photo: Dominic Ingham

SPOTLIGHT 28: LESLIE BEUKELMAN | DOMINIC INGHAM | DOUGLAS MACGREGOR

textura is excited to feature Leslie Beukelman, Dominic Ingham, and Douglas MacGregor in its twenty-eighth ‘Spotlight,' with each artist represented by an excellent new album: Golden Daffodil (Beukelman), Role Models (Ingham), and Songs of Loss and Healing (MacGregor). textura is deeply grateful to the artists for contributing to the article.


photo: Soda Fountain Photography

LESLIE BEUKELMAN

Who: I grew up in Sandwich, Illinois, a rural town about sixty miles west of Chicago. I was in the school choir and the marching, concert, and jazz bands. I sang with a community big band and performed in community theatre. I really enjoyed musical theatre, which is what took me to Chicago. I studied at the Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University, beginning in musical theatre, but switched my major my second year to jazz voice performance/jazz studies and graduated in 2005. Since then, I've had the opportunity to perform all over the world singing many different styles of music.

What: I'm still in the process of finding my own voice, and I think Golden Daffodil is the first album I've put out that truly represents who I currently am as a musician. I'm a jazz singer, I love to improvise (whether that is in a tune over changes or freely with no written structure), and I love to attack pieces that are more abstract and require vocal gymnastics. I also love a good ballad, getting inside the lyrics and the melodies, and deciding how to express the story genuinely; I very much enjoy cranking through an upbeat tune, as well. One of my favourite gigs is singing in front of a big band; you can be tender but then you can really belt it out to match the energy of all the horns behind you. At heart, I'm a singer/songwriter. I love to sit and sing quietly with a piano or guitar, creating melodies and harmonies that will either be played with a band or by myself. I think all of this is included in my recent release, which may make someone a little bit confused about which genre of music I'm classified in, but the listener gets a glimpse into this musician's head and heart.

My diverse background comes from listening to many different styles of music and having the experience of singing in a slew of projects that differ from one another, each project highlighting a different side of my musical personality. I think that comes across in my music because when I choose my material, the song list is a ‘mash-up' of all the different influences and styles I enjoy.

Currently: Golden Daffodil is the most recent release, which is my first full-length Leslie Beukelman release since 2008. I've released an EP, a few singles, and demos of my original music on my Brite Lite bandcamp page (accessible from my website), but releasing an album like Golden Daffodil has been a goal of mine for quite some time. I am going to continue promoting and playing the music off this album but also look forward to working on a new record of my original material that I've been writing over the last couple of years.

I have a band with two dear friends of mine; we are a trio called The Oh Yeahs. We write and perform our own music, in addition to playing our versions of popular songs. The Oh Yeahs released an album a year or so ago and are working on plans for our next release. The pandemic has put a bit of a hold on this, as we can't get together and rehearse, or book studio time .... but we've been recording videos remotely in our homes to keep sharing our work!

I'm in another band called Miss Remember, more of a heavy-hitting rock project led by songwriter Jim Tashjian. We're also looking at getting some new music together in the next year or so. Another project that is a bit different, is called the Big Muse led by Peter Himmelman. We do workshops with groups of people and encourage them to find their inner voice, the place where true creativity happens. We improvise songs and connect with the group through music. It's a blast. There are many other projects that I sing with here and there, which are listed on my website.

Musical philosophy: Sometimes I wonder if picking one style of music is the way to go. At moments, I feel like I have a lot on my plate, and when it comes to promoting myself, I'm not sure which Leslie to promote. That being said, I love every project I do and I put my whole heart into each one. I learn from every gig I perform, I learn from every piece of music I have to sing; I feel like, if I were to focus on one part of my musical self, I would not BE the musician I am. I think it's easy to put pressure on yourself to be what you're ‘supposed' to be and to compare yourself to others versus allowing yourself to evolve naturally at your own pace.

When approaching Golden Daffodil, I wanted it to be a documentation of who I am as a musician up to this point. I'm very proud of it and still can't believe how much fun this session and everything about it was. It was ‘easy' because it came from the heart and was genuine. So I guess that's my point: being honest and staying true to yourself musically yields a positive outcome.


photo: Soda Fountain Photography

Favourite artists and strongest influences: Karrin Allyson, Brian Blade (the Brian Blade Fellowship), Theo Bleckmann/Ben Monder Duo.

Recordings that have deeply affected me: Ben Monder: Excavation; Jessica Pratt: Quiet Signs; Laura Mvula: Laura Mvula with Metropole Orkest conducted by Jules Buckley at Abbey Road Studios.

A memorable event, concert, or experience: I was performing with the Chicago Skyliners Big Band at an outdoor summer concert many years ago; we play the “music of yesteryear,” many of the old swing band hits in addition to some newer big band arrangements of the Great American Songbook. Anyway, an elderly gentleman slowly came up to me after the concert, gently took my hand and said with tears in his eyes, "Thank you for bringing me back to one of the most beautiful times of my life." He didn't say much, but mentioned we had played one of his and his wife's favourite songs that they danced to at their wedding, and of course the music had had an impact on him while he was in the war. I realized at that moment how special music is and how you can really make someone feel something and take them on a journey. Of course I already knew this, but I was young and focused on hitting the ‘cool notes' and being a very serious musician. This was a small gesture that brought me out of my ‘how can I prove that I am a singer who can sing what the horns can play' into a new phase of what it truly means to be a musician and share the moment with the people around you.

