Ant Law Quintet - The Third Offering

by Ant Law in London, England, United Kingdom

We did it
On 13th September 2017 we successfully raised £8,400 with 267 supporters in 56 days

To professionally produce an album of original jazz music for quintet: recording+mixing+mastering+artwork+design+CD pressing

by Ant Law in London, England, United Kingdom

 New stretch target

Extra money will allow me to hire in a special guest (or possibly even 2!) on a few tracks. I have the guests in mind but I am trying not to get ahead of myself...


Hello - Thanks for clicking through and reading this! I'm Ant Law, a guitarist living in London. You might have seen/heard me playing with my band or with Tim Garland, Jason Rebello, Asaf Sirkis, Cory Henry, Koby Israelite, Partikel, Ollie Howell, Henry Spencer, Trio HLK, Simians of Swing, Lindsey Webster, Leon Ware, Mica Paris, Camille O'Sullivan or other people.

I'm really excited about the next step for my band, and we want you to be part of it. We're going to record our 3rd album. My quintet has been together for a few years now, and has recorded before, but never in a professional studio. It's been on a low budget, rushed, and lots of things have gone wrong. Doing things on a really high level is expensive. The music has sounded really good in rehearsals and I am very excited to get into the studio and record it with great microphones that will sound very awesome.

When I first moved to London it was SLOW getting things started, earning enough dosh to pay rent was hard! That's before even thinking about funding creative ventures. Despite this I managed to produce two albums, which served a great purpose of putting me on the map, and helping me to make a name for myself. These CDs enabled me to get the band on the road as part of album release tours, get reviews and so on.

However - the most crucial stuff I have learned more recently. Many important developmental steps have happened AFTER those releases. I have learned most when playing OTHER people's music. The experience of touring extensively as a sideman has been tremendously useful and I feel I am poised to unleash a pretty powerful offering now.

In the past I have written into pieces of music lots of things I have been working on. But I've learned that the things we practice aren't always the things we can do best. This is a lesson I have learned the hard way. Another is that great compositions are not always great improvisational frameworks - that's another. I could go on, but suffice to say I am itching to get this set of compositions recorded. They are all designed for us to be as creative as possible, to really cut loose.

Needless to say, I know the playing of all my bandmates MUCH better now after, these years of reflection, than I did when we recorded Entanglement back in 2011. Now, I think we can make a really great album! This is a project that needs to exist.

The instrumentation resembles what you could call a "modern jazz" lineup but like much music these days, it is cross-pollinated. There are elements of rock, pop, folk, Indian music, electronic and even classical music. There's acoustic bass, but the music can be very groovy, and is not exclusively swing-based. I use lots of cool pedals to process my guitar signal and that creates a huge variety of sounds. The inclusion of bass clarinet adds a really intriguing texture, too. All the music is supposed to take you out of this world for a second, on a journey. Some are short, fun stories, whilst others are long and darker.

Joining me on the album is an allstar band. These chaps really are the UK's finest musicians:

*On alto sax/bass clarinet it's Michael Chillingworth - a fearsome reedsman with very advanced technique, a very fluid improviser and someone with a very, very advanced sense of rhythm, which is necessary to address most of my compositions.

*On piano it's the very highly regarded Ivo Neame who is known all over Europe and the world, he's one of the most creative and imaginative soloists around, and can play pretty much anything I put in front of him at sight.

*Tom Farmer plays bass, a very supportive accompanist who coaxes a gorgeous sound and is constantly throwing ideas out into the fold.

*With Tom in the engine room it's James Maddren, one of the most dynamic, sensitive drummers alive who makes everything he plays sound like the most natural, grooviest thing ever (even in the oddest of time signatures). 

These chaps really are the heaviest guys around, and I am really pleased that they have agreed to be involved, and lend their monstrous musicianship and creative spirit to this endeavour.

There are currently 15 or so pieces of music that I have written, although we will probably choose 10-12 for the final abum.

 
Here's a breakdown of some of the costs of this project, excluding the fees for the musicians. This should give you an idea of why I need your help to make it possible:
*The studio costs are £3120,
 
*Mixing costs approximately £1000,
 
*Mastering costs approximately £1000,
 
*Pressing CDs costs around £800,
 
*This crowdfunding platform takes 5% plus VAT, Paypal takes 3.4% etc.
 
