Tag: jazz

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.

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MARIN PATENAUDE

1. Who are you? 

I’m a small town woman with big feelings from a musical family brought up in Horsefly, BC. My dreams are visceral and detailed. I see eminent beauty in the world but can easily find something to be angry and hard-lined about. I’m fearless in the woods, and adore my community in Vancouver. There’s usually dirt under my fingernails. I’m a trained vocalist and a Jazz school dropout. I like motorcycles, horses, and interior decorating. I’m on the tall side of short and am decorated with questionable tattoos. This sounds like a dating profile – that’s what you were after, yes?

2. Describe your music as best you can.

Journey Folk/Confessional Folk –  Influenced by ’60s and 70’s Laurel Canyon days, Classic Country, all that Jazz, and a little Rock n Roll. Melodies and phrasing come to me with much less anxiety and woe than poetry. I can be obsessive over lyrics but the stories mean everything to me. I tend to write longer songs, finding it difficult to express everything I need to in a radio-friendly time. Bouncing between guitar and piano, they offer different impacts to my writing process and the music can be quite contrasting. At times I wonder how it will all come together cohesively, but it seems to when all is said and done. My precious band makes that happen. They know when to be simple and direct, and when to take risks and let the weirdness roll.

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

We just released my sophomore record Sight Unseen on Dallas Green’s Still Records. It’s on all the major platforms for streaming and you can order vinyl or CD’s here. Much of my life has been about trying to connect and aspiring for deep intimacy. I found that with this music, and the incredible relationships that were built around it by muses and musicians. This is an album of release, healing, and celebration. It’s tracked by the big feelings of an impassioned woman, stories from long ago, and fervor for current beliefs.

Revisiting the process, I realized how much of an emotional rollercoaster this record was to actually bring to completion. We scratched tunes, totally revamped others, I lost perspective, and found it again in deeply secure ways. The honesty and love that the players and engineers brought to ‘Sight Unseen’ made the process a beautiful experience when it could have been a mess. Prepared to put my second album out into the world in a half-assed way (like I did my first album), I was gobsmacked when I heard from Dallas Green in a blissful text message.

We grew close, but I grew closer to Karl Bareham as he mixed the album. When my friend Ben Rogers (Still Records’ first signing) called and told me of Karl’s passing it floored me. We were meant to see each other in a matter of days, but instead now found myself in the woods of my hometown with no one to mourn with, weeping on a bed of moss beside my dog. This record is like a bed of moss to me – a place where all my feelings are supported by nature, and is made up of intricate players that somehow ended up in the same beautiful place together.

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

Cole MF Schmidt. Not only one of my favourite humans, there’s not a chance I would be writing music without the anticipation and thrill of what he brings to it. An incredible and innovative guitar player, he’s an absolute pillar in the Vancouver music scene.  I can’t begin to express how grateful I am for his influence, dedication, and friendship. Check out his projects Sick Boss and Pugs and Crows (which I have the honour of singing with), and listen to his wicked guitar solo in the song “Gone Blind” from Sight Unseen. It makes me crazy how much I love it.

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.

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KEVIN ROMAIN

1. Who are you? 

I’m a drummer, improviser, composer, vintage drum and cymbal nerd, sometimes curator, oftentimes political agitator. These days you can find me at my studio making really good pourover coffee and practicing. I think I used to do other things but that must have been a long time ago cause I forget…

2. Describe your music as best you can.

I lead a jazz group of my own called Enemy Pigeon which plays my compositions, sort of in the mid 1960s post-bop vibe which is an era of music that’s been a big part of my journey. Really though as a musician I’m interested in anything that involves improvisation – Jazz and free improvised music definitely, but I also enjoy finding ways to be creative and spontaneous in highly structured settings where there’s not necessarily space for improvisation built in. I love so much different music and I’m really lucky to get to play with so many great musicians in a lot of different styles.

I’ve also been working for the last few years on developing a solo drumset performance practice that deals with a sort of complex polyrhythmic system I dreamed up. Western music has just barely scratched the surface of polyrhythm (more than one rhythm occurring simultaneously) as an improvisational tool. Musicians make time move, and we can manipulate it to make the listener feel a certain way. When we get into making the perception of time go forward at two or more speeds at the same time, there’s a huge amount of emotional impact. It’s a very moving, visceral experience, and this is something I’m trying to get a handle on and bring to everything I play whenever it serves the music.

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

A couple cool things came out in 2019 that I was a part of. Jazz guitarist and pianist Itamar Erez’s “Mi Alegria” (feat James Meger on bass and Francois Houle on clarinet) is a fun and eclectic record.

