Home : Plato's Words : September, 2005

September, 2005

I just got back from a lovely week of hiking in Jasper. That was my official holiday week this year with that time set aside for leisure and pleasure. The mountains are unbelievably beautiful and a testament to Mother Nature's great works of art. Elk, mountain goats galore and luckily for me one bear only, and that was when I was in a car (thank goodness). Besides the hiking I had a little keyboard to use so I also was able to do a little bit of music work while there. That's not really work to me anyway, that's part of my leisure pleasure scenario. Who wouldn't be inspired by the loveliness of the mountains in Jasper? I did manage to write a few new tunes, which made me quite happy because sometimes writing doesn't have a good flow. There in Jasper it did.

I had also been freshly inspired by the previous week when I was at Swing Camp in Sorrento BC. I will call Sorrento my "natural high week." I made new friends and learned a lot as I always do in a situation like that with everyone eager and open with new ideas about performing jazz music. Of course I was also there to teach and that was another delightful experience and a first time for me in a group situation. I am used to one on one teaching and primarily that is with classical students at the piano, not vocalists who want to study jazz. I always consider myself a student of jazz still since I came to the music so late but there I was with some knowledge to share. At least I hope I did that with everyone. I loved the week at Sorrento and I found I truly was on a natural high. The only problem was I couldn't really sleep at night because of my excitement. That's how I operate somehow when surrounded by musicians and music all day long and when the hours are so completely enjoyable from early on to late at night. I didn't really feel tired until the end of the week. I ate healthy food and exercised a little bit, socialized a little bit and sang a lot AND I learned how to swing dance! What fun it was.

Sorrento in the evenings made me believe I was in another era. The outdoor band stand stage had faculty and student instrumentalists and vocalists performing tunes that everyone else danced to. The band stand at night with the stars above and with swinging jazz tunes being played just made me think of another era but here it was alive and well in 2005 in Sorrento BC and I was there to witness it and actually participate in it. How delightful!

In the past I have always declined politely when someone asked me to dance if in fact I was at a function where dancing was taking place. I declined because although I love music and feel the beat, I didn't know how to dance. That was before I met the lovely Kristina Olsen who just happened to be my roommate along with my equally lovely Vancouver friend Kate Hammett-Vaughan. Every afternoon I was able to participate in Kristina's dance class so that by the end of the week I wasn't exactly a great dancer but I had the dancing bug and I said yes to anyone and everyone that asked. What fun it is to simply move to the music with someone else who knows how to dance and who enjoys the sensation of stepping and spinning and gracefully gliding around the floor. Kristina, besides being a very talented dance teacher is also a singer/songwriter/guitarist. She is a woman who is so full of talent and mirth and energy and happiness and mystery too. Her voice and her songs definitely strike a chord with me. I loved being in the same room with her and hearing some of her crazy stories. Everyone agrees she could be a great stand up comic besides all the other great talents she uses regularly. Kristina travels the world 10 months out of the year performing and teaching so I guess she is truly a gypsy in the very real sense of the word.

On one of the evenings a faculty concert took place where all the instructors performed. What an amazing array of talent there was: Jennifer Scott, Rene Worst, Bill Coon, Kate Hammett-Vaughan, Tom Keenlyside,  Lauri Lyster, Colleen Savage, John Reichman; these were the names of the people I already knew but other faculty members came from all over Canada and the USA with such varying backgrounds and tastes in music but with swing music being the common ground. We were put into groups by the director of the swing camp and the special element of surprise for the faculty concert was that we were typically put together with people whom we had only just met the previous day and had never performed with before. Of course that is something I thrive on. Why is it I do have other silly fears in life but never do I fear singing with total strangers? That doesn't mean I don't get stage fright. Audiences can frighten me but never fellow musicians. At least I think that is the case with me in the last few years. I can be in awe of someone but I will still enjoy the making music experience with them. Such was the case as I was put with guitarist Kent Hillman (Kent actually resides here in New Westminster BC) and with bassist John Hyde who makes his home in Calgary. I did hit it off with both men immediately. They are soft spoken and elegant in their mannerisms and in their playing and that is such a good contrast for me. I so enjoyed singing with them for our portion of the evening and long to sing with them again in some capacity. John and Kent, I believe should be much more widely known. They are very talented jazz musicians and they deserve to be heard in much wider circles. I hope that happens for them both as they continue to put their art out for everyone to enjoy.

