The first day of July started with a plan to ride my motorcycle down to the Canada Day celebrations hosted by Coastal Jazz on Granville Island. This event featured some of Vancouver’s finest jazz talent on three different stages throughout the day, including Chris Gestrin, Jillian LeBeck. Brad Muirhead +Pepe Danza (Koan), Paul Plimley and Tony Wilson. As I was getting ready to go, my phone rang and my daughter requested my help to finish clearing out her godmother’s apartment. The jazz would have to wait, but it didn’t sound like there was that much to do and I would certainly be able to catch some of the shows. Continue reading Canada Day on Granville Island 2008
Category: VIX at Work
The varied employment of Victoria and her company VIX Productions
Vancouver Jazz Festival Part III
The free concerts at the Roundhouse Community Centre started at noon and I arrived by Skytrain after dropping my bike at Simon’s for examination. At the present time it is a long walk from the Stadium skytrain station to the site, but the new Olympic line is being constructed with a station right across the street. This site will be much more accessible for the Jazz Festival in 2010, although a lot of people do make the effort to walk, bike or skateboard rather than find scarce parking in the area.
The High School Jazz Intensive, with Chicago-based flautist Nicole Mitchell conducting, was in full swing when I arrived. The young musicians played at a very high calibre under Mitchell’s expert direction. Paul Plimley and I were discussing this concert later that day, and we both agreed that the quantity and quality of instruction and instructional materials has increased since we were young. Instructional multi-media, books,magazines, DVD’s and the internet have all contributed to a positive trend. This access to information and the improved acceptance of jazz, as a music that should be taught in school, has raised the standards of musicianship among Vancouver High School Bands. This nine-day intensive workshop series culminating in this performance is an educational outreach program that requires that the student to audition to qualify for entry. We were listening to the result of a focussed program applied to some of the most dedicated young musicians in the area courtesy of the sponsors and Coastal Jazz.
Brian Nation, the impetus behind Vancouver Jazz.com, was listening too. We both decided to go in to the tribute to Al Neil concert set-up to take photos. Brian wanted to interview Al Neil for his website jazz magazine as he remembers hearing him play and has known him for decades. The pictures I took of Paul yesterday did not turn out very well because of the low light conditions, so I welcomed a chance to to go in pre-concert and try again.
Brian and I compared cameras and he showed me his cool new flash diffuser, he took a photo of me with and without and the difference was amazing. Lan Tung, the erhu player in the next group to play in the venue, had asked me to take photos of her new ensemble. I quickly asked Brian if he had time to take a few shots of them during their set-up as his camera was so much better than mine.I think it worked out because I ended up using Lan’s video camera to record the show instead of taking stills.
Night of Broken Bikes
This is an unusual tale of mechanical mystery, charming chivalry and late-night suspense. Friday night was my last shift as Crew Chief at The Ironworks, a beautiful venue that has been my home at the Jazz Fest for 4 years. Although the Ironworks studio, an artistic space in an actual converted metal-working shop previously known as Burrard Ironworks, is sophisticated and beautiful inside, it is located in the worst part of Vancouver. The neighbourhood is one of the poorest postal codes in Canada and many homeless people wander the streets in company with drug addicts and mentally ill individuals. The area is starting to gentrify, behind security barracades, but the streets are still mean and inhabitants are unpredictable — it is the Downtown Eastside.
I went down to The Ironworks early, as the venue manager had requested that I be there at 6:30pm. I complied and helped organize the other volunteers by orienting and assisting the hospitality volunteer and making sure everyone else knew what they were supposed to be doing. My job as Crew Chief is to keep the volunteers happy, make sure they have water or soft drinks and get a break when they need it. I also keep an eye on the venue and support the venue manager.
While I was changing my boots for shoes, I left a message with Simon that my red+white loaner FJ motorcycle was developing the same clutch problem that my blue+black FJ had last year. I had noticed him leaning it over at angles I cannot achieve without becoming completely horizontal, and pumping the clutch to remove the air from the lines. Somewhere in the clutch system, which is supposed to be full of a pressurized oil, there were air bubbles getting in.
Vancouver Jazz Festival
Every year I volunteer at the Vancouver International Jazz Festival and last night, June 22, was my first shift as the Crew Chief at the Ironworks. The show last night was fun and unusual as Francois Houle and Mats Gustafsson organized an improvisational program around the idea of a hockey game, Improv Power Play: Canada vs Sweden. The individual solo improvs that started the event were excellent with standouts in my mind being Peggy Lee (defense for Canada) on cello and Per Ake Holmlander (defense Sweden) on tuba. Everyone played extremely well and the night ended with both teams on stage playing together. The drummer or goalie, Raymond Strid, for the Swedish Team (Tre Kroner), was very playful and showed a great sense of humor in this some times “serious music” jazz environment.
June 20
I have already seen some great shows, Barry Guy (bass) and Myra Homberger filled up the room at The Western Front with delightful sonorities and tasteful improvisation. The Baroque violins that Myra specializes in playing, have a unique timbre and blend with Barry’s bass beautifully. This duo has played together frequently and they mixed composed works with less structured pieces in imaginative segues.
Unfortunately, I had a small motorcycle accident, so I was a bit disoriented and missed Benoit Delbecq at the Roundhouse. That hurt more than the bruises I sustained, as I am always inspired by his playing.
June 21
I did catch the set with Benoit Delbecq and Quator Bozzini at the Western Front and it showed me a more restrained side of his musical skill set. I will see them again on Tues and will write more after that.
