Home : Plato's Words : February / March 2009

February / March 2009

Inspirational! Magnificent! Exciting! I cannot begin to find the right words to describe a concert I was lucky enough to witness here in Vancouver yesterday afternoon as part of the annual Winterruption Festival on Granville Island. British jazz vocalist Norma Winstone and her group with pianist Glauco Venier and clarinetist/soprano saxophonist Klaus Gesing performed a concert to a capacity audience at Performance Works. The trio played music from their Grammy nominated recording “Distances” and proved that when musicians are of a certain level of talent, ability and have chemistry that magic can happen. Everyone in the audience felt it I am certain. I had never seen Norma Winstone perform live before but I couldn’t believe how she sounds just as great as she does on her ECM recordings; maybe better. She has unbelievable control of her instrument whether she is singing a lyric or using her wordless improvising or singing counter lines or harmony lines with the clarinet or saxophone. She stood in the middle of the other two musicians and some how there was an ebb and flow and transfer of energy connecting all three of them whereby the focus would shift equally between all three musicians. In this way she is not a singer being accompanied although that element exists too of course. She is simply one of the instruments in a trio performing wonderful new compositions and explorations of sounds capes that had elasticity and form and freedom at the same time. I don’t think I have been as excited about a concert for sometime. The amazing thing about a concert like this is that the music is indeed very “heavy”; it is challenging advanced and creative music making and yet the three musicians obviously were having fun on stage; with banter between each other, smiles on their faces and humor being shared with the audience. How wonderful to know that such profound music is being shared and yet at the same time the human element of joy and connection with the audience through words and stories is there too. I loved every minute of the experience and now a day after as I write these words I am still affected by what I witnessed yesterday. I do hope I get to see Norma and her fellow musicians perform again in the near future.

I have been working on music the month of February that harkens more to my classical music world than my jazz world. I have been composing a number of piano pieces and vocal pieces for my students and feeling very inspired to do this again after some time away from this kind of writing. The ideas seem to be flowing rather effortlessly for the most part. I am more “forgiving” of myself these days when the ideas come to a block or a wall. I know they cannot be forced and so I try to listen or wait for my muse and then trust that some ideas will find their way if I work away with an open mind. I can use some logic or musical knowledge too of course but for the most part I have to trust what I hear in my head or where I see something going.

I also am working towards a few concert projects that I have coming up in March and later on in the spring as well. First of all I will take part in the 3rd annual International Women’s Day concert fundraiser for ATIRA, which is a downtown Eastside Women’s organization. This concert takes place in one of my favorite venues; Ironworks and will include my friends Jennifer Scott and Laura Crema on vocals, one of my favorite pianists ever, Lisa Miller and others as well. It is always a fun and diverse night of music making. Jennifer, Laura and I will share the stage with the band and sing some duets and some solo tunes.

Further into the spring I will be performing a special concert at The Jazz Cellar and I am working on some new and exciting repertoire for that concert. Some of that is still in the “idea” stage but it involves two musicians whom I adore because of their talent and also because of their energy. I sound “new agey” when I say that but it does become important. More soon on that matter.

On the CD listening front I was recently blown away by Vancouver vocalist Steve Maddock’s album “Memory Café”. Steve is an unbelievably talented vocalist with a full range rich voice and the ability to improvise and swing hard. His disc includes many wonderful original compositions penned by Saskatchewan born Craig Salkeld. When I was a University Student in Saskatoon I used to hear Craig sing and play piano in a cover band called “Cruise Control”. They performed all kinds of great repertoire in this band made up of local jazz guys. Craig can really sing! And….he certainly is an incredible composer and arranger. I think Steve has a really unique project because he has included some fantastic standards that we jazz vocalists all like to sing and then this brand new repertoire, which is truly new to the world. Steve also arranged some of the standards in a fresh and hip way. From the first unison lines written in his introduction to “There Is No Greater Love” I was hooked and I had not previously heard such an exciting rendition of “You’ve Changed” (also Steve’s own arrangement). Never had I thought of the tune in that way and by that I mean to say that as I listened I was completely surprised by this new spin on the song. His rendition truly made me hear a familiar tune in a brand new way. Wonderful when that happens I think!

Now I look forward to spring truly arriving, FINALLY arriving. This has been quite the winter here in Vancouver. We’ve had all kinds of whacky weather. Now as I finish writing these words, it is March 2nd and the snow drop and crocuses are all in full bloom and gradually the earth is warming up again.

Karin