A Musician's Musings

Brief update: CMS conference, gigs, new record label etc etc

2012-02-05T20:23:00.000-08:00

Just a brief update for all my loyal readers...I'm heading into a very busy period of time and not sure how often I'll have time to write.

College Music Society Conference
Tomorrow is the closing date for registration on the College Music Society Pacific Northwest Chapter conference which will be held at Capilano U March 16-17. I am president of the chapter and also the host of the conference this time around. Tomorrow I'll find out which of the presenters who said they were coming will actually come. Then it is time to schedule all the events, book equipment, book the catering, find student helpers, make a program etc. I have done this before back when I was president for an earlier term so I know what I'm up against and what needs to be done, but it is daunting nonetheless. In essence, a lot of very smart and creative colleagues from institutions all over the Western US and Canada (mostly the US) are showing up on my turf and I need to make everything look good and run smoothly. This year, in addition to all of the usual lectures, performances, demonstrations, seminars, lunches and chapter business meeting, CMS has engaged the Saxophilia Sax Quartet to premiere nine new works by CMS composers on March 17. That should be an amazing concert.

New Online Record Label
Those of you who have known me for a while will remember that I operated a record label called Third Rail Music from 1998 until about 2005 or so, when CDs started to go the way of the Dodo. Now that they are almost completely extinct as a commercial product, I figured it was time to get going on a digital version of the label and Bandcamp seemed the right way to go. There are four recordings up there and available now for download. When I get a few more up there I'll make a bigger splash about it. For now, if you happen to check it out, drop me a line with your impressions of the appearance, sounds etc

Gigs at Presentation House are happening as usual and I'll be there this Wednesday with Bill Clark (trumpet) and Stan Taylor (drums). Bill is back from New Mexico for a while and I'm really excited to get the group together again. You can hear some of the trio's music here . In addition to all this, my dear friend Len is back in town for a few months and we're starting some rehearsals for a Len Aruliah Sextet gig on Feb 15 at Presentation House. Hear some of the sextet music here.

Lastly, stay tuned for news of a special Capilano U residency and concert with my friend Curtis Andrews, who is freshly returned from India, no doubt with more rhythmic goodies up his sleeves.

Dave Robbins Electric Band Gig #2

2012-01-20T18:53:00.000-08:00

Just following up from the last posting...

Our gig at Capilano U this morning was fantastic. Hugh Fraser was able to make it over from Victoria at last. I had almost forgotten what a force of nature Hugh is on the bandstand and how much energy he brings to music. He just gives his whole self over to the experience. Playing with him again reminded me that his all-out approach was really influential on my playing at a very early stage. I just realized now that the gig we played today was in the same room where I met Hugh as a student 21 years ago. His intense energy and commitment made a huge impact on me at that time and made me re-think what it meant to play improvised music. Some of my favourite phrases from Hugh are "More is more!" and "Too much is never enough!"

Kerry, Dave, and Evan were absolutely great just like Wednesday night and showed some other asides of their amazing musicality. I think we played the tunes a little differently; a little less precise perhaps, but with more energy and wildness, almost achieving a kind of Mahavishnu "Birds of Fire" kind of vibe at times.

The room was absolutely packed with students and people were lined up the hall hoping to get a seat. What a privilege to play with people of this calibre for a packed house! Thank you Dave for setting this up.

Dave Robbins Electric Band Triumphs

2012-01-19T20:55:00.000-08:00

I played an amazing gig with Dave Robbins Electric Band last night. Brad Turner subbed for Hugh Fraser on keys (Hugh was stuck with the snow in Victoria). What a fun band. Dave's tunes are great and his playing nothing short of inspiring. The tunes are really fun to play, are rhythmically interesting and just 'make sense' somehow in the way they are constructed. I was sorry that Hugh couldn't make it, but happy to see Brad there. He was absolutely on fire and made all kinds of amazing sounds with his pile of electronic doodads. I always learn something from Brad and feel musically elevated and challenged by his playing. It was my first time to play with the young tenor player, Evan Arntzen, who did his incredible musical family (see below) proud.

Lastly, it was really nice to reconnect with Kerry Galloway after 10 or 15 years - what a funky bass player! The last gig we played was with Bill Clark at some wedding reception with a lot of drunk bridesmaids at the Royal Vancouver Yacht Club. Ugh. This was a much better musical and social situation for us. In addition to his great funkiness and absolutely complete professionalism as a player, Kerry is also tremendously funny and a great story teller. I had forgotten that, but it was fun to be reminded. This made me realize again that Vancouver seems like a small scene at times, but then I run into these monster players from time to time who I haven't played with in ages and somehow they have been playing a lot and doing interesting things without crossing paths with me. There are so many good musicians in this town.

The 20 minute rehearsal for the gig was truly remarkable - one of the smoothest and most successful in recent memory. Everyone had worked on the music and was actually ready to rehearse instead of being there to learn their parts. Dave was very happy with the playing at the show, as were the musicians and the audience. Dave is talking of recording at Brad's studio and of more gigs with the band. I love it when I can contribute to a project like this where all the elements come together naturally, easily, and successfully. We had a great turnout considering the frigid weather and snow still on the ground. Vancouverites are wimps about cold and snow! Lots of students from Cap were there, as well as some fellow musicians, Brent Gubbels and Steve Bagnell, and my good friends Dhavide and Meg.

Here's an interesting side story in connection with the gig...Evan Arntzen and I have an almost family connection. His great Aunt Bev was married to my Grandfather's best friend, Ken, who we called Uncle Ken because of his closeness our family and who, obviously, is Evan's actual Uncle Ken. Cool! My Grandma was happy to hear that I was playing with one of the Arntzen boys and so was I.