My daughter recommended Pink Martini as an interesting show and they were pure entertainment. The most unusual feature of this group is the multi-language focus of the songs. Although all of the songs fell within the movie theme + Vegas show + cruise ship show band type of genre; the switch to a different language showed how far the influence of stage band jazz has reached. The group excelled at Latin music and closed with a great version of “Brazil” after singing in Chinese, Arabic, Japanese, Italian, Spanish, French, English and probably other languages as well. The pianist, Thomas L. Lauderdale, played with flourishes that reminded me of Liberace. Lauderdale is the mastermind behind Pink Martini, and the lovely vocalist Chana (citation) was credited with co-writing the songs and was amazing in her abilitiy to sing in all these different languages. Other members of the 13 piece group were outastandin musicians and helped contribute to the multi-cultural aspect of the performance.
June 22
Despite having an afternoon business meeting regarding the book, I managed to hear a bit of the Vancouver Creative Music Institute (VCMI), a co-production of Coastal Jazz and Blues and the Vancouver Community College. The large ensemble, conducted by Georgio Magenesi, was brilliantly executed with space for all the players, changes in density, dynamics and timbre that maintained interest throughout. One of the best improvised large ensemble pieces for this year. Lan Tung was featured on erhu, Chinese violin, and her tone sang beautifully.
Georgio has taught me a lot about music. Sometimes when I listen to improv, noise music or another genre I don’t completely understand — I switch into another mode of listening. I change from listening for melody, harmony, rhythm and other structures, to listening to a matrix of timbres and densities. If I can break free of my traditional music frames, I can enjoy and experience music in another way. I feel like I have never properly thanked him for this tool, and other things he has told me about conducting. He is the Director of Vancouver New Music and we are lucky that he left his native Italy to enrich out community.
Francois Houle was the Artistic Director of this years VCMI and he did a wonderful job of supporting the players. All of the faculty also play in the festival and this week long series assists Vancouver players to interact with established International artists.
Later, I volunteered at the Ironworks.
Today, I have to go to work and so will miss the shows. However, I might be able to get off early enough to use my pass to see at least one show.
Children’s Festival Performance – Discovering Magic in Sound
It is finally spring in Vancouver and May is the time for the Children’s Festival 2008.
Paul Plimley and I played on Monday as part of the Sonic Playground tent experience.
Our show is called, “Discovering Magic in Sound”.
This is my vocal and set-up and Paul’s MIDI guitar brain and Apple G4.
Tech notes: Apple G4Powerbook running Logic Pro Audio (right), Korg Kaos Pad (front left), Digitech Vocalist (middle left), Godin Synth guitar unit driving Logic synth plug-in through USB with Paul playing the guitar, (centre left under Vocalist) and (top rear) a Roland electronic drum pad set for the kids to play on.
Photo Below – Victoria playing her custom made Kinal guitar.
We will return on Friday at 11:30am + 2:30pm + 4:00pm and Saturday 11:00am + 12:30pm.
Working on Administrative Tasks
The blog should be better organized now as I have provided a site map page (see under Pages at Left). What do you think of the green background? I am trying to do some new things in wordpress. My video pop plug-in still is not working, but the link to my song for Womens Day plays in Quicktime. I am trying to find some sponsorship and working on contacting venues that might want to host a workshop or performance. It is a lot of detailed work, but this is my environmental initiative and I want to do the best job I can.
I also have started a page called “Sources of Inspiration” because my Blogroll was getting kind of crowded. I am listing others who inspire me with their work and businesses that I find useful. I will put a little bit about each one and will put a link to my relevant page if there is more info there.
I am hoping to get some dates confirmed soon and I am working on doing a couple of local presentations in Vancouver so I can make a video clip. It would be nice to stream it for an example, but I am waiting until after the MacWorld Expo to buy a new notebook. There are many rumours about new features and I am going to wait until the end of January. Mike has informed me that he has managed to install Ubuntu on my 1.5 Ghz Intel computer, and I plan to pick it up on Tuesday. This will be my first Linus OS computer, so I expect a learning curve.
I did buy a Kaos Pad to develop my electronic music show a bit more. Sound files will be uploaded soon, but I do miss my G4 notebook for music production.
I hope the new site map helps with navigation and I hope to have some confirmed dates and project news soon. See you on-line.
Song for International Women’s Day
This is a video of a song written by Victoria Gibson in honour of International Women’s Day. Performed by Victoria and the Seaquam Secondary School Choir for the Society of Women in Science and Technology Conference in 2000 held at the school.
I have performed this song almost every year since I wrote it in 1994. The song was written to include the audience in affirming and celebrating International Women’s Day by giving them the line “Way-way-oh-way-oh” to sing or chant. I chose these syllables because my teenagers were arguing and one was insisting “Way”, while the other stated definitely “No way”. This sparked the idea in my mind that “way” could be a synonym for agreement and also indicate a positive direction, path or way.
This is a Quicktime link
Link to Women’s Day Song
Link to Womens Day Song Information and Lyrics
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Victoria will be performing the Womens Day Song
live in Bellingham on March 8th, 2008
[WA] Whatcom County Intl. Women's Day Celebration -
The Bellingham Intl. Women's Day Celebration in Bellingham
with Farmworkers Whatcom County Women's International Day Celebration****
TIME: 4:00 PM LOCATIONS: Bellingham, Washington Maritime heritage Park (500 Block of West Holly Street), the rally will kick off with a performance by the Raging Grannies and a short talk by Andreia Borges Ferreira of the Brazil Landless Workers Movement. At 4:30pm we will be marching downtown Bellingham and ending up at the DreamSpace (1318 Bay Street) for an evening celebration of dancing, divas, and desserts! Focus: Rural Women confronting globalization fight for food sovereignty!
Check out Womens Day events near you on this site:
