NOW Orchestra Blog

http://www.thesoundprojector.com/2009/03/29/beaut-plate/

The New Orchestra Workshop Society of Canada has launched its own imprint, Now Orchestra Recordings, and the first five releases arrived in a handy display folder for my perusal. The Society has been going for 32 years, and it’s encouraging to see they continue to receive moneys from various Canadian art-funding bodies (unlike the situation that prevails in the UK, I’m sorry to report). Good to hear some improvised voice music from ion Zoo, where the voice of Carol Sawyer is set against low-key bass-piano-sax improvisations on Set Free At The Cellar (CLNOW001). Viviane Houle also lets her voice run free on La Belle et la Bête (CLNOW002), a record she made with Stefan Smulovitz who plays the “Kenaxis” program on his laptop in real time. Houle warbles and scats like some demented cross between Yma Sumac and Slim Gaillard, but also does the Phil Minton thing of squeezing non-musical grunts and sighs from a closed larynx. The Bruce Freedman African Groove Band perform lively lilting stomps on Live At The Cellar (CLNOW003), using two bassists and two drummers to establish irresistible rhythms, while the accordion of Tyson Naylor connects these pieces to township music. Jeff Younger’s Sandbox are a five-piece playing brass instruments with bass and drums, while the leader operates his electric guitar and electronics in free atonal ways on The Nudger (CLNOW004), a title which may appear unfortunate to UK ears, but as the Sandbox part of their name suggests, this combo are engaged in innocent experimental play. Lastly we have The Now Orchestra, showcasing a selection of their live recordings from the last 2-3 years on Animal Tales (CLNOW005); the Orchestra, active for over 20 years, is a large-scale unit on the order of the Globe Unity Orchestra in Europe, and they play semi-composed pieces which have mostly emerged from the pen of Coat Cooke, the executive producer of all the above recordings.

If you go to http://www.pointofdeparture.org/PoD23/PoD23Ezz-thetics.html

you can check out Stuart Broomer's column called Ezz-thetics where he looks at the

first five CDs out on the NOW Orchestra Records label.

 

 

http://www2.canada.com/vancouversun/news/life/story.html?id=93f30e13-dda7-49d5-ad8d-26a239ac8f62

October 9, 2008

BRUCE FREEDMAN  AFRICAN GROOVE BAND

Live at the Cellar
NOW Orchestra Records/Cellar Live
AFRICAN GROOVE BAND EXEMPLIFIES JAZZ TREND
With all due respect to Toronto and Montreal, Vancouver is the jazz centre of Canada, a city where veterans of the scene continue to hone their craft with newcomers, many of the latter coming from the region's top-notch music schools.

The Bruce Freedman African Groove Band exemplifies this trend.  Bandleader and saxophonist Freedman has been hard at it for decades, and here he shares the stage with a sextet of able musicians, including the young accordionist Tyson Naylor, On Live at the Cellar (NOW Orchestra Records/Cellar Live), recorded at Vancouver's premier jazz club, the band performs four lengthy improvisations. The band lives up to its name on the opening Little Melody in F, a flowing 6/8 number with a terrific soprano sax solo by the leader. Oasis opens in free time before settling into a groove reminiscent of John Coltrane's great quartet from the 1960's, where the sax solo follows an ascending arc to a peak. Double bassists Tommy Babin and Dave Chokroun begin Zen Death Poem with a lengthy dialogue, and Freedman performs a call-and-response exercise with himself. Drummer Dan Gaucher and percussionist Russell Shumsky dominate the Queen's Drone, which ends, oddly, with a fadeout. Naylor adds colour to each of the songs.

http://www.thesoundprojector.com/2009/03/

 