Needless to say I am contributing a sizeable amount myself in order to complete this project.

All I'm asking you to do is to buy the CD now!

(...and then be patient whilst we make it!)

 

There are a number of other cool things that we are offering, including:

*sheet music (exactly as we'll use in the sessions)

*extensive composer's commentary on all the compositions (find out where the ideas come from!)

*backing tracks (jam along with my band!)

*skype lessons (I'll show you all my licks)

*lessons in person (see above)

*signed copies

*copies of my older albums ('Entanglement' & 'Zero Sum World')

*copies of my book etc...

AND we are open to any other suggestions that anyone has, so do please get in contact if you want something that we are not currently offering (obviously excluding anything illegal) within reason ;)

You can also just donate if you like. Most of this stuff is exclusive to pledgers and NOT available to the general public. Pledgers will get everything WAY in advance of everyone else.

We are playing at Pizza Express, Dean St, Soho on October 30th and 31st. These are the ONLY live dates for the band this year. There's a VIP perk for the generous and deep-pocketed among you, who (if you contribute sufficiently) can be put on our guestlist on one of those dates, and come to watch us (with a friend) for free.

Right after these gigs we'll head into the studio to record, edit, mix and master the music. We'll then commission the artwork and the graphic design, print all the CDs and then finally send you the fruits of OUR labour. When I say "our" I am including YOU without whom I could not begin to attempt to achieve this huge task, and overcome the financial barriers that modern recording entails.

Thanks for reading this.

We need YOU in order to make this as good as it can possibly be!
 
 

Rewards

This project offers rewards in return for your donation. Please select a reward below.

£10 or more

£10 Reward

"Who needs physical things anyway?" Digital download of the full album.

£15 or more

£15 Reward

"Haptic Feedback" We'll post you the CD when it is finished.

£25 or more

£25 Reward

"John Hancock" All 5 members of the band will sign the CD and we'll post it to you. You'll also get the digital download.

£30 or more

£30 Reward

"Woodshed" Digital download plus all the sheet music pdfs for the album. (For some tunes these are scores, for others just lead sheets, all exactly as used in the studio by the band)

£40 or more

£40 Reward

"Ant! What WERE you thinking!?" We'll send you the full scores/lead sheets for all the compositions AND Ant's extensive notes on all the compositions. Find out where are the weird and wonderful ideas for the tunes come from. This includes the digital download too.

£50 or more

£50 Reward

"Jammer" digital download, all the sheet music plus full backing tracks from the album.

£55 or more

£55 Reward

"Cyber Guitar Geek" The digital download of the album plus a 45 minute skype guitar lesson with Ant. Talk about confusing time signature, weird chords, tapping licks, cool intervals or whatever you want. Get in touch with any proposals if you'd like more than one lesson and we'll see what we can arrange!

£60 or more

£60 Reward

"Back Catalogue" Digital download, CD, 'Zero Sum World' CD, 'Entanglement' CD, "3rd Millennium Guitar" book.

£70 or more

1 of 5 claimed

£70 Reward

"Star Pupil" Come round to Ant's to receive the CD (which Ant will sign) and have an hour long guitar lesson in person.

£75 or more

£75 Reward

"I WANT IT ALL!!!" Everything! "3rd Millennium Guitar" book + 'Zero Sum World' CD + 'Entanglement' CD + new album digital download + CD + all the sheet music, composer's commentary, and backing tracks of the entire album to jam with! Immerse yourself completely in our soundworld!

£100 or more

3 of 8 claimed

£100 Reward

"The VIP" We'll put you on the guestlist (PLUS 1 FRIEND!) for one of our performances at Pizza Express, Dean Street, Soho (These are on October 30th/31st - you pick one) and post you signed CDs when they are finished.

£150 or more

4 of 10 claimed

£150 Reward

"The Executive Producer" Be our Executive Producer" - like in the good olden pre-piracy, pre-streaming (pre-"everything is free") days of a flourishing recording industry (with lots of spare money flying around), executive producers would stump up the cash to pay recording costs. Make a significant contribution and you can be our executive producer, listed as such in the CD inlay! We are immensely grateful for this magnitude of contribution.

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