Latest news with #saxophonist
The Sun
9 hours ago
- Entertainment
- The Sun
‘Capri-inspired' beach bar with real sand and Ibiza-style DJ sessions opens in UK city
IN THE centre of a UK city, you can find a new Capri-inspired beach club with real sand, cabanas and live saxophone players. Capri Beach Club in Manchester transports visitors to the Italian coast with pretty cabanas, lounge chairs and real sand to truly bring the Mediterranean feel. 4 4 In fact, over 15 tons of sand were brought from across the UK to be used for the bar. Located in Exchange Square, the beach club has a large bar which serves a variety of drinks including cocktails and champagne. There is also a resident DJ that plays tunes with the vibe of an Ibiza beach club. In addition, there is a resident saxophonist and a selection of street food vendors. Food options include pizza, burgers and fish and chips. And if you have a sweet tooth, you can grab an ice cream as well, with a variety of flavours to choose from. Drink options include frozen cocktails and classic Aperol spritzes. There are two bookable VIP areas, which are both under wooden gazebos, enveloped by linen curtains. The VIP experiences means you also get table service in the space, which can host up to 14 people. One recent visitor said: "Great atmosphere with loud music and chippy/wood fired pizza, lot's of comfortable cosy seating areas to chill out with real sand and decking! Beach bar "We found cosy seats to chill out in and people watched whilst listening to the good tunes." Another added: "Perfect for chilling and unwind with family and friends with a great relaxing music. "Plus, the ambiance is amazing plus the food and drinks were delicious." A third said: "Super nice beach bar in the centre of Manchester. "Nicely decorated and friendly staff. "There were several food trucks, such as ice cream, pizza and churros. "There was a wide choice of drinks at the bar." The Capri Beach Club is open 11am−11pm until September. These are the UK's best beach bars – with DJ sets, sunset views and signature cocktails. Plus, one of the UK's most popular seaside towns has a California-like beach bar which has been named one of the best in the country. 4
Daily Mail
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Bizarre moment Lebanese pool party cheers as missiles fly overhead amid Israel-Iran war - while other rooftop revellers also enjoy the scenes
Revellers at a Lebanese pool party have been seen cheering and dancing as Iranian missiles flew over to hit Israel targets. Bizarre footage shared over the weekend showed partygoers in a large swimming pool dancing, clapping and cheering as long-range missiles soar off to Israel in the distance. The celebrations carried on, even as the missiles slammed into Israeli territory. This was just the latest example of revelry in Lebanon in the wake of the Israel-Iran conflict, which saw the two warring nations send salvo after salvo of drones and missiles at each other over the weekend. The latest round of conflict began on Friday, when Israel launched a series of blistering attacks on Iranian soil, targeting the country's nuclear infrastructure, as well as densely populated parts of cities. But while much of the world watched in horror as the two Middle Eastern nations duked it out, scenes across Lebanon, which shares its southern border with Israel, were far different. In one video, a saxophonist was seen serenading people partying on a rooftop as missiles flew overhead. The musician, covered in a large colourful shawl, was seen standing next to a DJ deck and writhing up and down as he played his instrument. In the background, partygoers were seen filming the missiles with glee. At another rooftop party, thumping music was heard playing as people stared at the sky in awe. One couple was seen dancing with each other as they stared at the missiles falling from the sky. And in a third video, ABBA's Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! was heard at a wedding party as celebrants danced the night away. But the parties in Lebanon stand in stark contrast to the scenes across Iran and Israel. Iran fired a new wave of missile attacks on Israel early Monday, killing at least five people, while Israel claimed in the fourth day of the conflict that it had now achieved 'aerial superiority' over Tehran and could fly over the Iranian capital without facing major threats. After days of attacks on Iranian air defenses and missile systems, the Israeli military said its aircraft now control the skies from western Iran to Tehran and had destroyed more than 120 surface-to-surface missile launchers, a third of Iran's total, that had been firing at Israel in overnight missions. 