Iain Cameron's Diary
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2002-11-07 - 11:01 a.m.

I think next week I could be sitting in with Mr Band�s band � with Mr McCartney on bass. Mr Band has just graduated from nearby Warwick University and plays in a keyboard style where I think the left hand is from perhaps Freddie Green � Count Basie�s rhythm guitar - and the right is from Monk. Mr McC studied with Peter Ind who studied bebop in NYC with Tristano and did at leat one recording with Charlie Parker. Bob Brearley (Its You Or No One on Saturday night) studied with Peter Ind and taught me the next stage after the rudiments. Mr McC plays a Yamaha which he got from the same shop that I just bought my U2 from and as a mainstay is an animateur. He also has a cracking seven string bass from the B below the normal bass guitar bottom note to the F below middle C all in fourths. He takes after Jaco to my ears and the combination with Mr B is very well judged.

I have never given myself high marks in picking up the opposite � picking up jazz gigs gives me a lot less trouble � starting the conversation involves a) taking an interest and b)making an interesting request. In this case it was Whats New � a tune which the Pheasant Band played often on Drury Lane and which I heard on Sunday night in the rather different Sinatra-Riddle format. McCartney-Band played it more in the Pheasant vein so there was an easy talking point about what a difference the words make. This is my first night out since I got here. They played Misty and I Cant Get Started both of which were pieces Steve liked to take as solos . On one of my first visit to Leantown I spotted what seems to be the only jazz cellar. But it reminded me a lot of the small scale gigs you find in Prague. Its nice to be able to say that one is working on a project with a leading Belgian jazz guitarist � oils the wheels.

As I write listen to the first draft of the Satie-like track 3 from the Isbin-Cameron venture which has flute and various other stuff. It has appeared during the course of today. I mailed the Berg-like track 2 to Gilbert this morning which is currently my strong favourite � I suppose it must be the narrative.

My night out involved fishcakes and a glass of sauvignon white in old Kenilworth before hitting the jazz cellar. Kenilworth has so many layers � the castle and the abbey � then the 17C town nearby and then the Victorian town to the South pulled by the railway and then the 1950s housing estate and shopping precinct. I thought I might live there at one point.

I circulated my note on the Engineering Employers Federation/Henley Management College study of how engineering skills will develop over the next 20 years. Then I did a bit of work on Modern Apprenticeships � especially the element which involves key skills such as problem solving and communication. I worked through some of the detritus that had been building up on my desk. Stefan phoned to see if I knew the regional distribution of automotive firms in the UK and was pleasantly surprised when I could lay hands on the data without ringing him back � but the second half of the day was much less productive which was one of the reason I allowed myself a night out on the town hunting down the best busk in town.

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