NOW Orchestra Podcast
The NOW Orchestra podcast features interviews, music samples and anything else we can think of. We welcome suggestions for the podcast. If you have anything you want to see, let us know.
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Interview with Coat Cooke - Part 1
Who: Coat Cooke
Interviewer: Tommy Babin
Coat Cooke talks about his musical influences, musical background, and his experiences on the Vancouver music scene.
Coat Cooke (reeds/flute) is one of Canada’s most lyrical and inventive saxophonists.
He is the founder and leader of the renowned NOW Orchestra. He has toured Canada, the USA and Europe performing in major festivals in Berlin, Lisbon and Chicago.
You can read more about him here.
Interview with Francois Houle - Part 1
Who: François Houle
Interviewer: Tommy Babin
François Houle talks about his musical influences and background.
Clarinetist François Houle has established himself as one of Canada’s finest musicians. His performances and recordings transcend the stylistic borders associated with his instrument in all of the diverse musical spheres he embraces: classical, jazz, new music, improvised music, and world music.
Interview With Torsten Muller - Part 1
Who: Torsten Müller
Interviewer: Tommy Babin
Torsten Müller discusses his influences and early experiences in music.
Torsten Müller (Born November 25, 1957 in Hamburg, Germany) is a free improvising bassist in Vancouver, Canada. He plays a 5 string double bass. He lived in Bremen and Hamburg from 1976 to 2001, where he started his musical career and worked as a radio host and producer at Radio Bremen, a public radio and television broadcaster.
He came into the free improvised music scene in the mid 70s, first playing with Free Music Communion (an ensemble with guitarist Herbert Janssen and pianist Udo Bergner) recording three LPs on their own Fremuco Records label. He co-founded the large improvising ensemble King Ubu Orchestra and was a member of this ensemble for 10 years.
Interview With Ron Samworth - Part 1
Who: Ron Samworth
Interviewer: Tommy Babin
Vancouver-based guitarist/composer Ron Samworth is known on the Canadian improvised/contemporary music scene as an inventive textural improviser and a strong fluid melodicist informed and inspired by a variety of music traditions including jazz, rock, new music and folk music of many cultures. He leads the acclaimed Vancouver-based quartet Talking Pictures and co-leads the NOW Orchestra and is a member of Francois Houle’s electro-acoustic quartet and the Hard Rubber Orchestra.
He has appeared at all the major Jazz Festivals across Canada, the Festival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville, at New York’s Knitting Factory, and the New York Improvisation Festival, New Music America, Vienna’s "Let’s Cool One" Chamber Jazz Festival, Chicago and Berlin jazz festivals and other leading venues in Europe.
Interview With Lisa Miller - Part 1
Who: Lisa Miller
Interviewer: Tommy Babin
“If the new improvisational movement means to convey the spirit of jazz without reiterating its stylistic clichés, then Vancouver-based pianist Lisa Miller deserves to be considered one of its leading lights.” J.D. Considine, The Globe and Mail
Miller’s performance style combines her interest in varied disciplines - modern classical composition, jazz and free improvisation - in vibrant and challenging pieces, using the improvisatory talents of the members of her ensembles and her knowledge of contemporary practices. Her CD, The music of lisa miller Q, featuring Peggy Lee, Dylan van der Schyff and Steve Smith, is available in Canada through Festival Distribution and in Europe through No Man’s Land. The recording has received rave reviews in Downbeat, The Paris Transatlantic Magazine, The Globe and Mail, Montreal Gazette (voted 13 of top 20 jazz albums of the year) and Signal to Noise. Her piano trio has recorded for CBC broadcast on Hot Air and Jazz Beat. She performs with the NOW Orchestra, ion zoo, stop time and in her ensembles Q, lm trio, edgeffect, and green ideas.
Lisa Miller’s compositions have been premiered by The Berkeley Symphony Orchestra, Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, The Left Coast Ensemble and Ear play in San Francisco, Standing Wave, The Turning Point Ensemble, The Vancouver Chinese Instrumental Music Society, Q and Edgeffect (with Ron Samworth, Jeremy Berkman and Jesse Zubot) in Vancouver. Miller completed a Doctorate in music composition at the University of British Columbia. She studied composition at San Francisco State University, McGill University and the University of Calgary and jazz piano in New York City.
Interview with John Korsrud - Part 1
Who: John Korsrud
Interviewer: Tommy Babin
Living in Vancouver, John is a composer, producer, trumpet player, and educator.
He is the leader and principle composer of the 17-piece Hard Rubber Orchestra, a highly active jazz/ new music ensemble that has toured to Europe and across Canada, released two CDs, and is the recipient of Canada's largest arts prize, The Alcan Arts Award.
As a composer, John has been commissioned by The Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, The CBC Radio Orchestra, the Albany Symphony New Music Festival, Vancouver New Music, Turning Point Ensemble, The Standing Wave Ensemble, and several Dutch ensembles such as LOOS, Combustion Chamber, Tetzepi Bigtet, Zapp String Quartet and De Ereprijs.
