Jake Rodrigues
Albums & Stuff
For over 25 years Jake has been writing & recording his own songs . His recordings can be found on all the major digital platforms & hard copies of CD's can be obtained by containing Jake directly. The intention here is to add a detailed discography of each album shortly
Dead Man's Trousers
Dead Man's Trousers is my first album which was created shortly after I had finished touring with Midge Ure between jan/june 1997 . Home recorded on location in Petticoat Lane with pretty basic equipment Jake plays acoustic & dobro guitars, mandolin, accordion & bass. There is piano and harmonica too. On all my albums I have been lucky to have some amazing guest musicians : Sim Jones plays violin on two tracks & Martin Wheatley plays mandolin also featured is Dave Terry on drums. Inspiration came a plenty with the cold war ending & the wane of despots like the Marcos' family from the Phillipines & in this album these ideas rub shoulders with imaginary pirate and moon shaped lotharios. Perhaps most poignant is We Went for Supper which was written as a wedding song for my friends Nick & Margaret on the Isle of Wight.
Major Chicken
Major Chicken is the second album I actually pressed in the early noughties. In between this and Dead Man Trousers there had been quite a journey with many solo shows & a 2 year period writing & recording with a band called the Third Man. After the band fizzled out I went back to solo recording and this album was very inspired by Becks seminal Odelay. The album cover created by my partner at the time Claire Brewster reflects the collage of sounds & musical worlds I collided together creating an album that is theatrical, serious & comic in equal measure.
In hindsight I owe great deal to the late journalist Dom Phillips who mentored me with the dance tracks on this album. He had a huge knowledge of dance music from being the creator & editor of mix mag ( the dance music bible). I was teaching him banjo at the time & I would play him endless versions of my tracks to which he would he would be brutally critical at times. I think this pushed me to another level & creating my own inimitable funk.
Using a cracked copy of cubase on a homemade PC held together with blu tack & gaffa tape connected to an early Roland digital 8 track. I didn't really know how to loop, sample or quantize and created my sample lengths using a calculator and a ruler on the TV screen to literally get the beats in time ! The sounds created here are helped by on location recording of Glastobury's favourite cavemen the Uggs & the talking birds of Virginia Belmont ( Minor Bird ). I was also helped by a host of amazing musicians from JC Grimshaw ( dobro Tango Train & Mandola Sea Kissing the Shingle) - Martin Wheatley (Weissoborn slide on Then Again) Rupert Brown & Scott Vicarey on drums & Tim Hudon ( aka Tim Ten Yen ) who remixed Sea Kissing the Shingle
Lucky Spoon
Lucky Spoon is my most recent output of material and was released on digital platforms in 2022. It was a real delight to work on this album primarily as its the first time I've recorded my own material in a professional studio. The care and detail Barkley Mckay put into recording this album with me (it's his studio ) takes my breath away as did the contributions of many musicians. Guests on this album include Sim Jones once again on violin & arrangements, Rupert Brown , Wilf Armfield & the gorgeous Trevor Smith on drums . Also Pete Moser on trumpet, my son Caspar Rodrigues on trombone, Barkley on Electric guitar & hammond & the vocals of Kathyrn Mckay,Mandy Carlton & Tracy Coleman. Lastly the string arrangement of Michael Csanyi-Wills. The album goes from ballads on piano to banjo hoedown, millenial whoops to epic harmonies. There are 60's Kinks vibes & vintage crooning but does Jake even play that one man band !
Stowaways in Paradise
Parrallel to Jake writing & recording his own music Jake also continued playing vintage music in bands , duo's & solo. Stowaways in Paradise is an acoustic album recorded by Jake with the two Hula Hotshot musicians MArtin Wheatley & Dave Crofts.
Huka Jazz music was massive in the 1920/30's and this album is a celebration of the best of the acoustic repertoire . The basic band is Hawaiian Guitar, Uke & Acoustic Guitar and the vocals are mostly in 3 but sometimes 5 part harmony . For more infor on the this album visit the Hula Bluebirds website.
The album was mixed by Wayne Mcintyre & it also features the Hawaiian guitar skills of JC Grimshaw !
The Second Time We Met : songs of an unsigned youth
This album is a collection of remastered tracks that were recorded between 1995 -2003 and never officially released though many were gigged regularly. It is the first of two albums of unreleased material and this one focuses on acoustic recordings.
I spent a great deal of time experimentimg with tunings on guitar and influences here include John Renbourn & Nik Jones. The recordings were made on a variety of devices include Whatever which was made on a four track cassette held together with tape and rubber bands. Despite that I'm still proud of the sound I created.
Losing the Third Man
This album is a companion to The second Time we Met & covers the same period of time but is shot through with more band sounds from Zydeco ( Love is a Motor) to the live recordings of the Third Man. Speaking of which the Third Man was a rock/pop band that came together with old college friend Scott Vocarey ( drums & vocals) and Neil Jones ( bass). I have to confess I loved this band and I'm still very proud of the essentially the demo's presented here. Scott had a classic rock voice and with me in harmony we created a great sound. The band fell apart ( as bands do ) just as we were getting A&R's interested. The album pic here is a a scan I made of a photo found in the rubbish of Brick Lane market , the original was lost though I have a suspicion that the photographer Sam Chick has it hidden away. Other tracks are a mixture of avant garde rock & plaintive rock ballandry reminiscent of Fleet Foxes & The Coral
Bucharest Club Kids DVD
I became very interested in creating music for TV adverts & short films and one person I worked with was the journalist and music commentator Dom Phillips who was tragically murdered whilst researching a book on ecological solutions to climate change in his adopted Brazil. I wrote quite a few short pieces of music to accompany some very atmospheric short film documentaries including the one on this DVD promoted by Global Underground. Other pieces I recorded for him are on the Losing the Third Man album.
Birdbath DVD
i was commisioned in the early noughties to write 60+ songs for a channel 5 childrens show called Birdbath. It was an animation and I was an animated song thrush who played on the end of a branch and commented on the story that had just unfolded. It was great fun and I tryed to push both the animators and myself with each new theme.
This DVD is still available via Amazon or second hand on Ebay and there are loads of the episodes still on youtube etc.