I'm playing another gig with these guys at Capilano U tomorrow 11:30am in Fir 113 - free admission and good times if you are in the neighborhood. Looking forward to it!

When work is play

2012-01-16T09:35:00.000-08:00

When you are a musician the word 'play' has many meanings. We often call our work, the work of performing music with others for the enjoyment of an audience, playing. This is true across musical genres in the English-speaking word as far as I can tell. In the jazz world this word seems especially apt since what we do in our performing is closely related to actual playing that a child might do: imagining, experimenting, exploring, pushing boundaries. Using the word play to describe what is also wage-earning work is problematic. A photographer or painter might love what she does for a living just as much as the musician who goes out to perform at a concert, but we don't call it play. This particular semantic confusion seems unique to music. Why should people have to pay for us to get up onstage and play and have fun while they only get paid to do work? This is a big issue for many musicians, but not the subject of my post today.

With the first week of school this semester finished and another one beginning, I am thinking about how much I enjoy my teaching work at Capilano U. While many people enjoy their work and find fulfilment in their jobs, I think you will find that the majority would not go on doing what they do if the wage were taken away. If you had a plumber who suddenly became independently wealthy, would that plumber head out every morning to clear blocked drains just for fun? Even within the music world there are many sad souls who would rather not play the kinds of music they are called upon to play. A good wage is a serious part of the inducement to most kinds of work.

Don't get me wrong, I like money as much as the next person and have no desire to go without for the sake of my art, though I have done so many times and expect to do so in the future. Nevertheless, where performance (playing) is concerned, it is pretty easy to see that most musicians would continue to play with or without a wage. I feel that way about teaching too. I think I would do it even if I wasn't being paid to do it, just for fun. Maybe I wouldn't do it at 8:30am, but I really feel teaching is a kind of play for me just as much as music performance is. Now of course I expect and demand to be paid and I need to be paid for my playing or I would have to spend my time getting wages some other way and thus be unavailable for teaching. Same thing with music.

All this is to say that I am really enjoying teaching more than ever and count myself very blessed indeed to be able to go to work each day and talk about music with really intelligent and creative students and colleagues. Of course there are small frustrations here and there and ups and down of various kinds and degree, but overall, I think this is a great way to spend my time. I am thankful for a great job where I get to play for a living.

Best Pizza in Vancouver

2012-01-13T20:51:00.000-08:00

Vancouver is the home to a lot of cheap but mediocre pizza. It is a staple for jazz musicians coming home from late night gigs and I have eaten more than my share over the years.

Pizzeria Barbarella has finally opened at 654 E. Broadway. I took the family down there tonight and it is absolutely fantastic. There is no doubt that this is the best pizza I have ever had and the best you can find in our fair city. Jennifer and the kids agreed. We have eaten a lot of pizza together and take our food very seriously. My son, Isaac, and I in particular have eaten at dozens of different places in town and have heated discussions about pizza regularly.

The owner and chef is Terry Dean. I first met Terry more than 20 years ago when we were both fledgling jazz players, though Terry was way better than me and just about everybody else our age. Terry was soon off to NYC and other places and, in addition to playing the tenor saxophone incredibly well, has done a lot of different things to make a living in the intervening years. His tenor playing is still really amazing but has now taken a backseat to an intense passion for pizza making. Terry makes a real New York/Italian style pizza with very thin and crispy, hand-stretched, crust cooked in a super hot (870 degree!) oven. The toppings are simple and of the finest possible quality, including house-made meats (salami, sausage and pancetta), fresh fior di late, oven-dried cherry tomatoes, fresh basil, etc. Terry does all the cooking himself. with just a couple of kitchen helpers to move pizzas in and out of the oven. They also have salads etc, but we were just there for the pizza. The house stereo played Sonny Rollins nice and loud. No top 40 at Barbarella! My friend (and wonderful trumpeter) Kevin Elaschuk, showed up with his wife Lori just as we were leaving. I'm sure this will become a major hangout for Vancouver jazz people.

What an amazing meal. I wish Terry all the success he deserves and for which has worked so hard. The place was quite full when we were in and I hope it will continue like that.

Don't wait - head down to Pizza Barbarella as soon as possible.

Incredible Thelonious Monk video on You Tube

2012-01-09T08:47:00.000-08:00

Clyde Reed turned me on to this incredible footage of the Thelonious Monk Quartet in Belgium. This particular band has Frankie Dunlop on drums. Clyde and I have had a long running discussion with our drummer friend, Joe Poole, about who was the best drummer with Monk. Clyde and I have always liked Ben Riley while Joe insisted on Dunlop. After hearing this, I have to go with Joe. This is incredible footage and the sound is fantastic - like having a whole new Monk record! I just love this. The music is really alive and exciting. I think I like this even better than the Monk with Coltrane at Carnegie Hall.

Reunions

2012-01-08T14:22:00.000-08:00

From the stats I have recently looked at, it seems that there are actually a lot of people reading this blog and that makes me feel like I need to fill it up with things for people to read. I'm glad that people are interested in what I'm doing.

January will be a month of musical reunions. First is a gig with Dave Robbins' Electric band featuring Hugh Fraser on January 18. Hugh has been an important musical influence in my life and I haven't seen him in ages. I'm really looking forward to playing with him and with the rest of the band. My dear friend and wonderful trumpeter, Bill Clark, will be coming home to Vancouver from New Mexico for a few months at the end of the month and we'll be doing a gig on February 8 with a trio with Stan Taylor on drums. Lastly, Len Aruliah is coming over from England for a few months as well. I'm looking forward to picking up where we left off in the summer with Len's Sextet and to just hanging out as well. The new year is shaping up pretty well!

