In the spring we went again to hear Russ Henderson play. He is usually booked to play on Tuesday nights at the Archduke winebar, near Waterloo station. But he is not always to be heard there. This time we went to the 606 Club which is at 90 Lots Road, Chelsea (www.606club.co.uk). I did some drawings. Russ is a charming, warm and inspiring person. He always seems to wear a hat to play, and usually a bow tie too. This is what it says about him in the 606 Club leaflet: "Russ Henderson is a wonderful Afro-Caribbean pianist who celebrated his 75th birthday at the Club some time ago but who still plays as if he's 21. An accomplished steel pan player as will as pianist and one of the founders of the Notting Hill Carnival, his brand of mainstream piano playing is still truly infectious and everyone just has fun!" True, all of it.
It's a good club, the 606, and you can park near there as well.
Anyway, this time he was playing with a friend who is also a steel pan player, whose name I do not know, and was accompanied by the bass player and the percussionist. My drawing I later worked on, as a small watercolour. I had it framed and submitted it to the Royal Academy, with grave misgivings. This is an expensive proceedure because it costs £18 per picture, plus the cost of framing of course. What can I say? Much as my pessimism predicted, the picture was rejected. I took it along to the Gallery opposite the Old Vic, it is called the Llewellyn Alexander Gallery, 124-126 The Cut. They have an exhibition called "Not the Royal Academy" from June to 26 August 2006. The very nice people running the selection of pictures liked my Russ Henderson and promised to hang it. So there it is - rush along and buy it please. I am putting a photograph of the watercolour with this blog.
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