Looking back at 2022, our 40th anniversary year
HOW DID WE DO IN TWENTY-TWO? memories of OUR 40TH ANNIVERSARY YEAR
PERFORMANCES
A Grand Union Orchestra audience is untypical of the West End, South Bank or Barbican. Mixed by race, colour, class and age, this audience speaks to GUO’s greatest success: creating music that draws upon and reflects the lives and communities of those living in London today.” Duncan Heining, London Jazz News, May 18th 2022
In May 2022 the Grand Union Orchestra celebrated its 40th Anniversary with a glorious concert at the Hackney Empire Theatre. Here is a short video of excerpts from the show:
“Grand Union Orchestra is a powerfully diverse and rich band with an optimistic message. These musicians have honed their skills and collaborated as a family for 40 years and their chemistry and energy is one to immerse yourself in.”- Jane Cocklin, Rhythm Passport 2022
Raise the Banner (participatory show, St John on Bethnal Green)- see below for a video snapshot
ENGAGEMENT WITH FAMILIES AND YOUNG ARTISTS
“The Grand Union musicians were so patient with the children after the concert, coming to have a closer look at the instruments (and to experiment!)” - Wimbledon International Music Festival
“My favourite thing about GUYO is the variety and authenticity of the music we are exposed to. Musicians from all over the world come and host masterclasses for us, teaching us the way they themselves learnt. There is a great balance of learning using sheet music,and learning by ear or voice.” - GUYO member
“Grand Union has changed the way in which I look at music, in the sense that I can improvise and create a new harmony over a tune it has also stretched my musical ability.” - Summer School student
This piece, based on a West African Yoruba chant, is performed by young musicians from Cambridgeshire with members of the Grand Union Orchestra
“We [at Sawston College] are very much looking forward to Grand Union Orchestra visiting us again”
"We would love to be involved in any future projects. We really hope we can collaborate again soon!” Saffron Walden Garden Youth Project
“I was looking for opportunities to learn and perform different musical styles and explore improvisation. Instantly I knew it was a special place - the music being so exciting and rich with culture – and the people who brought the music being so engaging and knowledgeable” – Re:Generation Band musician
Projects with local cultural communities
Grand Union Unwrapped provides a platform for individual members of the Orchestra to describe their personal journeys and tell their own life stories
“Bringing musicians from such diverse backgrounds together to play classical and Bengali songs was truly amazing.”
“Great to hear such a professional well-harmonised group of musicians and traditional Bengali music in the East End!” - Audience responses to Bengal to Bethnal Green at Rich Mix
This short video, The Mother The River, tells the story of the Bangladesh War of Independence, seen through the eyes of a woman who goes down to the river every night asking for news of her son, caught up in the war
“How lovely that you are so involved in our [Turkish] culture and heritage. We would be honoured to take part in more of such meaningful events” – Bingul Adan, Hasret Community Arts
“It’s music like this that gives me strength" – participating musician, Song of Africa (Black History Month)
Outdoor Performances / Shoreditch and Hoxton Community Orchestra
“This has got to the be the most diverse band I’ve ever seen!”
“This is just what people need - to get everyone together and keep things positive!”
“I live on Hoxton Market and hearing this is just beautiful” – Local people and passers-by
cd’s and dvd’s
Made By Human Hands is a collection of 16 tracks drawn from 40 years of touring shows and BBC Radio 3 live broadcasts and recordings.
It was widely and enthusiastically reviewed: "a juggernaut of joy” (Jazzwise); “the most surprising album so far this year” (The Observer); and “a joy from start to finish .. humanism in action!” by the Editor of All About Jazz, Chris May, who also made it one of his ’picks of the year’.
Best Reissue/Archive Albums Of 2022:
“Made By Human Hands is a greatest hits compilation celebrating the 40th Anniversary of the Grand Union Orchestra … The ensemble was founded by trombonist, keyboardist, composer and community activist Tony Haynes, who continues to lead it in 2022. Haynes' extra-musical mission is the promotion of a world free of racial and economic injustices through a multi-cultural form of orchestral jazz. The album touches down in Jamaica, Trinidad, Ghana, Guinea, Cuba, Puerto Rico, India, Brazil, Turkey, China, Bengal, Portugal and its hometown, London. The sixteen tracks are all upbeat and up-tempo. Perfect party music and a joy from start to finish” (All About Jazz).
https://grandunionorchestra.bandcamp.com/album/made-by-human-hands