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| THE NEW ORCHESTRA WORKSHOP 25TH ANNIVERSARY | ||||||||||||||
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HUM OVER THE HORIZON: March 1976 at the Western Front is the beginning of my musical association with Vancouver. A concert tour of 3 From the CCMC (Canadian Creative Music Collective), with Michael Snow and Larry Dubin. Also a personal introduction to many fine local players, some who would later become compatriots in the art of improvised music. My first trip out west had been in 1970, a time still firmly embedded in my memory. My family all stayed with Al Neil out in Deep Cove and were introduced to the local life including a party with the then doctor of Greenpeace and a potlatch organized by Leonard George, son of Dan George the tribal chief of the Salish Band in Burrard Inlet. Heady times; politics filling our everyday lives, Paul Spong out there on the mud flats recording the sound/singing of whales, ethnic rebellion — the yellow peril still not erased from many people's minds. An introduction to my unknown future.
Throughout the seventies and eighties the visits became a regular occurrence, opening up theopportunities to expand my music, something that was to us a Toronto-centric downtown phenomenon. There was little idea, with few exceptions, that anything happened outside of Toronto, almost no information regarding happenings in other centres in Canada; although there were already major improvisers in place in several other cities. The doyen of Vancouver improvisers was Al Neil, but by the time of my involvement a whole new generation was in action, in particular Paul Cram, Paul Plimley, Lisle Ellis, Gregg Simpson and Ralph Eppel collectively known as the New Orchestra Quintet who were organizing, alongside presenters like Brian Nation and Ken Pickering, what would eventually become the New Orchestra Workshop (NOW). Their energy, enthusiasm and determination created an awareness of the new ideas that were spawning throughout the world. Wonderful events including participating in the early orchestras, concerts with my own ensemble with violinist David Prentice and bassist David Lee, German trombonist Gunter Christmann, and once a trio of saxophones with myself, Joe McPhee and Vinny Golia. It was also a time of parallel galleries, art centres spread across the country, who co-operated in the presentation of original ideas, and allowed the gospel of creativity to spread. Often for the first time presenting original and unusual Canadian music, poetry, video, multi-media performances in small towns and rural communities. Western Front, which opened in 1973, was our home-away-from-home in Vancouver. The title of this article comes from a 1981 recording of saxophonist/composer Paul Cram entitled Blue Tales In Time, and is a composition inspired by the beginning of our long friendship. A description illustrating the separation a certain isolated uniqueness that the Rockies created for British Columbian artists relative to the rest of the country. A society more connected in many ways to the Far East and the American west coast. ORCHESTRAS: The very idea of forming an orchestra is daunting. To compose and arrange the music, organize musicians, rehearse, produce concerts, tours and recordings, an almost impossible dream. But that would appear to have been Paul Cram's destiny. He was born in Victoria, British Columbia, and by his teens was active in a variety of music. He moved to Vancouver in 1960 and soon became an integral member of that city's burgeoning avant garde scene, a scene that has ceaselessly expanded into what it is today. As the Paul Cram trio with bassist Lisle Ellis and drummer Gregg Simpson, he went on the road in the fall of 1982 and after 5 months of playing between Toronto and Montreal, with occasional stop-offs at the Banff Centre where he work-shopped with Sam Rivers, Dave Holland, Karl Berger and Frederic Rzewski, settled in Toronto in February of 1983. Then in 1989 he moved on to Halifax, Nova Scotia, where he still resides with his partner, writer/director Mary Vingoe and their two daughters. In his six years in Toronto he contributed greatly to the exuberant creative music milieu that existed there, playing often with those of us who were attempting to develop new concepts; often mixing music with silent Dada film, poetry, dance: multi-media performance. In this period his real love, writing and composing, came to the fore, leading various small jazz influenced groups, the Solar System Saxophone Quartet, the Paul Cram Orchestra and Hemispheres. Once a collaborative production with Tom Walsh, Victor Bateman and Nic Gotham of Michael Ondaatje's "the man with seven toes", that included two opera singers. While there he recorded his first orchestra recording, Beyond Benghazi, with the great American saxophonist Julius Hemphill as the featured soloist. Since arriving in Halifax he has utilized his considerable talents in many areas including the Upstream Ensemble (a CD titled Open Waters — Undercurrent 001) and Orchestra (premiering Barry Guy's new composition Nasca Lines), and is now the artistic director of the Upstream Music Association. He has been commissioned to write original music for theatre, television, film and radio, and fulfilled his ultimate dream of creating his own orchestra. And now to his new CD.