Happy New Year!

2011-12-31T19:16:00.000-08:00

I wish all those who read this blog a very Happy New Year! 2011 has been great for me with many recording and concert projects, wonderful students and colleagues at Capilano U Jazz Studies, and lots of fun with my family. Next year promises more of the same and, coming very soon, the relaunch of my Third Rail Music Record label in the digital realm.

Len Aruliah sent me a lovely poem by Luis Borges, which I have included here.

End of Year (Final de Año)

Neither the symbolic detail
of a three instead of a two,
nor that rough metaphor
that hails one term dying and another emerging
nor the fulfillment of an astronomical process
muddle and undermine
the high plateau of this night
making us wait
for the twelve irreparable strokes of the bell.
The real cause
is our murky pervasive suspicion
of the enigma of Time,
it is our awe at the miracle
that, though the chances are infinite
and though we are
drops in Heraclitus' river,
allows something in us to endure,
never moving.

-Jorge Luis Borges (translated by W.S. Merwin)

improv insights blog

2011-12-30T10:37:00.000-08:00

Long time, no post. Life has been busy, but now I have a little post-Christmas holiday time and no dumb New Year's gigs to spoil it.
My friend Jeffrey Agrell has a started a blog about improvising for 'classical' musicians. Jeffrey is a very intelligent and creative writer and musician who teaches at U of Iowa. His books, Improvisation Games for Classical Musicians and Improv Games for One Player are published by GIA Music and are well worth checking out for musicians who grew up in a tradition where music is only what is on the page.

The blog is here

January will be a busy month with some very cool gigs. I'll be playing with Dave Robbin's Electric Band on Jan. 18 and with Paul Cram on Jan. 25. and with the Capilano U A Band in a Dizzy Gillespie tribute concert on Jan. 27. More on this soon.

upcoming gigs

2011-11-17T19:50:00.000-08:00

Updates seem to be getting fewer and fewer these days. This fall has been incredibly busy with a lot of very involved musical projects. No time to write!
Upcoming gigs include:

November 23 - Offering of Curtis Andrews at Kozmik Zoo. 53 W. Broadway. 9pm. $10 at the door.
November 29 - Brad Turner Group at Capilano U. Brad Turner - trumpet/piano, Jared Burrows - guitar, Dave Robbins - drums, Wynston Minckler - bass. 11:30am, FIR 113. Free admission.
November 30 - J Trio at presentation House Studio. James Danderfer - clarinet, Jared Burrows - guitar/bass, Joe Poole - drums. at Presentation House Studio, 333 Chesterfield, N. Vancouver. 8pm $10 at the door.
Dec 6 - Thordarson/Reed/Burrows at Presentation House Studio. Stefan Thordarson - violin, Jared Burrows - guitar, Clyde Reed - bass. Free playing from three generations of improvisers. 333 Chesterfield, N. Vancouver. 8pm $10 at the door.

Trisurgence concert footage from Nov 4 and 5

2011-11-17T19:48:00.000-08:00

Here's a link to some short video footage of the Trisurgence concert I was involved with a few week's ago. New World Chinese Orchestra, Huayi Choir, and Koan. Thanks to Brad Muirhead for thinking this up and making it all happen!

The song is "Jasmine Flower", a traditional tune arranged by our conductor, Jin Zhang. I'm in there somewhere between the erhu section and the french horns....

Watching this video on Youtube should lead you to links to more video of other parts of the evening.

brief update....

2011-10-04T08:26:00.000-07:00

Haven't posted for a while...I've been really busy with some musical projects, the start of the school year, and then dealing with a nasty flu. Will post something interesting soon.

Upcoming gigs:

October 6 Jared Burrows Quartet at Capilano University, FIR 113, 11:30-1:00.
October 12 Burrows/Reed/Sawyer at Presentation House Studio
October 26 Burrows/Branter Quartet at Presentation House Studio
November 4 and 5 Trisurgence concert: big project with Koan, Chinese Traditional Music Orchestra, and women's choir.

Jazz at Presentation House Studio Returns for third year of concerts!!!

2011-09-12T23:03:00.000-07:00

Yes, we're doing it again. Jazz at Presentation House Studio returns September 21 for our 3rd year of weekly concerts! I hope to see lots of people out to enjoy the music and support the scene. If you haven't come out to the venue yet, you can look here or click the links in the schedule below to see videos of music performed at this cool space. Watch the Vancouverjazz.com calendar and forum for updates to our weekly schedule.

Jazz at Presentation House Studio
This is an artist-run weekly series embracing the full spectrum of jazz and improvised music from trad to post-bop, free improv to world music fusions. Presentation House Studio is an historic former church with excellent acoustics where the audience can be up close and personal with the musicians. It is easily accessible by public transit and is located just a few blocks from Lonsdale Quay. Lots of free parking. Come and join us for great music and a relaxed weeknight hangout.

333 Chesterfield Avenue (3rd St. one block west of Lonsdale), North Vancouver
Wednesdays at 8:00pm.
Admission $10 at the door. Free tea and cookies.
contact jaredburrows AT hotmail for more info.

Schedule:

September 21 - Jared Burrows Quartet

Original compositions in the tradition of Kenny Wheeler and Wayne Shorter played by an intensely rhythmic and interactive band. Lorne Kellett (piano) Al Johnston (bass) Stan Taylor (drums) and Jared Burrows (guitar).

September 28 - Hotfoot Five
Music inspired by Jellyroll Morton, Louis Armstrong, Kid Ory, Sydney Bechet, and many others. If you like to dance or tap your hot feet to hot rhythms, come check out the Hot Foot Five. Bonny Northgraves (trumpet), Geoff Claridge (clarinet), Arnt Arntzen (banjo), Jennifer Hodge (bass), Andrew Millar (drums).

