Art Jazzed Up, up and away

Mike DiRubbo & Duncan Eagles
Photo: Chetna Kapacee

It has taken three weeks but the dust has settled at last on the opening night of the Art Jazzed Up exhibition at the Shaw Gallery, Croydon. With 80 artists showing their 250 artworks on the walls of the gallery it proved a monumental task all round. The Shaw Gallery hanging committee did a fantastic job with bringing the work together and providing the platform for the musicians to entertain us. A special thank you to Alan Carlyon Smith for curating and Trinity School for hosting us with plenty of refreshments.

Art Jazzed Up Submissions in their CD cases
 Photo:Melanie Ezra

The night itself saw a strong and inspiration performance from the musicians Mike DiRubbo, Duncan Eagles, Max Luthert, Dave Storey and Bill Mudge who spent most of the evening behind 3 giant paper canvases. I was on their side of the huge paper wall too, with the unsuspecting audience on the other side as they watched the drawing slowly appear.

This was a celebration of our creative community and a truly
 international event with artists of all ages from England, Wales, Scotland, Serbia, USA, Portugal, Germany, Austria, France, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Denmark, Ukraine and Bulgaria participating. It was only fitting that the Private View climaxed with Mrs MacDonald, the Trinity School potter and Chris O’Brien from the Upper 6th joining myself for a live drawing finale as the band played out. Along one wall of the gallery hung the framed shortlisted artworks and it proved a difficult decision for the curator to decide the overall winner of the Album Art Award. Well done to Chris Holley who bagged this accolade and there were also prizes awarded to Louie Stoneman and Lilian McCann from Trinity School.

 

Dan Redding - left
Alban Low - Centre
Musicians - Mike DiRubbo, Duncan Eagles, Max Luthert,
Dave Storey and Bill Mudge from left to right

The whole event was filmed by Jazz filmmaker Dan Redding and the music recorded by Nick Pugh. As soon as I get my hands on this footage I will post it up here. A special thank you to everyone who took part and came along on the night, braving the driving rain and the travel chaos of Croydon. Two intrepid Welsh artists made it all way from Swansea, Melanie Ezra and Judith Parry we salute you. Read about Melanie's adventures here.

Check out all the artists who participated by visiting Exhibition Artists page.

AL.

Award Shortlist - Art Jazzed Up

Peter S Smith - Inspired by the music of Mike DiRubbo

There have been some furrowed brows in South London and New York City over the past 3 weeks. Straight after the deadline for submissions all 250 artworks were sorted into their relevant categories and sent to the 5 musicians concerned. Each player had to choose 3 favourite images that were inspired by their music, some were influenced purely by personal taste and intuition but others considered the image's relevance to the music.

Dean Reddick - Barra

Bill Mudge had a particularly difficult assignment, with 4 tunes completed as part of the Murder Minutes project he had to decide upon 12 artworks in total. He said "It was so exciting, I got down to 4 or 5 in each section and then it got harder work to whittle it down to my top 3".

In the Barra Category he selected -
Wojciech Antoni Sobczynski
Pavel O'learo
Dean Reddick



Tracy Boness - Dancing

In the Dancing Category
Jovana Mitic
Effra Aye-Maung-Hider
Tracy Boness



Monika Fischbein - Murder 1

In the Murder 1 Category
Monika Fischbein
Ann Kopka
Sharon Read

Teodora Nitslova

In the SchoolRun Strut Category
Wayne Sleeth
Teodora Nitsolova
Effra Aye-Maung-Hider

Despite being on the road with jazz trio Partikel, both Duncan Eagles and Max Luthert wired in their choices from deepest Scotland. Luckily they'll be back in time for the Private View on the 11th November. It has been a particularly busy period for bassist Luthert, with a visit to Clown's Pocket Studio to record his debut album.



Malc Dow

Max Luthert's Top 3 -
Malc Dow
Chris Holley
Ella Penn

Duncan is one of my favourite players & composers on the scene and so I especially valued his opinion, after all I've worked on at least 3 album covers for him in the past 2 years. He wrote to me "They're all looking good but I would go for the Mark Lomax, Tracy Jones and Ann Kopka. Nice one!"

Ann Kopka

Duncan Eagles Top 3 -
Mark Lomax
Tracy Jones
Ann Kopka

I have some bad news concerning the exhibition on Monday, we will be without Peter Ibbetson because he is currently on tour and unable to fly back to Croydon. During one of his downtime moments he got in contact  "This is really astounding stuff, i feel very humble that this is happening!  thanks for getting my music involved in this." So thank you to all the artists that were inspired by him and congratulations to the 3 below.

Sharon Read

Peter Ibbetson Top 3
Gwen Black
Sharon Read
Chris Holley

Finally we have the choices of New York alto player Mike DiRubbo who arrived in the UK on Monday for his European Tour. On Tuesday he played Ronnie Scott's in Soho followed by an absolutely cracking night at Twickenham Jazz Club with the Bill Mudge Trio. He has found the whole experience very flattering and was impressed by the creativity from all four corners of the globe. As I write this he is riding the London Eye but he'll have his feet firmly on the ground for the exhibition/recording on the 11th.

Francesca Centioni

Mike DiRubbo's Choices
Peter S Smith (Top image)
Francesca Centioni
Jill Smith

Today I dropped off the huge bespoke drawing frames ready for the live drawing at the Shaw Gallery. It's huge task to hang all 250 artworks and the gallery was a hive of activity. The Hanging Committee were deep in discussion and we all agreed to enlarge the shortlist to reflect the role of the Artist (rather than all Musician choices) in this exhibition. The hanging group of artists decided upon 3 more shortlisted works which are by......

Hanging Committee Choices
Lilian McCann
Louie Stoneman
Jamie Rogers

Thank you to all the artists who have contributed to the exhibition. It has been really hard work but worth it. When I create these exhibition I hope to inspire my fellow artists and enjoy rubbing shoulders with them artistically and sometimes physically. It is a little like gambling, a throw of the dice to see whether we win with our publicity, sales or friendships. Wish me luck on Monday night when we turn the tables and see how Music is inspired by Art. I'll be drawing on huge paper canvases while the band play along to my tune for a change. It is being recorded by sound engineers and film makers so I'll be able to post up the evidence in the following months.

Alan Carlyon Smith is considering his overall winner at the moment and we will announce this on the 11th November, when we'll be handing over £100 in cash to one of our shortlisted artists.

AL.