Home : Plato's Words : June 2002

June 2002

At the end of the month I was invited to be one of several musicians to perform at Mr. Tom Siddall's 83rd birthday party in Vancouver. Tom is the world's biggest jazz fan and is also an avid photographer who attends every concert he can. He planned his birthday bash to include performances by a string full of wonderful musicians at Sailor Hagar's Pub in North Vancouver. I have to say I haven't had so much fun in a long while. The main rhythm section included Chris Gestrin on piano, Danny Parker on bass and Dave Robbins on drums. Ridley Vinsen also appeared on piano earlier in the evening before Chris took over the reins. The likes of Dave Say, Jeff Mahoney, Mike Zachernuk, and Rod Murray were some who performed horn duties on several classic standards. Bill Coon played guitar and then the list of star vocalists: Dee Daniels and Denzal Sinclaire; wowing the crowd as usual; Kate Hammett-Vaughan and Lorraine Foster; the two beautiful red heads. Kate started things off vocally with her rendition of Cole Porter's "Love For Sale" and later Lorraine sang one of Tom's favorite standards "Sunny Side Of The Street". One of the highlights for me was when Denzal sauntered onto the stage and made jaws drop with his rendition of Corcovado. There is such an indescribable quality that Denzal possesses and when he envelopes a song; that's really what he does; it is his alone. The birthday pub crowd was still…then…Dee joined Denzal for a couple of swinging duets. They were two incredible vocalists in the moment, infusing humor and musicality into a wonderful performance of improvisation. There was a feeling of pure joy to hear them sing together. To top it all off beautiful Dee, just back from her European tour sat at the piano to sing and play a personal rendition of "A Song For You" for Tom. That was a party!

Earlier in May I went to hear Cellar Club owner Cory Weeds co lead a group with Mike Allen on saxophone, Completing the band were Bob Murphy on the organ and Bernie Arai on the drums. The grooves that they were setting up were so funky I could barely sit still and I couldn't stop my body from involuntarily moving to the music. When four great musicians get together to do what they really love, it's amazing where they really can go with the music. There's not much else for me to say about the experience. I find I am repeating myself each month with my adjectives and descriptions about some of the music I have heard! However, I can say I was reminded that I really must make the effort to get out more often to hear music; to the Cellar specifically; where there is a listening policy and you really can hear the magic being made right before your ears and eyes in such a warm intimate setting.

The Vancouver Jazz Festival is just around the corner and I am starting to get very excited as I always do about some of the surprises that await me. Certainly there are the big names I look forward to seeing and have purchased tickets for those artists already but there are always new wonderful surprises during the Gastown weekend of free concerts and also the entire weekend of jazz at the Roundhouse and David Lam Park. Of course as far as myself performing in the festival I am hugely excited about a double bill concert that I will be performing with Kate Hammett-Vaughan. We have been rehearsing and having a ball doing that as we continue to explore tunes and make decisions on how we might approach them. Kate is an endless source of arranging ideas! The amazing thing to me is that Kate and I have such different styles of phrasing and approach to melody and yet as we sing together it feels great. It's actually exciting to hear Kate sing through a chorus of a tune that I may sing altogether differently and then find a "meeting place" where both of our approaches can work together. It is inspiring and hopefully will help me grow as a musician too. I WILL learn to listen better since in the end I have decided that really is what it is about. Even if I had a huge range with unlimited color (I WISH IN MY DREAMS), it still wouldn't necessarily be a musical experience. If I take what I have vocally and truly listen while making certain choices and follow my own musical instincts in making the tune "live", hopefully that will be the vehicle to creating something exciting with Kate. I'll let you know how it goes…

Karin