The New Orchestra Workshop Society of Canada has launched its own imprint, Now Orchestra Recordings, and the first five releases arrived in a handy display folder for my perusal. The Society has been going for 32 years, and it’s encouraging to see they continue to receive moneys from various Canadian art-funding bodies (unlike the situation that prevails in the UK, I’m sorry to report). Good to hear some improvised voice music from ion Zoo, where the voice of Carol Sawyer is set against low-key bass-piano-sax improvisations on Set Free At The Cellar (CLNOW001). Viviane Houle also lets her voice run free on La Belle et la Bête (CLNOW002), a record she made with Stefan Smulovitz who plays the “Kenaxis” program on his laptop in real time. Houle warbles and scats like some demented cross between Yma Sumac and Slim Gaillard, but also does the Phil Minton thing of squeezing non-musical grunts and sighs from a closed larynx. The Bruce Freedman African Groove Band perform lively lilting stomps on Live At The Cellar (CLNOW003), using two bassists and two drummers to establish irresistible rhythms, while the accordion of Tyson Naylor connects these pieces to township music. Jeff Younger’s Sandbox are a five-piece playing brass instruments with bass and drums, while the leader operates his electric guitar and electronics in free atonal ways on The Nudger (CLNOW004), a title which may appear unfortunate to UK ears, but as the Sandbox part of their name suggests, this combo are engaged in innocent experimental play. Lastly we have The Now Orchestra, showcasing a selection of their live recordings from the last 2-3 years on Animal Tales (CLNOW005); the Orchestra, active for over 20 years, is a large-scale unit on the order of the Globe Unity Orchestra in Europe, and they play semi-composed pieces which have mostly emerged from the pen of Coat Cooke, the executive producer of all the above recordings.

 

Coat Cooke
By David Dacks

Coat Cooke is one of the linchpins of jazz-based improvising activity on the West Coast. Not only is he a fine, adventurous saxophonist and composer, but he leads the relentlessly innovative NOW Orchestra which has gathered Vancouver’s creative musicians together for over three decades. April saw the Orchestra release its first album in four years, Animal Tales, on the recently formed NOW Orchestra label. The label has four other new records out by Ion Zoo, Bruce Freedman’s African Groove Band, Jeff Younger’s Sandbox, and Viviane Houle & Stefan Smulovitz.

Exclaim! spoke to Cooke over the phone from Vancouver.

So – your own record label is pushing five discs at once, and you’re busier than ever. You’ve had a long career but surely this is a high point?
It’s very exciting. It’s come out of a couple of different things. I took over as artistic director about five years ago now and realized we didn’t have a succession plan for when the founding generation leaves. We had to figure out how to set up a structure and think about the legacy of this organization. I started presenting younger players at a venue [the Cellar] where I had a Monday night residence for three and a half years, and encouraging younger players and more established players to play together. And we recorded every week. It’s so hard for a younger player to get their music out there, so I thought of self-producing if I could get the sweetest prices on printing and pressing. Hopefully this is an opportunity for younger players and established players to self-produce. There’s a lot in common with indie rock – it’s DIY. It’s always been DIY, ever since I first got involved 30 years ago.

Tell me about the record label.
I put out my trio record about five years ago on Cellar Live. It’s kind of a more mainstream label, but the owners of the label really took an interest in my trio even though it didn’t really fit the mould - that’s how I started presenting at the Cellar as well. Our first five releases are being done in a more traditional way, pressing some CDs, sending them out to reviewers and venues, trying to get gigs. But in the future, we’re looking at new audiences and that means younger audiences, and they’re downloading.

