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Bruce Freedman and his African Groove Band

It was a great night at the Cellar last night.
The Bruce Freedman African Groove Band held centre stage for two lyrical grooving sets of improv. The band consisted of two drummers: Russell Shumsky on African drums, Dan Gaucher on kit drums, two bass players: Tommy Babin and Dave Chokroun, and Tyson Naylor on accordian and Bruce Freedman on soprano sax.

The music consisted of simple, beautiful melodies and arrangements that allowed for interplay in those involved in the various orchestrations that Bruce had laid out for the listerner. It was great to hear Russell Shumsky in this setting. He was extremely expressive and obviously enjoying the room there was in the music to make it breathe and vibrate. I especially loved how dynamic the band was. It was really evocative of acoustic African music with the woody sound of the acoustic basses and the beautifully timbrous sound of the drums. The accordian and soprano often doubled or harmonized the melodies lending an other worldly sound that you don’t often hear.
My friend Francis Yehoun, recently back from visiting his home in Ghana, said that when he closed his eyes it reminded him of being a young boy back at home. He said that the melodies and grooves were really reminiscent of music that he grew up with.

It was wonderful to have a good turnout too. There’s nothing like a room full of appreciative people to make a band play its heart out.

Check out upcoming shows at www.noworchestra.com/events

March 10, 2008

Here it is March and I’m posting to my blog for the first time this year.
I hope to have it going on a little more frequently.

I got a lot of good feedback on our podcasts on the site here. I hope to have more interviews coming Vancouver improvisers. If anyone has anyone that they’d like to see interviewed, drop a line.

I went to the New Forms Festival this past Friday. Music by six or seven DJs.
The highlight of the night for me was the visuals done by Krista Lomax.
If you get a chance to see her work check it out. She is extraordinarily talented.

On February 23rd caught the last night of the Marginalia, revisioning Roy Kiyooka.
It was Vancouver New Music’s multi-media production that they put on with the Alcan award money that they received. The B.C. composers for the event (Jocelyn Morlock, Stefan Smulovitz, Stefan Udell and Hildegard Westerkamp) wrote finely crafted work that was performed by an amazing ensemble (especially outstanding for me were Rebecca Whitling and Peggy Lee). The real high point in the night for me was the set that the performers were placed within. It was what really made the evening Kiyooka-esque.
There were hundreds of white gloves hung from the ceiling and lit with shifting hues of blue, red and amber. Surrounding the perimeter of the players was a few tons of rocks with video moniters of rocks in a streambed. Extremely west coast.
The sets were done by the brilliant designer Hanif Janmohamed.
On the whole it felt like quite a satisfying effort.

Keep an eye on the shows that we’re producing on Monday nights at the Cellar.
One of the highlights of the year so far has been the Aeroplane Trio with JP Carter, Russell Sholberg and Skye Brooks. A great show. Check out Russell’s playing. He’s sounding really strong and playing so creatively.

New Orchestra Workshop: 30 Years of Great Music

New Orchestra Workshop’s 30th Anniversary

This is an important time for New Orchestra Workshop.
As we celebrate our 30th Anniversary, we are as busy as ever, doing what we do, making music.
We just finished our Hear It NOW 2007 concert at the Vancouver East Cultural Centre.
It was an amazing evening with our best turnout ever for one of our productions.
The music featured Special Guest Amina Claudine Myers and our Voices of Joy Chamber Choir with singers Christine Duncan, DB Boyko, Phoebe MacRae, Viviane Houle, Matthew MacTavish and Peter Hurst.
The NOW Orchestra for this concert was amazing as always: Graham Ord, Saul Berson, Dave Say and Coat Cooke on reeds, John Korsrud, Kevin Elaschuk on trumpet, Rod Murray and Brad Muirhead on trombone, Ron Samworth/guitar, Lisa Miller/piano, Paul Blaney/bass and Kenton Loewen/drums.
The program for the evening included four very beautiful and heartfelt compositions (God, Manhattan, Have Mercy Upon Us, and Night) from Amina, a fairly new work of mine,Ask the Right Question and Get the Right Answer, and the world premiere of Opera Miscellanea from Ron Samworth. I hope you were there for the concert, it was a wonderful and special night. If not, it was captured on video and recorded for a hopeful future release (if anyone out there wants to make a tax deductable donation to NOW, it will speed the process of getting if released).

NOW ORCHESTRA RECORDS

Just to cover some more of our recent activities this fall, it would be remiss of me not to mention that last Monday was the release of the first recording on our NOW Orchestra Records label.
The CD, ion Zoo: set free at the Cellar (CLNOW001) is a wonderful session that was recorded live at the Cellar, at one of our Monday night concerts. I hope you get a chance to pick up this disc. The band consists of Steve Bagnell/reeds +percussion, Carol Sawyer/voice, Lisa Miller/piano, and Clyde Reed/bass.

This new label is distributed by Cellar Live Records, and for this I must send out a big shout of thanks to Raymon Torchinsky and Cory Weeds for collaborating with NOW and helping to make it happen.
Keep an eye out for our next exciting new releases.

order/disorder

Now that I mention the Cellar, I have to tell you all that our regular Monday night series called order/disorder, continues till December 17 (see the schedule in our events section of the website www.noworchestra.com/events).
Things will continue with order/disorder starting again in February. Stay tuned to this website to keep up on the listings.

Bug's Black Blood

Tomorrow features Bug’s Black Blood features a large ensemble that has come out of a NOW Orchestra initiative that has been ongoing for a while. The band consists of a number of players that are getting together to work on the ideas that come from improvising in a large ensemble (a number of the players, Dave Chokroun, Tommy Babin, Michael Alleyne and Steve Bagnell, are writing for the group too).
The band is sounding really good, so come on out and have yourself a good evening.
Cover is only $5 and gets added onto your bill, for your convenience.

Bug’s Black Blood is also doing a show at the Western Front on Friday, December 14th at 8pm. Tickets are $12/general, $10 Western Front or NOW members, $5/students with a student card.

Sonic Playground

Every autumn for the last 15 years, NOW and the Western Front co-produce an improvisation workshop series every Monday from 4-6pm and it’s free to everyone.
The last workshop is a concert that is free to the public (December 3rd at 8 pm at the Western Front @ 303 East 8th Avenue)
Come and hear what the participants put together in an exciting concert. It’s always a fun and satisfying evening of music.

We’re also co-producing Sonic Playground with the Western Front and Vancouver New Music. The next one will be a part of the Vancouver Children’s Festival in May (there’s a Call for Submissions, and if you’re interested inquiries can be emailed to sonic@front.bc.ca).
Amina Claudine Myers: Chris Randle (photo)