Newbury jazz musicians' sweet sound of Georgia Brown lifts the spirits on Soundcloud

Listen to Dan Goddard & Gavin Wilkinson's up tempo version

A NEWBURY-based musician has just produced his first recording project, the prelude to opening a recording studio next summer.

For Dan Goddard, a multi-instrumentalist, lockdown has meant that construction of Studio G has not been completed this year as planned, but his new, state-of-the-art recording equipment means he’s able to work on projects from his home in the meantime.

“We’re all having to do music remotely during this strange time,” he said, “and I’m working with people who don’t have the set-up to record. I can capture anything people are able to do at home, whether they’re soloists, instrumentalists or singers. When the studio is up and running I’ll be able to record whole bands.”

For this first recording, an up-tempo version of the jazz standard Sweet Georgia Brown, Dan called in Newbury guitarist Gavin Wilkinson to put the melody and solo on the track, on which he himself plays everything else – drums, rhythm guitar and bass guitar. He also produced the track, and did all the post-production work.

“To get an authentic sound, we used two archtop acoustic guitars; a rare mid-60s Gibson Johnny Smith and an even rarer mid-50s Hüttl Pique Dame,” Gavin said. “I left the technicalities entirely to Dan, and just played when told to...”

Witney-born, Dan worked professionally as a drummer for 10 years during the 1990s, touring the UK and Europe. He currently plays with retro rock band the Long Insiders and is the drummer in Newbury Jazz Platform’s house band.

“Live music is a real challenge for musicians at the moment, but we have to keep collaboration channels open,” he says. “I’m keen to hear from anyone who would like to share and record their ideas.”

You can listen to Sweet Georgia Brown on https://soundcloud.com/user-643799203/ sweet-georgia-brown-feat, or from the SoundCloud iOS free app: https://app.adjust.io/c1ofg4

If you have a recording project you’d like to progress, email Dan on dan.goddard@yahoo.co.uk.