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irdcolab17 · 7 years

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THE PERFORMANCE

Finally, we got to the performance!

As “social media managers” me and Tom had arranged for a zoom recorder to audio record the whole performance. As well as this we had two friends doing photography and filming for us throughout the performance.

The performance was very strong from the band, with everything going as planned on our end. The energy levels were soaring from both the players and the audience – it was one of the most fun gigs I’ve had in a while!

It was a shame the evenings events had been poorly time managed, as our promised 45 minute set was cut to just over 20 with no warning from anyone. We had just finished playing our sixth song and an announcement over the speakers asked people to re-enter the hall for the second half of the show. I thought this was rather unprofessionally managed, and though I do understand why our set had to be cut, I found it unfair that we were penalised, since it was not our performance that got us behind schedule.

But that’s life I suppose!

I had a fantastic two weeks, and that is probably reflected in how disappointed I was that we didn’t get to play the full set we had prepared.

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irdcolab17 · 7 years

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REHEARSALS

This project spanned the whole two weeks of CoLab due to Anna’s vision (that soon became our vision also) to turn this experiment into a gigging folk band.

DAY ONE

On day one the entire group came together to learn how to play pan pipes (yes, percussionists, guitarists and trumpeters all had to join in!). This was a very fun way for the large group to bond. Anna gifted us all copies of INCA’s CD for us all to listen to so that we could get a basic understanding of the style of music that we were going to be spending the next two weeks playing.

Within the first two hours of day one we had already begun learning our opening number, the pan pipe procession piece Ojos Azules.

DAY TWO

With Gary Kettel and Grant Dowse around to help with the percussion and guitar side of the project on day two we began to really dig into learning some of the arrangements that the INCA band already had prepared. For me this included learning the bass part to Cuban Lift Music and working on my guiro technique for Alturas. We also orchestrated a rain stick, forest sound scape introduction to the tune we had worked on the day before, Ojos Azules.

DAY THREE

On day three we recapped the tunes we had learnt so far, and then learnt even more tunes! Gary wasn’t around to help with the percussion this time, but had shown us the grooves the day before, so we muddled our way through without him.

One tune we worked on is called Ayacucho, an exhilarating flute tune with bongos and cajon accompaniment. At first we struggled to get all the intricate stops that happen throughout, but over the next few days managed to get our heads around it. We also found a nice corner of the melody (which is in 3/4 time) that we could play a 6/8 feel groove over instead – something that was very satisfying to do in the gig!

We also had a group discussion about management roles for the project – some members were assigned as Music Librarians, others as Arrangers and so on and so forth. I got the job of Gig Bookings, Online Content and Social Media management (shared with a few other members of the team).

DAY FOUR

Anna unfortunately was to be out of London until Tuesday, and so we had to run the next three days of rehearsals ourselves! On day four we ran through all the tunes we had learnt so far, as well as held sectionals and individual practice sessions.

DAY FIVE

On day five we met in the morning and decided on a set list for the gig that we had coming up at the CoLab 2017 finale concert, and then ran what we could of it.

We then decided to have a creative afternoon – we went group shopping for clothes to wear in the performance, and some of the group split off and created a bunting-like banner that read “Orquesta d’os INCAS”. They also created an “INCA” 3D sign, that looked great at the front of the stage at the gig.

DAY SIX

The second week of CoLab commenced and on day six the arrangers met and, well, arranged. They worked on two tunes: Noches de Luna and Lejos del Amor. Then in the afternoon the band met and we ran through them. Me and Tom worked out percussion parts for the arrangements. I decided to play bass in Noches de Luna.

DAY SEVEN

In the morning, we met and had more individual practice time and sectionals. Me (on bass) and the guitarist went through two of the hardest tunes for us together – Carnaval and El Cascabel. Both very fast and energetic, but with a mix of 3/4 and 6/8 feel throughout. This little run through together was something that I found very helpful.

Then Anna arrived and we played the full set we had planned and practiced to her and Julie (the other flautist from INCA). Anna was very happy with a lot of what we’d done, but we still had stuff to work on.

DAY EIGHT

More practice!

DAY NINE

The whole band was here on day nine, including every player from the original INCA ensemble! We ran through our set with them, took some group photos and then helped them pack the car as they had a gig at Oliver’s Bar down the road for us to go and watch! It was an inspiring performance and really got us all in the mood for our gig the next day.

DAY TEN

We had the morning off and then met at Laban to set up the band. We were at the top of the ramp, near the bar. I helped a lot with the sound system being set up, as I know a lot about music tech and also knew exactly what mics we needed where for our set. This wasn’t the most well organised thing, as many people were giving the tech guys different opinions and were confused about the number of mics we had available to us and where they needed to be placed, but we got it sorted eventually.

We then had a rather fleeting sound check before the audience began to flood into the building.

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