Earlier in the summer in August I was able to go to two very different concerts: Alison Krauss and Chick Corea. Their concerts took place one night after another at one of my favorite Vancouver theatres, The Orpheum. Alison Krauss's band was wonderful with impeccable vocal harmonies blending with Alison's clear sound. This was a rootsy kind of bluegrass meets folk music and many points in between. The instrumentation includes guitars, acoustic bass, violin, dobro and drums. Alison has a gorgeous pure and high voice that also has great soulfulness to it. She is very funny and natural with the audience and with her band. I always love to witness that in a performer. Of course because I am a jazz musician I was longing for some improvisation but that is not really part of that music stylistically; the pieces are short; sometimes just 3 minutes or less. There were some solos of course and each band member was featured during the course of the evening but the kind of freedom that exists in jazz doesn't appear to be there. Nonetheless I absolutely loved the concert and want to listen to more bluegrass-based music

Chick Corea and his trio with Christian McBride and Jeff Ballard came together for the first time in Vancouver. I know that the members of the trio had played together in other groupings but not in this trio setting. So, this was improvisation at it's best. Chick had selected pieces that became templates for the band's interactions and what interactions they were. It was so exciting to hear Christian McBride just a few weeks ago leading his own hot shot group in Port Townsend to now hearing him as part of a different ensemble. Chick was in fine form and besides playing the piano he played all kinds of percussion during the evening. He would simply take a cow bell or another percussion instrument and walk on over to the drummer and start playing rhythms that would then help develop what Jeff and Christian would play. Eventually he would be at the piano again and incorporate some of those rhythms as well. He really does "play" in the way we consider children doing. I think he enjoys every part of the music making and it appears to be child's play to him although he is playing at some particularly high level of understanding. The audience in the end did call out for his big hit "Spain" and he did play it but not without having the audience learn to sing the catchy line along with the trio. So, it was a jazz concert but in the end it truly became entertainment as well and that doesn't always happen in my opinion. Maybe it doesn't have to happen either but it does make the audience laugh and open up to anything and everything once they have been made to share a little bit of themselves back with the performing artist.

Even earlier in the summer ( I do like to go backwards sometimes) I was able to see vocalist Kurt Elling in Port Townsend. Every other occasion that he has been here to Vancouver (and there have been many times) I have had to miss him because of my own commitments so finally I had my chance to see him.  He is probably one of the most complete vocal artists that I have ever seen performing live. He appears to be a man of great detail and his instrument cannot do any wrong. Truly he can sing anything that he hears and he demonstrates that tune after tune. His range is huge and his dynamic control, pitch and breath control equally impressive. Sometimes that doesn't impress me in an artist but with Kurt it absolutely did. He appears to be a musician's musician and he chooses great repertoire to sing. When I say that he is one of the most complete vocalists I mean that he appears to have everything at his command, from his actual entrance on the stage to his interactions with the band and with the audience. Nothing appears to be left to chance. That being said it is still jazz and there are obvious elements of improvisation and freedom. He inspired me to work harder at using all the elements at my disposal as a vocalist. I will work harder. That kind of work is fun anyway. No I don't have a limitless instrument at my disposal. I can still work with what I've got and try to improve. I think that is possible. I hope that's possible.

So now summer is not quite over but it is heading that way. A couple of months ago I was begging summer to take her sweet time and even though she may not have been able to stretch out quite the length I would like, I must say I have had one of the most active and creative summers in a long time. I sang a lot, I composed quite a bit, I enjoyed the great out doors while hiking and cycling, I learned a lot, I was inspired a lot and I taught quite a lot too. It appears that I "did a lot!" so perhaps summer did grant me that. I managed to fit a lot into those two months and I am happy about all of those experiences.

Now... all you still unknown autumn adventures yet to come... I await you and happily so.

Karin