I first met the very talented Stuart Jenkins when I stumbled across the famous Tea Dance at Spitalfields, London. Stuart was one of the musicians that had the dancers up & on their feet & having fun (including me – I had a little shimmy between taking photographs) So it was great when I received an email from him asking if I would travel to Hertfordshire & document the recording of a new CD from The London Brass Symposium.
Formed by Stuart himself, the Symposium is principally a Large Orchestral Brass and Percussion Ensemble formed of players from London’s Professional Orchestras, West-End shows and other Freelance Professional players. The ensemble is generally made up of 16+ Orchestral Brass players and Percussionists but performs regularly as a quartet, quintet and ten piece ensemble too. How COOL is that??? Suffice to say I didn’t need to think twice about agreeing! Stuart had seen my documentary images of the Tea Dance & wanted me to document the recording of various pieces of music in a similar way. Natural, emotional but above all a record of how hard the musicians work.
On a boiling hot summers day, I joined them in the recording studio as we all sweated & sweated some more. It was absolutely awesome to witness the dedication & concentration that goes into creating such beautiful pieces. Being an artist myself I always appreciate the creative process but this was something else – it was magical. From an empty room set up with stands & microphones, to musicians gradually arriving & tuning their instruments. Of course I had to be very careful not to move around too much & made sure I pressed my camera shutter at the exact moment when it would not register on the recording. A really great experience & I felt very proud to have been invited to record it with images in my signature style.
