News / Leftover Moves

Thanks to those of you who are based in Toronto (for the most part) and who check in readily to see if I’ve made any new postings – and sorry if my failure to post lately has prompted any mild disappointment! It’s pretty clear that I can’t sustain any kind of usefully consistent show reviews as I tried to do about a year ago. So, on some sound advice that’s come out of consultation with some key friends of Somewhere There, I want to establish a different structure.

I plan to write a couple of paragraphs every month as a kind of preview for the month to come. With live music at ST now six nights a week, there will certainly be lots to announce. As always the residency structure will be maintained, with three residencies going on at any one time (Wednesdays 8pm, Thursdays 8pm, Sundays 6pm), and I’ll surely mention whomever will be in residence. This text will be printed not only here, but also on hard-copy newsletters that will be available at ST and will include a calendar such that folks can stick it on fridges – a magnet giveaway should be in the works!

Finally, welcome to the Leftover Daylight Series, which, after five years at the Arraymusic Studio, is moving to ST this Friday, 12 December, 8pm. See the as-always-intriguing programming here, then come out if you’re able for three sets of very fine Toronto creative music.

Crickets

Despite the surfeit of excellent music and landmarks like the first anniversary and show #200, September attendance at ST was significantly lower than average; last month's numbers were roughly 60% of the total average since opening and, strikingly, only half of what August's numbers were.

Can anybody say why this is the case? I detected a bias against booking in August that is based on a (false?) assumption that "everybody's away." More influential and indicative of the numbers, I'd guess, is an overwhelming "Holy Moly! It's September!" sentiment -- back to school, work, nice apples, whatnot -- that kept folks away.

October is a nice time to hear live music, though, don't you think?

Speaking of which, Laurel MacDonald's VIDEOVOCE residency began last (dark and stormy) night to a meagre crowd. It's quite different from pretty much anything else that has been booked here. The eight-speaker surround sound work is lovely, and includes segments from A Time to Hear for Here, John Oswald's Royal Ontario Museum sound installation that he executed with Laurel and Phil Strong. Luckily, Laurel and Phil will be presenting the same program throughout the residency, Thursdays in October and November.

More Ink, More Air

See a really nice and quite in-depth interview with me about ST by Maestro Riccardo Marsella in this month's WholeNote Magazine. I was gobsmacked to see Rich's projection in the introductory paragraph that, if ST lasts fifty years and keeps presenting music at the current rate, it will reach 10,000 shows! Fifty years, huh? We'll have to wait and see about that.

Since the magazine failed to do it, I'd like to credit Jim Paterson, who took the photo of the intense-looking trombonist in question that was published with the interview (and here too). It's a slice of cosmic synchronicity that there's a photo of the Sun Ra Arkestra on the opposite page in the WholeNote; if you look at the distorted reflections on the bell of my horn, then maybe you can make out the form of Marshall Allen, with whom (along with John Oswald and Doug Tielli) I was playing at Guelph in 2005 when Jim took the shot. Marshall, of course, will be in town with the Arkestra for the X-Avant Festival at the end of October. As far as I know, the trombonist on the Wholenote cover is not me.

I also got word from a CBC producer that Andrew O'Connor's feature on William Parker and Jeff Schlanger has been aired (though nowhere near when they'd told Andrew that it would get played). Furthermore, it's likely to get re-broadcast on Fresh Air this weekend (Radio One 99.1 6-9am Saturday and Sunday), a delightfully strange context for William's words and music. Andrew put it best in an e-mail message to me: "I'm tickled pink by the thought of people taking their kids to swimming lessons this weekend and listening to William talk about 'the sound of continuous blue skies and continuous clouds.'" Onward public broadcasters! Continuously onward!

William Parker & musicWitness on Air

It's a great week at ST. After celebrating one year and two hundred show in style last night, I got word from Andrew O'Connor that his feature on William Parker and the musicWitness exhibition in the ST gallery space will be aired this week. He has no control of when, exactly, but predicts that it will be on Metro Morning (Radio One 99.1 6am-8:30am) or Here & Now (Radio One 99.1 4pm-6pm) either tomorrow or Wednesday (16 or 17 September, 2008).

Thanks again to Jean Martin for recording William's solo sets, slices of which will be included in the feature.

Milestones

This Sunday, 14 September, marks both the first birthday of and the two-hundredth show at ST -- it's been a relentlessly extraordinary year, as regular readers and attendees will know. There will be two events that night -- at 6pm and 8pm; see below -- so please come for one or both if you're within earshot. Come also for cake and dancing.

Sunday 14 September, 6pm matinée, $6

The Rent plays the music of Steve Lacy:

Kyle Brenders (soprano saxophone)
Susanna Hood (voice)
Scott Thomson (trombone)
Wes Neal (double bass)
Brandon Valdivia (drums)

They play Steve Lacy songs with texts by Robert Creeley, Blaise Cendrars, Galway Kinnell, Lew Welch, Ryokan, Lao-Tzu, etc.


Sunday 14 September, 8pm, $6

The NOW Series:

8pm: Tiina Kiik, accordion; Jaron Freeman-Fox, violin.

Accordionist Tiina Kiik is equally at home in classical, folk and improvised music. She has worked with the Polka Dogs, Arcana Ensemble, David Mott, Lori Freedman and John Oswald among others.