'Now we can say that we have achieved full air supremacy in the Tehran airspace,' said military spokesperson Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin. Iran, meantime, announced it had launched some 100 missiles and vowed further retaliation for Israel's sweeping attacks on its military and nuclear infrastructure, which have killed at least 224 people in the country since last Friday. One missile fell near the American consulate in Tel Aviv, causing minor damage, U.S. Ambassador Mike Huckabee said on X. There were no injuries to American personnel. Iran announced it had launched some 100 missiles and vowed further retaliation for Israel's sweeping attacks on its military and nuclear infrastructure, which have killed at least 224 people in the country since last Friday. Israel said so far 24 people have been killed and more than 500 injured as Iran launched more than 370 missiles and hundreds of drones. In response the Israeli military said fighter jets had struck 10 command centers in Tehran belonging to Iran's Quds Force, an elite arm of its Revolutionary Guard that conducts military and intelligence operations outside Iran. Powerful explosions, likely from Israel's defense systems intercepting Iranian missiles, rocked Tel Aviv shortly before dawn on Monday, sending plumes of black smoke into the sky over the coastal city. Authorities in the central Israeli city of Petah Tikva said that Iranian missiles had hit a residential building there, charring concrete walls, shattering windows and ripping the walls off multiple apartments. The Israeli Magen David Adom emergency service reported that two women and two men - all in their 70s - and one other person were killed in the wave of missile attacks that struck four sites in central Israel. 'We clearly see that our civilians are being targeted,' said Israeli police spokesman Dean Elsdunne outside the bombed-out building in Petah Tikva. 'And this is just one scene. We have other sites like this near the coast, in the south.' Petah Tikva resident Yoram Suki rushed with his family to a shelter after hearing an air raid alert, and emerged after it was over to find his apartment destroyed. 'Thank God we were OK,' the 60-year-old said. Despite losing his home, he urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to keep up the attacks on Iran. A general view of Tehran covered in smoke and dust following explosions after an Israeli airstrike, on June 15, 2025 'It's totally worth it,' he said. 'This is for the sake of our children and grandchildren.' In addition to those killed, the MDA said paramedics had evacuated another 87 wounded people to hospitals, including a 30-year-old woman in serious condition, while rescuers were still searching for residents trapped beneath the rubble of their homes. 'When we arrived at the scene of the rocket strike, we saw massive destruction,' said Dr. Gal Rosen, a paramedic with MDA who said he had rescued a 4-day-old baby as fires blazed from the building. During an earlier barrage of Iranian missiles on central Israel on Sunday, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said that Iran will stop its strikes if Israel does the same. But after a day of intensive Israeli aerial attacks that extended targets beyond military installations to hit oil refineries and government buildings, the Revolutionary Guard struck a hard line on Monday, vowing that further rounds of strikes would be 'more forceful, severe, precise and destructive than previous ones.'
