chris wong in sync

Here’s a surprising fact about Vancouver’s Veda Hille: in 1995 the Barenaked Ladies asked her to join the group as a keyboard player. For various reasons, Hille didn’t end up becoming one of the Ladies. Since then, the band’s popularity has grown enormously. As for Hille, the singer/songwriter/pianist has built up a far smaller but no less loyal following for her singular words and music.

“No slag against them, but I’m glad I’ve stuck to my own guns,” says Hille about her close encounter with the Barenaked ones. By remaining an independent artist, she’s been free to “let the art take precedence” and create striking albums such as Here is a Picture (1998) and You Do Not Live In This World Anymore (1999). Those recordings seamlessly integrate melodic beauty and dissonant playfulness.

Hille will present songs from her seventh album, Field Study, April 5 at the Vancouver East Cultural Centre. That solo concert will precede two other shows at the Cultch, with her band and guest performers, April 6-7. Her performances at the extraordinary venue have become an annual event. This year’s concerts will be particularly special given the amazing journey that inspired the music.

A series of events led to Field Study. First the SongBird Project commissioned Hille to write an aria based on birdcalls. Then her mother pulled out a book about plants that Hille made in grade one. Seeing this reawakened Hille’s interest in science and nature. Finally last July, the Yukon Arts Centre commissioned Hille and 11 other artists–who perform music, theatre or dance–to spend three weeks in the Yukon Territory. Among other things, they went rafting in grizzly territory, took a helicopter ride over glaciers and did some “heartfelt drinking and dancing.” The only stipulation was the artists had to create something based on the trip.

Field Study includes the eight-song Yukon Suite: a chronological account of Hille’s experience up north. The suite conveys the 32-year-old’s wonder with the spirit and physical environment of the Yukon. The song that affected me the most actually has roots in the Northwest Territories, a place the artists also visited. “Tuktoyuktuk Hymn”, based on playing an organ in a small wooden church, is quietly moving. Field Study also has six other songs. They’re somehow about both science and nature and Hille’s family.

Initially, I wasn’t sure what to make of the album, which sounds very different from the intelligent pop and hard-edged folk of You Do Not Live In This World Alone. As a solo recording, consisting of Hille’s expressive vocals and rhythmically vigorous piano playing (along with a few contributions from others), it’s more challenging to get a handle on Field Study. But the songs gradually got into my head, evoked images of places I’ve never been to and provoked responses–mostly favourable ones–like all meaningful art should.

A video that Hille commissioned Shawn Chappelle to make in the Yukon will accompany Hille’s April 5 solo performance at the Van East Cultural Centre. Christine Fellows from Winnipeg will open the show.

Landscape Painters, April 6-7 at the Cultch, will feature Hille, John Millard and two other performers who went on the Yukon trip: Kim Barlow and John Mann from Spirit of the West. Hille’s Skilled and Devoted Band–Martin Walton, Ford Pier and Barry Mirochnick–will also play

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Live jazz alert: Juno-award winning tenor saxophonist Kirk MacDonald, who has a robust tone and vibrant harmonic approach, will perform April 8 at the Capilano College Performing Arts Theatre. The Torontonian will play in a duo with pianist John Taylor, who is a member of trumpeter Kenny Wheeler’s quartet and large ensemble. Call 990-7810 for tickets.

Meanwhile, over at the Cellar, veteran Vancouver guitarist Oliver Gannon will be on the bandstand April 13-14. Gannon, who still swings hard, will play with alto and soprano saxophonist Campbell Ryga, bassist Russ Botten and drummer Blaine Wikjord. Call 738-1959 to make a reservation.

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The full-page ads for New Groove .01 described the event this way: “Breaking sounds meet a fresh vision of art as performance for a whole new kind of concert experience.” It sounded like something I had to check out, so I camped out at the Commodore March 23-24 for both Coastal Jazz & Blues Society shows.

Some random thoughts:

·        Metalwood, whose debut album on Universal Jazz is about to come out, performed an exhilarating set that was the highlight of the weekend.

·        Vernon Reid and Masque were sonically adventurous–Reid is still an iconoclastic guitar God–but their music never really jelled.

·        Bullfrog served up the funk, but much of what the Montreal band played sounded like second-rate versions of stuff I’ve heard on 30-year-old Sly and the Family Stone records. Turntablist Kid Koala, however, enhanced the music by creating harmonically interesting sounds on his instrument.

·        Urban Visuals did indeed supply a fresh vision of art as performance by improvising like musicians as they projected images.