Let’s turn back the clock to the formation of the Orchestra, can you run down a brief history of how it got to where it is today?
The New Orchestra Workshop society , referred to casually as NOW, was started in 1977 with a core of about a half dozen people, among whom were Paul Plimley, Greg Simpson, Lisle Ellis, Paul Cram, Ralph Eppel and Don Druick, who’s now a playwright in Montreal. The organization kind of came out of the Creative Music Studio in Woodstock that several of them had experienced at that time; Plimley and Ellis were very strongly affected by exposure to Cecil Taylor and Anthony Braxton teaching there. They set up in a loft, it happened for a few years, then people moved away. Then in the mid-'80s, we re-founded the organization, started producing small concert series and we did that for a few years. In 1987, I was really interested to write for a large ensemble so I started the NOW Orchestra as a vehicle to write for a large ensembles. So I went to a bunch of players and said, if I can get these composers to write, would you rehearse for free? Then I went to the composers and said, look at this interesting instrumentation would you be willing to write for this interesting group and have your work played? So I played both sides and made sure I didn’t have to write all the material. We did a big concert with [pianist] Marilyn Crispell, but I got burnt out on administration and the second incarnation started happening in ’92. Eventually it ended up in a more formalized group, and we did a project with [bassist] Barry Guy and things coalesced around our first CD. And we’ve had a more or less stable group for the last ten years. From 1992 [guitarist] Ron Samworth and I were co-artistic directors of organization and the band and then five years ago, Ron resigned. Over the last year, I’ve been exploring new areas and using different players.

How has the organization fostered community in Vancouver?
When we started NOW 30 years ago, or the Orchestra 20 years ago, the pool of players was much smaller. The city has grown, there are more players and they’re coming from different backgrounds – look at JP Carter (Inhabitants), Stephen Lyons (Fond Of Tigers), Rachael Wadham, or Darren Williams. I can go down a list of late 20/early 30somethings who are coming out of rock and noise with all kinds of different ideas about improvisation than what I was coming out of, which was basically African American improvisation, like Cecil [Taylor], Braxton, [Archie] Shepp and that whole stream. But it’s totally different now and for the organization and the band to stay vital but respect the legacy of what has been done before, it has to respond to the needs of the young players. I wouldn’t say that there’s any one way to describe it [how the society/orchestra has built community], it’s as complex as any scene. But there have been very direct efforts by us to seek out co producers in different scenes. We’re really thinking about education and outreach to the next generation of kids, our next audiences and players.

What are the challenges in that?
We have to watch our money, our marketing and our way of talking about ourselves. We found that in talking to a lot of younger players, a lot of the language we have used is just fuddy duddy to them. We don’t talk about it in language they can relate to, so they turn off. But we have so many young people come and listen to us and say “this is killer!” and its helped us to rethink the language to talk about it. It’s incumbent on us to take the responsibility to change the whole picture, even though a lot of us just want to play! It can only be thought of as political when you’re trying to change the whole stage of how we’re presenting and putting our work out there.

http://tethers.blogspot.com/2009_04_01_archive.html

 

People are listening to Bruce Freedman's band too (also on NOW Orchestra Records).

http://www.chartattack.com/news/69006/doiron-remains-at-1-again

 

Though there's only one new entry on the Jazz/Blues chart, it's significance arises from its position. Now Orchestra's Animal Tales debuts at #1.

Hi all,

Just happy to see that at http://www.cjsw.com/music/charts.html?chartID=67 NOW Orchestra Records has the top two albums in the weeks charts. Animal Tales by the NOW Orchestra is #1 and Jeff Younger's Sandbox with The Nudger is #2.

Very exciting to see that the work is getting broadcast.

CALL TO YOUNG ARTISTS & COMMUNITY MUSICIANS OF ALL AGES

The 2009 RENFREW COMMUNITY PERFORMANCE PROJECT is an opportunity not to be missed!

For aspiring instrumentalists, vocalists and composers

***Players of orchestral and ethnic instruments (that are not usually thought
of as standard “jazz-rock band” instruments) are encouraged to apply***

This exciting annual project, started in 2005, provides a unique experience not to be found
anywhere else. The program guides a diverse group of aspiring artists through the process of
forming, preparing and presenting a large, original music “ethno-jazz-rock fusion”
ensemble, under the mentorship and direct participation of some of Vancouver’s best musical
performers, composers and educators. In addition to rehearsing and performing, participants will
be encouraged to contribute (according to ability) to the development of 40 minutes of original
music. Intermediate – advanced high school level playing and reading experience is required
to participate in the band component, and while also encouraged for the other sections, there will be
some space available in the vocal and percussion sections for those with little or no experience,
but enthusiasm to get involved, the desire to learn, and ability to commit to full attendance.

***these sections have previously included some advanced elementary school children***

Preparatory and musical skills workshops will transition into a music camp followed by rehearsals
for performances, including a large, multi-media extravaganza showcase at
The 2009 Renfrew Ravine Moon Festival
(an exciting, family-oriented community event with an audience of 3000+!)

Faculty
Full-Time: Brad Muirhead (trombone): Artistic Director / band conductor / horn section coach
Jared burrows (guitar) rhythm section coach, Paul Bray (world percussion)
MULTI-CULTURAL components will be included, featuring explorations of cultural & artistic traditions
as well as learning and rehearsing performance material, led by special guests:
Jin Zhang (Chinese music), Matthew Sheena (First Nations music)

Musical skills to be explored will include:

establishing a group sound, basic improvisational and compositional devices (harmony, rhythm,
texture etc), basic arranging concepts, rehearsal technique and performance experience.
These things and more will be explored primarily in a full-band rehearsal setting (also some sectional
work), and will include coaching (by instrument category – woodwinds, brass, strings, vocals etc) from
a roster of highly skilled local professional artist-clinicians who, in addition to the full-time faculty,
will sit-in individually at the workshop and band camp sessions, and then participate in the rehearsals
and performances, playing “in-section” as members of the band.

Funding, Community and Arts Partners

Program Information

Preparatory Workshops (vocals & percussion)
Early August: exact dates, times and locations TBA depending on enrollment

Musical Development Workshops (all participants)
Monday August 17 -Friday. August 21
9:30am -2:30pm (one hour lunch 11:30 -12:30)
Location: Windermere Secondary band room (3155 E. 27th Ave, Vancouver)

Music Camp (all participants)
Monday August 24 -Friday August 28
9:30am -2:30pm (one hour lunch 11:30 – 12:30)
Location: Windermere Secondary band room (3155 E. 27th Ave)

Band BBQ and Performance for family & friends (excerpts from the big work)
Friday August 28 @ Slocan Park (29th & Slocan -just west of 29th Skytrain station)
BBQ – 1:00pm / performance 3:00pm

Moon Festival rehearsals

August 31 – September 27 (times and dates TBA) @ Windermere Auditorium
Dress Rehearsal: October 1, 4:00 – 7:00pm @ Renfrew Park

Moon Festival Performance

Saturday October 3, Renfrew Park & Slocan Park

4:00 – 8:30pm (sound check, parade & complete big work @ finale)
there is a $50 (non-refundable) registration fee, otherwise
participation is free! (no enrollment fees)
*some scholarships available

Note: Secondary students -This program is recognized by the V.S.B and your school
as valid for volunteer work experience and your graduation portfolio

For information & registration
call: 604-874-5299 or email: crassbrutes@telus.net

 

We're very excited to have a new NOW Orchestra CD being released!

Animal Tales

Our official CD Release Party is:

Sunday, APRIL 19th, 2009.

The Western Front

303 East 8th Avenue

7:30 pm

Admission is $10 and CDs will be only $10

Performing will be the NOW Orchestra (for this special occasion will be a chamber version of the group).

We're very excited because this is the first time that we're releasing a CD on our own label, NOW Orchestra Records. The release is made of music from three live concerts; one featuring the work of Diane Labrosse (hers is the title cut), percussionist Pierre Tanguay and saxophonist Coat Cooke. All three sessions were recorded, mixed and mastered  by Vancouver's own amazing musician and recordist Chris Gestrin.

The disc also features extraordinary players flutist Nicole Mitchell and saxophonist John Oswald. There are three different versions of the band with an amazing array of wonderful players. You'll have to see the disc to find out everyone that's on the release.

We look forward to seeing you there.