Irish Times
03-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Times
Emma Rawicz: ‘I think jazz is made for people who don't necessarily fit into life's prescribed boxes'
When the young English saxophonist, composer and bandleader Emma Rawicz was 16 and a pupil at Chetham's in Manchester , the largest and most internationally renowned specialist youth music school in the UK, she somehow found time – in addition to her exacting music and academic studies – to practise between eight and 10 hours a day. Although she had been playing classical violin since the age of six – and also had piano, clarinet and singing lessons – Rawicz had only started to focus exclusively on the saxophone – first the alto and then the tenor – for a year. And she felt she had a lot of ground to catch up on. 'I was, like: 'Oh my God, everyone knows so much, and they can all do all this amazing stuff on their instruments,' so I spent every spare hour pretty much practising, to the point where I nearly hurt myself,' the 23-year-old says. 'Occasionally, I'd have to take Saturday off because my lip was swollen and I literally couldn't play. I'd try, but it would just be too painful.' In keeping with her remarkable personality – she is, she says, 'a massive perfectionist, complete workaholic and habitual overachiever', who speaks four languages and gained two private-school scholarships – all those thousands of hours of application and industry soon paid off. READ MORE Extravagantly gifted, Rawicz (pronounced 'RA-vich') began to show both a preternatural talent on the tenor saxophone, particularly in the tricky upper registers of the instrument, and an ability to write clever and captivating compositions that, as well as being firmly rooted in modern jazz, displayed fascinating connections to styles such as rock, fusion, folk, Brazilian and Afro-Cuban. To say she was mature beyond her years was at once abundantly clear and a gross understatement. Winning a place, aged 18, on the jazz course at the prestigious Royal Academy of Music in London, where Rawicz also further developed her not-inconsiderable skills on soprano saxophone, flute and bass clarinet, she began to play gigs, both as a side musician and leader, around the city. Word quickly got around. At the end of her second year, and still only 19, she made her debut, with her own band and music, at London's most storied jazz club, Ronnie Scott's. In 2022 Rawicz self-released a highly praised debut album, Incantation, featured as a soloist with the BBC Concert Orchestra and was named newcomer of the year at the annual Parliamentary Jazz Awards. Favourable comparisons started to be made to such virtuoso American tenor players as Chris Potter, Joshua Redman and Donny McCaslin, and she began to play clubs and festivals throughout Europe. Rawicz made her Irish debut at last year's Limerick Jazz Festival. Now she and her quartet are about embark on an eight-date Music Network tour of Ireland. The activity and acclaim continued. In 2023 Rawicz signed to ACT, a creative and progressive jazz label based in Germany, and began to write for, organise and conduct her own 20-piece jazz orchestra. She also built an audience of almost 50,000 followers on Instagram for her winning daily practice videos and live clips. Jamie Cullum – the English singer, pianist, songwriter and BBC Radio jazz presenter – hailed Rawicz as an astonishing talent. Reviewing her second album, Chroma, the Guardian 's jazz critic, John Fordham, wrote that 'the warp speed of her evolution is showing no sign of slowing.' And BBC Radio 3 declared, fairly accurately, that 'the name Emma Rawicz is on everyone's lips right now.' 'People say: 'Oh, you're so young to be doing X, Y or Z,' and I know this logically, and that I'm insanely hectic and busy, and I'm very grateful for and really value that, because I know it's rare,' she says, speaking from her flat in southeast London during a short break in touring. 'But I'm also just trying to live life as it comes, to relish every moment, to have as many of the experiences that I really want to have as I can.' Rawicz grew up an only child in rural north Devon, near to her maternal grandparent's farm, Exmoor National Park and the sea. 'I think being Devonian is quite close to my heart; it's about valuing peace, space, community and connection with people,' she says. 'But if you want to become a jazz musician, and be exposed to lots of different teachers, instruments and gigs, then growing up there may not be the simplest place to start.' Her mother was employed variously in the civil service, social work and commerce, and her father was an engineer; both were highly successful and spent considerable periods working abroad. Her paternal grandfather was born in Poland (Emma's full surname is Rawicz-Szczerbo), but he left, aged eight, with his mother during the second World War. They made their way, mostly on foot, to Britain, where they were eventually reunited with Rawicz's great-grandfather, a decorated general in the Polish army. While her father has always played piano 'for fun', and her maternal grandmother played organ at her local church, Rawicz did not grow up in an especially musical household. She did, however, have access to her father's iPod. 