October 5 - Chad Leyte Group

A group of our city's young lions play the compositions of guitarist Chad Leyte with Wynston Minckler (bass), Ian Weiss (alto sax), Cam Stephens (drums).

October 12 - Sawyer/Reed/Burrows

Musical friends improvise chamber music, spontaneous poetry, fragments of text and textures, songs and sounds from the depths of heart and head. Carol Sawyer (voice), Clyde Reed (bass), Jared Burrows (guitar).

NEW Len Aruliah Sextet recording!

2011-08-30T22:06:00.001-07:00

Len Aruliah Sextet by Jaredburrows

Delta Quartet pictures from Jazz Festival 2011

2011-08-10T07:27:00.000-07:00

Here are a few shots from the Delta Quartet gig at the Vancouver jazz festival 2011. The gig was outdoors at Canada Place on June 30. Len Aruliah on saxes, Stan Taylor on the drums and Rob Kohler on bass. Tunes from a recent recording are up on my website.

I don't normally like playing outside, but this gig was fantastic and we had a huge crowd despite the cloudy weather. My son, Isaac took the pictures with Len;s phone so the resolution isn't great, but I'm just happy we got some shots of the band. We always forget to get pictures of gigs. Thanks Isaac.

Many thanks to Ken, John, Rainbow, Lorraine and all the others at CJBS who put on such a wonderful event. Following the festival, the group made another recording. Stay tuned for some sounds from the session when Rob gets it mixed.

Update - recording and guitar building

2011-07-30T20:57:00.000-07:00

It has been a while since I blogged. What I thought was going to be a period of relative ease and rest since last I wrote has turned out to be very busy. This is a typical theme for me. I have a hard time relaxing.

On July 20 I played a great gig with Len Aruliah's Sextet at Goldie's Pizza downtown. The band is Len on soprano and alto saxes, Colin Maskell on tenor, Lorne Kellett on piano, Joe Poole on drums, and Brent Gubbels on drums. What a great group of guys musically and personally. We had a completely full house with lots of my students, many of Len's friends and also a bunch of mathematician friends invited along by Len's brother, Dhavide. There was a massive applied math conference just down the road at Canada Place. What a treat to play for a packed house and such an attentive and hip audience. Goldie's is a nice room to play, with a baby grand that is kept in good shape by my pianist friend Bruno Hubert. The pizza was pretty good too. After the gig we found ourselves at the Congee Noodle house until 2 in the morning - not too many options at the time of day on a rainy Wednesday in Vancouver. The Congee featured a huge menu with some interesting and unique menu items including "Bible Tripe" and "Silverfish Omlette". I tried neither, though Colin and Joe each ate a huge meal of very colourful chinese food. I can't even think about eating things like that at that time in the morning, but it was a great 'musicians life' moment.

The gig went so well we decided we needed to record the music so we set up a session for July 25. The recording took place at the Birch Theatre at Capilano University and I hauled all of my recording gear plus some rental stuff and engineered the session as well as playing guitar. We recorded 2 takes each of 7 different tunes which is an amazing amount of music to play in a 4-hour session, especially given the challenging nature of Len's music. I think Len was very pleased to get the band documented as he has been working very hard on new tunes and really beautiful arrangements. Everything went very well indeed.

I left the recording gear set up and the next day played and engineered a session with bass trombonist, Brad Muirhead and Stan Taylor on drums. I play bass in this band. The music was very different from the day before -very open and wild - but that session also turned out really well. Since then, I've been finishing my latest electric guitar commission and trying to get it done before we go to Alberta on Thursday. Maybe then I can rest.....

Rest at Last!

2011-07-13T15:12:00.000-07:00

After nearly three weeks of intense activity playing, rehearsing and teaching almost every day I finally have a chance to slow down and get some rest. The Vancouver Jazz Festival gigs were great and the weather cooperated. Hearing Atomic play on the final day of the fest was a highlight for me. Immediately following that I had a fantastic week running the South Delta Jazz Workshop followed by two days in the studio with Len Aruliah, Rob Kohler, Stan Taylor, and Ed Orgill. Ed and Rob have headed back Stateside now and so I have my basement office back to do a little blog posting. It is sad to see everyone go home, but also good to have a little more space in the house I must admit. The Workshop this year was really successful and both of my kids participated for the first time as students. Some cool family jams were had at the old homestead as well. More pictures to follow as they come in from various sources.....

Some students at SDJF jam session at Petra's Cafe

Happy Canada Day

2011-07-01T09:43:00.000-07:00

Happy Canada Day!
This is a great country and I feel very privileged to live in it. We have our problems to be sure, but I have yet to go anywhere where I'd rather be. I've been talking to lots of musicians from around the world this week and so many of them have said how they would like to find a way to come and live here. Jazz fest time always reminds me of what an amazing scene we have here in terms of the depth and quality of creative musicians. I have felt in the last few days a profound sense of gratitude for the life I have and where and how I get to live it.

I've just finished three very cool gigs in the Jazz Festival. The weather cooperated very well for all three and the music was great. Lots of friends and musicians showed up for every gig. Thanks to Stan, Brad, Len, and Rob for the great music. Pictures coming soon.
South Delta Jazz Festival and Jazz Workshop is coming up next week. I'll be updating the blog with news from that event as it happens.
.

