I hear you! I can hear you again…

I write these words on a spectacular sunny day in Vancouver. It’s April the 23^rd and I know it’s a lucky thing that I am able to sit on the sun deck, type away while hearing chickadees and finches and other birds happily chirp away while they’re busy nesting and occasionally play in the birdbath. I am especially happy about being able to hear them because not so many weeks ago I had temporarily lost my hearing in one ear following a vacation in Mexico where I happily played in the ocean and thrilled to ride the waves on a boogie board.

Who knows exactly why I had this hearing loss. It may have been due to a cough I had or getting too much water in my ears or some other thing. I only know that when it happened and when it appeared that my hearing would remain thus I was at first very concerned and frustrated and yet it was also a good learning experience for me. How so? Well since I am a musician it was obviously frustrating because what I was able to hear as I sang or as I tried to listen to the world around me was as though I were walking around with an ear plug in one ear; the way a singer might close one ear if she wants to test her own personal monitoring system while singing within a group. It felt very strange and when I sang as a guest in Mexico on two occasions I was aware and unaware of sounds around me and about my own voice. I was able to focus on my pitch (or at least I tried to) and to relate it to what my “good ear” could hear as the key but what I couldn’t seem to figure out is my decibel level. I also couldn’t figure out how to use any nuances in singing since that is all about hearing and color and balance.

Typically I am known as a “loud talker”. I am excitable and somewhat” high strung” as it’s known and it comes out in the decibel level of my speech unless I am very careful. I come from a loud family! Now with my one ear’s hearing gone I couldn’t judge my volume at all and when I thought I was speaking too loudly was asked to repeat myself several times. Strange!

What this experience did teach me perhaps is that musicians who suffer with hearing impairment or loss of hearing due to aging etc have great challenges to face.  I have some good friends who deal with hearing loss and now perhaps I am more aware of how difficult it must be for them at times to make music. I am thankful to have my hearing back and I know how lucky I am at this point in my life to have very acute hearing across the spectrum of frequencies.

I think about some of the famous musicians who were deaf: Beethoven as everyone knows composed and orchestrated several compositions while completely deaf. He still heard the music in his head and aren’t we glad that he did!!!

 Dame Evelyn Glennie, a Scottish born percussionist has been deaf since she was about twelve years old. Isn’t it remarkable then that she has made such a career for herself performing around the world? Somehow she is able to use other senses to experience the music through her feet connecting to the floor.

On this perfect spring day I look and I listen and I hear it all once again…the chickadees and the breeze and ok I do live in a city after all; I can hear the traffic zooming along.  Lucky me!

Strong Women & Beautiful Music…

For the past several years on International Women’s Day (March 8) I have been one of several female artists who perform a concert at IRONWORKS STUDIO in Vancouver. This is always to benefit ATIRA, which is a Vancouver based organization lending support to women and their children who find themselves in abusive or dangerous situations and need help finding a safe place to live.
Each year several of us sing and play this concert to raise money and also to entertain those who attend the event. It takes place in one of my favorite small venues in Vancouver: the artful and cozy IRONWORKS STUDIO located at the edge of Gastown in Vancouver. There are usually 3 of us who are the featured vocalists (Laura Crema, Jennifer Scott & I) and each year we have an all-female ensemble. Personnel have changed over the years but for the most part there has been a core group and the interesting thing is that several of us only play together that one day a year because we have our own groups and equations. It’s always an exciting program with quite a range of style and influence since we come from various backgrounds. Something special happens each time we perform this concert which is hard to put into words. That’s probably because it’s in the music!!

I’ve not typically been interested in groups that put together all female ensembles simply for the gimmick purpose since I care about the music first and foremost but for our Strong Women concert, it makes sense in every way and is not a gimmick but a coming together to celebrate women and, to hopefully help some women and their children by performing this event.

I’ve tried to consider the theme of “Women” and “strength” in my song choices each year given the event name: STRONG WOMEN STRONG MUSIC, and that makes for a little project for me each time. One year I decided to arrange a little classical art song by a Canadian composer who just happened to be born on the prairies as I was. Marguerita Spencer composed many piano pieces and some beautiful songs. “Reality” was the song by M. Spencer that I did one year that I had learned as a teen while studying music. I like to take a song by a composer from some genre and see what might be possible so that the tune can have a life in another genre, in this case jazz. I don’t know if that can always work but it’s fun to try. It’s also somewhat heartening (not sure if that’s quite the correct word here?) to be able to do a piece by someone who was perhaps never famous in the big scheme of things. When you speak about a composer or artist who is no longer alive and then you perform something that person composed or became known for performing, it is as though you are able to keep a small flame of the person alive.

