Student wows the lunchtime crowd
THE quality of musicianship on display at the Music at Lunchtime Toad Lane concerts is reaching new heights.
I recently went along with Sue Devaney on a very cold Rochdale Wednesday to be blown away by the amazing guitar playing of James Girling.
James is a 21-year-old postgraduate guitarist at the Royal Northern College of Music, studying with internationally renowned classical guitarist Craig Ogden and jazz with pianist Dan Whieldon.
The man behind these wonderful concerts, Dr Joe Dawson, told me: “James is a rising star who won the coveted 2016 Royal Northern College of Music Gold Medal.
“James not only plays classical guitar but has already gained the attention of the jazz fraternity and is involved in several ensembles.
“He introduced and played works by Rodrigo, Takemitsu, Barrios, Berkeley, Dyens and ‘Dizzy’ Gillespie with great maturity and composure, all from memory and without amplification.
“A consummate artist already and definitely one to watch.”
As a jazz fan, I was especially thrilled by James’ interpretation of Dizzy Gillespie’s A Night in Tunisia, complete with intricate percussive beating of the body of his Paul Sheridan classical guitar.
As the guitarist in the Royal Northern College Big Band, James has performed alongside eminent British jazz musicians including Tim Garland, Julian Joseph, Nikki Iles, Tina May and Mark Nightingale and was broadcast live on Radio 3’s In Tune programme.
His own contemporary jazz quintet artephis are described by jazz guitarist Mike Walker (The Impossible Gentlemen) as having ‘an organic, collectively individual sound.’
Awarded the Sir John Manduell Prize in support of their forthcoming debut album, artephis have already performed to capacity audiences at many major jazz festivals across the north as well as the Brecon Jazz Festival and Bridgewater Hall.
The principal composer for artephis, James’ composition Chagrin is featured on the first ever CD of selected performers at the Marsden Jazz Festival.
Before his recital at St Mary in the Baum, I caught up with James and he told me: “When I am not practising classical guitar I listen to contemporary jazz, just now a European jazz band called Phronesis”.
James had introduced each piece with an informative anecdote in a manner that was way beyond his years both in the confidence of his delivery and the depth of his knowledge about the music he plays.
As Dr Joe himself says, he is ‘definitely one to watch.’