Just wanted to say how much I enjoyed this year's Ottawa Jazz Festival. It was a very special honour for me to be part of the house trio hosting the jam sessions every night for ten straight days - the…
Jul 9 2018
May 19 2018
Updated Events
Hey, just a quick note to say I've updated my calendar to reflect some Jazz Festival events, most notably the 24 hour jazz ramble which takes place from 10AM Friday to 10AM Saturday next weekend. I'll be on at noon…
Mar 24 2018
Indian Music
I've started rehearsals with Vinay Bhide for a show May 10th at noon at City Hall. Vinay has asked Mike Essoudry and me to join him to play what we feel fits in the performance of two pieces. One is…
Mar 13 2018
New sideman albums
I wanted to share a few albums out fairly recently that I played on.
Brian Asselin's project "The Commotions Volume II" is an album of original soul music featuring many of my favourite Ottawa area musicians.
…
Mar 10 2018
Solo Piano - listening and playing
Not a lot of shows coming up with all of my accompanist work looming, but I thought I'd share some things I've been checking out.
I've been listening to Keith Jarrett's Radiance, and album I couldn't get into…
Feb 28 2018
Radio Play
My hopes of a regularly maintained thoughtful content-filled blog haven't materialized in the face of my regular practice and teaching schedule. However, I thought this might be a great and easy way to keep track of fun news and things…
Nov 14 2016
Jam Session Rep Lists
Virtually immediately after you start playing jazz music you start getting pressure to know "all the standards". I remember a giant daunting list at the back of a popular jazz theory book (that I don't recommend) that said "Learn all…
Oct 31 2016
All - Never Took
Oct 24 2016
Modern Bootlegging
First of all, the very word "Bootlegging" has to do with clandestine action, and what started me thinking about this issue was the extremely overt and non-secretive manner in which people currently are reproducing live music.
We have…
Oct 17 2016
7.5 beat time
My love for North Indian Classical music began when I took a course taught by Vinay Bhide at Carleton University in 2002. His introduction to Indian music was aimed at all Western musicians, but to me seemed geared even more…
Sep 26 2016
Bodyjar - Five Minutes Away
For three of my posts in this series I wanted to record solo piano versions of songs that aren't covered by solo piano very often. This exercise of figuring out a vocal melody and harmony and making an arrangement is…
Sep 19 2016
Forbidden Musical Devices
During World War II, Hitler's regime forbade certain musical ideas and devices that didn't conform with their idea of artistic music.
From New Dutch Swing:
It [de jazzwereld's guideline for entertainment music in 1940] was mostly a detailed…