Carleen & The MCQ
Images of music scene recordings for MELIOR Opus Griot
From the August 2022 Sorting Room Studio session in Dartington for the music scene: MOBOCRACY from Carleen’s blended-roots Opera, MELIOR Opus Griot.
Sorting Room Studio is located on the grounds of Dartington Trust. Its ‘Recordings as LIVE’ atmosphere boasts a Binaural Microphone.
A Southwest England neighbour and colleague, Jason Singh, who I call Nephew, whose many works as a sound creator/beatboxer/plant as composer artist includes his music composition for David Attenborough’s “Green Planet” on BBC, highly recommended Sorting Room Studio (SRS) to record my music locally in the Devon coastal region where we both live.
In March 2022, a long time friend and supporter of my music, the legendary musician/singer-songwriter, Chrissie Hynde, asked me to record a song for her upcoming ‘Duets’ album that will feature several A-listers. Of course I was honoured to be considered for the lineup. Chrissie’s offering also provided me with an opportunity to try out the SRS facilities in action by recording my vocals for her album on the grounds of Dartington Trust. So ear pleasing was the resulting electric energy that I returned to SRS a few months later to record a scene from my MELIOR Opus Griot Opera, MOBOCRACY, which is now available as a Single download only from this website.
As this website crowdfunding campaign generates a music recording budget, each scene from MELIOR Opus Griot will be recorded at SRS for a Double Album set to be released worldwide in Autumn 2024, only available via this website.
Along with the magnificent SRS sound recording and mixing production engineer team, Tommy Williams and James Stewart, the location is within walking distance of the River Teign providing an atmosphere that parallels the seafloor, time-travel fantasy narrative of MELIOR Opus Griot. The sonics in the room is accompanied by a nearby steam engine whistle that astonishingly is always in tune with the music. It’s ideal for a LIVE sounding audio recording. The use of its Binaural Microphone, a specialised audio capturing equipment shaped like a human head with ears on either side, records the sounds waves in the room that resonates with listeners as though they were sitting next to the recording artists whilst the music was being captured. It provides an optimal studio recording setting to replicate the LIVE theatre sonics of a theatre stage performance.
In September 2023, studio sessions with me on Piano and Vocals accompanied by Sam Burgess on Electric and Upright Bass plus Crispin Ade Agun Robinson on Congas and his array of percussive instruments were recorded by SRS to sculpt the music rhythm foundation of the staged scenes. Camilla George joined us on Saxophone for one of the music scenes, YEMONJA.
To save on costs and time, Vibraphonist Orphy Robinson and Violinist Samy Bishai recorded my compositions and arrangements for their instruments at their own home studios.
Further sound mixing is to be done with SRS in late October 2023.
Once the sound mastering, vinyl pressings and sleeve cover artwork is processed, the MELIOR Opus Griot Double Album will be available as a download and on Vinyl only via this website. The release date is set for Autumn 2024.
Read on for further details of each MCQ member…
Each member of the MELIOR Chamber Quintet (MCQ) are headliners in their own right. I am humbled and honoured that individually they have banded together on this voyage with me into the deep sea of exploring fresh dramatic theatre music storytelling.
Camilla George is an award winning Saxophonist, composer and bandleader known for her fusion of Afro-futurism, hip-hop and jazz. With two critically acclaimed albums so early on in her music career, she is headed to go further, strength to strength. She and I have performed music together since 2018 when we collaborated on a project called “A Change is Gonna Come” produced by Bristol-based promotions company, Sound UK, which featured musical direction with renowned pianist, Nikki Yeoh. Nigerian born/London based Camilla features in the celebrated Tomorrow’s Warriors and Nu Civilisation Orchestra with much praise. She delivered her presence in the November 2022 preview of MELIOR Opus Griot at Hall For Cornwall (HfC) Playhouse with her youthful blend of tradition and modernity that adds to the eclectic stylings of this new-age Opera.
Orphy Robinson MBE, is a multi-instrumentalist who has written music for television, film and theatre. Earlier in his internationally acclaimed, award-winning career he was signed to the legendary Jazz Record label, Blue Note. He has worked with a vast array of artists, including Nigel Kennedy, Joss Stone and Hugh Masekela. He and I first worked together in 2015 when he co-produced my maiden theatre offering CAGE STREET MEMORIAL. As a Vibraphonist for MELIOR Opus Griot along with providing FX sounds and percussion on the Cajon, he brings his globally acknowledged prestige combined with Diasporic roots sensibilities to enhance the established cultural dynamic and infuse futuristic sonics into MELIOR Opus Griot’s realism and surrealism narrative.
Samy Bishai is a British/Egyptian Violinist and Composer who is gifted at delivering Classical music as magnificently as he does Jazz and Electronic styles. Orphy Robinson recruited Samy to join my CAGE STREET MEMORIAL theatre sharing at The Albany Deptford in 2015 and he has stayed an integral part of the wide-ranging sounds that grew into being the MELIOR Chamber Quartet (MCQ) ever since. In addition to his work with Nitin Sawhney, Brian Eno, Basement Jaxx and the English National Opera, to name but a few, he’s written and produced four albums with globally renown Natacha Atlas. His instinctive comprehension of my unorthodox compositional techniques assures that whatever I write for him to perform, he will deliver as I imagined it with tonal understanding and concept expertise, plus a performance quality that suits the MELIOR Opus Griot fantasy in the most superb way.
Sam Burgess is an Electric and Double Bassist, Instrumental Composer and Producer. He has recorded on many film and TV tracks as well as for a variety of Artists from Pavarotti to Christina Aguilerra. He’s performed with the BBC Concert Orchestra and collaborated with Gabrielle on her famous music releases - “Dreams” and “Out of Reach”. Sam and I worked together for nearly ten years during my annually sold-out residency performances at London’s Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club. Sam graciously accepted my invite to join the MCQ and brings a wealth of sterling musicianship and continuity to the foundation and expressions of my MELIOR Opus Griot storyboard.
Crispin Ade Agun Robinson is a multi-percussionist specialising in Afro-Cuban Sacred Drum Music. He wrote a doctoral thesis about the ethnography of praxis in bata drumming for a Ph.D. Known to the inner music circle as ‘Spry’, he has international performance notoriety as a member of the 1990s Acid Jazz Band - Galliano. We met during this period of London’s early 90s music scene when I was in another group, the Young Disciples. We reunited as music colleagues when he joined the promo tour for my CAGE STREET MEMORIAL album in 2016. Crispin travels the world as a musical director of African diasporic percussion and transports his relativity to the cultural polyrhythms that are inherent from my Louisiana/Texas styled Gospel upbringing into the tribal rendering of MELIOR Opus Griot. His spiritual intuition conjures up the atmosphere integral to the blended-roots aspects of this new Opera pilgrimage.