Website: LESLIE BEUKELMAN


photo: Dominic Ingham

DOMINIC INGHAM

Who: I'm originally from Yorkshire in England. As a teenager, I spent two years with the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain before studying classical and jazz violin at Chetham's School of Music, in Manchester. I then went on to study a bachelors degree in Jazz Violin at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London. I'm now based in London and play in a variety of bands, including the five-piece collective Bonsai and Jonny Mansfield's Elftet.

What: I write and perform in a jazz context, with influences from folk and classical music. At the moment I'm using the combination of the violin and vibraphone in my music; I think it's a really interesting sound because on the vibraphone, you have a strong attack at the beginning of note, whereas on the violin there's more focus on the sustain of the note.

Currently: I've just released my debut album Role Models, which showcases my new quintet, featuring Jonny Mansfield (2018 Kenny Wheeler Jazz Prize winner) on vibraphone, Scottish pianist David Swan, Will Sach (NYC) on bass, and Boz Martin-Jones on drums. These guys are some of my closest friends so it's been a pleasure to share this process with them.

The music features all original music and pays homage to the people that have encouraged and inspired me to complete this work. I would never have had the confidence or the drive to create something of my own if it hadn't been for the love and encouragement given to me by some truly incredible people.

In May (2020), we were due to play a fourteen-date tour across the UK but was unfortunately cancelled for obvious reasons! I'm hoping we'll be able to rearrange the tour for 2021.

Favourite artists and strongest influences: Ambrose Akinmusire, Walter Smith, Camila Meza.

Recordings that have deeply affected me: Sonny Rollins, Sonny Stitt, Dizzy Gillespie: Sonny Side Up; Logan Richardson: Shift; Bombay Bicycle Club: So long see you tomorrow.

A memorable event, concert, or experience: I was lucky enough to be able to play with Camila Meza's nectar orchestra in 2018. Her love and passion for music was infectious, and it inspired me to take a step back and figure out what it is I really want to be doing. Since then, my compositions have been hugely influenced by Camila's approach to writing and performing original music.

Website: DOMINIC INGHAM


photo: Douglas MacGregor

DOUGLAS MACGREGOR

Who: I'm a Scottish/English musician and composer. I was born in England, but mostly raised in Scotland and moved to London about four years ago.

What: I create music that fits somewhere in the gaps between folk, classical, and experimental music. At the moment, I mostly write for solo guitar, but I also write for piano, bands, and small ensembles. I occasionally collaborate with electronic musicians, dancers, poets, and film-makers.

Although I'm a guitar player and composer, the vast majority of my inspiration comes from elsewhere, and I'm often found trying to get sounds and ideas out of the guitar that had their inspiration in a band or orchestra.

I've always been drawn to the intimacy of solo and small ensemble instrumental performances. Particularly in a solo performance, there's something that is very exposing—the spotlight is turned on the inner world—and that requires a certain amount of honesty.

Currently: Songs of Loss and Healing is an album of seven instrumental solo guitar pieces. The album arose from my experience of delayed grief twenty-five years after I lost my mother to cancer at the age of seven. Each piece is a manifestation of or meditation on this overwhelming and unfathomable experience.

I originally recorded each piece in a separate location around the UK and released one each month with an accompanying text exploring my story and the relationship between music and grief. As well as creating a piece of art, this whole process became a ritual in itself and also a form of therapy. With this project, the line between those boundaries completely vanished.

For this release, I re-recorded all the pieces with German sound engineer Sebastian Ohmert. The album should stand on its own as a piece of art which the listener can relate to freely, but there are also layers of meaning behind each piece should the listener wish to delve.

Musical philosophy: Constraints leads to creativity. Working with a solo instrument is a massive constraint in itself, but, also, I give myself little rules for each piece I write. As I'm an intuitive writer, these constraints give me boundaries to work within and having such boundaries forces you to be creative.

Within your boundaries, writing should be a process of letting go and being guided. Clever ideas are all well and good, but music won't communicate to people unless it resonates with them and to do that you must relinquish control and become a conduit for what resonates for you. That creates an honesty and integrity in your music that can't be imitated.

Favourite artists and strongest influences: I tend to go through intensive listening phases in my life and move on, so it's difficult to pick favourites, but do I feel my own musical direction took hold in my late teens when I discovered the Delta blues, particularly solo artists such as Robert Johnson, Skip James, Son House, and Mississippi John Hurt. Those guys just spoke to me on a much deeper level than anything before.

Later on, when I started listening to classical in my twenties, I was deeply affected by Beethoven's late piano sonatas and string quartets. Some of my most intense musical experiences have been with that music.


photo: Douglas MacGregor

A memorable event, concert, or experience: I was playing in a church to check the acoustics for a potential recording. The church was open to the public and a lady who visibly had some mental health problems came in with another man. They sat and listened for a while and when they got up to leave the lady said how beautiful she had found the music.

After, the vicar told me she would have come from the nearby mental hospital, a horrible, soulless place where he had done some chaplaincy before. The patients were allowed out with their carers maybe once a week for an hour. He said that my music was probably the only beautiful thing she had heard in years and insisted that on some level it had made a real difference to her.

The music business can be tough and it often feels that your music is falling on deaf ears. I like to remind myself of this experience as you never know who is listening and how deep your music might be affecting them.

Website: DOUGLAS MACGREGOR

October 2020