Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Prescott Club 23rd September 2009

On behalf of the Creative Keyboard Club and the North Shore Amateur Organ and Keyboard Club, Gordon Sutherland, Colleen Kerr and Jimmie Puppyns gave an hour's concert for Age Concern's Prescott Club. Colleen played the Church's piano and Gordon and Jimmie brought along their Korg Keyboards. Such concerts are part of both Club's commitment to bringing our music to the broader community.

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Above we see the Prescott Club members enjoying the occasion and hopefully the music!

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Jimmie Puppyns, from the Creative Keyboard Club, started the concert off playing three pieces on her Korg Pa50:

  "Stairway to the Stars"
     "Once in a While" & 
    "Shangri-La"

in her second session Jimmie played:

  "The Entertainer"
    "Love in Bloom" &
    "Theme from Exodus"

 

 

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Colleen Kerr, Secretary to the North Shore Amateur Organ and Keyboard Club, played:

   "Please"
    "When You Wish upon a Star"
   "Moonlight Serenade"
   "Moonglow"

and finished the concert playing two duets with Gordon Sutherland:

   "Crazy"
   "From Russia with Love" 

 


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Gordon Sutherland, President of the North Shore Amateur Organ and Keyboard Club, played his Korg Pa1X:

   "Vincent"
     "Sunny"
     "King of the Road"
together with the two duets listed above with Colleen Kerr

Photo courtesy of Colleen Kerr

Monday, September 21, 2009

Coffee Day with the Watts 21st September 2009

Another great Coffee Day with 26 members turning-up for a fantastic variety of music styles and techniques - such talent in the Club! A big thank you to Colin Crann for bringing along his Yamaha DGX620 digital piano together with Des Rouse who brought along his Yamaha PSR3000 keyboard. Gordon Sutherland brought his Korg Pa1X along so that with George and Jean Watt's lovely GA3 organ and acoustic piano downstairs we were well covered for choice of instrument to play! A very big thank you to George and Jean Watt for all their hard work preparing to host the Club and also to Delyse Whorwood for helping with kitchen duties together with members who lent a hand in the 'galley'. 


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Our hosts for the day, George and Jean Watt.







 


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Rob Powell entertaining us on the Yamaha PSR3000 keyboard of Des Rouse.

 

 

 

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Alan Wilkins absorbed with the PSR3000

 

 

 

 

 

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Jim Nicholson gave us a short and sweet interlude on the keyboard.

 

 

 

 

 

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Des Rouse engrossed playing his lovely PSR3000 keyboard which he brought along for the occasion.

 

 

 

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Ian Jackson thrilled us with some cool 12 bar blues on Colin Crann's Yamaha DGX620 digital piano. Not bad for a 'drummer'!

 

 

 

 

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Dorothy Waddel playing the piano with such grace and sensitivity.

 

 

 

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Peter Littlejohn brought some arrangements on disk to really make the GA3 sound slick.

 

 

 

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Barbara Powell playing the PSR3000 with her usual smooth and melodic style.

 

 

 

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Rob and Barbara Powell played a lovely duet for us.

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June McCrorie coming to grips with the GA3. Well done June.

 

 

 

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Ken Mahy enjoying the GA3

Photo courtesy of Colleen Kerr

 

 

 

 

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Yvonne Crann and Evelyn Evans relaxing to the music

Photo courtesy of Colleen Kerr

 

 

 

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Yvonne Crann, Evelyn Evans, Roy Evans and George Watt enjoying the music

 

 

 

 

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Some of our accomplished players on the day: Colin Crann; Des Rouse; Colleen Kerr; Jim Nicholson; Ken Mahy; and Phyllis Briscoe.

 

 

 

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Dorothy Waddel, Barbara Powell and June McCrorie enjoying the occasion.

 

 

 

 

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Ngaire Lonergan talking to Gordon Sutherland about playing at Club Night in October - cheer up Ngaire you'll enjoy playing at the Club once you have done the practice and gotten your nice Technics KN2600 keyboard set-up!

Photo courtesy of Colleen Kerr

Tuesday, September 1, 2009

Club Night 1st September 2009

This was a members DIY evening but with a twist! What a great night this turned-out to be and the large number of members and visitors present were treated to a feast of music using the Club's Clavinova and Technics GA3 organ. Pam Rea brought here Korg Pa80 along to add even more variety and lovely styles. DSCF1377 The scene was set by a marathon arrivals music session by our Treasurer, Jim Nicholson, on the Clavinova, and Jim played beautifully with some great style arrangements. 

Doug Farr then presented a 16 mm cine film with sound of organ music from the 1940's. It was great to watch the artists using early models of the Hammond organ and early synthesizers - I didn't even know synthesizers existed in the forties, but there you go! Not only did we get some great organ music playing but we were treated to some big band playing from  the era also together with some vintage W.C. Fields car chase classics. Thanks for sharing these rare cine movies with us Doug we all thoroughly enjoyed the show.

 

 

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 Next up Colleen Kerr played three pieces on the Clavinova with her usual great touch.

 

 

 

 

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Then, Peter Littlejohn played some great arrangements on the Technics GA3 organ. Thanks Peter we know you have been fighting a flue bug the last couple of weeks and whilst not infectious we appreciate your playing when you were still in recovery mode.

 

 

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After the refreshments break, Pam Rea entertained us with five pieces on her lovely Pa80 Korg keyboard. Nice sounds, nice arrangements - thanks Pam.

                              

 

 

 

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Next up, Takashi Iida (Taka) played a couple of lovely ballads on the GA3 organ. Taka puts so much feeling and expression into his music and did us proud as always, especially as he set-up the sounds on-the-fly for this organ that Taka is not too familiar with. Well done Taka!

 

 

 

 

 

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After Taka, Roy Evans treated us to some classical piano style music on the Clavinova. "On My Own" (from Les Miserables) and "Misty" were lovely arrangements and played with great touch and sensitivity - thank you Roy for sharing and see, you didn't need to be so nervous, we thoroughly enjoyed your playing!

 

 

 

 

 

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 To finish the evening, Doug Farr came back and stepped-up to the Technics GA3 organ and played some superb theatre style music and again Doug is not too familiar with the GA3 but was able to get some gorgeous theatre sounds out of the organ and all done on-the-fly. Doug had taken the trouble to set-up a disk with his arrangements but in the heat of the moment the file did not load and hence the very successful improvisation!

 

 

 

 

We had two prizes, an egg poacher and a napkin holder. Visitor Laurie Conder won the egg poacher (for a second time) and Kathleen Croft won the napkin holder. Laurie on his last visit to the Club won the raffle and received the egg poacher, but afterwards he graciously returned the prize as he already had such a poacher at home. So providence stepped-in and low and behold he won the raffle again and the self-same egg poacher. Laurie took it home this time as it obviously had to be!

So all in all, a wonderful night of music and frivolities to long remember.

Next month we are building-up to music professional, Dave Hallam, coming along to give us a second-half concert and those that were at the Club last year will know what a treat we are in for. Dave has his own band as well as offering tutoring in keyboards and piano - playing and technique. See the right-hand panel for further details and contact details for Dave.