NOW Orchestra Blog

Viviane Houle and Stefan Smulovitz’ new CD “la belle et la bête”

Coat Cooke — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 17:46:21 -0500

Last night @ the Jazz Cellar the penultimate show of our season featured the CD release of NOW Orchestra’s second disc, “la belle et la bête”.
It was an exciting night of music. It was the best performance, hands down, of this duo ever. In the process of getting this CD together for release, as well as some important performances (including playing at the Festival de Musique Actuelle in Victoriaville, Québec) they have really raised their game to a new level. Their focus, growing vocabulary and compositional sophistication was really a joy to be a part of. As a longtime fan of the two, it makes me really happy to see that. They really displayed some beautiful telepathic sonic dancing together.
They were also fortunate to be joined by one of Canada’s great dancers, Barbara Bourget. Barbara is such a powerful improvisor and collaborator, that it really is a pleasure to watch her anytime she performs. She can adapt to anything, including moving in a room that is not really meant for dance. She made it hers, anyway.
The evening was also augmented by a wonderful spoken word piece written and performed by Stewart Brinton bringing the moment to a beautiful multi-media quartet.
I hope you can make it out to our last show of the season featuring The Coat Cooke trio, with Coat on saxophone, Clyde Reed on bass and Kenton Loewen on drums.
They will also be joined for part of the evening by some guests in town for the jazz festival.
The show starts at 8:30 pm @ the Jazz Cellar (3611 West Broadway).
$5.00 cover/no minimum.
Hope you can make it out.

Gord Grdina's Haram @ The Jazz Cellar

Coat Cooke — Tue, 27 May 2008 17:13:55 -0500

Next Monday, June 2nd, Gord Grdina's band Haram will take to the bandstand.

The group will feature Gord Grdina/oud, LIam MacDonald/riq+percussion, Dan Gaucher/drums+electronics, Jesse Zubot/violin, Tommy Babin/bass, Chris Kelly/saxophone.

They will explore the music of Arabic masters Jamil Bey, Abdel Waham and Um Kalthum manically interpreted through the Vancouver Improv scene.

This is a superb group of musicians and will no doubt be a really rousing evening of music.

Cover is $5 and no minimum.

Yet another great NOW Production @ The Cellar

3611 West Broadway

8:30 pm start.

East Van Jazz Orchestra this Saturday

Coat Cooke — Fri, 23 May 2008 09:02:58 -0500

East Van Jazz Orchestra this Saturday: Just had the last rehearsal yesterday. Check it out.

East Van Jazz Orchestra this Saturday

Coat Cooke — Tue, 20 May 2008 20:40:30 -0500

I think this is going to be a really good show.

I want to support the efforts of Brad Muirhead and Jared Burrows in self-producing this event (with a little invaluable help from

Community College.

East Van Jazz Orchestra
Saturday, May 24, 8pm
Vancouver Community College Auditorium
1155 E. Broadway (at Glen)
Tickets $15
To reserve seats call 604-294-3714
or email crassbrutes@telus.net
Join some of the city's finest jazz veterans and young lions in an
exciting concert of new works by Brad Muirhead and Jared Burrows.
Featuring the amazing musical talents of:
Stan Taylor, Tommy Babin, Chad Makela, Dave Branter, Brad Muirhead, Jared
Burrows, John Korsrud, Tim Barrett, Dennis Esson, Coat Cooke, Norm Quinn,
Kevin Lee, Greg Farrugia, Bryan Davies, Tim Ting, John Paton
To learn more about EVJO and hear some music, please visit:
www.myspace.com/eastvanjazzorchestra
Sponsored by VCC School of Music. Admission is FREE for VCC music students

