Jack Robinson - Music from a Saw

Welcome back after a long hot summer break.  Well... sort of hot.  I've spent the summer working on some exciting projects will should bear fruit shortly.  In the meantime back to blogging.

Yep, you've read the title right.  Music from a Saw.  By rubbing a bow along the side of bog-standard carpenters saw the most unusual and amazing sounds can be achieved. And there was no greater proponent of it during the 1920s and 30s than Liverpool based Jack Robinson.

Jack Robinson, from the NML collection

Jack was born in Blackpool in the late 1800s.  In the 1920s he moved to Liverpool and set up a barbers shop in Lodge Lane.  He had always been musical playing ukulele, banjo and double bass but his expertise was in the Musical Saw.

The saw was popularised in America in the early 1900s.  It's not certain when the saw came to Britain but Jack is widely considered to be the first 'professional' saw player in the country.  I think we can claim that as another Liverpool first!

Jack's Saw and Bow are now in possession of the National Museums Liverpool.  Visit their page for more info.

Now, I bet you're wondering what the saw sounds like?  Think of a large tuba, ok... well it sounds nothing like that.  It actually has a sort of ethereal otherworldly sound  - like a modern Theremin.

Sadly no known recordings of Jack Robinson exist although during his time he played alongside great orchestras and in a solo performance on the RMS Duchess of York.

Here is Austin Blackburn (not a scouser) considered to be a modern Musical Saw maestro.

Bonus question: There was a famous Hollywood diva, a mega-star of the silver screen who was herself an accomplished Musical Saw player.  Who was she?

Keep Streets Live - Victory.. of sorts!

Following on from my previous (here and here) posts it has been announced today that controversial Liverpool City Council policy to charge buskers to pay and regulate when and where they can play has been thrown out.

Although they don't admit it i'm pretty sure this has quite a bit to do with the KEEP STREETS LIVE campaign which achieved over 5000 signatures to support it.

Councillor Steve Munby admitted: “The policy wasn't thought through properly and we ought to have realised at the time. “Many of the regulations as they stood, were unenforceable. We had no team in place, no officers to go around checking people. I hold my hands up and admit that on this occasion, we got it wrong.” 

But he refused to admit defeat: "I haven't seen a busking community behind it, just one or two very loud voices."

I don't think it has occurred to Cllr Munby that one or two voices can speak for many.  Saying that, it's hard to believe that any politician thinks that they speak for anybody but themselves.

See their report from this years Wash Out Mathew Street Festival.

Does this Train Stop on Merseyside

Ok, technically not "Beneath the Beat" as it was a charting pop-song but I think in the context of last weeks revelations I can be excused.

Written by Liverpool artist Ian Prowse of the band Amsterdam. It riffs off ideas and images that anyone from Liverpool can easily recognise. It is a song that is just so 'Liverpool' a complex celtic tapestry of history, emotion and place.

 It is not quite a celebratory song and indeed the last verse is particularly harrowing.

Can't concieve what those children done 
Guess theres a meaness in the soul of man 
Yorkshire policemen chat with folded arms 
While people try and save their fellow fans


I'll just give a brief quotation from the lyrics as there is a better deconstruction of the song here: http://aliverpoolfolksongaweek.blogspot.co.uk/


The song encapsulates so much about Liverpool... a real trip through the psychography of the city and its people.


JFT96