Home : Plato's Words : April 2009

April 2009

I have SOOOOO much music going on inside my life currently that I feel like a bit of a yo-yo but I think it’s all going to work out fine. After all, it is all my own doing. I am in the midst of a few musical projects and all of them have me excited and all of them seem to be happening in overlapping fashion. That can be overwhelming at times! I have been selecting, learning and arranging tunes for a fun project that has been dubbed SONG AMUSEMENT PARK. What the amusement is, is simply the repertoire, which ranges from Noel Coward to Cole Porter to many points in between. This is the clever not often heard repertoire that one doesn’t perhaps associate with jazz repertoire but then again, why not? I decided to ask two of my favorite fellow jazz musicians who also happen to have a sense of humor and wit if they’d like to present this repertoire with me and they have agreed. Pianist Michael Creber and multi-wind-instrumentalist Tom Keenlyside are those of whom I speak and they will play this slightly whacky musical repertoire with me at The Jazz Cellar in May. It shouldn’t be so very strange but this time there are no moody or “serious” tunes unless you call Alessandra Scarlatti’s “Like Any Foolish Moth I Fly” a serious tune. Of course it comes from the classical repertoire so perhaps it has a “serious” twist but not so in my books. I think I am finally going to be able to combine my love of classical and jazz music in this project. Both of my musical partners understand the genres and I hope to combine elements of both to create an enjoyable concert of music that both titillates and surprises the listener. Some of this music is so fantastic! What fun to search and research some of this repertoire knowing only that I want quirky and eclectic and sometimes humorous material to be played by the three of us. There are many standards here but not so “standardly” heard I would think.

So…that is project number one: Wit, humor and eclecticism. Project number two is a recording project!! This time I will be recording with pianist John Roney whom I have worked with a number of times in the past; in Montreal, Quebec and in Regina when we recorded a Canada Live concert for CBC last fall. John is a wonderful Montreal based pianist and somehow he “gets” me and we have connected on a number of occasions and made what I would call some very exciting music together. Of course that is completely subjective since I am reacting to what I felt while singing with John but somehow I think there is potential there to record something worthwhile and creative. John is definitely a creative force and has a very open approach to making music. More and more I have been leading towards a more open approach to expressing these standard tunes and I have been approaching some of these very old songs in new ways. I have decided to include a cellist on our recording project and hence I have been busily writing and arranging and trying to image simply voice, piano and cello in this context. Most cellists that I know are not improvisers. In fact Vancouver based Peggy Lee and Harold Birsten are the only two that come to mind immediately as improvisers and readers of music. For this recording project I will have a classical cellist who will hopefully be able to enjoy the experience of the unknown as we delve into some improvisation. I have been assembling a repertoire that is perhaps more “serious” compared to the Song Amusement Park Project. There are ballads included and again I am attempting to combine my love of classical and jazz music by having the piano and the cello together with my voice somewhere down the middle. I am hoping to do some of my own repertoire too but the charting and arranging of all the others tunes doesn’t seem to leave me with very much extra time. I think I can make it all happen if I am patient and just take it one step at a time.

My third project or shall I say “projects” is related to my vocal students. This year again I have a number of very talented young singers, all eager and willing to dig into the music that I suggest we study. There are jazz standards and Broadway musical pieces, folksongs and some classical repertoire and my students are all working very hard on understanding and exploring the differences between these genres. I think there is much to know here with all I am throwing their way and they are all getting it! Of course I am thrilled to hear them sing the jazz standards and actually pull off things I only began to learn when I was in my early 30’s. Really, this music didn’t come to me until so very late in life. I feel lucky to be able to share the thrill of singing some of this music that has freedom for expression and improvisation and is all about individuality. So…. I am in the midst of preparing a number of my vocal students for a Mother’s Day Brunch performance at Rossini’s in Kitsilano. I am excited for them because it is quite a thing to be performing in a public place on a stage and for a true listening audience. Shortly after that event several of my singers will be participating in a music festival and this time around it will be classical, Broadway and folk music that we will be finessing and performing. Once again I am excited for each of my students as I hear them blossom and grow in their vocal development and confidence and style. My piano students as well will get some opportunities to “strut their stuff” in the coming months as we prepare for music festivals, recitals and more. Much progress has been made already and there is joy in the experience of being able to play familiar pieces or pieces that are “cool”. Minor keys are always cool it seems. I agree. Minor is not necessarily “sad” as we teachers like to suggest while demonstrating the difference between major and minor; rather it is cool. So….as I mentioned in my opening sentences: there is much music in my life just now and some of it is in fact cool!

On the listening front I just returned from hearing a fantastic double-bill concert, which, featured FLATBACK and SANGHA, both Vancouver based instrumental groups and both very much cool I declare. Flatback I would describe, as a type of a bluegrass band while Sangha is a more world music oriented group with Middle Eastern influences. Flatback is a group led by bassist and mandolin player Jeremy Holmes. In this group he plays mandolin and the group plays all his original material. All of Jeremy’s pieces were absolutely beautiful and had so many varied qualities it seemed to me: sing-able melodies, energetic rhythms and dynamic grooves, bluegrass motifs, folk melodies, gentle to raucous, blues and more. The music seemed to float from mandolin to percussion to dobro to oud, which is played by guitarist and oud player Gord Grdina. It is a coincidence that Gord is in both groups and plays oud in both. Sangha is more Persian based music and has more haunting melodies and modes, some which are very foreign to my North American ear but beautiful and captivating none-the-less. In each of the groups there was such pleasure on the musician’s faces at times and it was great to witness that they were all doing what they really love and enjoying the shared experience. Solos in both groups percolated to the surface and then eventually ended while another instrument took over. Although certain forms were present in the music of both groups there seemed to be a more open approach to where a solo might begin or end than you might witness in a jazz standard or a blues tune and I really liked that aspect of both groups. It’s a great experience for me to hear music other than what I am accustomed to because it opens my ears and my mind. I didn’t know what to expect really although I have heard both Sangha and Flatback on recordings. Witnessing this music being made in front of you is a completely different experience and the music ebbs and flows and has a life that it doesn’t have on record, even if the recording is very good. It helped that the sound was exquisite and each of the acoustic instruments sounded pure and untarnished by inferior sound production. The sound technician understood how these acoustic instruments should sound and didn’t over amplify anything and yet we still got to hear some forte decibels as well as the whisper quiets. The interesting thing to me as a musician is that the music I heard tonight has nothing to do really with the music that I myself make and yet I am inspired by it and refueled creatively in some way. I love when that happens.

So here’s to cool and inspiring music this month…
Karin