Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Diffusion

Holy crap, I can't believe how long it's been since I've posted anything. Part of it is that I have cut back on my performing out of necessity. The new day gig is demanding and is worth the time and effort I am putting into it. Free jazz just doesn't pay all the bills, if you can believe that.


As well, there has been a disturbing trend in Vancouver where many of the places where I have played with Wanda and the boys have cut back to trios, duos, solos or no music at all. Quintet gigs are rare. So I haven't been playing a lot of straight up stuff.


Typically in these fallow periods, I go back to the proverbial woodshed and work on saxophone fundamentals. That is never a bad plan of action.


But this time, I have realized that I have done just the opposite of my usual pattern. I have been doing a whole range of diverse and sometimes new things in the time I have allocated for music.


One of the first was a duo gig at Stitching/Unstitching at Casa Del Artistas with Amsterdam-based drummer Robbert Van Hulzen. It was a classic hook and hit - we'd never met before and did not discuss what we were going to do before we hit the stage. We'd checked each other out online and had a sense of what we were going to be in for. Robbert is a very sensitive and musical drummer. We meshed very well and I was quite pleased with the result. Too bad we didn't have another chance to get together while he was here.


Another new grouping was an ad hoc ensemble with guitarist Craig Townsend, trumpeter Joe Rzemieniak and longtime Wanda bandmate Mark Bender on bass. It was Mark's first venture onto the "dark side" of free improv. Given the nature of the gig, we framed it by playing some standards in a very open form. The grouping was quite effective and we will definitely play together again.


Then there was the recent reanimation of Primord at the Cobalt. We did an arrangement of "Sister Ray" at a Fake Jazz Wednesday night that was dedicated solely to covers of Velvet Underground tunes. Tenor sax, two baris, drums and myself on bass sax. Another skronkfest, but a most effective one. Many thanks to Femke van Delft for getting the definitive photo of me playing The Beast.


I was fortunate to sit in for the best part of a set with the Coat Cooke trio a couple of weeks ago at The Cellar. Coat was sick as a dog ( and still recovering from that damn bug) and I offered to spell him off a bit. It's always great to play with Kenton and Clyde. And I felt that Coat and I meshed better than ever. It was one of those evenings that gave me an adrenalin rush, and it took a long time to get to sleep on a work night.


Brasilian music has continued its seductive pull. I am now exploring four separate styles in various configurations. I have the good fortune to start working with Ache Brasil's performing group, some of the foremost purveyors of samba in the city. It is refreshing for me to go into very non-linear rehearsals, then see the process these guys go through, then pull off a great performance. I have to park my musical judgements at the door, and just be open for anything. And I get to play a bit of flute.


Then there's capoeira music, another humbling experience. It's not uncommon for us gringos to have trouble playing percussion and singing at the same time. It's odd, considering that mankind has been doing that sort of thing from its very beginnings. Western society has eradicated that from its musical tradition, save for the likes of the late great Karen Carpenter. Learning complex songs in Portuguese by rote, especially where the emphasis is on rhythm, not tonality is a challenge. Then there's learning the berimbau, another very deep instrument, and one where you need a pinky of steel in order to play it for anything longer than a minute. Doing capoeira has me in the best physical shape of my life.


Bossa nova, often dismissed as American jazz by Brazilian traditionalists, is the most familiar style for me. I've been listening to some of the original bossa recordings done by Brazilian groups (as opposed to Americans) and the arrangements are sometimes really wild. Quite an eye-opener, especially when bossa can be watered down to elevator music in the wrong hands. I'm working in a trio format with Wanda and guitarist Jared Burrows for a couple of upcoming gigs.


Then there's the most seductive style for me, choro. Beautiful melodies, counterpoint guitars, elegant chord progressions, this is the precursor to bossa nova in Brasil. Maria Schneider turned me onto this music, and I'm thankful for that. Both on sax and pandeiro, I have years of exploration ahead of me. I've been working hard at improving my pandeiro technique and I feel that just lately, I've been making some headway. Liam MacDonald is not only the best pandeiroista in town, he's a great teacher. It doesn't hurt having recently gotten a beautiful handmade instrument from Brasil. A friend called it "o pandeiro magico", the magic pandeiro, and just like a fine saxophone, everything sounds better, and it's much easier to play. I hope to get my nerve up to start performing at some choro gigs by the summer.

As well, I've spent recent Saturday mornings doing the VOXY project, being organized by Carol Sawyer and Kate Hammett-Vaughan. Wildy successful, they have tapped into a heretofore unknown demand for large group vocal improvisation. Though I will never consider myself a singer of any merit, it's good to be using my voice on a regular basis, both with VOXY and in weekly capoeira rodas.


Speaking of wildy successful, ion Zoo had the privelege of playing at the most recent FUSE event at the Vancouver Art Gallery. There were over 3,000 people packed into the building on a Friday night, with more lined up around the block. We played a couple of sets to a revolving audience, with some interesting video projections. I felt that I had to "perform" more to this sort of crowd, to be be more animated. It didn't seem to detract from the group focus. There was music all over the building, and I wish I could have seen it all.


Then just last Monday, we had another good night at The Cellar and the group continued to develop and push at boundaries. The final improv of the night was more intense than anything we have previously done. The best news of all for ion Zoo is that we got a Canada Council recording grant for our next cd and are looking at going into the studio in the fall.

We also were featured in the most recent issue of the Capilano Review, a respected literary journal. Our initial performance of Taking Jude Out For Breakfast... was included on a cd compilation of recordings from the Song Room series. The theme of this issue of the Review was "collaboration". This came on the heels of getting a photo and some column space in a recent issue of Coda Magazine, so ion Zoo is getting some recognition.


Despite this, the group continues to be unsuccessful at getting a jazz festival gig, but not without tremendous effort by the programmers to fit us in, for which I am grateful. We are a tough group to slot, requiring a grand piano and a listening sort of room, and certainly not for the masses. Fortunately none of us bases one whit of self-esteem on whether or not we land a festival gig.


Wanda and the boys are fortunate again this year to have gotten a nice slot in the big show. If only we could land a few more regular gigs. We are finishing off the long-awaited cd at the end of the month. We have a rare quintet gig at The Heritage Grill this Thursday night.


And I'm getting calls out of the blue for a number of really varied one-off gigs.


Looking at everything I've listed here, it appears that I've been busier with music than I thought, but it certainly doesn't feel that way. In some ways, I much preferred it when Wanda was scoring at least two nights a week, but frankly I couldn't do that and also keep up the variety of things I doing now.


And I am in the woodshed, breaking a new tenor mouthpiece handmade by wizard Theo Wanne.


That's more than enough.

No comments: