Hilary Robertson - writer and sax player

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February 06, 2013

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Broken bones are no fun. Who knew?

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If you can't take a great photo, take a candid one

Hitchin's Jazz up! has always been delivered with a touch of humour and trombonist Dave Keech swigging a mug of tea between solos somehow sums it up.

Jazz if about people being themselves both as performers and audience and if that means swigging tea, then great.

Last night's gig also featured keyboard whizz Nikolaj Torp Larsen (The Specials, Adele, Sister Sledge etc etc), Aswad's Kenrick Rowe (who's just finished touring with PJ Harvey) on drums, bassist Neville Malcolm (Steve Williamson and Icognito among many others) and young sax supremo Tom Ridout.

This was a scratch band of people who know what they're doing. And do it well.

Standards sounded fresh and proved that if you put five talented musicians on stage with just a little rehearsal, they'll interpret tunes in their own way. There were backing stabs created by Keech/Ridout and Keech/Larsen to great effect and a genuine strong rhythm section feel between the experienced Rowe and Malcolm.

Club 85 and Da…

A Hymn to opportunity

Urban Hymn is due for its UK release on 30 September and you should see it if you've been fortunate enough to grow up in a family, or ever been given an opportunity or ever met someone you want to help, or if you have a human bone in your body.

This is a film to move you. It moved me to want to support more initiatives like Billy Bragg's Jail Guitar Doors, which provides one of the pivotal moments for two of the trio of great women at the heart of this film.

Beginning with TV footage of the looting from the summer 2011 riots on the streets of the UK, the film has a lot more to say about some of the putative stories behind those images.

There are some deeply memorable moments around music in Urban Hymn, particularly some of the early juxtaposition between Jamie (Letitia Wright) singing through a cloud of smoke and care worker Kate (Shirley Henderson) as part of a community choir. Another clash comes with tomb stones - one to Jamie's mother and one to Kate's son. And a t…

Stationery porn

Am I the only person who needs three notebooks at a time?

One is for a specific client, one is for my daily notes for everything else and the the third is one I carry around even in the tiniest handbag.

Of course, there is also a bookshelf of archived notebooks. And yes, I do refer back to them.

Only this week, I referred to past notes of an interview for a current job. Part of the skill is in knowing where those notes might be. And immediately recognising them when flicking through an old notebook.

When I'm the one paying, it'll always be a Moleskine. With one of my collection of Mont Blanc pens. Using better tools might just help me be a better writer.

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