Interview With Paul Plimley - Part 1
Who: Paul Plimley
Interviewer: Tommy Babin
Pianist extraordinaire Paul Plimley has been raising eyebrows for years now. Those among the lucky have had the opportunity to catch Plimley in performance with the likes of Han Bennink, Mats Gustafsson, Joe McPhee, Evan Parker, John Oswald, Ken Vandermark, Mark Dresser, Hamid Drake, Rene Lussier, Cecil Taylor, Joey Baron, Ned Rothenberg, Derek Bailey, George Lewis, Andrew Cyrille, Louis Moholo, Vinny Golia, Eddie Prevost, Barry Guy, Miya Masaoka, Buell Neidlinger, and Randy Raine Reusch, among others.
Of notable mention are his long standing associations with the NOW Orchestra, of which he is a co-founder, and his duos and trios with Lisle Ellis. Some select recordings from the last few years include NOIR, with Lisle Ellis and Gregg Bendian; STUDY-WITCH GONG GAME 11/10, with Barry Guy and the NOW Orchestra; and his own solo recording, EVERYTHING IN STAGES.
Most recent recordings include a duo release with Barry Guy called SENSOLOGY; a duo with South Indian master musician Trichy Sankaran; an interpretation of the music of Miles Davis called YO MILES! with Henry Kaiser and Leo Smith, and a trio recording with Lisle Ellis and Scott Amendola called SAFECRACKERS.
Interview With Kate Hammett-Vaughan - Part 1
Who: Kate Hammett-Vaughan
Interviewer: Tommy Babin
Kate Hammett-Vaughan (voice) is an adventurous, assured and hip vocalist who has earned acclaim as one of Canada's most distinctive jazz artists. She is equally recognized for her interpretations of jazz standards (notably with her outstanding quintet and in duo with bassist André Lachance) and for her improvising work with the NOW Orchestra and Cheep and T’Audrey, her duo with guitarist composer Ron Samworth. Hammett-Vaughan has received three JUNO nominations (1994, 2000, 2005) as well as recent nods from the Canadian Independent Music Awards and the National Jazz Awards.
A performing and recording artist for more than two decades, her diverse musical projects include work on independent film scores, guest hosting of CBC television and radio shows, collaborations with modern dance artists, and a fulfilling career as a teacher.
Interview With Coat Cooke - Part 2
Who: Coat Cooke
Interviewer: Tommy Babin
Coat Cooke continues to talk about his musical influences, musical background, and his experiences on the Vancouver music scene.
Coat Cooke (reeds/flute) is one of Canada’s most lyrical and inventive saxophonists.
He is the founder and leader of the renowned NOW Orchestra. He has toured Canada, the USA and Europe performing in major festivals in Berlin, Lisbon and Chicago.
You can read more about him here.
Interview with Francois Houle - Part 2
Who: François Houle
Interviewer: Tommy Babin
François Houle talks about his musical influences and background.
Clarinetist François Houle has established himself as one of Canada’s finest musicians. His performances and recordings transcend the stylistic borders associated with his instrument in all of the diverse musical spheres he embraces: classical, jazz, new music, improvised music, and world music.
Interview with John Korsrud - Part 2
Who: John Korsrud
Interviewer: Tommy Babin
Living in Vancouver, John is a composer, producer, trumpet player, and educator.
He is the leader and principle composer of the 17-piece Hard Rubber Orchestra, a highly active jazz/ new music ensemble that has toured to Europe and across Canada, released two CDs, and is the recipient of Canada's largest arts prize, The Alcan Arts Award.
As a composer, John has been commissioned by The Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, The CBC Radio Orchestra, the Albany Symphony New Music Festival, Vancouver New Music, Turning Point Ensemble, The Standing Wave Ensemble, and several Dutch ensembles such as LOOS, Combustion Chamber, Tetzepi Bigtet, Zapp String Quartet and De Ereprijs.
Interview With Kate Hammett Vaughn - Part 2
Who: Kate Hammett-Vaughan
Interviewer: Tommy Babin
Kate Hammett-Vaughan (voice) is an adventurous, assured and hip vocalist who has earned acclaim as one of Canada's most distinctive jazz artists. She is equally recognized for her interpretations of jazz standards (notably with her outstanding quintet and in duo with bassist André Lachance) and for her improvising work with the NOW Orchestra and Cheep and T’Audrey, her duo with guitarist composer Ron Samworth. Hammett-Vaughan has received three JUNO nominations (1994, 2000, 2005) as well as recent nods from the Canadian Independent Music Awards and the National Jazz Awards.
A performing and recording artist for more than two decades, her diverse musical projects include work on independent film scores, guest hosting of CBC television and radio shows, collaborations with modern dance artists, and a fulfilling career as a teacher.
