Home : Plato's Words : July 2006

July 2006

Summer for me started with a bang, quite literally. On the final day of our Vancouver Jazz Festival I crashed my bike as I rode off of Granville Island and now several days later I am still nursing a very injured shoulder. This is not how I envisioned my summer days beginning, I can tell you. Up until the crash day (you’d think I was participating in the annual tour de France!) I was having a fantastic June and looking forward to hot July days. I suppose I should be grateful ( and I am) for not having broken any bones but I am disappointed to be told that there will be no running or cycling for some time now as I nurse my injured muscles. On top of all of that I developed some kind of spasm in my back that has me coughing in such dramatic spurts that I have been left with some laryngitis from the wear and tear on my poor throat and vocal cords. Alas, I am a mess it seems. Of course I am the person that has always advocated that life is a type of pendulum and you cannot always have things at the good and positive part of the spectrum. This perhaps, is my down swing and the pain and the inconvenience are simply reminders that life has to include it all, good and bad to be complete. That is my naïve rational and perhaps foolish way of seeing things in any event.

My trip to Quebec City and to Montreal turned out to be fantastic in every way. I was able to sing with a brilliant young pianist in a duo setting and then later with his trio in Montreal. John Roney is the pianist’s name and I was just thrilled and inspired to sing with his wonderful explorations on the piano. Right now he and his trio are leading the nightly jam that takes place at Montreal’s jazz festival. Apparently those evenings are real events and I’m sure that is the case in that huge festival. John really brought to life several of the tunes that I chose to sing out there and h e made singing an absolute joy. I really hope I get to experience his magic again in the future because I have never felt quite so free and unburdened to sing these songs; the standards and my originals too. Some of that has to do with the fact that he is an incredible listener and the other reason is that he is so open to each tune and basically discovers it’s beauty with you the singer. That’s what I experienced.

In Quebec City we performed at the most beautiful jazz club/restaurant that I have ever laid eyes on. Largo is the name of the restaurant. It is simply divine! Every little detail has been paid attention to and a visit there becomes a treat for one’s visual, aural and tasting sensations. My two nights performing there with John will be an experience that I will never forget. Aside from the music making I fell in love with some of Quebec City’s historic architecture. Certain areas it seemed as though I was walking on a European street and not within a Canadian city.

Montreal also was lovely fun for me and there for two nights I got to bond, musically speaking ,with John’s trio which included bassist Zak Lober and drummer Jim Doxas. Of course it was a different dynamic to be creating music with the trio as opposed to just singing with John but I enjoyed the experience immensely and the group were very open to my ideas and approaches to songs. One other thing about this trio; each of the three guys are just 28 or 29 years old. That is so hard to believe when you hear the maturity in their playing. I was deeply impressed with each of them. I predict that John particularly will go very very far in his music career. He is already causing waves of excitement out in the Eastern part of Canada. I’m hoping he will come out this way to perform with his trio for the Vancouver audience. Besides being a great pianist he is also a wonderful composer. I love his trio CD entitled “Rate Of Change”. The pieces are all John’s compositions and they simply draw you in as you listen. Simply beautiful!

A few days after I returned to Vancouver I performed with my quintet at our jazz festival. We performed a concert that was recorded by CBC and then later in the evening I performed with a smaller group at O’Doul’s. The band played very well for the CBC concert and a number of tunes were chosen to be aired on the radio broadcast. This is was the last of a number of performances that I have had with what I dubbed my “trombone quintet”. I love the group. I think some pieces work better than others and I learn as I hear certain things unfold musically which pieces lend themselves more easily to trombone/voice features. We will be playing Texada Island jazz festival at the end of July so perhaps by then I will have a few other things to try with the band.

The day after my Vancouver Jazz festival performances I flew back to Toronto to perform in the Real Divas concert at the Toronto Jazz Festival. I arrived a day early and went to hear my friend George Evans perform his festival concert. Little did I know that he was going to invite me up to sing a tune with him but that is just what he proceeded to do. We sang “One Note Samba” together, as we had done during his Vancouver performances earlier this spring at the Cellar. George was in fine form and in perfect voice. This was the first time I got to hear George with his own Toronto quartet and there was genuine affection and joy in the music that the band shared with their enigmatic leader.

