February 2009 Newsletter

January was unquestionably the busiest month that Somewhere There has seen. This fact is attributable not only to the increase to six active nights each week, but also to the surprisingly large crowds we’ve had this past month (in relative terms, of course). CoexisDance, which has been presented at Somewhere There bi-monthly for about a year, drew a record audience, for instance, and Christine Duncan’s Element Choir drew record numbers of performers during the choir’s Sunday residency with choir size at close to forty nearly every week.

February will be busy as well, with the key event being AIMToronto’s Interface Series with British saxophonist, Evan Parker, on 13, 14, and 15 February (bring your Valentine!) Nilan Perera has done curator work on this one, and has placed Parker in six thematically related groups of Toronto players that will challenge and provoke him. Simply put, it’s a great honour to have Evan at Somewhere There.

The Wednesday-night residency by Odradek continues until the end of February, and has already featured two CD release concerts. Andy Yue, Jim Bailey, and Michelangelo Iaffaldano have put together some fine programs that go from strength to strength (and, sometimes, from strange to strange), a trend that will no doubt continue this month. The Element Choir also continues their Sunday-evening romps, and I have to say that it would be a real shame if listeners miss the astonishing sound of forty voices in Somewhere There’s intimate confines!

Thursday nights in February and March feature the wonderful drummer and all-around charmer, Nick Fraser. Originally, Nick had hoped that Drumheller, the wonderful jazz quintet that he convenes, would be on hand every week but he has since intimated that schedules are making that plan next to impossible to execute. As I’m writing, I don’t know exactly what’s on tap, but hope that at least some of Nick’s Thursdays will feature the full band (with Eric Chenaux, Rob Clutton, Doug Tielli, and Brodie West).

Click here to see the entire month's programming.

January 2009 Newsletter

Somewhere There wishes you a happy new year, one filled with optimism and excellent music. We closed out the first full calendar year with a relatively light program – I took essentially two weeks off during the holidays – but still managed to squeeze in 22 shows last month. Highlights include the arrival of the Leftover Daylight Series (Fridays), bumping up activity to six nights a week; the excellent (if lightly attended) Interface Series with fabulous Montréal turntablist, Martin Tétreault; and a successful Christmas Fundraiser, with edible and monetary proceeds going to the food bank. It was also terrific to host the CCMC reunion residency, and to get to know some of the long-ago membership with whom I wasn’t acquainted like John Kamevaar, Jack Vorvis, and Al Mattes. Somewhere There wishes Al a speedy recovery from long-awaited hip surgery that kept him from the last Sunday in the residency series, and a quick return to music-making.

Looking forward to January happenings, two exciting new residencies are afoot: Odradek (Wednesdays) and the return of Christine Duncan’s Element Choir (Sundays 6pm). Odradek is typically a trio of Michelangelo Iaffaldano, Andy Yue, and Jim Bailey but, for the residency, they’ve augmented the band in some cases with special guests and some delightful and delightfully oddball concepts – see below for details. The Element Choir held one of the very first residencies at Somewhere There and, week by week, filled the place with inclusive and glad-hearted music-making by a variable cast who may not have otherwise been drawn to the studio. I am keen to have them back, to hear how they have changed musically during the last year, and to watch them gear up for new performing and recording projects that may be in the works. Pianist and guitarist Simeon Abbott continues his Thursday-night residency with (at the time of writing) mystery programming. The guest curator for the Leftover Daylight Series (booking one set every Friday) is the rangy and affable guitarist and composer, Holger Schoorl, hot on the heels of his Wednesday-night residency in November and December.

Also, please note that I’m forced to raise the base entry cost to $8 in a hell-bent effort to actually cover my rent. It’s unfortunate that I have to do so, but rest assured that nobody at Somewhere There has ever or ever will turn away listeners who cannot afford the cover. You are welcome!

Click here to see the full calendar.

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