Only A Visitor released our third disc called “Technicolour Education” not long ago. I’ve been playing with this group for a bunch of years and this record (engineered and mixed by Dave Sikula) really captures the band (three vocalists, piano, bass and drums) in an accurate way. We call it “weird pop music.”

Simple City, a jazz-ish trio I co-lead with Arthur Smith (electric guitar) and Jeff Gammon (double bass) finally put out our first album this week. We wrote most of this music during a residency at the Banff Centre in 2018 and recorded it later that year at Afterlife Studios with the great John Rahm, who is probably the only engineer I’ll let record my drums ever again. The music is maybe somewhere along the lines of The Bad Plus or something, but even if you’re not into that you should give a listen because it sounds so good. No headphones or iso booths, just musicians in a room playing together into a billion dollars of vintage microphones going onto tape and an engineer who gets it behind the board. Dorky music nerd stuff, yeah, but as recorded music is devalued more and more, it’s nice to be reminded that the actual recording of the music can still be an inspiring and elevating experience.

Get the whole record here, and check out the in-studio live vid here:

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

Robyn Jacob (pianist and bandleader for Only A Visitor) is a super prolific and unique composer and everything she’s involved with is fantastic. Same for harpist and composer Elisa Thorn (she was featured on this interview series a few weeks back, check it out). The two of them teamed up as an acoustic duo called The Giving Shapes. Their debut record “Earth Leaps Up” (recorded and mixed by Chris Gestrin) came out last month and it strikes a balance that’s soothing, groovy and accessible as well as compositionally intricate and emotionally challenging. Definitely worth a few listens.

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.

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ANITA ECCLESTON

1. Who are you? 

I am a jazz vocalist, trumpeter, bandleader, songwriter and educator. After my jazz studies at McGill, I returned to BC to my hometown of Kamloops, where I further honed my craft and began cultivating repertoire before moving to Vancouver in 2011.

In addition to my solo jazz project, I’ve been fortunate enough over the years to play in a wide array of ensembles. From classical orchestras, to rock bands, my trumpet has helped me find a home in so many diverse musical scenarios. Most recently I’ve been playing with an all-female Mariachi band (Las Estrellas de Vancouver). 

My hobbies are hanging out with my bearded dragon, gardening, listening to music, podcasts, and reading. 

2. Describe your music as best you can.

I love performing jazz in traditional ways, although I tend to write more eclectic music. The music I consume is wide ranging so my performances and recordings reflect this diversity, while retaining the pulse of jazz throughout. My voice, whether singing or playing is imbued with the influences I’ve drawn from, most especially Amy Winehouse, Miles Davis, Chet Baker and Billie Holiday. 

When hearing me play live you can expect a carefully crafted show mixing original material with choice covers from the jazz canon, and many genres like soul, funk, blues and pop. 

I am currently writing music for both my solo project as well as for Girl A Girl B, formed last summer with my twin sister, oboist Elizabeth Eccleston and cellist Doug Gorkoff. This collaboration has led us to create unique arrangements of 80’s, 90’s and 2000’s pop songs, wrapped up in twin vocal harmonies and electric ukulele.   

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

I made an album of jazz standards called More Trumpet. I wanted to create a sweet straight ahead record that people could enjoy over dinner or drinks, in the garden or in the car. My trio brings together Graham Clark on upright bass, guitarist and vocalist Andrew R. Smith (Sweetpea Swing Band), and guesting on several tracks, Doug Gorkoff (Black Dog String Quartet) on cello. 

The title was kind of a joke at first. I am often cheering “MORE TRUMPET!” at concerts, believing everybody needs a little more trumpet in their lives. It still seemed apt after we finished recording, especially since this album features more trumpet than my previous offerings, so we kept it. 

My first full length release is an original album called So It Goes. It is a collection of songs written over the course of 10 years and released in 2014. The album features 21 musicians over 11 tracks — a patchwork quilt produced while cutting my teeth at songwriting and collaborating. 

More Trumpet and So It Goes are available for digital download or on CD on my website as well as on all online platforms (Spotify, Amazon, Apple Music).

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

Here’s a whole hearted shoutout to my friend Sam Davidson, an incredible composer, clarinetist and EWI (Electronic Wind Instrument) player. He plays an integral role with the band Brasstronaut, and his solo project is called Skim Milk, where he produces original instrumental music using sound samples, keyboards and even his bass clarinet. I’d call it “ambient lounge contemplative”. His music can be found here on bandcamp.