Tag: jazz

Buy a Record, Make a Difference 12: Meredith Bates

Buy a Record, Make a Difference is a new series we have created to help local musicians generate income during COVID-19. It is based on the principle that we should support and reward the hard work local artists have already put into recordings, as it is an immensely difficult undertaking to be creating new material under current circumstances. There is currently a lot of emphasis on livestreaming and innovation in our industry, and while those things absolutely have their place, we think it’s also important to boost projects that have already been completed.

In each post, we’ll ask a local artist a series of the same questions, give them the opportunity to talk about recordings they’re proud of, and ask them to talk about other local musicians whose work they admire. It’s our hope that you’ll take the time to listen to & purchase the work of local artists, or at the very least share their work with others.

MEREDITH BATES

Photo: Marc Bjorknas
1. Who are you? 

I’m a freelance violinist based in Vancouver, BC. Like most creative people, I’ve got my fingers in a lot of different pots. I mostly perform improvised music, modern jazz, symphonic music, and contemporary classical music. I love to record and have done many studio sessions in Vancouver and abroad, playing both violin and viola on projects of other people’s and my own. I’m always looking for ways to improve my technique and my ear and expand my musical vocabulary and have attended residencies and workshops at places like the Banff Centre for the Arts and Fylkingen (Stockholm) as well as taken lessons along the way with Jenny Scheinman in NYC and Carla Kihlstedt in Boston. There’s nothing I love more than meeting new people and creating new collaborations. It’s always exciting to improvise with somebody for the first time and I relish that opportunity to make new original music in the moment. I love playing violin and especially getting to that place where I can shut my brain off and just be inside the music completely effortlessly in the flow of it. It doesn’t happen all the time, but when it does, it’s magical and so much fun.

2. Describe your music as best you can.

I started playing violin when I was 3 1/2 and my parents enrolled me in Suzuki lessons. From that point on, I’ve thrown myself into so many different musical situations, it’s impossible to count. I have a hard time saying no, I guess! I’d say that my sound is defined by my classical training mixed with the influence of all of the different experiences I’ve had over the years, from avant garde jazz to contemporary classical to hip-hop, world music, folk, chamber music, old time string band…the list goes on! Many times I’ve felt like a total poser, but I’ve always thrown myself in and tried my best to serve the music. I’ve recently started including effects pedals into my quiver and am having a blast experimenting with processed sound on the violin. Currently, I play in a handful of creative music ensembles: Pugs & Crows, Peggy Lee’s Echo Painting, Tony Wilson’s Burn Down the Cornfield, Chris Gestrin’s new Shadows Quartet, Gentle Party, my new Canadian/Swedish all female powerhouse ensemble Like the Mind, Ford Pier’s Strength of Materials, Josh Zubot’s String Quintet, Alvaro Rojas’s Gran Kasa, and Tom Wherrett’s ElkHorn. I’m also a regular fixture in the first violin section of the Kamloops Symphony Orchestra. 

3. What’s your latest recording (or a recording you’d like to promote)? Where can people get it?

I’m looking forward to releasing my first album as a bandleader with Like the Mind, which features Peggy Lee, Elisa Thorn, Lisa Ullén, Lisen Rylander Löve, and Emma Augustsson. We recently spent a week in Stockholm developing our sound and workshopping new material together that culminated in a beautiful concert that we recorded for archival and demo purposes. Well, it turned out so great that we’re going to make a live album out of it!  That’ll be coming down the pipes really soon and will be available online on my website, the Like the Mind website, Bandcamp and all the usual streaming services. Another one to look out for in the early Fall is a new album from Gentle Party. We were just awarded a grant to work on composing and releasing a new album with producer Chris Gestrin on his Phonometrograph label. Lastly, don’t miss out on Alvaro Rojas’s Gran Kasa. We will be releasing our first album of Afro-Peruvian-avant garde jazz tunes soon. It’s a huge band of heavy hitters and the music is out of this world, groovy and challenging, and takes you on a crazy journey! Otherwise, if you haven’t already, I’d definitely snag a copy of Peggy Lee’s Echo Painting, Tony Wilson’s This Way Through the Forest, Ford Pier’s Inclusive Fitness, and, my favourite, Pugs & Crows’ Uncle!, all of which came out in the last year or two. 

4. Is there another local musician whose work you’d like to give a shout out to? 

I’d say that the musicians who’ve had the biggest positive impact on me since I moved back to Vancouver from the East Coast are Peggy Lee, Tony Wilson, Lisa Miller, Cole Schmidt, and Chris Gestrin. All of whom are monster musicians, masters of their craft and beautiful, caring, intelligent, generous humans who give so much to their art as well as their community. There are too many amazing musicians in our West Coast creative music scene to count, so this is really tough, but I’d like to give a shout out to one of my peers, Tom Wherrett, a ridiculously talented guitarist and composer originally from Nebraska and firmly entrenched in the Vancouver scene for the last 10+ years. His music and his friendship have been essential to my development as a member of Vancouver creative music community. I think the way he hears chords and scales is incredible and his technique on the guitar is out of sight. His music challenges me to the edge of my technical ability and is exciting and energizing to perform. As a listener, I’ve always loved his solo project, Lonely Astronaut. You can check it out here.

Buy a Record, Make a Difference 11: Dylan van der Schyff

Buy a Record, Make a Difference is a new series we have created to help local musicians generate income during COVID-19. It is based on the principle that we should support and reward the hard work local artists have already put into recordings, as it is an immensely difficult undertaking to be creating new material under current circumstances. There is currently a lot of emphasis on livestreaming and innovation in our industry, and while those things absolutely have their place, we think it’s also important to boost projects that have already been completed.