Jazz Fest Is Upon Us

2011-06-23T18:16:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow is the start of the 26th annual Vancouver International Jazz Fest. I have been playing the festival every year since 1993 or so, missing one year at some point during my three-year stint in Oregon. Coastal Jazz and Blues does an amazing job with the event. I always hear a few things that surprise,interest, and inspire me and the artist pass has enabled me to see literally hundreds of shows over the years. Many thanks to Ken Pickering, John Orsyk, Rainbow Roberts, Lorraine Hamilton and all the other good folks who make it happen.

My gigs during the Fest are as follows:

June 24, 12pm, Synergy (Brad Muirhead Trio) @ Canada Place
June 29, 9-midnight, Len Aruliah Quartet @ El Barrio (not an official Festival venue but cool nonetheless)
June 30, 12 pm, Delta Quartet @ Canada Place

Following the Vancouver Jazz Fest, my own South Delta Jazz Workshop happens, then some recording with Len Aruliah, a gig at Goldies with Len' sextet July 20, then some holiday time.

I'm especially looking forward to seeing Rob Kohler who gets in to town in a few days.

Colin MacDonald Pocket Orchestra - Modus Operandi

2011-06-15T08:59:00.000-07:00

I have an amazing gig coming up with Colin MacDonald's Pocket Orchestra. We are playing a house concert which will be simultaneously broadcast on the internet. I hope you'll come along in person if you live in Vancouver or tune in remotely if you're not. Details below. Seating is limited so get tickets early.

Colin MacDonald's Pocket Orchestra

Modus Operandi

June 19, 2pm PDT

Yarilo Contemporary Music Studio

34 Shoreline Circle

Port Moody, BC

Tickets $20/15 at the door or online at http://www.eventbrite.com/event/1710854211

Livestream at http://www.yarilomusic.com/

Colin MacDonald and David Branter (saxophones), Geeta Das (trumpet), Brad Muirhead (bass trombone), Danny Tones and Martin Fisk (percussion), Jared Burrows (bass guitar), Anna Levy (piano), Elyse Jacobson and Stefan Thorardson (violins), Stefan Hintersteininger and Doug Gorkoff (cellos).

Yarilo Contemporary Music Society is excited to present the Colin MacDonald Pocket Orchestra in a program of energetic post-minimalist music by British and Canadian composers.

Formed in 2006, the Colin MacDonald Pocket Orchestra is unique in the Vancouver contemporary music scene. This 12-member chamber orchestra specializes in the music of post-minimalist composers, and its repertoire includes works by Michael Nyman, Terry Riley, David Lang, Graham Fitkin, Steve Martland, Michael Gordon, and bandleader Colin MacDonald. Live performances by the ensemble are exciting to behold as the group performs rhythmically virtuosic music without a conductor, an experience once described as "tap-dancing on a tightrope without a safety net."

With Modus Operandi the Colin MacDonald Pocket Orchestra continues its mandate of presenting genre-defying contemporary music that blurs the lines between jazz, rock, and classical. British composers lead the way in energy and drive, starting with Graham Fitkin's playful take on familiar symphonic themes in "Beethoven 7". Michael Nyman, world-renowned for his Oscar winning score to The Piano, brings us music from the soundtrack to Peter Greenaway's Prospero's Books in the dancing rhythms of "Yellow Sands". The usually hard-edged sounds of Steve Martland are softened somewhat in "Mr. Anderson's Pavane", a study in texture and tonalities wrapped in an archaic dance form. Canadian composers add to this exciting program, starting with the lively "Shameless", by Pocket Orchestra cellist Stefan Hintersteininger, an audience favourite at its premiere in 2009. Orchestra leader and saxophonist Colin MacDonald presents two new works, including the world premiere of the modally-textured "Modulo", and a new arrangement of his paean to the moon, "Vers la Lune".

UPDATE - the gig went well and has been recorded and archived. Check it out online at www.yarilomusic.com

The South Delta Jazz Festival Approaches

2011-06-15T08:41:00.000-07:00

It hardly seems possible, but another year has flown by and preparations are well underway for another South Delta Jazz Workshop and Jazz Festival, our 8th annual event held July 5-9. The Workshop is a summer music program focused on jazz improvisation and small ensemble playing. The Festival provides a variety of jazz concerts and events centred around and easily accessible to the community that supports us. Students learn to play jazz through intensive small ensemble rehearsals, daily faculty concerts, masterclasses, ear training and improvisation classes in a fun and friendly environment that nurtures our student’s unique talents and abilities. Both audience members and students get a chance to develop relationships with our amazing group of teacher and performers from Vancouver, the US and the UK. The teaching component of SDJW and many of our concert events take place in and around the very relaxed riverside community of Ladner Village.

The Workshop is open to players of any instrument and singers age 12 and up, but jazz camp isn’t just for kids! Adults are very welcome at SDJW and we always have a strong contingent of mature players around. For many of our students, SDJW is a great opportunity to take a week off from their regular jobs and just focus on music. Musicians of all levels from beginner through college and university are welcome. We provide a fun and friendly environment that nurtures each student’s unique talents and abilities. Registration is open now.

Our schedule of events this year is looking good. As you can see, we feature the SDJW faculty musicians in a variety of contexts as well as providing a jam session and two student outdoor concerts.

Tuesday July 5 – Brad Muirhead and Faculty Band. Free noon concert @ Ladner Community Centre.
Wednesday July 6 – Dr. Ed Orgill and Faculty Band. Free noon concert @ Fisherman’s Hall, Ladner.
Wednesday July 6 – SDJW senior students. Free concert @ Diefenbaker Park, Tsawwassen, 7pm.
Thursday July 7 – Rob Kohler and Strings. Free noon concert @ Ladner Community Centre.
Thursday July 7 –Open Jam Session @ Petra’s Koffee Kafe in Tsawwassen, 7pm.
Friday July 8 – Bill Clark and Faculty Band. Free noon concert @ Ladner Community Centre.
Friday July 8 – Art in the Garden @ Delta Community Music School, 1-5pm.
Friday July 8 – SDJW Octet with guest, Len Aruliah @ All Saints Anglican Church, 7:30 pm. Tix $10 @ door
Saturday July 9 – SDJW Student Concert and Picnic @ Delta Hospital Grounds – 12 noon – 3pm.