I was fortunate enough to be in attendance at the 2000 edition of F.I.M.A.V. (Festival International Musique Actuelle Victoriaville), and still remember Don Palmer's swinging saxophone leading the orchestra into the babble chat confusion of Campin' Out, immediately illustrating the character of Paul Cram's orchestral writing. A writing style filled with textural variety, the sounding results often linked to the titles themselves; his writing being theatrical, almost cinematic. Not surprising really considering his history with theatre, films and television. Then there is the element of humour, readily apparent in the other composition from this event, Trouble in Paradise. The two pieces from the Music Gallery Life Of Crime and Zebra Zone, naturally have a different recorded sound, more contained, but the orchestra's quality remains intact, its personality consistent. Although there is considerable space allocated to jazz inspired solos, including his own insistent burry tenor, it is the orchestral music as a whole that is the most important focus, the internal movement that carries it from one drama to the next, which in spite of it all, as modern or as abstract as it gets, the orchestra cannot help but swing. The other piece, Kafka's Chair, is a gem quite outside of the jazz idea and more inclined toward contemporary composition: ironic that this should be recorded at the most conventional of the three venues. Perhaps it is the use of cello, clarinet and tubular bells invoking the atmosphere contained in Kafka's writing which he himself regarded as a means of redemption and a form of prayer. So Paul Cram has found his home, a garden in which to plant only the flowers he loves, a place in which to be happy and creatively fulfilled. You should join him. THE NOW ORCHESTRA: A quarter century ago, when bassist Lisle Ellis spearheaded the crystallization of the New Orchestra Workshop, who could have imagined that it would become one of the most important music organisations in Canada? That from this small beginning would come a vibrant and original Vancouver music scene. Of the original members, four; pianist Paul Plimley, bassist Clyde Reed, saxophonist Coat Cooke and trombonist Ralph Eppel, are still active participants in the NOW Orchestra. Paul Cram, whose history you already know, and Lisle Ellis, have moved on to other musical climes. Drummer Gregg Simpson, who was also a youthful musical partner of Al Neil, has turned to his other love of abstract painting, with successful shows in various parts of Canada and Europe (with an upcoming show in Geneva), and flautist Don Druick has become a playwright of some repute. That a quality orchestra has developed from this history would have been ample, would have been a strong enough statement of the society's success. But that was not their sole intention. They were on a mission larger than self, a mission to educate and enlarge the awareness of listeners and musicians alike. With this intention they commissioned and recorded original works, collaborated on projects with an international array of composers and improvisers, and perhaps most importantly, organised community workshops that included disciplines other than music in the areas of dance, theatre, video and film. Since the formation of the NOW Orchestra by Coat Cooke in 1987, to be later co-directed with guitarist Ron Samworth (1992), the collaborators have included Marilyn Crispell, Koch/Schütz/Studer, Paul Smoker/Phil Haynes, Butch Morris, Vinny Golia, Paul Cram, Leo Smith, and the three composers under observation: Barry Guy, René Lussier and George Lewis.
