Grand Union Orchestra

Events

Grand Union's priority is live performance, and over the last 25 years we have toured all over the UK and to many parts of the world.

Current shows

Upcoming events

Throughout the winter and early spring 2010, there are several interesting performances by Grand Union musicians with young performers open to the general public. These are listed on the Grand Union Youth Orchestra website.

Looking ahead, a new version of the Grand Union Orchestra is being launched later this year, together with some new combinations of the smaller Grand Union Band. For more details of our available shows go to go to press and bookings.

Videos of Grand Union in Bangladesh

Early in 2009, the London Borough of Tower Hamlets commissioned Tony Haynes and the Grand Union Orchestra to produce a special programme for the annual Baishakhi Mela in Bethnal Green which would also include three popular singers from Bangladesh. This film features three numbers from their live performance at the Mela in May 2009.

 

 

Grand Union in Bangladesh

Tony Haynes describes the latest phase in Grand Union's ongoing collaboration with Bangladeshi musicians:

“We were invited to Bangladesh at the end of April by Shahadat Hossein Khan, celebrated sarod virtuoso, and cousin of Grand Union’s tabla player Yousuf Ali Khan. It was actually our second visit, but much more extended this time. Yousuf, Gerry Hunt, Claude Deppa, Brian Abrahams and myself assembled a band in Dhaka with Shahadat and a wonderful local bass-player Tanim, for four concerts and a couple of workshops The concerts were incredibly enthusiastically received – “this was not music, but magic” went one headline! – and one was broadcast live on Bangladesh TV.

Meanwhile, the Grand Union Orchestra had been commissioned by the London Borough of Tower Hamlets to come up with something special for their Baishakhi Mela in May, and we were asked also to work with three popular singers from Bangladesh. We therefore had the opportunity to meet them and rehearse with them while we were in Dhaka. They were very different from each other, and all remarkable – Kala Miah an easy-going and charismatic baul singer, Meherun Kanak with a sweet voice tinged with melancholy, and Sumi (the youngest) almost strident, a great emerging talent (a Bengali Janis Joplin!).

When we got back to London, I arranged one song for each of them from their own repertoire, each paired with a Grand Union jazz soloist, for the full Grand Union Orchestra; I also combined them, plus Lucy Rahman, Shadadat and Yousuf – and a dhol drummer we inherited from the Bangladesh trip! - in some existing Grand Union numbers. The performance at the Mela was one of the Orchestra’s most memorable – quite clearly stunning an audience who had never before experienced Bengali songs in big band arrangements underpinned by reggae and African rhythms and interleaved with brilliant jazz solos!

The event was broadcast live by Channel S TV, and we hope to negotiate with them to post some video excerpts on the website some time soon.

For me, this was one of my great experiences with Grand Union – devoting 3 or 4 weeks to just one project in its many aspects was a real pleasure – and I look forward to the next phase of our Bangladesh collaborations.”

China – an update

With lyric-writer Li Yan, Tony also visited Shanghai and Hang Zhou for a second time in June (see also ‘Grand Union abroad’), furthering the collaboration of Grand Union with Chinese musicians and building partnerships with theatres, ensembles and cultural organisations, leading to a residency in the Hang Zhou International Music Festival in 2010. More news of this project will follow soon.