Searching in the “Great American Songbook” as it’s typically called, I also like to look for standards that have been composed by women. That’s quite a small list as you might imagine. There are some wonderful gem tunes by female composers and occasionally I choose one specifically for our event. Vocalist Peggy Lee who became famous for her cool jazz singing was also a very fine composer. If you do a search you might be amazed at what a prolific composer Ms. Peggy Lee actually was!

Of course I am a female composer as well so on occasion I will choose to do one of my own compositions. So it’s early enough in the New Year for me to consider what I might contribute musically speaking and late enough in the New Year for me to realize that month one is gone. Goodbye January, welcome February 2013…

How lovely is Christmas??

I am preparing to do a handful of Christmas shows with Jennifer Scott & Kate Hammett Vaughan as is the December tradition and I always enjoy that experience tremendously. This year however, our first Christmas gig took me by surprise. A concert set up by pianist Chris Sigerson in a lovely little church and a benefit concert whereby people other than us would gain something from the sharing of our music should have had me excited and enthusiastic and eventually it did. In the days leading up to the show I opened up my huge box of songs filed away each year and somehow there was no joy, no enthusiasm in re-discovering tunes that were Christmas oriented, both sacred & Santa style. I sat at the piano and leafed through and played a few bars of several tunes from an enormous Christmas fake book and finally after many, many page turnings, I stopped and remained at an Alec Wilder Christmas song called “HOW LOVELY IS CHRISTMAS”. Something about the simplicity of the lyric and yet the little twist to minor from major had me remain on that page and eventually I began to flesh out an arrangement for me to sing. Typically at the Kate + Jennifer + Kate (We 3 Queens) Christmas shows we are presenting three part harmony arrangements of festive carols and songs but within that mix we also include some solo tunes. Each year (and for several now) it seems that Kate’s songs are a sexy version of “SANTA BABY” plus a reflective version of “WHITE CHRISTMAS” while Jen has favored a soulful rendition of “SILVER BELLS” or a lovely version of “THE CHRISTMAS WALTZ”. I have somehow meandered from tune to tune each year and done some of my own original solo tunes and then made it my mission to re-invent and arrange some beloved standard. So… there has been a “ Olive, the Other Reindeer” song as penned by me, and versions of more familiar tunes and now…suddenly I hit upon this song that truly strikes my fancy. That has happened a few years in a row when suddenly a lyric, or a melodic motif or some sentiment grabs me and there! There is my solo tune for the year. Thus, I worked on and arranged a version of “How Lovely Is Christmas” that we debuted at last week’s first Christmas concert with the Queens whereby the fabulous trumpet player Kevin Elaschuk could be featured. I was so happy to find out that the song became musically effective since during the intermission that several people came up at the to ask about the song and to comment on our sharing of it in the concert. That is a wonderful feeling! You learn a tune and arrange it and hope that it will “come off” the way you anticipate and hear within your own imagination. Just beautiful when it all comes together dynamically speaking and musically and, soulfully which is what the band managed to do as well.
Now, not to rest on my laurels, so to speak and never one to say “no” or “why now?” to my muse, a new kind of a poppy Christmas song has arrived!! I sat at the piano and unbeknownst to me, a little 60’s simple backbeat groove immerged and now it is a song. It’s all about (true this happened!!) the fact that December + Christmas arrives in such a short time and I am feeling shocked and almost overwhelmed by this, in particular this year. How can it be December this coming weekend? Impossible!! There’s so much to do! Nonetheless, there it is Christmas and December arriving any day now…
Other than my fun Jazz Christmas gigs with Jen & Kate I happily prepare for a performance that I will do with my younger students in just 2 weeks times. They will sing Jazz standards and some Broadway show tunes and it is a fact that most of them come from another area musically speaking. Here they are willingly preparing songs that truly move me!! I hope they catch my jazz bug because it is one form of music that I believe they can immerse themselves in for a lifetime. Some of them are singing so Hyack Square!! 8th St. & Columbia in New Westminsterbeautifully and really embodying the spirit of jazz that I feel maternal and proud. This all takes place soon and I attempt to be positive in my coaching and mentoring. Vocal jazz can be so tricky and seemingly like “tight rope walking” I want them safe but I want them to experience the exhilaration of being on the tight rope all along with the band. Scary? Maybe. Exciting? Absolutely? So…there’s Christmas music in my life ‘tis true but time also ticks along for my wonderful singing students as they work on preparing their repertoire of jazz & Broadway tunes.

