SightRead Ltd are pleased to announce two new opportunities for UK musicians to get a close look at the unique MusicPad Pro digital sheet music display system and have all their questions answered.
 
Firstly, they will be making their first appearance at the annual Keyboad Cavalcade Blackpool Extravaganza in May. This week-long residential event attracts the largest gathering of home organ and keyboard enthusiasts of any U.K. festival and is organised by Spectre Promotions.
 
Secondly, in June SightRead they are taking a stand at the prestigious London International Show and hope to be able to show the new MusicPad Maestro for the first time in the UK. This promises to be a hugely successful show and is being widely promoted throughout the UK music industry. They can be found in the Unplugged section near the education hall and we look forward to meeting potential customers and dealers alike. 
Musicpad is still the most popular digital music archive and reading system on the market

We have just come across Byron Jones's Wersi Scala for sale on Ebay. Selling due to upgrade of new organ, it currently stands at £4,100 with the reserve not yet met. Have a look at the ebay listing by clicking HERE

It's big, its brown and its beautiful, it's the new Orla GT9000 DLX. Over the next few weeks we take a look at the new Orla range of organs including the amazingly compact GT compact. If you are looking for an organ with lots of features, then the Orla range is well worth a look. Visit www.orladirect.co.uk for more details.
Watch this space for more news...

Tags: orla, direct,

Visitors to Jazzhooves can now listen to our latest podcast. Featuring a special interview with Seth Rye, musician, teacher and musical genius. Also in this show we feature music from Claudia Hirschfeld, Brett Wales, Michael Dann playing Yamaha Stagea as well as tracks from Leigh Wilbraham and Alex Payler. Visit our podcast section now and listen to our ever popular show.
Photo: Seth Rye

Tags: seth,rye,organist,lowrey

Dear Visitors to Jazzhooves, my website has had a complete overhaul, so please feel free to visit and read my news. Also, my show production partnership That's Entertainment Productions is thrilled to have secured a summer season at the Royal Hippodrome Theatre, Eastbourne, every Tuesday and Wednesday for 24 weeks from 13th May to 15th October, with "The Return of The Minstrels in Those Variety Days".  The show features three of the original stars from the wonderful George Mitchell Black and White Minstrel Show, with original glittering tailcoats and toppers, their special guest star, Supersonic Syd Little, magic and mystery with The Illusionistics, The Minstrel Maids, The Hippodrome Dancers and a live band, which includes myself or my deputy and Chris Stanbury at the helm of a Yamaha EL700.  It is a very happy, lively and colourful show.  Tickets are on sale now on 01323 412 000.
Visit www.michaelwooldridge.co.uk for more information

Tags: Michael wooldridge,website,update,organist

The ever expanding website known as organportal.com has had a major facelift and looks fantastic. Richard Postma, website owner has taken the site and re-designed the look and feel of the website. Any visitor will immediately notice how easy it is to navigate and all of their multimedia content is in easy to find folders.
Visit organportal today and say hello. www.organportal.com

Tags: organportal,update,news,website,richard,postma

During the last few weeks there have been rumours flying around about the website called Organfax. To ensure that facts are put forward we have contacted the organfax office and spoken to them and from that conversation we are pleased to be able to confirm the following truth about organfax.

Organfax is certainly not closing down, time and other commitments mean that a few things have been put on hold.
Organfax is not under any bid from any internet company and in fact the whole story is beyond belief in the first place.
The owner of the website simply has other pressing commitments, as most of us at some time in our lives do and things will resume at some point soon.

The internet can be a very vicious place when it comes to rumours - one thing leads to another and before you know it what can be an innocent break can turn into the end of the world. We always suggest speaking direct to the persons involved and take what you read on the internet with a big pinch of salt.

We have had a number of recent requests for the contact telephone number for Wersi in Germany. The website has their freecall numbers but they do not operate from the UK. Anyone wanting to contact Wersi direct from the UK should call 00 49 6747 1230
This number will put you directly through to their main reception.

Tags: organfax, stuart hutton, website

Star Electone Player Alex Payler has just taken delivery of YAMAHA’s top of the range flagship Electone Organ, the ELX-1m. Only one of two outside of Japan, this incredible instrument is believed by many to be the finest
Instrument YAMAHA has ever made. Boasting a breathtaking specification even larger than that of the EL-900m it is complete with two 61 Note Manuals and 25 note Radiating Polyphonic Pedalboard, all housed in a futuristic white Cabinet designed for the Stage.

Revolutionary ‘Horizon’ Touch Keyboards, Virtual Acoustic Synthesis, the best in YAMAHA’s AWM/FM sound shaping technology, XG and GM Compatibility and Micro-tuning for each individual voice are just a few features of the ELX-1m’s remarkable specification. Alex comments: “It’s an absolute thrill to have been chosen to have this very rare and special instruments. You simply feel on top of the world when you sit ‘aboard’ it and play”. Had this Electone been released outside of Japan, it could have cost anything from £30,000 upwards, following in the footsteps of the original ELX-1 released back in the 1990’s.

Alex still plans to complete most of his concert touring using the EL-900m but will be performing on the ELX-1m for a number of select performances throughout the year until finally performing on the ELX-1m permanantly. For more information, check out his website…www.alexpayler.com

If you visit youtube you get lots of organ and keyboard videos, but the rating system seems to make no sense. So, we are taking some of the best youtube videos and you can now rate the videos independently on Jazzhooves.com. Hopefully the ratings will make more sense as musicians with a knowledge of music access our site and will give a better level of feedback.
So, visit our video section and to vote simply click on the five stars below each video - your vote will be added and we hope to get a better feedback system.
Vote today and tell us what you think of these videos. If you have a Youtube or AOL video that you would like us to include, please email us via enq@jazzhooves.com

Visitors to Jazzhooves.com will be pleased to know that we have a very special podcast lined up for broadcast on Sunday 20th at 8pm.
If you like great music and chat, make sure you log on to Jazzhooves on Sunday.

The only time that a keyboard player features on a main stream TV show on ITV and what do we get? Sadly someone called Michael Machell playing a "remixed" version of Star Wars very badly.

Saturday night ITV show "Britain's got talent" is a show to find the next big talent to appear in front of British royalty. Many first class performers appeared on stage, including an incredible electric string quartet. Following them was a keyboard player who did for the keyboard world what Hitler did for Germany. The whole performance was a complete nightmare. It was clear that they had chosen him as a thing of ridicule and not because of his talent.
Judge Simon Cowell told the audience "If I became Prime Minister I would ban those things" - referring to a Yamaha portable home keyboard. This is not the sort of publicity that keyboard or organ players want, and why oh why is it always talentless individuals who seem to make it into the news. I am sure that Yamaha UK did not appreciate this sort of publicity after spending years of hard work developing fantastic arranger keyboards. Cowell is well known for his outspoken and self opinionated views, but in this case we have to agree with him.
Where are the UK's top organists and keyboard players?
Watch the keyboard player by clicking HERE tell us what you think in our forum

*Photo Simon Cowell

New podcast for April is now on line. Go to our Podcast section to listen or download to your MP3 player. In this months edition we feature music from Glyn Madden, Hector Olivera, Claudia Hirschfeld, Ryan Edwards, Klaus Wunderlich, Andy Mullin, Leigh Wilbraham and Franz Lambert.
Tune in and listen to our 45 minute show.

Tags: podcast, music, organ