Big congratulations to Pianist, composer, french horn player and all round nice guy Gwilym Simcock for getting a nomination for this year’s Mercury Prize. For those of you unfamiliar with Gwilym’s playing click the link below to watch a clip of him playing Stevie Wonder’s ‘Summer soft’ on the Andrew Marr show in March this year:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-12725834
The album nominated for the prize is his release from earlier this year: ‘Good Days at Schloss Elmau’ a solo piano album of original compositions recorded at Schloss Elmau in one day.
“To walk out of your hotel room, and within a minute be sitting at a fantastic piano, looking out over the German mountains and countryside, free to make music in whatever way you choose, is indeed a wonderful experience and one I’m grateful for. these are definately the good days”
Buy the album here
Gwilym has recorded two other albums as a leader: ‘Perception’ 2007 and ‘Blues Vignette’ 2009.
‘Perception’
‘Perception’ is an excellent album with varied ensembles and styles, showing Simcock to be highly versatile. Buy it here.
His second album ‘Blues Vignette’ is a double CD with the first CD featuring mainly solo piano work but also incorporating some original compositions for piano and cello. The second CD of the set features Gwilym with his trio of Goloubev on bass and Maddren on drums who I had the fortune of seeing in concert on their world tour in Cardiff November 2009.
One treat from the first CD is Simcock’s solo piano version of the 2nd movement from Grieg’s piano concerto a nod to his ‘classical’ training at the Royal Academy of Music, the original chords are all there, but then Gwilym begins to develop the melody further whilst maintaining the integrity of the original:
Buy the excellent double CD set “Blues Vignette” here
The winner of the 2011 Barclaycard Mercury Prize ‘Albums of the Year’
will be announced on Tuesday 6th September.
