Changing Seasons – Phil Dwyer In Conversation
On hearing Changing Seasons, Phil Dwyer’s sister paid him a (funny) back-handed compliment: “It sounded great, I had a hard time believing you wrote it!” Since its release last month, accolades for the Phil Dwyer Orchestra‘s release Changing Seasons have been seemingly unanimous. Writing for a large ensemble, especially incorporating strings is notoriously tough to [...]
South Delta Jazz Festival and Jazz Workshop finishes seventh year
I’m finally cooling down, both literally and figuratively, after a very intense week of making music and teaching at the South Delta Jazz Workshop and Jazz Festival. The Workshop is a summer jazz camp with thirty-five students, six full-time faculty members, and two TAs. The Festival comprises seven concerts during the week of the workshop [...]
Icons Among Us – A Meditation
In 1955 Nat Shapiro and Nat Hentoff produced a remarkable book which documented the “Golden Age” of the early days in Jazz up to the heyday of 52nd Street. Hear Me Talkin’ to Ya! The Story of Jazz As Told By The Men Who Made It was (as the subtitle implies) completely constructed from the [...]
Voice Over Mind Festival Performance
From Victoria Gibson’s blog Vocals have always been a large part of my performance practice and I have been working on developing even more techniques in vocal improvisation. Every Saturday at 10am, I am now practicing with the Voxy Choir, directed by Kate Hammett-Vaughn and Carol Sawyer. This ensemble offers workshops every week to stretch [...]
Pat Metheny Orchestrion review
Just posted by Victoria Gibson on her blog, her review of last night’s Metheny concert at the Centre for Performing Arts: Pat Metheny-ORCHESTRION PROJECT – VIX Sound+Light+Motion.
Time Flies / Song Room 6
A couple of great events took place over the last few days. The first was Time Flies, sponsored by Coastal Jazz and Blues. An annual event in February, this was arguably the best that I’ve attended. A switch of venue from The Western Front to Ironworks made for a much more intimate setting. Also, the [...]