Jeff Younger's Sandbox @ The Cellar

Coat Cooke — Fri, 16 May 2008 12:39:58 -0500

This past Monday at the Cellar Jazz Club, Jeff Younger’s Sandbox was featured.
The band is a wonderful and extremely musical group of musicians playing improvisations and pieces written by the band leader. The band has really developed and matured over the last year and a half that I’ve heard them play. They have a wonderful sense of playfulness, focus, kick-ass intent and determination that is a pleasure to witness. The band is a tremendous unit, but it is the individuals that make it so special.
First of all, you have to have a strong rhythm section, and in this group you a have Dave Chokroun on bass and Ben Wilson on drums. Dave is a remarkable player. His vocabulary and inventiveness in his arco playing is truly a delight. No other bass player that I’ve heard in Vancouver is playing arco with such a hunger to make interesting sounds…and is succeeding. I love his harmonic work. He also listens, plays with real commitment and displys a wonderful sense of humour.
The drummer Ben Wilson is a multi-instrumentalist that has decided to focus on one instrument, the drum kit. Ben has the composer’s wonderful sense of story telling. In his responses, and is a rapt listener.
Jeff Younger, the guitarist-sound-maker composer, noise freak, was in fine form on Monday. With his eyes closed he would lean into his lines, chords, sounds and conduct the band with authority and abandon. He never sounded better.
Kristian Naso plays a wonderful trumpet, plain and simple. I have always liked his sound, harmonic sense, beautiful dynamics and fearlessness in his choices of when and what to play.
Substituting for tenor saxophonist Darren Williams (who’s probably a dad by now – congratulations Darren), was Jonathan Wilcke. Jonathan, who is usually an alto player, was playing tenor on this night. Jonathan is a writer/poet as a well as a really creative musician. I really like that he brings a wonderful sense of imagination to his saxophonic vocabulary, including his bizarre flutter tongue technique and his vocalization through his horn (that keeps you guessing what’s coming next).
This night really was really quite a magical one. I look forward to the CD that they have coming out in the fall.
Jeff Younger blasting away

Lots of great music!

Coat Cooke — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 15:23:24 -0500

Wow! When it rains it pours.

There is some great music to check out...unfortunately it's all tonight.

Although not improvised music, at the Commodore there is a benefit of great music for Scott Harding who was badly hurt in a hit and run accident in NYC. He has no health insurance. He is a musician, artist and friend. 100% of the proceeds go to help him. Do go and enjoy the music and support Scott.

There is also a great show at the Ironworks tonight featuring Talking Pictures (Ron Samworth, Peggy Lee, Dylan van der Schyff) with the Unexpected(with Special Guests from Montreal drummer Pierre Tanguay and guitarist Bernard Falaise.

Another show that's sure to be a knockout is the Ad Hoc Ensemble at the Western Front. The Ad Hoc Ensemble is a rare mix of six adventurous improvising musicians coming together from places across the nation for a five-city tour: Daniel Oore from Halifax on saxophone and abs constructions, Jesse Zubot from Vancouver on violin, Jean-Felix Mailloux-Desjardins from Montréal on bass, Guillaume Bourque from Montréal on clarinet, Jean Martin from Toronto on drums, and Christine Duncan from Toronto on vocals.

ALSO...

On Monday April 28th at the Jazz Cellar, NOW presents Bug's Black Blood.

3611 West Broadway

8:30 pm

Cover $5

This is a thirteen piece creative music ensemble that has it all cool new compositions by Dave Chokroun and Joel Lower, great improvising, sensitive playing and plenty of power as well.

This version of the band features:

Karen Oliver/violin, Soressa Gardner/voice, Gordon Bertram/reeds, Shane Krause/reeds, Coat Cooke/reeds, Blythe Polreis/trombone, Dave Todd/trumpet, Joe Rzemieniak/trumpet, Wayne Stewart/piano and keyboards, Craig Townsend/guitar, Michael Alleyne/bass, Dave Chokroun/bass and Joel Lower/drums.

Hope you make it out.

Stitching Unstitching - April 1, 2008

Coat Cooke — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 13:31:04 -0500

I managed to get to the Stitching Unstitching show last night at the Casa del Artista at 150 East 3rd Avenue.

Russell Sholberg, Jeff Younger and Stephen Lyons have been making this wonderful series happen for quite a while now. It seems to happen the first Tuesday in each month. It's really worth checking out.

Last night Jeff Younger played a short set of "devil's loops", with Jeff hunched over his guitar and pedals cranking out some great music. Jeff is doing a lot of projects and is worth the trip to hear him, whether it's his Sandbox project, playing solo, or any number of bands that he plays with. A really creative fellow. Check out his website at http://www.jeffyounger.net

The second set featured the Sukha Trio + 1 with Daniel Heila - flute/video, Clyde Reed - bass, Colin MacDonald - saxophones, and Jared Burrows - guitar. This quartet confures a pretty atmospheric space for the most part, which worked well with the video imagery that Daneil Heila presented. It was mostly improvised with some grooves interspersed that everyone locked into very beautifully. Every time I see them, they present another facet to their character.

