Home : Plato's Words : December 2008

December 2008

My two CD release events in November were wonderful affairs. I had a fantastic time in Toronto where I spent the week leading up to my CD release concert just enjoying being in that exciting city. I visited with several friends, shopped, relaxed and I went for runs along a lovely ravine trail that still had glorious autumn colors to display while I was there. On one of my runs I spotted a gorgeous blue jay, not the stellar jay that we have here in B.C.which, is also a beautiful bird. This was a muli-toned blue jay that quietly sat in the branches and as I watched he occasionally changed position and spread his wings somewhat so that I could admire his many shades of blue. So beautiful! Now I wasn’t there to just admire nature’s beauty or to shop for shoes (as I am known to do in any city),I was there to play with my Toronto based band for the CD release event. It was a long time coming! The music making was lovely and many friends and fans did come out to support me in my latest endeavor. Thank you for that! I really do love going to Toronto and hope to get there more often if at all possible.

Back in Vancouver at the end of November I had another “CD release splash” at Rossini’s Restaurant on a Sunday afternoon and it was packed and bustling. The audience was lovely and quiet for us during the concert portion of the afternoon and my Vancouver band played beautifully as well. I have had much good feed back about the new CD and I am very happy about that. You can only do what you can do and you never really know if the recording will resonate with someone else or not. In the end I suppose as an artist you have to feel good about it yourself and then present it to the world since that is what we do as artists if indeed we finish projects such as recordings or concerts. It certainly is a nice feeling to get positive response and take that in stride and then…go on to the next project.

The next project involves Christmas of course! I have my Christmas Jazz Vespers ensemble performing this coming Sunday at St Andrews Wesley Church as always. Each year, as readers of my “words” know I try to find some new repertoire to use for my Christmas Ensemble. Finally this year I arranged a song Bill Coon had recommended in past years: “In The Bleak Midwinter”. I also took the 16th century French carol “Ding Dong Merrily On High” and have arranged that one and cannot get the tune out of my head. It is such a cheerful and catchy melody and has that seemingly endless cascade of “Glorias” to sing. It makes me feel happy! This year for the first time I will include an Irving Berlin tune “I’ve Got My Love To Keep Me Warm”. It is not a carol but a seasonal love song of sorts and the imagery is lovely and the melody is wonderful to sing. Some songs just feel good to sing and that is such a song.

I will also have a number of Christmas performances with my two talented girl friends Kate Hammett-Vaughan and Jennifer Scott. We will be at The Jazz Cellar for two nights and then for the second year in a row we will appear for Christmas Eve Jazz Vespers. Last year the church was filled with people and it was very exciting indeed. We’ve got some new music and some of the fantastic arrangements that we have done in the past as well. This does seem to be the time of year when the three of us get to connect as friends again too since fall gigs and teaching and life in general mean that we don’t get to see each other much. The three of us certainly enjoy each other’s company and musical connections but as with everyone around me, life is busy and it’s difficult to actually find the time to just hang out. Well, we will do that in the next few weeks again. It is the season of music and cocktail parties and performances and it will be fun.

I am wishing happiness and peace and great health to everyone for the coming year. I hope your troubles are few and your laughter is plenty.

Karin