Cross that one off...
This goal setting voodoo really does work! This evening I got an e-mail from Maria Schneider. Really. She doesn't want me in her band, nothing so trivial, she wants my financial contribution to her new cd project. I'm just happy her website marketing system remembered my name. Maybe a little quid pro quo would be in order. Perhaps I'll get my computer to ask her computer to fund my cd project.
About Me
- Steve Bagnell
- A native of Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, Steve has lived in Vancouver, BC for the last 25 years. In recent years he has become more active in the Vancouver jazz scene, performing frequently with the Wanda Nowicki Group and the Footprints Jazz Trio. He is very active in Vancouver's vibrant new music community, performing with ion Zoo (with Carol Sawyer - voice, Lisa Miller - piano and Clyde Reed - bass) and in numerous other contexts. He is a member of the 1067 collective, assistant administrator for the renowned NOW Orchestra and chair of the Vancouver Kiwanis Jazz Festival. Steve is a member of Seattle's acclaimed Paul Rucker Large Ensemble. He plays the whole family of saxophones from soprano to bass, bass clarinet, exotic percussion, and under duress, flute and clarinet. As a composer, his influences run the gamut from George Crumb to Maria Schneider to Barry Guy. He is partial to creating graphic scores for large ensembles. He is an alumnus of the inaugural 2005 Vancouver Creative Music Institute and has attended the Hugh Fraser Jazz Orchestra Workshop at the Banff Centre in Banff, Alberta in 2002, 2003, 2004 and 2006.
4 comments:
Of course the voodoo works. Here's an entry from my private journal, April of 2004. I've redacted the guilty party's name.
My friend Alicia called me from Los Angeles Wednesday night to tell me she's moving back to New Orleans. Alicia comes from a prominent "Creole of Color" family here in town, and is also a Voodoo Hounsi (initiate). When I told her about recent events she immediately said, "You've been whammied." Say what? " You've been hit, hoodoo'd, gri gri'd," she said. "Have you pissed off anyone in the music department?"
"Well," I said," the department head thinks I'm a moron." " No that's not it. You've been hit in both health and prosperity. Is there someone who doesn't like you, who feels threatened by you, who goes out of his way to trip you up for no reason?" I didn't even have to think about it. "That would be XXXX, the other guy in my masters program.He never misses an opportunity to be nasty to me. It's been a great puzzlement to me from day one."
At that point I had to bring the conversation to a close. John Dilkey, the band director, had asked me if I'd play alto in the Concert Band and tenor in his student jazz combo at a concert that night. Alicia insisted I call her as soon as I got home. "I'm gonna throw some bones. See if I can help you out," she said.
I went and played, had fun. Took some nice solos on "Footprints" and "Ipanema." As I was packing up the department head (I hadn't even known she was there) came by, all smiles. "Your playing was MARVELLOUS!" she said." Thank you," I said. "I wish I could have played more." "Don't worry," she said, looking me significantly in the eye." Next time, you will." I walked away thinking,"Not if it's a favor to YOU, lady."
I got home and called Alicia." Mr. XXXX has been up to no good," she said." I want you to try and find the Ouanga ball he has no doubt hidden somewhere near you which is causing all this bad luck." I fought the urge to be cynical. The truth is, I can imagine XXXX doing something like that. He's ruthlessly ambitious, and in this fuckin town, people actually DO shit like that.
" By the way," said Alicia," I've already done a few things for you. Did you notice anything unusual at the concert?" "Yes,"I said." The weirdest thing. The department head didn't cross the hall to avoid me. In fact, she gave me a compliment."
She's delighted!" See!" she says," It's working already!"
Since that time, I've been hired as visiting professor of music, assumed the mantle of co-ordinator of jazz studies, and a whole bunch of other cool stuff.
Don't be a scoffer.:-P~
Love that story, John. I actually do believe in voodoo of all sorts, especially the good stuff. There is no question that being clear, really clear, in your intentions and putting out a positive vibe cannot help but strengthen the fabric of goodwill in the world, and that making music is an essential part of that. The payoff often comes unexpectedly.
I'll leave the fixes and other nasty stuff to be practised down in your latitudes, though my mother-in-law has got a pretty good, stop-the-clock evil eye. She hasn't laid it on me since I was a teenager, thankfully.
BTW, your last blog entry, albeit a major downer, was the perfect example of why I read your blog faithfully. We need to know about the continuing shitstorm simmering there, that there is no "back to normal" at this point in time.
I read in the Halifax paper today about a couple who had just moved from Halifax to New Orleans to help out with the humanitarian effort, and were themselves the victims of an apparently random attack. But as you point out, the press often totally misses the real story.
http://www.herald.ca/Front/551302.html
I didn't know Helen and Dr. Paul, but I know plenty of people who did. Baty Landis, a colleague on the music faculty here, knew them well, and is organizing a march through the Faubourg Marigny and upper 9th ward in support of ending the violence.
No offense to the two victims, but I do find it a bit unseemly that it takes to white professionals getting killed to really grab the attention of the media. While it's true that most of the violence involves drugs 'n' thugs, there have been several instances post-Katrina of perfectly blameless people (Dinerral Shavers being the most recent) caught in the crossfire. But these people were not white.
I have quite a few friends in the vodou community here, and they all make the distinction between 'voodoo' as a religious practise and 'hoodoo' as a low-level, hex and vex kind of thing, similar to what a Bokkor would do in Haiti. I'd recommend Sallie Anne Glassman's "Vodou Visions" or Maya Angelou's book (can't remember the title) for further enlightenment.
Point well taken on the reportage. Some things don't seem to change, though I would argue that the Halifax papers ran several stories because they were former residents of the city. Race would not have been a factor, when a hometown angle could be found. The NY Times article is another thing altogether.
Post a Comment