Home : Plato's Words : June 2001

June 2001

I only wonder, where on earth did May go? It seemed to disappear before my eyes. Oh well, I will savor June…

At the end of the month I went to hear Canadian vocalist/pianist Carol Welsman perform with a local trio and enjoyed the evening immensely. I sat with Mr. Linton Garner who told me he loved the music too. Carol is a great musician and has such a versatile repertoire. She jumped from a breathless bossa sung in Portuguese, vocalizing with her piano solo lines in the manner of Eliane Elias, to a funky backbeat groove through the standard "I Got Rhythm", to a laid back swing rendition of "Honeysuckle Rose" to a beefed up rendition of a Sting tune. The three Vancouver musicians she played with were wonderful too, especially drummer Lou Hoover who had such beautiful brush work on some of the latin tunes, so subtle and almost breathy sounding if you can imagine a drum set sounding breathy.

In the listening department I recently purchased Shirley Horn's latest CD "You're My Thrill" which is peaceful and spacious and perfect as ever. Of course she always surprises me with some tunes such as an amazingly slow version of "My Heart Stood Still" which I had never heard as a ballad before. It makes so much sense as a ballad when she sings it with that Shirley Horn care and attention. This CD pairs Shirley with Johnny Mandel's orchestrations again in a similar fashion to "Here's To Life", a recording which still makes me sigh with emotion when I listen to it.

I also have been listening to a new CD that Lou bought which is a great trio CD featuring one of my favorite pianists; Billy Childs. The CD is "Skim Coat" and features Buster Williams on bass and Carl Allen on drums. The recording has standards and originals penned by both Billy Childs and Buster Williams. There is a great version of "Surrey With The Fringe On Top" that simply burns and a beautiful waltz that Billy Childs wrote called "Heroes" where the three musicians sound as though they are playing a heartfelt tribute to some great hero indeed.

In the middle of the month I performed a concert in White Rock, BC with CBC host Rick Cluff there to introduce us to the audience. Does anyone else out there wake up to Rick's friendly voice on THE EARLY EDITION every morning? How could anyone be in a bad mood after hearing that friendly voice?

The band consisted of Bill Coon on guitar, Ross Taggart on saxophone, Darren Radtke on bass and Craig Scott on the drums. Musically the concert was great fun and we enjoyed the wonderful acoustics in the Earl Marriot Theatre. The entertainment highlight followed three duo tunes that Bill and I performed together. As we called the other three guys back to the stage they arrived in costumes they had discovered in the theatre department dressing room. I believe someone was holding a rubber chicken prop as well…We proceeded to make music and following the concert we were treated to some wonderful food and wine at Jacques Tapas-Bar.

I'm looking forward to this month of Jazz Festival performances

…Karin