In each post, we’ll ask a local artist a series of the same questions, give them the opportunity to talk about recordings they’re proud of, and ask them to talk about other local musicians whose work they admire. It’s our hope that you’ll take the time to listen to & purchase the work of local artists, or at the very least share their work with others.

DYLAN VAN DER SCHYFF

Photo: Peter Gannushkin / downtownmusic.net
1. Who are you? 

I’m an improvising percussionist (mostly drum kit) who has lived and worked in Vancouver since the early 90s. Recently, I have begun to split my time between Vancouver and Melbourne, where I coordinate the honours and graduate programs in Jazz and Improvisation at the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music (University of Melbourne). In my academic life, I also research and write on the philosophy and psychology of music, as well as performance, improvisation, and creativity more generally.

Over the years I have played with many local heroes and bands on the Vancouver scene including Ron Samworth, Paul Plimley, Tony Wilson, Dalava, Brad Turner, Bruce Freedman, Torsten Muller, Peggy Lee, Francois Houle, and New Orchestra Workshop among many others. I have also toured and recorded with a range of artists from across Europe and the US like George Lewis, John Butcher, Joelle Leandre, Michael Blake, Dave Douglas, Wayne Horvitz, Ken Vandermark, Paul Rutherford, and Rob Mazurek. Between 2014-2019, I curated the Vancouver Improvised Music Meeting, which hosted visiting artists in collaboration with local improvisers.

2. Describe your music as best you can.

I grew up playing jazz with people like saxophonists Seamus Blake and Terry Deane, and bassists Sean Drabitt and Joe Williamson. I really love all kinds of music, but I am mostly known for my work in free improvisation and experimental music. This music frequently breaks from traditional musical devices and forms, often utilising structures of sound and noise as much as melody and harmony. During the COVID-19 lockdown in Australia, I’ve been returning to explore practices that I used to enjoy earlier on in my career (and as a kid), such as working with close mic’d objects, environmental sounds, radios, and editing/manipulation processes like those associated with musique concrète.

3. What’s your latest recording (or a recording you’d like to promote)? Where can people get it?

I have recently released a couple of recordings from my archives. Both are sax, piano, drum trios recorded live in Europe in the early 2000s. “Bouch Perdue” is with pianist Achim Kaufmann and saxophonist/clarinettist Michael Moore. It’s from a 2004 concert in Nickelsdorf Austria. “Fietstour”is with saxophonist/clarinettist Toby Delius and pianist Cor Fuhler, and was recorded in Holland in 2001. I have also released two recent drum and saxophone recordings with John Butcher and Jack Wright, respectively. All of these can be found on my Bandcamp site and are ‘pay what you can’.

4. Is there another local musician whose work you’d like to give a shout out to? 

There are so many to choose from … Tony Wilson’s new record “This Way Through the Forest” is really great. It features a fantastic string section with Peggy Lee, Meredith Bates, John Kastelic, James Meger, and Josh Zubot, as well as the wonderful singing of Patsy Klein.

Buy a Record, Make a Difference 10: Mili Hong

Buy a Record, Make a Difference is a new series we have created to help local musicians generate income during COVID-19. It is based on the principle that we should support and reward the hard work local artists have already put into recordings, as it is an immensely difficult undertaking to be creating new material under current circumstances. There is currently a lot of emphasis on livestreaming and innovation in our industry, and while those things absolutely have their place, we think it’s also important to boost projects that have already been completed.

In each post, we’ll ask a local artist a series of the same questions, give them the opportunity to talk about recordings they’re proud of, and ask them to talk about other local musicians whose work they admire. It’s our hope that you’ll take the time to listen to & purchase the work of local artists, or at the very least share their work with others.

MILI HONG

Photo by Evan Shay
1. Who are you? 

My name is Mili Hong and I moved to Vancouver, BC from South Korea when I was 21 to study English and Jazz. I attended a Jazz Studies program at Capilano University where I met most of my friends/collaborators. About 2 years ago my husband/bassist, Eli Davidovici and I moved to Montreal.

2. Describe your music as best you can.

The music I play is very eclectic in nature, and even when I play in certain genres, like jazz, rock, or folk music, I tend to like to incorporate different aspects from different kinds of music I love into it, and the same goes for a lot of the musicians I find myself playing with. What speaks to me as a drummer is that no matter what music I play, there is some sort of underlying groove or pulse that pushes the momentum of the music, while also keeping it grounded (this even applies when playing “free” music or music that is “out of time”). What I also really love is when I can be playful and improvise with the musicians around me, because it can be very conversational in its own way, and is a really exciting way for me, as a musician, to discover what’s happening in the music.

3. What’s your latest recording (or a recording you’d like to promote)? Where can people get it?

Back in September, Eli’s project Shapes recorded an album in Montreal. It’s still in the process of post-production, but you can check out a previously released track online here.

We haven’t been able to play music with others in real physical space since COVID-19, so we created a Patreon page to provide drum/bass backing tracks of different songs and genres for others to enjoy and jam with virtually.

4. Is there another local musician whose work you’d like to give a shout out to? 

My good friend and colleague, Sara Kim, is an amazing singer in town, who has a few groups I know of that she is a part of. Omianan is one of the bands that she collaborates with, but the one I know best is her Watermill Project (which I’ve been lucky enough to be a part of), which blends songs from her native Korean folk music with jazz.