It's about now that I start to feel the personal association I have with much of this music and most of its players; a feeling of family, of collaboration. There are many signals connecting the intimacy of it all quite apart from close personal relationships; a cover art by Eric Metcalfe, the director of Western Front, a photograph by Laurence Svirchev, a liner note or photograph by yours truly, a dedicated tune title… artists in accordance. British composer/bassist extraordinaire Barry Guy has been a frequent visitor to Vancouver, performing solo, in trio with Evan Parker and Paul Lytton, with the marvellous London Jazz Composers Orchestra (LJCO), and most recently with his New Orchestra. A musician dedicated to his art to such a degree that to mount the last tour of his orchestra he sold one of his beloved basses so that his compositions in orchestral form could be realized. Eight years ago he was to be the first of the invited guests of NOW to utilise their orchestra to perform two of his pieces; Study and Witch Gong Game 11/10. This event, as is often the case with NOW, was not simply a recording session but rather a complete event with the music being work-shopped at Western Front, a concert at the sadly missed Glass Slipper and back to the Front for the recording. So the final captured moment does not belong alone to Barry Guy, or painter Alan Davie who inspired the score, or the members of NOW, but rather a culmination of their multiple histories achieving a pinnacle. For the members of NOW this is a special moment reached, a special point in an ongoing process. A process that has been developing for all the years since 1977. This is a wondrous, spirited music, and although it carries the mark of Barry Guy upon it, the players, because of their expansive and intimate musical knowledge of each other, have given the composer unique renditions of his music. Even for them, with so much gone before, this was a remarkable project. Neither of these compositions had been previously recorded, although Study was heard as a performance in Vancouver by the LJCO on October 4th, 1992. Perhaps this was when the seed for this project was sown. Likely I would say. That same December the Now Orchestra was re-established. Study is what it is; just that. Of the live performance I have already written "an oscillating drone that enlarged to a complete orchestra in a slow hymn-like liturgy. A meditation perhaps. Subtle cloistered hues . . . Whispers around hidden corners of Gothic, then to the great pipe organ that an orchestra can be." And still all this remains; a different orchestra, another hue, the whispers around other corners, but Study, as a composition intact. Witch Gong Game 11/10 however, was the main focus of the project. This composition is even more personal for this orchestra, than the other. A specific piece composed for them, and built upon the details of their musical preferences. A workshop that evolved into a superb orchestra, with this a document of its success. Witch Gong Game 11/10 is the third in a series of compositions that reflect the painting of Scottish painter Alan Davie. The first Bird Gong Game, was written for Alan Davie himself, the second, Witch Gong Game, for the ROVA Saxophone Quartet. The week of rehearsals was an education in the organisation of sound, developing from the clutter of misunderstanding, through the identifying of sections, to the final brilliant whole. The unusual score, so visually strong as art itself, is also a very special element. A capsulated description by Barry Guy reads thus: Witch Gong Game 11/10 utilises various "signs" that feature in many of Alan Davie's paintings. The signs jump ship from the painting to a new life, designating musical archetypes. These are planned to give an array of possibilities and allow the director to layer material and set up various polyphonics as well as leaving open spaces for improvisation. Crucially, the score presents musical possibilities on one "landscape" page, obviating the need for page turns as in a conventional score". And so there you have it, the first recording of the NOW Orchestra. Superb!
