News

Music for Contemporary Dance

19 Sept 2011

Emma Dunn who created the exciting dance piece Native for Cragside in August is currently planning a new project to explore musical traditions of the north east through the medium of contemporary dance. I am really looking forward to working with her again.

Hexham gathering

May 30 2011

What a great day at Hexham Gathering - it was a delight to see so many youngsters singing, playing and dancing despite the weather. The performance in the main evening concert went really well. It is amazing for me to play with Sophy and Emily Ball, Lillias Kinsman Blake and Andy Watt they are all such gifted players and so into the Steel Skies music which I wrote before they were born! - humbling for me but inspiring too.

Contemporary Dance piece

May 20 2011

I have been asked to create music for an interesting new contemporary dance piece to be staged in teh woods round Cragside - a National Trust property in Northumberland. The new work by dancer/ choreographer Emma Dunn will feature 5 young professional dancers and a wide range of community groups who Emma works with throughout the year and range in age from 3 to 73! I am having great fun adapting traditional music and some of my own to work with the more fluid approach of contemporary dance - where movements are rarely in 8 bar patterns and tempi need to be highly flexible.

New Chanter

23 March 2011
The wonderful piper Andy May (part of Jez Lowe’s band the Bad Pennies) recently made Alistair a new concert pitch pipes chanter and he is enjoying the opportunity it gives to more easily combine with other instruments.

3 Day Mini Festival

22 March 2011
As he did last year, Alistair is curating a 3 day mini festival at Londons’s Kings Place the wonderful new venue close to Kings Cross Station.
Roots and Branches – folk music from its central core to its cutting edges.
Thursday 8 Dec - Chris Stout & Catriona Mackay plus The Emily Smith Band – wonderful new music from Scotland
Friday 9 Dec - The Boys of the Lough – the finest line up yet of this true original among Celtic bands – “music that tastes of itself”
Friday 9 Dec Hall 2 - Emily Portman Trio and Christi Andropolis
Saturday 10 Dec - Annie Whitehead & Alistair Anderson – Airplay
Fantastic folk jazz ensemble – groundbreaking music from foremost musicians including Chris Stout Fiddle Jennifer Maidman electric guitar and Roy Dodds percussion

Musical Holiday

21 March 2011
Alistair, and his wife Elizabeth, will be travelling to New Orleans to join a tour organised by their dear friend Nancy Covey of Festival Tours. Staring at The New Orleans Heritage festival they will then visit various outstanding musicians in Louisiana including Alistair’s old friend Marc Savoy. Alistair and Liz will then pop across to Los Angeles to stay with Nancy Covey and Richard Thompson and do a concert with Richard at McCabes ( a famous West Coast venue which Nancy used to manage back in the days... The concert will raise funds for victims of the Japanese tsunami.

South African Collaborations

20 March 2011
Following Alistair’s fascinating trip to South Africa in October 2010 when he worked with traditional Xhosa musicians, singers and dancers, developing and touring a show around the Eastern Cape, discussions are underway with a larger group of musicians and dancers to develop an exciting showcase for the contrasting styles and complementary energies of music song and dance from the two cultures. It is hoped that this project, brought together with help from the Swallows Foundation, will develop over the next couple of years moving towards an exciting, large scale, culmination to coincide with the 20 th anniversary of the founding of the new South Africa in 2014.

November Tour

19 March 2011
Alistair’s new agent, Nic Hallam of Albion Folk, is organising a national solo tour for Alistair in November 2011. For details contact Nic Hallam +44(0)1604 781 341 or +44(0)7789 373 982. nic@albionfolk.co.uk, www.albionfolk.co.uk, www.frusion.co.uk