richard martin

Since last posting a new saxophone ensemble has been created!

Originally it was just extra practice for the sax section of the St Eugene’s Band which myself and Lorna play in.

However, we have gone from strength to strength and now are gigging regularly.

Originally just a quartet, we are now a sax quintet with Charlie our drummer!

Check us out at http://www.omaghbluenotes.com

Yes!

Where have I been for the last year and a half?

Busy - for all sorts of reasons…

However I’m back now and have much to share.

I shall be back in a mo with more….

Sorry

I can’t say ‘not alot has happened’ cos it has…

I will enlighten you with an update later.

The day after the dreaded ‘dentist’….

I feel fine and on top of the world now that my ‘gnashers’ have been fixed.

I have to be ’sedated’ for the good of me and all who touch me during the experience.

During my time in and around London I have had two treatments: over 15 years; both have left me with bills for over £1000 plus.

Yesterday I had eight fillings, general overhaul and clean for just over £300, including the sedation….

What an excellent dentist….. contact me for details.

Mind you, as a private patient I still had to wait three months!……

…..but the best dentist I have seen in my 51 years of life!

This is getting tiresome!….

Here is Lorna with her first son Stephen….

Stephen lives in Ayr, Scotland and works in the hospitality industry with a bright , new enterprising company.

To complete the picture - here is wife, Lorna, with her two beloved….

Never a word shall be said against them!

Alex and I on an ‘off’ day - looks like we like each other!

Alex is a typical post GCSE boy - you’ll find him in bed until the reasonable hour of 2ish in the afternoon.

Mind you, come to think of it, nothing much has changed there!

Alex and friend Scott at a recent jazz festival gig

Just to balance the picture - we also have a cat who is top dog!

Kitty is about 15 now but still rules the roost.

Here she is in her favourite pastime……

Can you tell which end is which?

This is another new track - It was an exercise primarily to see how the saxes would record.

Again it is part of my post Cubase onto Logic development and have used Logics default software instruments with 2 soprano and a tenor sax together with some live acoustic and electric guitar.

I am quite pleased with the results….

I was pondering over a name; my wife suggested ‘come again’ but I changed that to ’see you again’!!

These are shots of Nevan as a puppy - 8-16 weeks old!

As I said before, Nevan is an extremely well behaved dog. For the first year of his life we lived out in the country and went for long walks never meeting another soul (or dog!).

Now we live in town he still has long walks but much more urban with lots of interaction with people and other dogs.

I walk my dog off the lead even on the busy main roads. He will wait and sit when told, would never cross a road without command first and doesn’t bother other dogs en route.

Whilst walking him I have had so many compliments about how good he is and just how ‘lucky we are’ to have such a well disciplined and good natured dog.

It seems that the country is overwhelmingly flooded with ‘unlucky owners’ who have had the misfortune to inherit or choose ‘unlucky dogs” that do not behave; bark and fight with passing dogs while pulling on the lead, dragging their owners off for some exercise.

So, if you ever move to Northern Ireland and contemplate owning a dog: remember to choose wisely - because none of that persistant, agonising, hair pulling out, 12 hours a day for 6 months - training - would have done you any good.

Unless you get ‘lucky’!….

My wife and I both play in our local St Eugene’s Brass and Reed Band. Lorna plays the flute and I play tenor sax. I joined because Lorna wanted something we could both do together.

I had never played a brass or reed instrument before - but the band needed a tenor sax (or they had a tenor sax going spare!) so I took the ‘beat up’ sax and looked for lessons locally.

I have now been playing for 18 months but I’m afraid the band sax has been given up and I spent too much money on a Yanigasawa T902 - a lovely sax in bronze.

I have to say I am not really a lover of the saxophone other than the sound of the soprano which I could use quite productively in my own musical compositions.

Needless to say, a couple of months ago I bought a Yamaha 475 soprano sax! I absolutely adore this saxophone - I had originally intended to buy a ‘cheapy’ but sense prevailed in the end.

I am a firm believer in buying the best you can afford when it comes to any musical instrument.

The plus side is now we have a bonafide saxophone quartet that meets every wednesday

Here is Nevan…

He is a very smart collie dog.

During my childhood our family always owned a dog - a succession of Rough Collies (Lassie dogs). Having spent the majority of my adult life living and working in London it was always impossible and impractical to own a dog.

But I was always a dog man…..until I got a cat! (or two actually!)

Having lived with cats exclusively for twenty years plus - it was a shock to contemplate ‘owning a dog’.

Nevan is now two and a half years old and is an extraordinarily well behaved dog and I love him to bits!

My wife thinks his legs are too long - even my mum calls him ‘piano legs’….

I just keep telling them he’s a ’short haired, long legged border collie’….