved feel for both the band and the audience.

After a short interval, McPherson and co began the second set with the vibrant 'Spring is here.' This piece was my boyfriend's favourite, probably due to the bouncing lyrical motion and light and airy depiction of Spring. Similarly to the first set, the second half mixed both covers and McPherson's own work, following the first number with a blues-inspired original entitled 'A tear and a smile.' After a couple more pieces, the set ended with an inevitable encore which rounded off the evening as it had begun - technically excellent, vibrant, light-hearted and ultimately enjoyable.

Leeds College of Music offer an excellent variety of artists and genres of music in their concert season at affordable prices (even more so if you are a student). Located just a few minutes from the train station, it is an easily accessible and high-quality venue for something a little different to a standard student night out!

Go on, grab yourself some culture and have a look at what's on. The Autumn/Winter concert season brochure is available to download here. 

<3

xx

DIY Native American Headdress

Hey guys, today I have DIY fancy dress post for you all! This weekend, I have a Cowboys vs Indians party and I am VERY excited. The main reason (except getting to see all my old friends and frankly get very drunk) is the fancy dress theme and the opportunity to get DIYing and make a Native American headdress.
Once you have the tools and materials, this is actually really easy and fun to do, and I am going to show you how:

First of all, you will need:

• A thick headband (which is sturdy enough to glue feathers onto)
• Feathers - I bought mine off eBay, which has a colourful, varied and affordable range, and The Range, which is also great value. For this headdress, I used small red spotty feathers, larger cream feathers with gold glitter on and natural guinea fowl style feathers, but you can obviously use your own design ideas and creativity.
• Sellotape 
• Glue gun and glue sticks
• Scissors

1. Plug in your glue gun, add a glue stick and leave it to heat up. Then look at your feathers - I spread mine out to pick the best feathers and grouped the feathers which bent the same way together. I also connected my smaller red feathers to my glittery cream feathers by wrapping the stems of the feathers together with sellotape (as below). Now my feathers were ready.

2. Take your headband and get ready to get gluing! I started from the centre and worked my way to the sides, gluing my sellotaped red and cream feathers to the headband until I had reached as far back as I wanted to go.

3. Then, I used my scissors to cut any stems which dipped below the bottom of my headdress and checked all the feathers were secure.

4. After this, I could move onto my bigger guinea fowl-style feathers. I hot glued these as I did with the other feathers, starting from the centre and working towards the edges. Finally, I cut the stems which stuck out from the bottom of the headband and ensured all the feathers were secure.

And that's it, it's that simple. What do you think of the finished product? I can't wait to wear it on Saturday with the rest of my outfit.

The great thing about these headdresses is, once you have the tools and technique, you can make a huge variety of styles with various different headbands and feathers to create the look you personally want. So there it is, an easy way to make your own Native American Headdress.

<3

xx