I’m really excited about the great musicians who will be in residence at this year’s workshop. We have a really diverse and exciting group of musicians coming to play and teach. My old friend, Bill Clark (trumpet), will be making a visit from New Mexico back to his home turf, Rob Kohler (bass) will be up from LA, and Dr. Ed Orgill (saxes) will be coming all the way from Westfield College in Massachussetts to join us for his second visit to SDJW. Our usual core faculty will be there too of course: Brad Muirhead (trombone), Stephen Robb (piano/clarinet), Stan Taylor (drums), and me (guitar). UK-based saxophonist and composer, Len Aruliah, was here in Vancouver earlier in the spring and will be coming back in July to put together a concert of music arranged especially for the SDJW Faculty Octet.

I’m looking forward to another great year of music in South Delta. Hope to see lots of you out at concerts and as students!

To Hell With Cultural Relativism

2011-06-06T09:09:00.000-07:00

This week I am taking a very different direction and making a political statement. I promise to go back to music-related stuff soon.

The CBC has been covering a story about luxury condo residents who don't want a palliative care facility built next to their luxury apartment building on the UBC campus. Read about it here:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/story/2011/06/03/bc-ubs-hospice-approved-reax.html

Apparently, having sick and dying people nearby brings 'bad energy' and offends their traditional Chinese cultural beliefs. The spokesman for a group of condo owner and Chinese community leaders, David Choi, has asked for a more 'humanistic solution' meaning, as I understand it, that they should just build the thing elsewhere. This kind of garbage just infuriates me. The idea that all cultural beliefs are somehow to be automatically valued and respected is ridiculous. There are traditional cultures who hate gays, who kill female children, who enslave other people, who hate on the basis of skin colour, who abuse their children as a matter of course, who treat animals inhumanely etc etc etc. Are these ideas to be respected and valued in our country? NO. Some cultural traditions and beliefs are simply not worth keeping. They have no place in our society. Thank goodness that some of the negative cultural values brought here by my ancestors (including racism, homophobia, and classism) are no longer accepted by the majority of Canadians.

Palliative care facilities are there to provide comfort and care to the sick and the dying and to give them a calm and quiet place to spend their last moments. The beautiful environs of UBC are an ideal location for such a facility. I have been to a few places like the one planned for UBC. The feeling in and around them is beautiful and tranquil and many of the people who work in them are wonderfully kind and caring. The design of this hospice appears to be very attractive and aesthetically in balance with the neighbourhood. The residents of that hospice are certainly not going to be making a lot of noise with loud parties or taking up a lot of street parking. Real estate values will not be affected except in the case of potential buyers who harbour ignorant and backward beliefs. As far as I can see, there are no legitimate reasons to oppose the builiding of this facility.

To Mr. Choi and the members of his group I ask a simple question. Where and how do YOU want to die? Should we ship you off to some dark corner of an industrial park where your dying won't offend someone's delicate sensibilities? If you don't want to live in a country where we treat sick and dying people with the utmost love and respect, then go live somewhere else.

Messaien Improvisation

2011-05-24T22:43:00.000-07:00

I'm just back from a short but restful holiday and thought I'd ease back into the blogoshpere by simply posting a youtube clip. This is Olivier Messiaen improvising at the organ of Sainte Trinite in Paris. Because he was so important and influential as a composer and teacher, comparatively little fuss has been made over his improvising skills. This man was simply an incredible musician. The second, longer piece that begins around 6:30 was mind blowing for me. If I could hear music like this in church every week I'd convert to Catholicism tomorrow.

Merci, monsieur Truffaut.

2011-05-06T18:32:00.000-07:00

Earlier this week Nancy Tod, a student of mine at Cap, posted a link to some Truffaut films on Youtube. As I mentioned in my post a few days ago, one of the great perks of my job is having super hip and intelligent students. With the semester now finished I finally have a little bit of recreational time and have been watching Truffaud's "Antoine Doinel" series. I'm trying to get my french skills back in better shape and having fun torturing my children by speaking to them seulment en francais. Truffaut's work is really amazing for a number of reasons. Compared to today's films, Truffaut's work relies on very simple resources in terms of sets, camera gear, extras etc. He relies on carefully chosen camera angles, the classic elegance of Paris cityscapes, good writing,and a small cast of talented actors to tell stories. No special effects required. The elegance and unassuming beauty of the women in the "Antoine Doinel" series is especially striking.

Unlike many of today's film and TV characters who live in giant mansions and seem to have inexplicably endless financial resources, Truffaut's characters live in little Paris apartments with shared bathrooms, borrow money from friends, run out of milk, and work at mundane jobs as record or book store clerks, violin teachers, and civil servants. Their external, material lives are simple and seemingly devoid of excess 'stuff' that clutters every space today's films and living situations. Most of the action takes place around the things that count: romance, love, friends, relationships, humour, music, ideas, and food. Of course the films are not meant to be educational or even overtly philosophical, but they have a strong, unified aesthetic that is enlightening in some way. Having watched a few of these films this week, I found myself re-evaluating what really counts and enjoying some of the simpler pleasures of life. Merci beaucoup, Monsieur Truffaut!

