February 21, 2009
I’m in the middle of writing some new songs for the clarinet/piano/drums trio that performed its first gig last week. The gig was lots of fun so, as I mentioned in my last news post, I thought it might be fun to one day write some originals for that instrumentation, a modern take on a classic style, … or something clever like that. Well, “one day” became “right away” when I realized that I needed a recent recording of my songs for the next Canada Council grant deadline. So for all those people who’ve picked up one of my albums and said “By God! How does he come up with such clever, clever songs?!” Here’s your answer… more…
February 14, 2009
Thanks to everyone who came down and made our Cellar show a success last Thursday! Despite the added stress of not having rehearsed the music with our pianist (Miles Black is, as I learned this time, a very busy and somewhat elusive man!) we all had a great time and Miles and Joe Poole (drums) played their asses off. Personally, I was sweating profusely 10 seconds into our first song of the night because this trio instrumentation, sans bass, is so exposed! After one or two songs though I started to get more comfortable with this uniquely spacious sonic texture, and I thought to myself “I’m sure glad we didn’t needlessly waste time rehearsing this stuff! What a cakewalk!”
Well, … not quite. more…
February 7, 2009
If you’ve sent me an email this week and wondered how I was able to reply in seconds flat every time, it’s because I’ve been perched in front of my laptop for hours a day trying to finish charts for my upcoming gig at the Cellar (February 12) and emails are a welcome distraction.
Several months ago I was given a newspaper article on how to avoid last minute pressure situations in the workplace. They labeled these situations “fires” and explained how more…