There is 50 degrees of separation — longitudinally and culturally — between the NOW Orchestra and composer/guitarist René Lussier. With the possible exception of the splinter groups Talking Pictures and Garbo's Hat the musical sensibility of the members of NOW is inclined toward jazz form, although, as is always apparent of the four CDs under observation, their musicianship and experience is of such a high standard as to be able to work in diverse situations comfortably and with conviction. With the challenge of unfamiliar terrain the orchestra rises to the needs of the guest composer, and in this case one quite removed from the standard jazz ideology, one with a history that reflects the unique culture of the province of Quebec. Although Canada may be thought of by foreigners as having a generic personality, there are many divergent perspectives based on regional cultural, industrial and geographic characteristics. British Columbia being a coastal community differs radically from that of the Prairies; Southern Ontario tends towards a modern, hip, big city image; Cape Breton persists in the old world connection — and then there is of course Newfoundland. Quebec, if one were to consider the information supplied by the mass media as reality, would be thought of as the home of bikers, drug lords, organised crime, and political madmen, and only on rare occasions, usually based in marketable commodities, would information pertaining to the theatre, dance, film and music be available information. The expression "a distinct society" has been attached to this province, and although all the provinces have distinguishing qualities, Quebec, and in particular the generation of René Lussier and his compatriots, author a style of music unique in Canada and quite likely internationally. Lussier's sound palette contains an assortment of experience ranging from his origins in rock music — not that unusual for a guitar player of his generation (born in 1957 in Montreal) —, a string ensemble devoted to French Canadian reels and waltzes and original music based in the same tradition, a major factor in his now developed system, which is commonly referred to as "musique actuelle". His partnership with saxophonist Jean Derome in a multi-instrumental duo which was eventually known as Les Granules, had a penchant for absurdist theatrical, political, sociological and topical satire. Sonic terrorists perhaps! By the nineties he was utilising his talent, often in collaboration with Derome, André Duchesne and clarinetist Robert M. Lepage creating film scores, which to date total three dozen or more. All this he brought to the NOW orchestra project. Lussier has a tendency to play on words, and the composition titles alone, when thought of as a story in English translation emerge as surrealistic imaginings. Perhaps Albert Camus and Samuel Beckett taking a stroll through a neighbourhood knowing it to be not entirely as it seems, their feet in the air being eaten by pigs, this action questioned by Tahani, or so it is reported in the newspapers. Continuing under a bridge to discover butterflies and sheep, knowing that nothing is easy. Once again, as with Witch Gong Game 11/10, these 15 pieces were composed specifically for the orchestra, and as one would expect from Lussier, encompass a broad spectrum of sensibilities. Workshopped and premiered at the Glass Slipper shortly before the recording, the music takes on the personality of a joyous gathering, the ideological eclecticism harnessed just enough to create an ongoing and movable suite. The musical journey begins with a slightly urgent and somewhat funky shuffle-beat scattered into individual solo pockets, occasionally threatening with disagreement; a casual loping vamp with unsettled interruptions evolving as a blues drenched song, always on the move, never stuck in a narrow point-of-view. Often the dialogues between instrumentalists lean toward vocal inclinations, squiggly subtle figures slipping through their fingers, enclosed with dramatic theatrical carnival fanfares. In among this consolidated orchestral music there are numerous passionate solo moments, and one in particular that appears as though the halfway point. A gorgeous miniature solo cello feature. The journey concludes with a abstracted jocular farewell — tinged with a certain sadness — fading into silence. A superb collaboration. René Lussier and the NOW Orchestra, being pleased with the result, went on to present this program on two more occasions: The 1995 Festival International de Musique Actuelle du Victoriaville (the habitat of Les Disques VICTO), and later that summer at the Vancouver Jazz Festival. An Aside: For reasons not entirely unknown this project inspired me to re-listen to the recording of Carla Bley's — Escalator Over The Hill.