You can check them out at www.myspace.com/sukhatrio

Also go to www.danielheila.com

Bug's Black Blood

Coat Cooke — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 13:30:19 -0500

Had a great rehearsal with the band Bug’s Black Blood last night.
It’s the first of five before a couple of gig’s: Monday, April 28th (8:30 pm) at the Cellar Jazz Club, and the other at the 1067 Granville St. loft on May 2nd (10pm).
Wonderful to play with Karen Oliver, Dave Chokroun, Joel Lower, Tim Sars, Wayne Stewart, Blythe Polreis, Craig Townsend, Joe Rzemeniak, and Dave Todd.
We’ll be adding Soressa Gardener, Gordon Bertram, Michael Alleyne and maybe a few others.
For the shows, we’ll be improvising, as well as playing music by George Lewis, Oliver, Lake, Ron Samworth, Dave Chokroun, Michael Alleyne, and Coat Cooke.

Be sure to check it out.

Bruce Freedman and his African Groove Band

Coat Cooke — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 16:21:13 -0500

It was a great night at the Cellar last night.
The Bruce Freedman African Groove Band held centre stage for two lyrical grooving sets of improv. The band consisted of two drummers: Russell Shumsky on African drums, Dan Gaucher on kit drums, two bass players: Tommy Babin and Dave Chokroun, and Tyson Naylor on accordian and Bruce Freedman on soprano sax.

The music consisted of simple, beautiful melodies and arrangements that allowed for interplay in those involved in the various orchestrations that Bruce had laid out for the listerner. It was great to hear Russell Shumsky in this setting. He was extremely expressive and obviously enjoying the room there was in the music to make it breathe and vibrate. I especially loved how dynamic the band was. It was really evocative of acoustic African music with the woody sound of the acoustic basses and the beautifully timbrous sound of the drums. The accordian and soprano often doubled or harmonized the melodies lending an other worldly sound that you don’t often hear.
My friend Francis Yehoun, recently back from visiting his home in Ghana, said that when he closed his eyes it reminded him of being a young boy back at home. He said that the melodies and grooves were really reminiscent of music that he grew up with.

It was wonderful to have a good turnout too. There’s nothing like a room full of appreciative people to make a band play its heart out.

Check out upcoming shows at www.noworchestra.com/events

March 10, 2008

Coat Cooke — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 18:03:19 -0500

Here it is March and I’m posting to my blog for the first time this year.
I hope to have it going on a little more frequently.

I got a lot of good feedback on our podcasts on the site here. I hope to have more interviews coming Vancouver improvisers. If anyone has anyone that they’d like to see interviewed, drop a line.

I went to the New Forms Festival this past Friday. Music by six or seven DJs.
The highlight of the night for me was the visuals done by Krista Lomax.
If you get a chance to see her work check it out. She is extraordinarily talented.

On February 23rd caught the last night of the Marginalia, revisioning Roy Kiyooka.
It was Vancouver New Music’s multi-media production that they put on with the Alcan award money that they received. The B.C. composers for the event (Jocelyn Morlock, Stefan Smulovitz, Stefan Udell and Hildegard Westerkamp) wrote finely crafted work that was performed by an amazing ensemble (especially outstanding for me were Rebecca Whitling and Peggy Lee). The real high point in the night for me was the set that the performers were placed within. It was what really made the evening Kiyooka-esque.
There were hundreds of white gloves hung from the ceiling and lit with shifting hues of blue, red and amber. Surrounding the perimeter of the players was a few tons of rocks with video moniters of rocks in a streambed. Extremely west coast.
The sets were done by the brilliant designer Hanif Janmohamed.
On the whole it felt like quite a satisfying effort.

Keep an eye on the shows that we’re producing on Monday nights at the Cellar.
One of the highlights of the year so far has been the Aeroplane Trio with JP Carter, Russell Sholberg and Skye Brooks. A great show. Check out Russell’s playing. He’s sounding really strong and playing so creatively.