Rimo (Tinderbox Online Version)

This recording of the Tinderbox Classic ‘Rimo’ by Luci Holland was recorded entirely during lockdown on phones and home devices by individual orchestra players while connected over Zoom.

Moving Tinderbox Orchestra online came with unforeseen technical hurdles and complications, but over the last few months we’ve persevered, experimented and worked together to be able to continue playing together every week as normal.

We meet together on Zoom every Sunday and have been recording online versions of Tinderbox classics, including Bethany Lane and Rimo – returning to such familiar favourites has allowed us to get used to new ways of playing! We have also been rehearsing a new arrangement of ‘I Wanna Dance With Somebody’ (originally by Whitney Houston), which was put together by the Tinderbox Arranging Group over the last few months.

As well as rehearsing songs, the orchestra have also been experimenting with trying out different methods of improvisation over video call. A Tinderbox rehearsal in the Jazz Bar typically involves a session of ‘Suggesture’; a method of improvising, conducted using a series of hand gestures that was developed by conductor Mike Kearney. It’s been tricky to translate into a Zoom call, but we’ve been testing out different methods (some of which we showed at our Tinderbox Livestream!)