I TOOK A TRIP ON A TRAIN….

I TOOK A TRIP ON A TRAIN…

(part one)

As I write these words I am on board a southbound train heading for Portland with the purpose of going to hear vocalist Nancy King and pianist Steve Christofferson perform an evening of music. This performance won’t take place in a theatre or concert hall but rather in a Portland restaurant. Certainly Nancy & Steve are musicians of a particularly high caliber in the world but with jazz music and jazz musicians (perhaps other genres too), unless you are on a concert tour and booked into playing soft-seat theatres you are sharing your music in restaurants and bistros and cafes or wherever you are able or, hopefully in a designated jazz club where the audience is coming for the music first and foremost. I hope this is the case in Portland! The music that Nancy and Steve perform together is of an intimate and improvisational nature and,  they have played together for such a long time that there is an easy comfort and wonderful chemistry between them. They certainly should be famous and many fans and critics know that to be so. The circle of people who love their music and artistry grows as the word gets around about who they are and where they reside.

Time ticks on (isn’t that the truth!) and the decision was made to head down to Portland to “catch them while we can” because Nancy and Steve just aren’t performing that frequently and they certainly don’t get to Vancouver often. So…a train trip to see and hear two of my favorite artists and what a fun way to go.

This delightful train trip includes the rocking & swaying motion along  with occasional creaks and sounds that trains are known to make plus the stops and starts as people get on and people get off depending on where they are headed.  There is much gazing out the windows at the Autumn landscape on this grey day. Grey is a color I actually do like but it didn’t exactly inspire Irving Berlin to compose “Grey Skies” did it? Here heading down through Washington and into Oregon State many leaves are still on the trees and they are ablaze with color. There is also a carpet of leaves everywhere on the meadows and beneath the trees so there is a gorgeous contrast of the colors we associate with fall against the grey sky canvas. The rain is threatening or promising, depending on how one likes to view things. I’ll go with “promising” and then when it does, I can say “ok then, you had mentioned you’d be dropping by.”

Rain…Lately,  RAIN has been on my mind since, in Vancouver we continue to get lots of it as is the norm this time of year. The endless rainfall a few weeks inspired me to look up all song titles related to rain. I have written songs about the rain too! Certainly I found hundreds and hundreds and some of them very good ones indeed. Just last week I performed my new arrangement for a song about rain; a song that I  performed a figure skating solo  to when I was a teenager living on the prairies and, when I was presented the “Figure Skating Queen” award one year. The song is Burt Bacharach’s song “Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head”, a song forever associated with the movie “Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid” more than it would be associated with my figure skating prowess. Ha!  Further on the topic of rain; I do know that living in Vancouver  (or perhaps all parts of the lower mainland) that we might see rain for days and days on end and it can make one feel tired since rain doesn’t seem to be the energy giving force that sunshine is. It’s true that rain really does affect certain people when it continues in that fashion. I actually do enjoy going for a run in the rain or a walk in the rain; the scent of the air, the sound of it landing on trees and roofs, the sensation of it on your skin. Still it’s true that certain other outdoor activities require further planning: umbrellas, boots, rain coats. If you’re a musician It does seem to be a great time for being inside with one’s instrument working at the craft of music composing, playing, arranging, listening so I for one hope not to complain too much about the “green maker” which (at least in Vancouver) gives us green landscapes through the year.

I TOOK A TRIP ON A TRAIN  (part two)

I write this entry on the return train trip to Vancouver after being in Portland for a few days. The performance by Nancy King and pianist Steve Christofferson was an absolute highlight and going to see them was the primary reason for going in the first place. In particular, Nancy and Steve are well known for the duo work they do (on recordings and in live performance)  but this time the group size was enhanced with a flutist, an acoustic bassist and a drummer. (drummer Todd Strait!!!) Before the first downbeat I wondered whether the magic intimacy of the duo format would be consumed or over shadowed  by the greater decibels and energy of this larger ensemble. Most delightfully that didn’t occur at all. There was such high level of musicianship and,  of mutual admiration between these great musicians and the only thing that mattered with each tune was the communal sharing of the mood, story, improvisation and life of the song. No charts were used all night with just a few seconds of conversation about each tune selected. Everyone was on their game, so to speak, and  Nancy, simply put,  CANNOT sing a bad note. She is what I call (and who many know to be) a fearless artist. There’s never a doubt that any note or sound color that comes to her imagination in the moment of singing, will arrive on time, in tune, surprising and complete. She’s absolutely born to sing this music. There’s never a doubt that she will connect with the story of a lyric, with the rhythm or groove that the band is playing, with some higher power she must tap into I suppose. A jazz performance of that calibre is exactly what I love about music and is exactly why I feel so lucky to study this music and its concepts and to (hopefully) improve my musicianship skills with each new experience whether that is through my own study or whether it is because my ears and mind are once again opened when I hear such greatness.

