International

Charlie has been drawn to many forms of World and Extra-Terrestial Music ever since the Sixties. This combined with his visits to West Africa way back then have resulted in collaborations with the Moroccan singer Sidi Siddiki, the Nigerian percussionist Gaspar Lawal, guitarist Alfred Bannerman, musical adventurer Ben Mandelson and Salah Qasim, the Sudanese oud player, amongst others.

Charlie also has been closely associated with Samba Mapangala, the highly talented leader of Orchestra Virunga for nearly two decades. Charlie met Samba in Nairobi back in 1989, helped bring Virunga over to UK for successful tours in the early 1990s and produced the acclaimed Feet on Fire (Sterns Records). More recently Charlie acted as executive producer for Song and Dance (Virunga Records), and the two are still collaborating both organizationally and musically.

The link with African musicians in particular was very helpful when it came to composing and producing the music for Erica Russell's animated short films. But music from Africa and beyond is still a major source of inspiration and extra-terrestial influences imbue Charlie's listening, writing and playing to this day.