The third CD in this series varies in a number of ways; a larger and slightly different personnel, composers from within the past and present orchestral community, and the addition of three guests. I have in the past thought that NOW was in certain ways, a repertory orchestra, often inspired by the input of composers of stature, but hearing them in performance at the 2002 Vancouver Jazz Festival with pianist Marilyn Crispell playing an all improvised concert, indicated that my thoughts are now incorrect. However this music from five years ago, the three long pieces, each in excess of 20 minutes, is not entirely cohesive. Paul Cram's composition Tyrany of Interest has his signature sound as previously explained. Often theatrical, urgent with a slightly frantic edge, utilising humourous chaos that invariably resolves. Trains and train stations pop into my mind, perhaps from the clickety-clack rhythmic structure. He describes the origin of this composition thus: "Several years ago I was sitting with another NOW cohort, Lisle Ellis, in Parrsboro, Nova Scotia with the Bay of Fundy stretching out beneath our feet. Someone said 'that's interesting' about something or other, and I remember Lisle saying, 'I guess I'm not so interested in interesting anymore'. There began for me a long meditation on the nature of interest and the various ways we are manipulated and distracted from investigating ourselves. The piece is an installment from that train of thought". Coat Cooke and Ron Samworth are old buddies and have frequently performed together outside of the NOW Orchestra, and have a shared interest in music for dance, especially with Vancouver's EDAM (Experimental Dance and Music). Coat has performed with Lunar Adventures, Electroika, Coat Cooke and the Evolution, the Stellar Saxophone Quartet, and his own quintet, and Ron is a founder member of the marvellous quartet Talking Pictures and is a much in demand guitarist. Cooke's composition WOWWOW is a five section piece dedicated to Duke Ellington, and much of it is reminiscent of the master's voicing. Opening with Bill Clark wow-wowing shades of Cootie it progresses through a plaintive chamber music like elegy, the cello carrying the melody, on to a drum/trombone duet that opens up the energy of the orchestra into a full force swinging affair featuring an extended soprano feature. The next section is of less interest when the vocal dog-like howling changes to a poem proclaiming their connected brotherhoods. Sorry Kate! And finally fades with a funky groove handled by the wow-wow guitar. Samworth's contribution, The Yellow Sound, is a slow shifting dramatic landscape, described by Ron as: " . . . a loose interpretation of a text from the Blaue Reiter Almanac (1912), by visionary Russian artist Wassily Kandinsky, whose writings on the aesthetics of art, the problems of form, and the integration of universal elements i.e.; the correlation of colour and sound, have been an inspiration to me". The song/text from Kate Hammett-Vaughan, for some obscure reason, brought to mind Archie Shepp's Malcolm Semper Malcolm. The sombre and often stately orchestral writing, is in the form of seven vignettes transitioning successfully from one to the other with squirrly whispered shared secrets often with a high pitched abstract density. A sci-fi enthusiast I would say, and certainly more in the realm of contemporary composed music than jazz. Quite my favourite track. As I continue to write this overview, NOW has returned from a successful performance at the 2002 Chicago Jazz Festival. A project under the guidance of trombonist/composer George Lewis. The guests this time were saxophonists Roscoe Mitchell and Fred Anderson, bassoonist James Johnson and trumpeter Bill Brimfield. One more step into the future.
Once again a very personal connection to this music. George Lewis has been an important part of my life since the spring of 1975 when I first met him while he was participating in a project organised by Roscoe Mitchell at Michigan State University. A collaboration between the East Lansing based Creative Arts Collective (CAC) and the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM). Although George had been a member of the AACM since 1971, when he was only nineteen years old, this was the first time I had ever heard of him or heard him play. He came as a fully formed trombonist complete with outstanding technique, and an unusual sense of humour. Apart from baritone saxophonist Pepper Adams, George was the only American that I knew personally who was enamoured by the absurdity of the Goon Show, a weekly English radio show that had enriched our lives as students. It ran on BBC Radio from 1951 to 1960 and starred Spike Milligan, Peter Sellers and Harry Secombe. Milligan who wrote most of the material, introduced an unusual collection of characters and stories to the airwaves, and his use of sound effects was revolutionary. Not so surprising, in retrospect, that George would be interested in such a sound source. That same October (1975) we presented the Roscoe Mitchell Quartet at A Space in Toronto, and from that came the first recording of George Lewis (Roscoe Mitchell Quartet - Sackville SKCD2-2009). The quartet was completed by Muhal Richard Abrams and Spencer Barefield, both also participants in the spring project. A year later I produced George Lewis' first recording under his own name (The Solo Trombone Record - Sackville SKCD2-3012). Unknown to me, at our first meeting, he was already working on the Shadowgraph Series, some of which he had work-shopped with the AACM under the guidance of his teacher Muhal Richard Abrams, and later, in 1976, was recorded by the Norddeutsche Rundfunk Big Band. A sextet version of Shadowgraph 5 was released in 1977 on Shadowgraph (Black Saint). Here we hear