Magical musician Bill Crow has written over 100 songs, plays beautiful keyboards but says his main instruments are trumpet and flugelhorn. So his latest album is about…‘guitar sounds.’
The instrumental album includes six songs but all six have ‘unsung words.’
Yes, Bill Crow is hard to keep up with, so I’ll give you a moment or two to take all that in, and, at the same time, guarantee that it’s worth the effort. Fretworks for Guitars is just beautiful.
Let Bill tell you himself how the album followed on from Crowsongs One, Two and Three (which all have lyrics): ‘The project started just over a year ago after ‘Crowsongs Three’ was released.
‘I wanted to get away from songs and lyrics for a while but was keen to further explore the guitar sounds I’d used on that album. Hence, ‘Fretworks.’
‘I started by recomposing/reimagining some classical pieces by composers I admired. This type of thing is done by contemporary composers such as Max Richter.
‘The composers I used were: Bach, Hummel, Brahms, Martinu and Shostakovich. On the album these are tracks are: 7, Sebastian; 8, Nepomuk; 9, Johannes; 10, Bohuslav; 11, Dimitri.
‘The next set of pieces I wrote were the set inspired by Spain. These are: 12, Saeta (a religious song); 13, Diferencias (variations); 14, Copla (a romantic song); 15, Jota (a dance). A lot of my music uses Spanish elements.
‘I then translated some old songs and sketches that haven’t been released before, using guitar sounds. Some date back to the beginning of the 1990s. ‘Berlin’ is a love song from then.
‘I have manged to find lyrics to three of them and added them on the various platforms. The songs with words unsung are: 1, Berlin; 2, Riffin; 3, Lies; 4, Alan; 5, Our Song; 6, Never Mind.’
The words to Never Mind as a taster:
Never mind
Never mind
Never mind
Not for me those funny valentines
I accept with regret
Love was unkind
And never mine
Never mine
Never mine
Never mine
BILL CROW came from an extended working-class family who all got together on Saturday night and sang songs. His Mum and Dad bought him a second-hand trumpet when he was 15/16 and he joined a brass band. His trumpet teacher John Dickinson ‘changed my life.’ Currently he plays in a brass quintet and a jazz octet.
DoubleSpeak 