Somehow I missed posting this one back on Dec 12th.
I'm about midpoint in my stretch of daily gigs and so far so good. There is something to be said for performing this frequently, namely the benefits of connecting with your instrument in a way that doesn't happen when you're solely in the practice room.
The Christmas show I'm playing in wraps up next Monday night, by which time I'll probably be ready to be done with it. At present, it's enjoyable to do and there's always room for improvement. As Bill Green used to say, "If you know it so well, why doesn't it sound better?"
The show itself is an institution in Vancouver, this being its 40th year of production. In total, about 24,000 people see it each year, no mean feat. I feel this may not be the strongest production they've ever done, but I'll leave the critiques for the audience. For me, this whole experience is always a fascinating peek behind-the-scenes at the Christian music thing, which is a world unto itself. There are some very good musicians in the show and some great singers and I guess they can make a decent living on the circuit. It's something I just get a yearly glimpse at, being an unrepentant heathen and all.
Sprinkled through this performance schedule are my more regular gigs, which are the tonic for the Singing Christmas Tree. With Wanda, we have a number of corporate Christmas gigs, always welcome at this time of the year. Tomorrow Sharon Minemoto's subbing in with us, so that should be fun.
The improv rolls along as well. Last week's show for the NOW workshops at the Western Front went very well. After that, I went to the Cellar for the second set. The music was pretty strong but there was an unusually small crowd there. I attribute that partly to a fairly dry wording for the billing that the VCMI people insisted upon. Too bad - the players had worked hard to put on a good show.
<- Carol Sawyer, Clyde Reed & me at The Cellar Last night it was ion Zoo's turn and I was very pleased how this group continues to develop. Here's a photo from the show. This shot is indicative of one of the challenges photographing groups at the Cellar, that it's hard to include the pianist in the shot unless you shoot long from the back of the room, which often results in a flat looking picture. The other way is to stand at the bar and shoot over the pianist's shoulder, which generally means you will have a depth of field problem and certain players will be out of focus. Plus, the area on stage right is usually underlit, despit my efforts to aim more lights over there. So you end up composing shots just for the pianist, or for the rest of the band, which is what happened here. Too bad, because Lisa Miller was just great last night. 
<- over Lisa's shoulderTonight Carol and I are off to Chris Gestrin's to finish off the mixdown from our last performance at the Cellar. As I anticipated, there was so much good material from last night, that it will be very hard to resist the temptation to include some of those tracks on the cd. By coincidence, that's Chris's picture on the wall just in front of my bass clarinet.
Also on the recording front, we've secured the funding to take the Wanda Nowicki Group back in the studio - thanks, Joe! So we will switch back into that mode early in the new year - always a fun and educational experience.
This is a good sign that I'll start off the new year in a fairly active mode.