A performance such as Nancy and Steve and their friends is a reminder to me that most jazz musicians are doing this music because they are strongly drawn to it and they love it  and not because it may draw a huge audience. It would be lovely for the artists to be able to attract greater audiences but I see (and have known for some time) that great jazz artists don’t always translate into great numbers in the audience. As I noted in my posting on my trip down to Portland, I knew in advance that this performance would be in a restaurant and I had crossed my fingers that it would be a listening audience. How wonderful to have the room packed with people who enjoyed their food and drink BUT they were there for the music and they (we) clung to every note. It may be true that on occasion there are theatre performances but probably for the most part the venues are smaller if one is performing in one’s home city regularly.  And so I head into deep Autumn newly inspired and thankful for all I have seen & heard…

Reclaiming the silence & finding the muse…

What a wonderful summer I had! I went ocean kayaking, taught at two music camps, caught up with friends and family and I went camping for 3 weeks in beautiful Idaho, Montana and Washington State. Although I was with my partner for the camping trip and not having a solo experience, I was able to “reclaim the silence”. It was back to viewing nature in all her extremes, beautiful and fearsome at both ends: wind still with a summer blue hue on the mountains and sky while a hundred miles further down the road the smoke from surrounding forest fires painted another picture; obviously not a desirable one.  I am always reminded of how fragile the balance of nature really is when the dry summer season brings the fires to mountain and forest dwellers and beyond that too since the smoke filled air travels such great distances. Several hundred miles were driven to get out of one area of smoky atmosphere in order to be in clean air once again where one could actually see the stars at night (ah the stars everywhere!!) or to see a sunset that didn’t have that surreal/unreal red sun glowing through the smoke filled air. To see a natural sunset with the pink, grey and blue shades was a welcome and appreciated experience.

“Reclaiming the silence” involved looking at beautiful scenes of mountains, streams, ripened wheat fields, pine forests or while sitting still and reading a book, thoughts allowed to wander, sitting in places so quiet that the only sound is the ringing in your own ears! How rare that is for me these days. Eventually music ideas seem to come to me, lyric ideas, concepts, plans, arrangements and perhaps I am most excited that at the end of a holiday I am rejuvenated again and prepared to follow some of those muses that came to me in my silences. I come back  to Vancouver aware that I am a lucky Canadian, a lucky musician, a lucky woman to be living the life I have. Life can’t be all a bed of roses but mine certainly has its share.

During a camping holiday trip such as I was on there are some days that are simply driving days and those were often days for new visual and aural fulfillment. The visual fulfillment of course came from every twist and turn bringing something new to the eye: different hill, forest, wildflower, village, mountain range etc. The aural fulfillment came from the music we listened to “old –style” with a group of just twelve CD’s which were put on a rotation basis depending on the mood and perhaps depending on what the day called for. Sometimes those listening experiences while on the road are completely inspiring to me and new ideas come to me that I hadn’t thought of before as a result of those driving days. The music ranged from jazz to bluegrass to pop on this trip.

This was my second summer with my uke. I spent long periods of time working on my technique and composing and hopefully I made some progress. Improving on an instrument that doesn’t come naturally i.e. not a keyboard but a fret board for me takes patience and more patience and some days I could “get it” and others not so much. There’s something about this little four-string instrument that has me smitten and I certainly won’t give up trying to get better. At least I could say we’re on more friendly terms these days and I am not as easily frustrated with intonation issues as I was in the very beginning. Forgive and retune, forgive and retune, embrace the silence for a while and retune once again…

One of the other things I did this past summer is take hundreds of photographs. I took pictures of many musicians performing on their instruments. I did this at both of the music camps that I taught at where students and colleagues alike were performing. I don’t often get a chance to do that kind of thing but I look forward to going through all my collection and sharing some of the images of people doing what they love. 

