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September 2008

Ah ha! You can smell it in the air…autumn has arrived. You can also tell because the warmth of the sun is simply that, warm and not hot. What a summer it was! I for one cannot complain and I really had a great holiday and feel somewhat prepared to accept fall and the fact that days of leisure are gone!

I journeyed to the prairies as I always do in the summer, to visit my parents and to “touch home ground” so to speak. Years ago I actually wrote a tune about that very thing. This summer on the prairies, while I was there the annual mosquitos, who so dearly love to see me each year, decided to ignore me and I was delighted! My mom’s garden was a colorful and artistic statement as it always is. It always amazes me that my mom can grow the spectacular garden that she has in the short and sometimes harsh growing season of the prairies. Living in Vancouver, a colorful and abundant garden is almost a “no brainer” because we have such a gentle and perfect climate for growing almost anything but living on the prairies your flowers and shrubs can succumb at any time to fierce winds that can rip away anything delicate or fragile. Sometimes the frost can come so early in the season that it is like a slap on the face, so shocking is it to wake up and the frost has claimed several plants. Hail as well can decide to interfere with any plans you may have had for a problem free summer. Oh well, similar to the life of a farmer, the life of a prairie gardener is to remain hopeful that Mother Nature will be gentle. I always look forward to witnessing what my mom’s hours of work and devotion help create by July.

Now I move from the visual to the aural side of things. Hearing all that wonderful music at both the Vancouver Jazz Festival and the Festival Vancouver later in the summer left me feeling really satisfied for some time and since then I haven’t heard any other live music so perhaps in the coming weeks I will have other opportunities to go to concerts and clubs in between my own performances and other work.

In the middle of August I was delighted to be one of several vocalists asked to sing for CBC producer Neil Ritchie’s retirement party. What a musical party it was! We all sang with a swinging trio led by pianist Miles Black. Miles Hill was on bass and Dave Robbins was on drummers. C’est un fantastic one might say! So many great singers participated: Kate Hammett-Vaughan, Jennifer Scott, Laura Crema, Lorraine Foster, Dee Daniels, Melody Diachun and June Katz were all there to sing some of Neil’s favorite tunes. Neil will be sorely missed as the producer of shows such as HOT AIR and of DISC DRIVE on CBC radio. It’s lovely that people will still get to experience Neil’s expertise on jazz vocalists since he will continue to teach his course on jazz vocalists at one of the Community Colleges in town. Several years ago it was Neil who got me completely hooked on the music of Peggy Lee. She was one of his absolute favorites and now she is one of mine as well.

I will have a fairly busy fall schedule as I prepare for a few special events coming up. I will be performing in Regina at the CBC for a special celebration concert. I’m quite exited to be doing that with Montreal pianist John Roney and his trio. I had reconnected with John this past July when I performed in Quebec and asked if he and the group would join me in the prairies for this live concert and recording. Eventually the concert will be broadcast across the country so those of you who are CBC listeners will have the opportunity to hear the concert, even if you aren’t there in person at the end of October. I have always enjoyed performing in Regina and in some ways it has become my “home crowd” city along with Saskatoon because the people there are so very supportive and welcoming. Perhaps they recognize that I am still a “Prairie Chick” through and through, although I have lived in Vancouver since 1985. You can’t shake your roots and that’s a fact. I wouldn’t want to and still love the prairies going back when I can.

My other news is that after all this time I will be releasing my latest CD “Downward Dancing”. I will do this in Toronto in November and there will also be a Vancouver release performance at some point. I am excited to finally be able to celebrate and release this recording, which I recorded in Toronto with pianist Nancy Walker, bassist Steve Wallace and drummer Joel Haynes. On the recording I have included some of my favorite songs and as is typical of my recording, there are a couple of originals as well. I’ll be posting detailed information in the near future.

Karin