Home : Plato's Words : July/August 2004

July/August, 2004

Summer breeze, makes me feel fine
Blowing through the jasmine in my mind…

Yes, just like the song says I am definitely feeling fine this summer. The weather has been incredible and I really can't remember ever having had such a wonderful holiday. There has been much cycling (and falling off the bike as I get used to clipless pedals), leisure walks, roller blading, lazing in the hammock, backyard barbecues, early morning runs before the heat of the day and, oh yes, music!

This is the time of year that I like my music studio because it's downstairs and always cool. I haven't spent many hours there this summer but I have escaped the heat of the day and gone down to work on new tunes and to teach summer lessons too.

July began by being an ending of sorts. It was the end to our Vancouver Jazz Festival, which I enjoyed immensely this year. I heard a great deal of music and also went to a number of the workshops. I really liked what trumpeter Dave Douglas had to say and play. Drummer Jerry Granelli and his group were another high light and helped me realize the possibilities that exist for improvisation within a group if each individual is truly strong independently to begin with. Very exciting stuff indeed. I didn't really get to hear many of the vocalists that were here this year but did manage to get to Denzal Sinclaire's concert near the end of the festival. This time Denzal was behind the piano and it was wonderful to hear him really be able to show what a monster talent he is on that instrument as well as being such a great singer. I really enjoyed his set.

One of my favorite new discoveries during the festival was a young instrumental Norwegian group called Wibutee. They blended ideas of traditional jazz with modern sampling and electronica. This is the way of modern jazz for many groups I believe and when done in this way technology doesn't seem to get in the way of the music, it enhances what can be done. I don't know if it ever would be anything that I would include in the more traditional music that I make but it was very exciting to hear and I would love to hear that group perform again. Wibutee also led a fun filled workshop and shared their thoughts on jazz in this day and age and also spoke of their individual roles within the group. I hope they get to come back next year for the festival.

Later in July after a lovely cycling trip to Victoria, I was able to go to Port Townsend and study with the incredible jazz duo team of vocalist Nancy King and pianist Steve Cristofferson. I have wanted to do that for several years and finally did manage to do so. What an experience! They really are world class artists and in my opinion (and many others as well) they should be so much more famous than they are. They do have a devoted following but not in the same way that major label artists do such as a Diana Krall (who Nancy sang with on the Ray Brown tour of a few years ago) or many other artists that everyone does know. Fame isn't everything but it does almost guarantee record sales and world tours etc. I wish for Nancy and Steve that someone would come along and realize their huge talent and give them unspecified money and allow them to get their music to a wider audience around the world. I guess it does come down to marketing in some sense. That's how people find out about all kinds of products and music is one of those products too. Anyway I digress…Nancy is such an unbelievable improvising vocalist. She scats on every tune but this never appears gratuitous. It is part of her art and is so beautifully done that it is simply an extension of her story telling ability. Some singers can scat on a fast swing tune and they sound fine. She can solo over every tune and bring another level of emotion to the song with her lines and melodies. One amazing thing about Nancy is that she is completely self taught and does not even read music. She has incredible ears and hears everything. She truly is a musician's dream as she can and will sing in any key and knows the tune inside out. This may sound obvious but even really good singers don't always thoroughly "know" the ins and outs of each and every song well enough that they can accurately solo on it. She can without fail. It was very exciting to get to sing with her several times during the course of the week of studying there at Port Townsend. Steve is a great teacher as well and has such a keen ear that listening to his suggestions given to each of the other singers really helped me as well. He was completely in tune with each individual voice with suggestions and comments that would really guide the singers with their personal musical growth.

During the course of the week Steve and Nancy performed a few concerts for everyone there at Port Townsend. That was fantastic to hear and deeply moving to me. They have recorded great CD's together but seeing them perform live there was another level of intimacy that was brought to each song as the magic of the lyric and melody and harmony unfolded and revealed themselves right there in front of us. I definitely had tears in my eyes several times during their concerts. Music when performed by artists of their caliber can be so very moving and emotionally powerful. The tears that come then to the listener are not of sorrow then or even joy, they are simply a release of sorts at the wonderful aural experience one is having.

There was other great music to hear at Port Townsend because the jazz camp coincides with the jazz festival. Bassist Buster Williams led an exciting quartet which included drummer powerhouse Lenny White. A gorgeous segment in the concert occurred when Buster played a long extended solo version of "Summertime". Now perhaps that tune has been played and sung to death over the years but when Buster played it with his deep soulful bass sound, it was heaven. They also performed great arrangements of songs such as "I Didn't Know What Time It Was" that really reinvented the tunes for the listener. They are great tunes to begin with but with a fresh arranging idea they truly sound brand new again.

Another highlight of being at Port Townsend was hearing a pianist whose name I didn't know before: Bob Florence. He appeared at first to be in his 80's, fragile looking, pale, gaunt and feeble. Not!! At the piano he played with the energy and exuberance of a 25 year old and with that kind of hipness too, with power and with flawless technique. Then he would play a ballad and it would completely surprise you with the beauty, the real aural beauty he was able to create with the piano; an instrument that is truly difficult to make "sing". I was captivated and to me it felt as though I was listening to a Bill Evans or a Horawitz or someone of that stature as a pianist. I suppose I was. When he played the piano he was able to have the piano ring with emotion the way a horn or guitar or a voice is able to. It was no longer the wooden instrument whereby hammers strike strings to produce a sound. It was flexible and he made it sing in away I have heard few pianists be able to do. He really is a master pianist. I do hope to hear more of his great artistry in the future.

Yes, it really is turning out to be an amazing summer for me. I now will savor each remaining day and evening as the days gradually get shorter as we head towards fall. That is not so bad either. I am looking forward to some exciting musical events myself. I am heading back to Toronto in September to perform at The Top Of The Senator and also to appear at The All Canadian Jazz Festival in Port Hope. Music lessons will be starting again full force and that will fun too as I discover what students have been up to over the summer and as I get to meet new students for the first time. Before all of that I am heading back to the prairies for my annual summer sojourn to visit my parents. There I will apply myself and get some practicing in again too. Too much summer leisure makes for a poor musician I am afraid. At least it leaves one that is not in good shape musically speaking. So off I go to get in shape for the music making that awaits me this fall…

Karin