Expanding the MELIOR Music Chamber Ensemble
August 2022 | Sorting Rooms Studio | Dartington, England. Carleen recording the Rhodes Piano introduction for one of the scenes in MELIOR Opus Griot.
To prep for the November 2022 Hall for Cornwall sharing of MELIOR Opus Griot, Orphy Robinson, Ivor Novello Chairman and renown Vibraphonist and Percussionist, alongside composer Sam Burgess, who is also an acclaimed Bassist for BBC Orchestra and the Ronnie Scott’s All Stars, recorded the first of three scenes with Carleen at Sorting Room Studio on the grounds of Dartington Trust in England.
The plan was to record all twelve scenes to provide audio references for the Music Chamber Ensemble, the Opera Chorus and the Stage Director, plus, to release a music album to promote the MELIOR Opus Griot theatre production.
Alas, recording just one scene used up the last of the 2021 funds granted from Arts Council England, so, Carleen created this crowdfunding website with a goal of covering the costs for recording the complete scenes of MELIOR Opus Griot.
Professional studio recording costs being as they are, the funds raised on this website allowed for two additional scenes to be recorded, resulting in nine more scenes yet to be professionally recorded in a studio.
Those two scenes were recorded at Sorting Room Studio in September 2023. In addition to Sam Burgess, Camilla George joined on Saxophone and Crispin Adé Agún Robinson on Congas and an array of Percussive Instruments, alongside Carleen on Piano and Vocals. To save on costs, Vibraphonist Orphy Robinson and Violinist Samy Bishai recorded in their home studios, the parts she wrote for them. Sound engineer, Tommy Williams, mixed their recordings with the studio recordings.
These three professionally recorded scenes served as the audio backdrop for the Black Lives in Music showcase presented at London’s SxSW Premiere in June 2025 from MELIOR Opus Griot excerpts that Carleen sang LIVE Vocals to. In that preview setting, she was interviewed by Tête-á-Tête Opera Festival Founder and Director, Bill Bankes-Jones about the concept of her Blended-roots Opera genre, as a fresh approach to dramatic music storytelling for the theatre.
The updated goal is to expand the MELIOR Music Chamber Ensemble. Along with the core Quintet, there is to be a Wind Octet, String Octet, Two Percussionists and a Pianist to allow Carleen to perform in a Singer role, free from the confines of conducting the musicians as the ensemble’s pianist. These instrumental inclusions will give the live audience and the audio recorded listener the fullness in sound of Carleen’s compositions.
Each of these Artists listed are headliners in their own right. I am humbled and honoured that individually they have banded together on this voyage with me in the creative 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 for MELIOR Opus Griot. In addition to Samy’s 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 Carleen’s unorthodox compositional techniques assures that whatever she writes for him to perform, Samy will deliver as Carleen imagined it, with the 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 Carleen worked together for nearly ten years during her annually sold-out residency performances at London’s Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club. Sam graciously accepted Carleen’s invite in 2022 to join the MELIOR Opus Griot voyage and brings a wealth of sterling musicianship and continuity to its expressionistic 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. He and Carleen met during this period of London’s early 90s music scene when she was in the music group, the Young Disciples. They reunited when he joined the promo tour for her 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 in Carleen’s Louisiana/Texas styled Gospel upbringing in the tribal rendering of MELIOR Opus Griot. His spiritual intuition conjures up the atmosphere integral to the Blended-roots genre for this new Opera pilgrimage.