phil-c.com

  • Supernatural video

    Lot of fun being recorded by the talented and professional Mark Pickering the other day They say that music nowadays is over-produced and lacks humanity. Very pleased that the first trumpet note that you hear in this record is split! (When the producer says after the take, “Don’t worry about it, we can tidy it…

    Click or not…

  • Mr Phil Cambridge on the Trombone

    One of the many festival gigs in the summer of 2024. The full mashup of MrGriff summer highlights is here:

    Click or not…

  • Telemann in St Lukes

    Telemann in St Lukes

    Before I start my full-time job, I have to get this out of my system: Can I “just” record a short piece, nicely and accurately? What I learned from making this recording (well, most of it I already knew) Playing the trombone (and some other instruments, but I think particularly the trombone) is a bit…

    Click or not…

  • Jazz trombonist attempts Classical music

    The other day, a good trombone playing friend* referred to me down the pub as “a jazz player”. Well, it so happened that a few days later I was doing some playing around with microphones (see this blog post) and with this in mind I attempted to play some very classical music: Telemann’s second Fantasie…

    Click or not…

  • Microphone positioning

    Microphone positioning

    I have some free time. Sometimes I make recordings of trombone quartet concerts or of myself playing, and I’m aware that I don’t know much about positioning microphones, except that it makes a huge difference to the sound. I went to a local church for an hour and played around a bit. What I learned:…

    Click or not…

  • Jonny Briggs on a bike (The Acrobat)

    Seven years since this fun and games in Jesus Green https://www.facebook.com/779225698/videos/10155151406520699/

    Click or not…

  • Very old multitrack recordings

    Here are some recordings that I made when living in The Old Chapel, Mursley Quator de forme Liturgique My favourite original piece for trombone quartet, by Jacques Charpentier. I recorded it because at the time I wasn’t able to find any other recordings. The two middle movements I think are just beautiful. Crucifixus by Antonio…

    Click or not…

  • On multitrack recording

    First tip: Don’t. (see this blog post) What is multitrack recording? What’s so difficult about that? My method FWIW Bearing in mind the thoughts in this blog post, the most likely reason for doing yet another one would be: to see what a new arrangement sounds like with real instruments. So, if I’m going to…

    Click or not…

  • What multitrack recording tells me about music (and life)

    TL;DR: Over the years, I’ve spent a lot of time (far too much) putting together multitrack recordings, and I’ve come to realise that there’s almost no value in them other than a personal challenge. Enjoyment I’d like to define three classifications of musical enjoyment: Nearly one out of four I guess the multitrack experience just-about…

    Click or not…

  • William Tell in 2003

    Here’s one of my first ‘serious’ multitrack trombone quartet recordings. With reference to this blog post, I think the reasons I did it were: There are some others from the same era here As for the 4-movement Charpentier piece, the motivation was

    Click or not…