The following day was the “day of the divas”. My greatest pleasure was singing a duet with the talented Heather Bambrick. Heather is a marvelous jazz vocalist and she shares the same wit and humor that George Evans does. She hosts her own program on Jazz FM radio in Toronto and is one sharp cookie. We had such spontaneous fun scatting away on the tune “Cheek to Cheek”. Heather will be coming out to perform for a Vancouver audience this coming fall. I’m sure everyone will enjoy her musicality and bubbly nature. The rest of the concert was magnificent and I was utterly amazed at the array of vocal talent from across Canada; some unbelievable vocalists ranging in age from 15 to 60. I got to take it all in from the front row and became a fan of several of the vocalists immediately upon hearing them sing for the first time. The audience was fantastic too and I’m sure they enjoyed the great variety since each singer was completely different than the next one. I love that about music and songs. 16 singers on the same stage and not a one sounded like one of the others. Another time I might write about some of those singers but this post is getting quite long it seems.

During our Vancouver festival this year the highlight for me was seeing two different vocalists: Sheila Jordan, the 77 year old queen of bebop and Tena Palmer, an adventurous Canadian vocalist were the two vocalists who made an impact on me.  I saw Tena Palmer perform for the first time and was really knocked out by her music. She absolutely embodies each tune that she sings and she truly seems at home on stage, physically moving about with an ease that is almost cat-like. Not that she prowls around on stage exactly but there is a physical nature to her singing and to the way she moves as she embodies each tune. There was something strangely wonderful about her as a performer and that is more difficult to explain. She is not a “typical” jazz singer in the traditional sense of the word. She was full of surprises and moved with ease from singing a type of pure blue grass/country melody to singing a bizarre little high-pitched introduction to another tune. I’m talking “HIGH” as in only dogs can hear “high” but not in a “show off what my voice can do” manner either. Strange little sounds that surprise and perhaps puzzle you somewhat. She chose the unlikely standard of “What Are You Doing New Year’s Eve” as a vehicle for singing a remarkable solo on it. This choice is only unlikely because it is typically sung at Christmas time. Why not it to lead off summer days indeed? She has such a personal sound and style and effortless approach to all her singing. I loved when she sang in what sounded to be perfect Portuguese on a catchy little samba and really enjoyed hearing all of her own unique compositions, always interesting, sometimes haunting and beautiful.  She really is an artist that you cannot pigeon hole because chameleon-like she appears to be floating through styles yet always retaining a truthful connection to the stories being sung. She is the common thread throughout the genre-jumping that seems to take place during one of her concerts.

Sheila Jordan is someone I have seen and heard many times and I’d have to say this was one of her very best performances. I just adore that woman! I suppose as she says the music keeps her young because that is how she appears to everyone when she is performing this music. She has a youthful energy and exuberance and there is great feeling as she sings the more contemplative material and there is laughter and playfulness as she sings the more light- hearted tunes. Always there is spontaneity and a feeling of “going for a ride” on the music that she is singing for us. This music consisted of several standards that had been arranged by Alan Broadbent for Sheila some years ago when she recorded with strings but also included a number of brand new arrangements by Vancouver cellist Harold Birsten. Those were my favorite pieces.  In a way this type of concert seems to bridge the world of classical and jazz music; something that I have always been intrigued with because I love both genres so much myself. A rendition of “How Deep Is The Ocean” was spectacular but then I’d have to say the whole concert really was fantastic. The Babayaga String Quartet joined pianist Miles Black’s trio in backing up Sheila. Another beautiful musical moment occurred when Babayaga performed a piece that Harold had composed in Sheila’s honor entitled “Another Portrait of Sheila” in which he quoted one of the Cherokee melodies that she often sings within her concerts. Sheila is part Cherokee. Harold’s piece was just beautiful and Sheila obviously was delighted with it as well. Another beautiful tune and one I have heard Sheila sing many times was “Dat Dere” which she dedicated to her daughter. Each time I hear her sing it she bring something new and fresh to the little story song of a child asking her mother about typical things that a tot might be interested in knowing about. Sheila amazes me in that she continues to make the music that she loves and she actually seems to sound better and better as the years go by. I guess she is doing what was always intended for her to do and that is to sing, sing sing! She has almost a little girl sound to her voice at times and other times you hear a woman that has definitely lived a life. Always there is candor with the audience and with the musicians. I think anyone that has ever seen Sheila perform falls in love with her music and with her charm. Long reign the bebop queen!!

Karin