'He was a very eclectic listener, and on there was everything from AC/DC to Avril Lavigne, classical music and Turkish prepared piano, and I loved all of it and found it very inspiring. I feel it's good that I didn't get a conception of genre until much later on.' Emma Rawicz: 'The saxophone seemed like the coolest instrument ever, and I instantly wanted to play it.' In her teens she also listened avidly to singer-songwriters such as Joni Mitchell and Gabriel Kahane, film soundtracks and the music of the Brazilian guitarist Baden Powell; she also tried to play Irish jigs and reels on the violin. 'It was really very random,' she says. The first time she heard jazz was when her parents took her, aged 12, to a concert by an amateur big band at the nearby Dartington International Summer School. She was immediately hooked. 'The brass instruments and the harmony and the sound of the drums and the power behind that sound ... it just grabbed me,' she says. 'The saxophone also seemed like the coolest instrument ever, and I instantly wanted to play it.' Her parents, however, encouraged her to focus on the many other instruments, choirs, ensembles and orchestras in which she was already involved. Rawicz continued 'to beg'; when she reached 15 they relented. 'As soon as I started playing the saxophone, especially the tenor, I was like: 'Oh, okay, I haven't been playing the right instrument',' Rawicz says. 'The saxophone was the one I felt I could really express myself through, the instrument that could help make music my life. 'I could also sense that jazz was a real nerd-friendly genre, which suited me, because I was probably quite an unusual kid. I think jazz is made for people who don't necessarily fit into life's prescribed boxes.' That unusual kid may have been a dedicated bookworm who loved learning and was academically bright – she was one of only 730 pupils in England in 2018 to achieve the highest mark in all nine of her GCSEs – and in person, albeit over a video call, she is thoughtful, articulate and cheerful. But Rawicz has also faced more than her share of struggles throughout her young life. As a child she had encephalitis, which at the time affected her eyesight, among other things, and which she believes led to her suffering, from the age of 13 to 22, from complex regional pain syndrome. 'I was in pain for quite a lot of every day, and it was pretty rubbish,' she says. 'But more recently I've discovered powerlifting, and I've made some diet and lifestyle changes. My health is now in a much, much better place.' Emma Rawicz: 'It was a long, long time before I felt in any way confident about my playing. I suppose I have overcome it.' Photograph: Gregor Hohenberg/ACT Rawicz also experienced severe performance anxiety, especially when she started playing the saxophone. 'It was quite weird, because I loved playing the instrument, but I would freeze whenever I had to play in front of anyone, especially if I had to improvise,' she says. 'It caused quite a lot of trouble when I went to Chetham's and at the start of my time at the academy. I couldn't play in classes, or even in front of my one-to-one teachers. 'It was a long, long time before I felt in any way confident about my playing. I suppose I have overcome it. I think a lot of that is down to realising how important it is to surround yourself with people who want the best for you, on stage and off stage. And the idea of just having to get over myself and go out and do the best I can, because there's no better cure, in my experience, than necessity.' Positive audience and critical reception – and the Royal Academy awarding her, on graduating last year, the distinguished Musicians' Company Silver Medal, a prize not previously given to a jazz student – must also have helped shape a more affirmative view of herself. Her debut release on ACT, the adventurous and occasionally even prog-leaning Chroma, received almost universally enthusiastic reviews. (Its title reflects another example of the way her brain is wired differently: Rawicz has chromesthesia, a type of synaesthesia in which sound involuntarily evokes an experience of colour, shape and movement.) Its follow-up, Big Visit, a supple and sympathetic duo album with the star Welsh pianist and composer Gwilym Simcock that was released in March, went down equally well. Rawicz rejects the stereotype that jazz musicians have to suffer to create great work – a fact evidenced in the many online videos of her spirited and upbeat performances. 'I'm not saying the tortured artist doesn't exist, but, for me, music has been such a source of healing, growth, learning ... and joy. What I want more than anything is to continue being a musician that gets joy out of music and, more importantly, brings joy to the people that hear it. 'One of the biggest privileges of being a musician is getting to make other people's lives just even a little bit better from doing what you love to do. I mean, how amazing is that?' Emma Rawicz plays Letterkenny, Sligo, Roscommon, Tinahely, Dublin, Listowel, Cork and Newbridge between Wednesday, June 4th, and Friday, June 13th, on a Music Network tour
