Home : Plato's Words : October 2001

October 2001

I write this on October 1st where here in Vancouver where I live we are experiencing the most incredible fall day! The sun is out with true autumn warmth and the sky is clear blue with just a few wafts of puffy clouds against the sky. I went for a long run and noticed that the trees are changing color and of course the leaves are beginning to fall too which means I need to savor each day while the colors remain. I love this time of year even though I resist the change and cling to summer as long as I can. Once it is here, I revel in all the colors and smells and sounds of fall.

September was a month in which I discovered a new singer that I had never heard of before. My sister Peggy knew that I would love her voice and sent me two of her CD's. Her name is Eva Cassidy and sadly she is no longer alive. She died very young of cancer.

Her music though, lives on in her recordings which are absolutely stunning. Since first playing the CD's that my sister sent me I am drawn to hear them again and again. She is the kind of singer that seems to be born with a perfect voice: clear, strong, wide sweeping range and an unbelievable palate of colors and emotion that touch you as you listen. She sings standards and gospel and blues with power and sensitivity that I haven't heard in a singer for a very long time. Almost any search engine on the Internet will lead to information about this remarkable woman.

I went to hear a concert at the end of September at The Vancouver East Cultural Centre. Saxophonist Charles Lloyd was there with John Abercrombie on guitar, Larry Grenadier on bass and Billy Hart on the drums. Although I did enjoy the concert I had the feeling that the musicians never completely connected that night and that at times they weren't truly listening to each other. I kept wondering if the horrible terrorist attacks in the States were still weighing on their minds and not allowing them to be free in the creative process as their thoughts got in the way. Larry Grenadier was great on the bass and aggressively dug into his melodic solos and somehow insisted that his instrument respond to his touch or at least that was the impression I was left with as I listened to the beauty he coaxed out of his instrument. I am told by bassists that their instruments can at times be incredibly difficult to play as they try to convey melody and emotion and not simply be the bottom end of the band's sound. He was the highlight for me from the whole concert and worth every penny of the ticket price.

On the performing front I performed a concert earlier in the month at The Evergreen Theatre in Coquitlam BC with Lou Mastroianni, Steve Holy and Jack Duncan. We had great fun and were treated to the fantastic acoustics that the theatre has. It felt like a good night musically for the four of us with a nice relaxed mode of making music with the pleasure that brings when you are each really connecting with each other as we did seem to that night. I know that can't always happen of course but when it does it feels like a natural high and I guess is why we play music to begin with; it's the good feeling it can give us on those certain nights. We live for those moments!

Karin