four from that series, plus two other compositions, by a superb sixteen piece orchestra. His history with orchestras is far reaching; from his origins with the AACM, through the traditionalism of Count Basie, to Anthony Braxton's Creative Music Orchestra and the ICP Orchestra under the direction of Misha Mengelberg, he has honed his compositional art to a remarkable level. George Lewis now serves as Professor of Music in the Critical Studies/Experimental Practices area at the University of California, San Diego. The five pieces contained on this CD vary in length from 7 to 15 minutes, and there are moments when George Lewis' apprenticeship appears as historical relevance, suggesting lessons remembered. An occasional touch of Braxton, or is that AACMing? Even a notion of George Russell is in the air. Hello/Goodbye. So off we go with a roar, the riff based melody swinging like the clappers — George Lewis leading the way with a vigorous trombone solo — only to drop abruptly into a colouristic guitar-led, somewhat spooky aural-scape which evolves into a economical drum solo building back into the full bodied orchestral voicings. Then a trumpet feature. The soloists bracketed by surprisingly traditional arrangements. The four Shadowgraph pieces follow in order (1, 2, 3 & 5) and illustrate the breadth of orchestra composition George imagines. The first three, from 1975, illustrate the strength of NOW, both as collective and creative original individuals. The spacious palette contained within the writing allows, much in the way Duke Ellington did with his musicians, the personalities of each of them to flourish. Shadowgraph 1 opens slow and thoughtful, gradually opening up the tempo, gathering strength to a climatic elephantine bellow. Shadowgraph 2 takes on the character of mysterious contemporary concert music with slow sections of colouristic delicacy including the whispered spoken words - "I can almost see the sky, the walls seem to disappear". Shadowgraph 3. By now it is apparent that a system is evolving that allows all the members of NOW, in one way or another to be highlighted; alone, in duet, as a trio, or, and unlike the conventional big band method that features a soloist as the primary voice, they are incorporated in the overall concept, often with unexpected colours bursting forth. Building a tension/release correlation utilising a variety of combinations. Shadowgraph 5 takes on another form that feels very much like conduction, with smaller combinations moving in and out of a gently flowing drama; a continuous series of miniatures. The finale, Smashing Clusters, pays homage to the great Harlem stride pianists and swings with a tilted rhythm splattered by individual off kilter statements. A superb example of contemporary jazz-based orchestra music, setting another new standard for the NOW Orchestra. In conclusion I add the following statement by George Lewis: I regard the NOW Orchestra as one of the finest large creative ensembles active in the last twenty years. The combination of high levels of individual creativity and virtuosity with a strong sense of collectivitey is a rare and treasured combination that the NOW Orchestra manifests very strongly. As with most improvised music, both compositional and improvisative processes are based in the articulation of community. What excites me about the New Orchestra Workshop is not only the innovative stance and creative diversity of its members, but also their commitment to community service, a trait shared with the AACM. My heart felt gratitude goes to the musicians of the NOW Orchestra, whose intelligence, patience, sacrifice, insight and great good humour were so essential to making this project a reality. To celebrate the New Orchestra Workshop's 25th Anniversary the following events will take place: The NOW Orchestra will be traveling to the Berlin Festival. This international appearance will help fulfill their mandate of sharing Canadian music with the world. Educational Improvisation Workshop Series (Fall 2002): These annual 10 free educational workshops nurture the West Coast sound by combining leading improvising players with young, emerging musicians. Participants benefit by learning improvisational structures and ensemble work through observation and participation. The final public workshop performance brings audiences into this process. Hear It NOW Concert Series (November 2002): A four day festival co-produced with the Vancouver New Music Society, CJBS and the Western Front will feature workshop performances, forums, open rehearsals, and small ensemble performances at the Western Front. A new commission by the composer Martin Tetrault for the NOW Orchestra is part of an event at Performance Works featuring guest artists Paul Cram and Lisle Ellis. The next evening features the ensemble Crossing Borders, a multi-cultural group of improvisers representing both Eastern and Western music traditions. Late night performances at 1067, featuring emerging artists, round off the programme which is intended to celebrate the breadth of Westcoast creative music. FOOTNOTES: Much of this is from an unreliable memory so I invite people who were involved in this adventure to contact me and update my writings. RESOURCE MATERIALS:
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