news | graham hawthorne aka FUNKYGH

Interview for Istanbul cymbal website

Fri, 15 Aug 2014 02:33:49 -0400

Brian Griffin interviewed me for the Agop Istanbul Cymbals website. He did a great job. hope you like it!
http://istanbulcymbals.com/blog/45/agop-artist-interview-series-brian-griffin-interviews-graham-hawthorne.html

Jillette johnson on VH1!

Wed, 30 Oct 2013 23:36:02 -0400

Hi folks,

here we are on VH1 this morning. Jillette is incredible. great singer, great songwriter, great piano player. check it out, she's gonna be successful...

Jillette Johnson - Torpedo (Big Morning Buzz Live) - Jillette Johnson Music Videos - Live Performances

HSO show friday oct 25th! lucille's at BB king's

Mon, 14 Oct 2013 19:58:50 -0400

Hi all,

The HSO will be at the fantastic Lucille's on Friday October 25th. This is a great venue - small enough to be intimate yet with high-end atmosphere and food! Please come down and help us get this new relationship off to a great start!

We'll be featuring the phenomenal Brent Carter, with guest appearances by some of your other HSO favorites. AND, we're very excited to have an incredible surprise gal singer joining us as featured guest. She's tearing up the music scene right now and you won't believe how great she is!

Details:

Friday October 25th. Two 90 minute shows 8pm + 10:30pm.

237 West 42nd street, NYC, NY. 212.997.4144

tickets $12 in advance, $15 day of show so get your tickets NOW! they're available through their website, as well as at the box office or through ticketmaster.

full bar and restaurant. great food!

Share it on facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sharer/sharer.php?u=http://harlemspeakeasy.com/calendarnewsblog/lucilles-on-friday-october.html

check out the website!: http://harlemspeakeasy.com

jillette johnson at joe's pub this saturday!

Fri, 04 Oct 2013 00:16:17 -0400

hi folks,

okay I admit it's been a long time since I issued a communique - too long. BUT, I got sucked into the black hole of home renovation, AND studio renovation at the same time, so at least I have a good excuse.
anyway, I'm playing with an incredible artist this saturday night the 5th at Joe's Pub.
This gal is the best young artist I have ever heard or worked with. she rivals any of the mature, world famous artist I've worked with.
Fantastic songwriter, ridiculous singer, and reluctantly brilliant piano player.
If you want to be blown out of your chair, come down to Joe's and check her out.
I"m really excited to be working with her.

martha wash record is out!

Tue, 02 Apr 2013 17:32:28 -0400

Played on Martha Wash's most recent record. I think it's been out for awhile but I just found out about it cause I got a release form from a lawyer! haha, that's the biz.
Anyway, as some of you undoubtedly know, Martha is one of the all time great singers. Check it out on Spotify or Amazon or wherever!

http://spoti.fi/YH0hb9

REALLY nice internet sessions for Andy Snitzer

Mon, 19 Nov 2012 21:57:26 -0500

ust did a handful of tracks for the great Andy Snitzer here in my home studio. He sent me the tracks and I recorded the drums and percussion and sent them back. Such great music - funky, melodic, super well produced and recorded. Andy is a freak; seems like there's nothing he doesn't do well. Look out for the record - it will be coming out soon under his name; and if I can get him to consent, I'll have some excerpts here in the internet sessions section.

The Harlem Speakeasy returns!

Mon, 19 Nov 2012 21:39:08 -0500

The fantastic Harlem Speakeasy Orchestra is coming back on December 6th. This is one of the coolest, most dynamic bands you will ever see. Come on out to the gig on December 6th in New York City and you will not be disappointed!
Here are a couple of special offers regarding the gig, and the information.

We're offering a free song download to you with the purchase of 2 advanced tickets to our December 6th show! So buy a pair of tickets and check out our brand new version of the modern standard Fell in Love With a Boy, featuring the amazing Margot Bingham on vocals - A great way to get a sneak preview of the newer material we'll be doing on the 6th!

To buy those tix, send $10 each through paypal to harlemspeakeasy@gmail.com

And we're having a song auction - hear the HSO play your favorite song at the show, by submitting the song title, then bidding on it through our ebay auction! We will arrange the song and perform it with the HSO singer of your choice on the 6th! AND we'll give you a recording of it!

Axis custom cymbal stand

Sat, 08 Sep 2012 01:18:42 -0400

Just got my first prototype cymbal stands from Axis - the only company that makes pro-quality aluminum drum hardware. I designed the stand with Darrell Johnston, the owner of the company. It was not a formal process! We just talked on the phone about it and he built it. It has some spectacular innovations, like all their stuff.

Firstly, it's incredibly light. 39.3 oz, as compared to a ludwig 60's flat base cymbal stand which weighs 56 oz.
Secondly, it has 2 sections instead of 3 (the collars add the most weight because they have to be made out of steel. getting rid of one of them shaved off a lot of weight). the stand has plenty of height for most players (50"), BUT, they still fold up very small because you can loosen the screw which holds the tripod to the bottom section and slide the tripod off or up.
Thirdly, the top screw is an innovative design where the wingnut is actually the male part, and the tilter rod is the female, making it much less likely to drop it on the floor of a dark club and have to spend the next 5 minutes crawling around on your hands and knees looking for it.
Fourth, the feet are small spinning cylinders, which have velcro on one side - which keep the stand from creeping with heavy playing, in spite of it's light weight.
Fifth, it's black and looks GREAT.
Lastly, if you need a taller stand, or you want to make it heavier duty for whatever reason, you can take off the tripod and put the 2 sections into their bigger base to create a 3 section, double braced stand; or you can simply put their larger gauge bottom tube into the existing single braced tripod!

drum tuning video

Mon, 09 Jul 2012 19:55:07 -0400

spent the day making the first in a series of videos on drum tuning for the Puremix website. puremix.net is an advanced audio tutorial website - basically an instructional website for producers, engineers, and musicians who do their own recording. it was great thinking about the subject from the standpoint of a non-drummer; the info they need to do the job, and how robust a subject it is, even though it seems simple to someone who has a lot of experience. check out puremix.net for the video and for lots of other helpful videos about recording and production.

finally, a website

Tue, 03 Jul 2012 01:58:16 -0400

Hi folks,
Well at long last I've gone and done it. For years and years I've been paying to keep a whole bunch of domains for no apparent reason, and now I have this fancy website to make it all worth it. It will be perpetually under construction, so don't hesitate to email me with comments. I will be slowly but surely uploading more content and refining the structure. I hope you like it!
gh

waterside plaza gigs

Tue, 03 Jul 2012 01:44:35 -0400

the music business never ceases to amaze me - I got a call from the person who books bands at Waterside Plaza in Manhattan (NYC). It's a nice apartment complex on the eastern shore of manhattan just north of 23rd street. they have a nice outdoor music series in their piazza on wednesday nights in the summer. Just confirmed today is a date for The Harlem Speakeasy Orchestra on the 25th of July. It's open to the public, so come on out - it's a great vibe. 7-9pm.
http://watersideplaza.com/events/?p=viewPage.jsp&id=103&did=268
but that's not what amazed me - she asked me if I wanted to be a judge for their american idol send-up, which is gonna be called Waterside Idol - basically an amateur (I think) talent contest.
I've done a lot of different things in the music biz, but this takes the cake on one of the most surprising. I think it will be a gas.