Jaron Freeman-Fox is a contemporary violinist from the depths of western B.C. recently returned from long-term study of Carnatic music in South India. Jaron has studied and improvised in many styles of eastern and western folk, jazz and new music, and has collaborated with several respected artists such as T.V. Gopalakrishnan, Tanya Tagaq and Anupam Shakobar.

9pm: Dreamstate (Scott M2 + Jamie Todd, assorted electronics) with special guest Maurizio Guarini, analog synth.

Electronic artists dreamSTATE (Scott M2 + Jamie Todd) are best known for their ambient installations, live soundscape performances and curating THE AMBiENT PiNG performance series since 2000.
http://www.dreamSTATE.to

Tonight they are joined by ace prog rock/fusion keyboard player Maurizio Guarini, of Goblin fame.
http://www.myspace.com/maurizioguarini2

Turkey, for real

This week, stalwart ST friend and confidante, Alan Stanbridge (pictured), is in Istanbul for the Fifth International Conference on Cultural Policy Research at Yeditepe University in Istanbul, Turkey. There, he will be delivering a paper called "Somewhere There: Contemporary Music, Performance Space, and Cultural Policy." I'm chuffed and honoured.

Here's the abstract for his provocative investigation:

"The world’s major cities have always prided themselves on the reputation and quality of their high-profile performing arts venues, although these large-scale venues have a somewhat less successful record in the presentation of smaller-scale contemporary work, whether composed new music or jazz and improvised music, which have frequently had to make their homes in non-specialized – and often inadequate – venues, such as churches, rehearsal spaces, bars, and cafes. In a recent initiative, the musician and composer Scott Thomson has opened a new small-scale performance space, called Somewhere There, in the Parkdale area of Toronto, a city well-served by large-scale venues, but with few suitable facilities for the presentation of smaller-scale contemporary music performances. In this paper, I explore the strengths and weaknesses of urban initiatives such as Thomson’s, highlighting the manner in which much contemporary music tends to fall between the cracks of established arts funding patterns and cultural/creative industries policies."

I'm going to prod Alan when he returns in the hopes of posting a link to his paper, which will touch a sympathetic nerve not only for ST musicians and regulars, but also for anyone who is skeptical about Richard Florida-style arts policy rhetoric and its influence on Toronto's arts infrastructure priorities.

Galleries and the Music in 'em

It's amazing to think that it's already been three weeks since MUSIC(in)GALLERIES 2008, and since the launch of the musicWitness art exhibition in the new ST foyer art gallery with two massive solo sets by William Parker, Saturday 26 July. It was a joyful (if stressful) day for me and, as always, I didn't get to hear as many groups as I'd like to have during M(i)G. Particularly special of what I did hear were the banjo/bass duets of Tim Posgate and Victor Bateman in the wide-open Camera bar, the solo harpsichord recital of -- I'm guessing -- Wm. Byrd music by John Farah, and, especially, the drums and trumpet duet of Jean Martin and Jim Lewis. The photo and drawing included here are by the musicWitness, Jeff Schlanger, himself a spirited trumpeter to boot. He agreed with me that something very special was afoot when Jean and Jim filled XPACE with lovely, measured, and deeply sympathetic playing.

The (obligatory?) midafternoon showers made way for a brilliant late-afternoon and early evening, and it was under those conditions that folks headed from the Gladstone -- which Christine Duncan's Element Choir had animated joyfully to round out M(i)G -- or wherever, over to ST for the William Parker solo sets. The material of the two formidable, seventy-plus-minute sets remains a bit of a blur after my crazy expenditure of energy during the afternoon and, like many in attendance, I was further saddled by the increasingly overwhelming warmth of the space -- we turned off the air conditioners to keep noise levels down while Jean Martin did double-duty and recorded the proceedings for possible release.

What I do remember is dominated, however, by an overwhelming feeling of William's presence in the room as he played. Whether or not you 'enjoy' the sounds he was making, the massiveness of the generosity and spirit that he was pouring into the room was undeniable and, for me, undeniably powerful. This experience was amplified and focused by the small room and the quiet acoustic; I could feel the walls throbbing with growing intensity as he dug deeper and deeper into his bass. During each set, William played a version of "Cathedral of Light," an application of his synaesthetic theory of arco bass-playing and, at discrete points during each one, I could hear voices (laughter, especially) from some unlocatable, mystical source. When I reported this to Jeff Schlanger, a veteran colleague of William's, he nodded sagely, assuring me wordlessly that this is neither uncommon nor something to fear. Bright moments.

Jeff was in town with his wife, the wonderful artist, Anne Humanfeld, for nearly a week, framing and installing the work that is now on display indefinitely in the new ST foyer art gallery space. What a treat it was to spend some real time with these two! Both quickly picked up on what I'm trying to do at ST, and were supportive and quite impressed by MUSIC(in)GALLERIES. Naturally, Jeff installed himself to paint William as he played, and the result is a profound diptych (see above) that he took back with him to New York to document and preserve. He left ten original paintings (most of which are of Toronto musicians as they played with William at his 2007 Interface Series) plus four giclée prints, and eleven of these pieces now grace and energize not only the foyer but also, by extension, the entire ST space. Please come to see them! The space looks and feels amazing!

Thank you Jeff and thank you William for such brilliant gifts of soul and spirit.