Len Aruliah Sextet gig and end of semester

2011-04-29T14:22:00.000-07:00

The Spring Semester is over and I am taking a little breather this afternoon before plunging into the many other projects and piles of work that have been put on hold over the past few weeks. After adjudicating a bunch of grad recitals and hearing some of the wonderful work that was done by the students at Capilano this semester I feel very grateful to be a music educator and to work with such intelligent, creative, and interesting students. Thanks all for a great year!

Wednesday night I played a great gig with the Len Aruliah Sextet at Presentation House Studio. The house was packed to capacity Len had a new batch of tunes beautifully and intricately arranged for the band: Joe Poole (drums), Brent Gubbels (bass), Kristian Alexandrov (piano), Colin Maskell (tenor), plus Len and me. I always have a great time playing with any of these players, but it was the first time with this particular grouping. I thought the band played especially well. Joe really kept things exciting and challenged everyone to play on a higher level. What an amazing drummer and musician he is. I'll be playing with him again next week at the same venue with Coat Cooke (saxes) and Clyde Reed (bass).

Gig with Len Aruliah Quartet

2011-04-07T09:09:00.000-07:00

Looking forward to another gig tonight with the Len Aruliah Quartet at El Barrio.
Len has a book of new tunes and some Kenny Wheeler compositions as usual. Stan Taylor on drums, Tommy Babin on bass. Tommy and Stan can get quite rambunctious as a rhythm section so it should be a lot of fun.

I met Tommy in Montreal in 1998 when I was there auditioning for the MMus program at McGill. Tommy already knew Len, who was also living in Montreal then, and Len arranged for Tommy and a drummer (either Karl Jannuska or Claude Laverne, can't remember which...) to play on my audition. The audition was successful and I thought I'd be heading to McGill, but greener pastures in Oregon seemed more appealing to my wife (we just got married a few months before) so we didn't go to Montreal.

A few years after I returned to Vancouver, Tommy came out here as well, following his wife Tamara, who had just got a faculty job at SFU. He called me up and we played a gig that very week. Since then we've been pretty regular collaborators in a variety of different bands: East Van Jazz Orchestra, Djangophilia, Koan, Len's band etc.... He is a marvelous player with a very aggressive and powerful time feel and right-hand attack plus a very fluid and seemingly effortless technique and flow of ideas.

Gig with Jennifer Scott and Rene Worst at Presentation House Studio

2011-04-05T09:35:00.000-07:00

I'm playing a gig with the fantastic jazz vocalist, Jennifer Scott, tomorrow at Presentation House Studio Jennifer's husband Rene Worst is one of this town's best-known bassists and he will be on the gig too. Bernie Arai will play drums. I have never played with Jennifer before, though I have known her and her musical talents since I first started playing here. Rene is of the generation of musicians preceding mine and I got to hear him a lot when I was coming up. We haven't played together, nor have I played with Bernie, since before I left for the States so it will be great to musically reconnect with everyone. We're playing the Vancouver Club next Wednesday, so if you are a member and happen to be around, come and say hi.
Jennifer and Rene have put together a lot of great arrangements and original tunes. It is going be a fun night!

Gary Bartz on Jazz Education

2011-04-03T22:18:00.000-07:00

I respect Bartz' right to a point of view based on what he has personally heard and seen of jazz education and its products, but it seems very facile and uncritical to think or propose that there is some monolithic thing called 'jazz education' that is all 'backwards'. He is using his (considerable) weight as a musician of note to lend creedence to a subjective personal observation of a very small sample. A broad-stroke condemnation doesn't seem either helpful or truthful. He himself teaches at Oberlin so does that mean he is the only one who can get it right, the only one who can't see the very obvious problems of which he speaks? If so, it seems very convenient for him.

Like it or not, we are now living in an era where the majority of jazz musicians out there have some degree of formal education. Brad Meldhau, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Ethan Iverson, Joshua Redman etc etc etc. Do they all sound the same as Bartz suggests? Do they 'have no ears' ? There are great jazz educators and institutions and there are terrible ones too. Some get it 'frontwards' and some get it backwards. Do they all teach the same way and turn out students that sound the same way?

The video seems to be excerpted from something longer. It would be interesting to hear his comments in their full and original context. Perhaps in that context it would come across as less self-congratulatory, narrow and poorly-considered.

Jazz in Moscow

2011-04-03T20:32:00.000-07:00

The annual conference of the Pacific Northwest chapter of the College Music Society met in Moscow, Idaho this weekend with the faculty of the Lionel Hampton School of Music as out hosts. Many thanks tomy colleagues Leonard Garrison, Bob Dickow and Barry Bilderback for all their hard work making it happen. I'm currently the chapter president and have been involved with CMS since my grad student days in the late 90s. The conference was a great success with lots of interesting presentations and, as always, many performances of great new compositions. I presented a workshop on some of John Stevens' free improvisation teaching strategies with some of my fellow delegates as willing and very able guinea pigs. I've used these improv 'games' with students on many occasions, but never with musicians of such high calibre. What a pleasure!

I was lucky enough to top off my weekend with a great gig at Bucer's Coffee in Moscow with some wonderful local players: Dav Bjur (bass), Jon Anderson (piano) and Joe Covill (drums). A U of Idaho student called Andy Rayburn sat in on tenor as did my trombonist friend Don Bowyer (from Huntsille Alabama). The venue is a very hip cafe/pub with lots of bookshelves, amazing desserts (it is America after all!) and very nice people. Lots of students and some of the conference delegates turned out to hear the music.