And now….welcome Autumn. I saw some of your colors on the drive home. I know you are there…

How impressed am I? Let me count the ways…

It has occurred to me that when you are a teacher or a mentor you might see a student or group of students for a time period and then maybe not again for quite some time. This happens if you are teaching at a workshop or clinic whereby people sign up to study something they either know a little bit about, nothing about or perhaps they already know a lot about the topic/subject. Most gratifying to me, is the experience of then seeing some of those individuals who (after a certain time period) improve, blossom, grow and gain confidence and skill. Yes, they blossom! How very exciting to witness this!! Perhaps since I am not a parent I feel this sensation of pride and emotion even more strongly when I observe this growth in both young and grownup students. I am indeed impressed!

This past week I have been teaching at a music camp in the Yukon, a place that I have grown to love dearly. Certainly I love the natural beauty here but it is truly the people who have engrained themselves in my heart. I know I am not the only one to have had this experience in Whitehorse. It’s a very special place indeed, rich with history, culture, art and artists galore.

The music camp I taught had a broad range of music: jazz, classical, rock, fiddle, classical, ukulele music, percussion ensembles, brass band and more. It also had a broad range of ages since the camp is for young children right through to adults of any age who love music. What a wonderful opportunity for young kids to be exposed to a little bit of everything and perhaps that goes for adults too. I am a musician and yet I heard things I’ve never heard before at this camp. Here are some things that impressed and delighted me:

• Seeing a little girl who had never held a violin before yet by the end of the week she has begun her music journey on this difficult instrument.
• Seeing  a teenager who had never played electric bass before learn how to play in a band and demonstrate this beautifully on performance day as she and the others enjoyed the “sum is greater that the parts” concept.
• Finding out that as one of the children was learning to play jazz piano that her mom was in another room learning to play percussion. Fun stuff!

• I was encouraged to hear some adults who had been at a particular level of ability on their instruments demonstrate that no matter what the age, you can improve in dramatic ways.

  I suppose I’m impressed by the fact that no matter what the age, we can improve our skills as musicians. It’s apparently never too late to start and certainly music for the little ones will help pave the way for their exciting discoveries of music with its varied genres and styles. It’s there waiting to be discovered, studied, composed, explored and shared. How wonderful!

Now I will have a few days of rest and recovery and I will (hopefully) be an effective teacher/mentor in another music camp. I know already the experience of sharing music will fill me with surprise and delight and that already makes me happy…

 

 

 

Why Do I Love vocalist Karrin Allyson?

On my run awhile ago I was reflecting on why I enjoy listening to jazz vocalist Karrin Allyson so much, on recordings and in live performance. Last night’s concert in Vancouver she performed with the vocal group “Night Cap” and with the “A Band” meaning that she was performing with some of the top students in Capilano University jazz program. The students must have been in heaven performing with such a great musician and a gracious performer on top of it all.

Why do I like Karrin so much? Is it because she is beautiful? My friend Vince on the intermission break (and I don’t think I am betraying any confidence here) said to me: “I think I’m in love” and I imagine that he has his own reasons for feeling that way and some of that may have to do with her beauty and charisma. I do enjoy watching someone attractive on stage and it is proven that all of us appreciate beauty in people in nature and in music. That’s not the reason I like her.

Is it because she has a beautiful voice? She does have that but that’s not the main reason. I do enjoy the special little “gold-dust” that she has in her voice that is a type of warmth with a little scratch in it like a Bonnie Raitt or a Peggy Lee voice that I have always liked.

Is it because she is a gracious performer on stage with an ease and comfort and warmth? With an open smile and bubbly nature she is easy to adore but those aren’t the main reasons I like her.

I believe it’s because she never ever sings with the “listen to what my voice can do!!” approach to the music. She’s never gratuitous in her choices and has exquisite taste and control in all she does whether singing a ballad, a bebop tune or a tune from the pop genre.  It’s all about the song. With her singing she seems to say “here’s a beautiful song and here’s my soul/heart connection to it”. When a song called for some hefty blues touches she delivered that. When a song called for space and some subtlety she delivered that. It’s all about her connection with the song. When a song’s dynamics are building with a boisterous burn as the rhythm section digs in, she’s right there. She’s got it all and she has the incredible control and exquisite taste to know exactly where and when to shift gears.

Hearing her encore last night as she accompanied herself on the piano and sang Billy Joel’s song “And So It Goes” made my heart cry and sing at the same time. That’s why I love Karrin Allyson.