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with Canadian folk icon Valdy at the
Belfry
Theatre
at Victoria Jazz Fest with Edie
Daponte,
with Maureen Washington,
used with
permission
photo
courtesy Michele
Alger
Alix
Goolden Hall
used
with permission
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Gigs and Events
- Live gigs are back! Several to
report, including playing both solo and with
Joey Smith at the Riva in
Sidney, and concerts coming up with Dan Lapp,
Maureen
Washington, Edie Daponte,
and Kim
Greenwood. Details for all
gigs on my calendar
page.
- The onset of isolation in March, 2020
caused my calender, and that of all
performing musicians, to clear rapidly, and
for well over 2 years. Early on, my
attention quickly turned to how I might be
able to connect with other musicians and
audiences in those circumstances. And
very quickly I found a free application
called Jamkazam,
originated by 3 brilliant Texan engineers,
David Wilson, Peter Walker and Seth Call,
working in their spare time and building the
necessary infrastructure with their own
funds. The app allows musicians all
over the world to play together in
synchronization, and with all the sudden
demand, quickly turned into a vehicle with
which to stream live concerts. The
very first time I hooked up on Jamkazam with
Joey Smith, a bassist from England joined
the session and we were able to play in
sync! I have persuaded many Victoria
performers to sign on, and I've been doing
online gigs solo, and with Joey Smith, Maureen
Washington, Edie
Daponte, Maria
Manna, and Susannah
Adams on Facebook and Youtube. I
also performed online with the
Wilds (Holly Arntzen and Kevin
Wright), Kim
Greenwood, Diane
Pancel, and Valdy.
- My enthusiasm for the programme got the
notice of Jamkazam founder David Wilson, and
the Jamkazam team has been following these
gigs with interest, in order to improve the
software. Jamkazam invited me along
with 5 other bands from across the continent
to their very first Jamkazam
Music Festival, an online event
scheduled for Saturday, May 30th, 2020 and I
invited Edie, Maureen, Susannah and Maria,
with bassist Joey Smith to join me.
Our set starts at 2:29:20.
- On June 19th, Jamkazam invited me, Joey,
Maureen, and Susannah to perform in the very
first Jamkazam
Juneteenth Festival. Susannah's
set begins at 18:13 and Maureen's at 26:10.
- I've been following another program called
Farplay,
created by piano and technical wizard Dan Tepfer
in New York. The latest version of the
program (which I beta tested last spring)
allows more than 2 remote locations to join
and play together, and it is truly
amazing! Latency is very low and can
be adjusted, and the sound quality is truly
great! This week I did a jam session
with Dan, and though we are on either end of
the continent, the experience was truly
wonderful! Part of the session is
posted on the Dan
Tepfer's Facebook page.
Farplay invited me to do a promo session,
which I did with Joey Smith, soon to be
released.
If you'd like to receive updates and details of
where I'll be performing in the next little
while, send me an email and
I'll put you on my list.
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Recordings
- My latest solo CD birdsong in
the parkade is
available on Itunes, Spotify, and many other
sites. The album was recorded on a Steinway
grand in the lowest level of Victoria's View
Street parkade, with music based on bird
songs collected on a cross-Canada camping
trip Brin and I took in the spring of
2016. Copies are also available from
me directly, or at Ditch
Records, and can be taken out on loan
from the Greater
Victoria
Public Library.
- During the pandemic lockdown
I did piano tracks for Garnett
Betts' new CD,
now just released. I've also
done arrangements and piano tracks for
Valdy, singers Alan Roy and Malcolm
McKenzie and songwriters Barry Swanson
and Robert Morrison.
- In
2019, recorded tracks for 2 albums by Edie Daponte,
one of her Edith Piaf repertoire and the
other in several languages.
- In the
fall of 2014 Maureen
Washington and I produced her
Christmas CD "Christmas
Is" (available at CD Baby), with
eleven terrific Christmas tunes that you
don't hear very often. Joey Smith and
Damian Graham rounded out the rhythm
section, and there were special appearances
by Dan Lapp, Al Pease, Larry Miller and
Duncan Meiklejohn. Definitely worth
checking out. CD release concerts were
held in Prince George and Victoria, and we
played a few gigs in Calgary before
Christmas as well.
- Fall of 2011 I worked with Valdy on
his new CD, available for download at his
site. I produced the CD and played
keyboard tracks, train whistles, and fauxbro
(that's our name for a synth dobro)
tracks. When we started the project in
August, Valdy said "I'll be playing in
Ontario and have a week free, so let's drive
up and down the 401 and find studios and
musicians." So that's what we did, and
everyone Valdy phoned that week said "Yes,
I'd love to play on your CD!" We've
recorded in Vancouver (rhythm section #1),
Crofton (rhythm section #2, background
vocals, Valdy's guitar, mix), 3 different
studios in Ontario (Valdy's vocals, bassoon
and trumpet, electric guitar, and pedal
steel guitar), and Victoria (trombone,
organ, piano, accordion and additional
tracks). The choir tracks were
recorded at the historic Victoria
Synagogue. We finished the mix
in November, and the CD was released early
in 2012.
- In 2011 I wrote a piece for a concert and
recording for Gord
Clements on bass clarinet accompanied
by strings. Other composers, including
Don
Thompson and Tobin Stokes also
contributed original pieces. You can hear
mine, entitled Current, here.
The CD is available on iTunes.
- Downloads of cuts from previously released
CDs Cat Fud, my
Christmas CD (retitled Ave
Maria because Do You
Hear What I Hear is not public
domain), and public domain and original cuts
taken from Blue/Green
(now called Monday's Child) and Sweets
are now available at iTunes.
You can also find recordings of earlier CDs
(Thinking of You, Orca Suite, Piano by
the Sea, Classics for Relaxation)
there.
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[ Calendar ] [ Discography ] [ Audio ] [ Video ] [ Film and TV Credits ] [
Press ] [ What's New ] [
Bio ]
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