Confessions of a dangerous kind

At times, I can be a musical whore. Other times, merely a tramp.

Another busy weekend - Saturday saw me in two back-to-back gigs of the sort that I rarely play any more. First off was a wedding gig with a standard quartet. I can't remember the last time I played a straight-ahead situation with a full rhythm section. The groom had seen us gigging with Wa and liked our instrumental stuff. The reception itself was a good baptist affair, dry as a popcorn fart, but the groom wanted jazz and that's what he got. I was calling standards that I easily haven't played in at least 5 years and it was a refreshing change, and we had a nice young drummer on the job. Our pianist, Chuck Porea, always plays better on a real grand piano and this church hall had a nice one. No food for the band though.

From there I raced over to the local German club for a polka gig. The things I do for money. But the thing is that they really take care of you. I walked in the door and the leader had a schnitzel the size of my face waiting for me. Typically German, he'd figured out the time it would take me to arrive from the previous gig and had ordered up the food to be served up at just the right time. And even though he knows I don't drink at gigs, there were repeated offers of free beer. Everything was set up, charts in order, sound was set up nicely, even a new light for my music stand. At the end of the night, my chops were starting to go from 5 hours of steady playing. Then he paid me fairly well for the job. It really shows that European appreciation of musicians.

Another perfect example is at the local Austrian club. Right beside the stage door is one of the prime parking spots, with a sign that reads "THIS SPACE RESERVED FOR MUSICIANS". Where do you see that sort of thing nowadays? Ever?

So I end up doing a few polka gigs a year. I'm OK with it. For the last few, the dress code has just been all black. It's been a while since they've gone full dress.

There have never been, nor will there ever be, any pictures of me in lederhosen. It's my one stipulation with these guys.

I will fess up to having done drag once and only once, for a good friend's party where the strict dress code was evening gowns for everyone. The reason why is a long story. I asked a longtime friend of mine who's a drag performer to have his way with me, as it were. He looked me up and down and announced that I was a size 14. When he was done, I looked liked my mother had mugged Juliette. I stood about 7 feet tall from bottom of stiletto to top of wig (a reasonable standard for drag queens and NBA centers). There were photos, but nothing ever made it online. Even if it did, I could live with it. OK, I'll show you a well-turned ankle that may or may not belong to me, but nothing more. I promise. My favourite personal touch was a temporary ankle tatoo copying one of Kate Hammett-Vaughan's tats. (Some claim Kate is one of the city's finest queens.) I had a great back story as all good drag queens must. My name was Dixie Lexia, a failed country singer on yet another comeback.

All of that being said, pictures of me in lederhosen are verboten. Even a musical whore has some scruples, however flimsy they may be. But I must admit that the first time I put on the lederhosen, they felt warmly supple and inviting...

But I digress.

Sunday night saw me in rehearsal with a new large ensemble called Bugs Black Blood. I considered this the cure for the previous evening's dalliances as it was back to the more familiar territory of new and improvised music. We struggled with a score composed by one of the band members. I would guess it would be his first piece for such a group. It could have been more clearly notated and presented. We had to talk at length about different improvisational tactics that changed almost bar by bar. It became a group exercise in head-scratching and Coat did an excellent job in drawing the music out of it as he figured out how to conduct it. This sort of situation can bog a rehearsal down. I lost my temper when a brass player asked a question about a bar that we had just spent several minutes discussing, obviously not having paid a shred of attention to what we had just been saying. And he still didn't get it when I walked over and wrote it out on his part.

There is a general lowering of IQ in a room when things get derailed in this manner. I now have much less patience for this sort of thing, something I will have to work on. Coat showed a remarkable amout of patience and professionalism standing in front of the band working things out. I'm sure that in his shoes, I would have just asked the composer to take it home and fix it before laying such a thing on the band. As it was, he and I had a very productive talk on the way home about how to present complex conceptual pieces.

It was educational for me in a few ways. It showed me how not to present a composition. I also learned ways as a conductor to mine such a piece for the musicality hidden inside it. The bottom line is that it will be a good piece to perform, it's just taking way too long for the band to get a handle on it. I also had the insight that in my desire to write something that can be quickly understood and played (like a grid score), that when I write, sometimes I am willing to sacrifice a certain amount of complexity or detail. That's a good thing to keep in mind and address when composing.

Speaking of that, one of my compositions is being premiered tomorrow night at The Cellar. This is part of something called The Microscores Project. This is definitely the shortest thing I've ever written. As LA-based musicians Jessica Catron (cello) and Johnny Chang (violin) tour, they ask local composers to write a 30-second piece as a contribution to the project. Ten Vancouver composers have contributed and now the project has over 225 minatures in its collection. For details, see www.musiconmain.ca.

Wednesday night at The Cellar is also a must-see in my books. The artist of the month is The October Trio, one of the great young groups in this city that is garnering national attention. Saxist Evan Arntzen can't make the first set, so Eli Bennett is subbing in, then the two of them tear it up for the remainder of the night. As I documented a couple of weeks back, I saw their first-ever meeting onstage, and it was absolutely fantastic. Bassist Josh Cole and drummer Dan Gaucher round out the group, fine musicians both. For more, see http://cellarjazz.com/.

While I'm on the topic of The Cellar, last Monday was an interesting one. String trio LSB 21 continues to coalesce into a fine group. These guys just keep getting better every time I hear them. They've asked a number of local composers to write something for them. I've been stalled in writing a graphic score - the guts are there, I just have to take the time to lay it all out and assemble it. It'll be a full colour deal with images and notation, lots of fun to do but time-consuming. I really need a deadline to get off my ass, but these guys are way too nice to impose one on me.

The second group was The Microscopic. They had the most world music sound of any group we have ever included in the NOW Monday night programming. Neelamjit Dhillon plays tabla, Meredith Bates on violin, Alvaro Rojas on strat, and Aaron Joyce on Hawaiian guitar. It was all very well played and Neel's tabla playing really draws your attention. But just like VICO at the Cultch the week previously, the element of risk was way too low for my taste. There were some group improvisations, but they were pretty contained. This group will do really well in other circles - world, roots and folk - but in the paradigm of the NOW series, they were far too conservative.

Monday the 19th promises to be back to form. Stefan Smulovitz and Viviane Houle do a duo set and the Saul Berson Trio rounds out the bill. Joining Saul will be Gord Grdina and Paul Blaney, all of them top players in this city. I have high expectations. www.noworchestra.com has the details.

Now, back to transcribing a little shoeplattle ...