I'm always amazed by small towns in America. Even in a little place like Moscow, with no major cities for miles around, you can find really fine jazz players and make some music. Dave, Jon and Joe were really generous and welcoming and they played beautifully. All are really swinging players who listen hard. there are no attitudes and posturing with these folks - it's all about the music. It reminded me again of how powerful music, especially jazz music, can be in helping strangers communicate, create and form meaningful relationships. I just love the rush of going to someplace new and meeting new people and then improvising together to create something beautiful. It really is a celebration of the best aspects of being human

Here's a post-gig pic taken with Joe's phone. From left - Joe, me, Jon, and Dave.

My old U of Oregon office-mate, Barry Bilderback, and his wife put me up at their house kindly drove me to and from the airport. They are two of the kindest and most genuine people I know. Barry also set up the Bucer's gig for me. He is a professor of ethnomusicology and music history at the U of Idaho now. UI is a classic American university with frat houses and old brick buildings covered in ivy - the kind of institution we just don't have in Western Canada.

I'm a little tired after a late gig and catching a 6am flight this morning, but all in all it was great weekend.

A Note to my students...

2011-03-22T20:39:00.000-07:00

MP3s from Wednesday's Gig

2011-03-18T22:17:00.000-07:00

I recorded the gig on Wednesday night (the subject of my previous post).
I had a great time and Kristian and Stan played amazingly as usual. The recording was made with one of these little Zoom H4 recorders and the sound quality is pretty decent, though I had to downsample substantially to get the longer tracks to work on my website.

Three mp3s are available for listening at my website here:

http://www.jaredburrows.com/music

There should be more to come as I get some time to process and upload them. Enjoy.

Alexandrov/Burrows/Taylor

2011-03-16T15:24:00.000-07:00

I'm playing a gig tonight at Presentation House Studio with one of my favorite groups, a trio with Bulgarian-Canadian pianist and keyboard player, Kristian Alexandrov and my old friend Stan Taylor on drums. A little over a year ago, Kristian showed up at one of my quartet gigs and introduced himself and gave me a CD. After hearing him play I immediately thought of how much fun it would be to play in a trio with Kristian. He is a virtuoso keyboard player and a great composer as well. It always amazes me when pianists, organists, and keyboard players can simultaneously improvise melodic lines and accompany themselves by playing independent bass lines. Kristian does this extremely well and has a great groove with Stan. He's a very versatile player who is comfortable doing rock, funk, jazz, classical, R&B; you name it and he can do it authentically with energy and passion. As I've mentioned in previous posts, Vancouver really is loaded with great players and I feel very lucky to be able to make music with so many of them.
I'm really looking forward to the gig tonight.

Here's a youtube video of a gig from last year featuring our hit version of Besame Mucho in 5/4 time.

Swinging

2011-03-11T17:38:00.000-08:00

I played a lovely gig last night with Len Aruliah (saxes) and Lorne Kellett (piano). I hauled out my electric bass for the first time in nearly a year. The event was an in-class concert for my Douglas College "Intro to Music" class. Len brought in a few standards "That Old Feeling" and Alone Together", plus a few of his tunes and a few by Kenny Wheeler and Lee Konitz. Of particular note was Len's contrafact on the chord changes of "I Can't Get Started", a thing that he calls "Initiation". He wrote a really beautiful and inspiring melody. As usual, it was a lot of fun to play with Len. Lorne was in especially fine form and the two of us really stretched the standard material; almost to the breaking point at times. I had forgotten how much fun it is to play bass and have the ability to affect the harmony and time feel in such a fundamental way and I also enjoy the extra sustain that the electric bass gives in comparison to the guitar. I think I will be playing more bass this year. The students had a great time listening and asking questions and we had a lot of visitors from outside the class.

On the way home I was thinking about how energizing and life-affirming it can be to play swinging music with such great musicians. Every once in a while, I have an experience like this that reminds me that it is a privilege to be a musician and to have ready access to this kind of profoundly human creative interaction. I will now coast through a peaceful weekend on that high and try to relax a bit.

Don't just stand there.....

2011-03-03T10:16:00.000-08:00

Some local and 'ex-pat' Vancouver musicians have once again been wondering aloud in their blogs, on forums and facebook why Vancouver doesn't have more jazz venues. It seems another round of complaining and moaning is beginning again. I really don't get this. Yes, there is absolutely no doubt that jazz venues are thin on the ground in this city and that the arts in general are treated with utter contempt by our provincial government. Yes, the liquor laws are antiquated, real estate and lease rates are incredibly expensive, taxes on small business are high, most people here seem to like kayaking and skiing more than going out to hear a concert etc. And yes, it certainly can't compare to New York or London as a center for artistic creation (can anyplace compare?).

My response to all of these issues is, SO WHAT? What are the complainers doing to change things, to create venues, to find innovative ways of getting the music heard? There are plenty of people here doing positive things to keep the music happening: Ken Pickering and the Coastal Jazz and Blues folks, David Pay and Music on Main, Cory at the Cellar, the 1067 collective, Coat Cooke and NOW, Cole Schmidt's series at El Barrio, Clyde Reed and I with Presentation House. I'm sure there are many others of whom I am unaware. Just imagine what would happen if everyone who opened his or her mouth to complain used that energy to create an opportunity for playing music.

Vancouver is a wonderful place to live. It is, as everyone seems ready to admit, a very, very beautiful place. For many of us that counts for a lot. The arts here are not well supported by government or the general public but, for whatever reason, there are huge numbers of great musicians, dancers, painters, film makers and other cultural producers here making great work. It is not London, New York, or Toronto and, for many of us who live here, that is exactly the point!

Here is my challenge for anyone who doesn't like the way things are: Do something to improve the situation! If every musician in this town made some small attempt to create an opportunity to play, lobbied their local MLA, MP or Arts Council for increased funding, and actively supported others who are already making things happen (asking other people for gigs doesn't count as support) just imagine the changes that would take place.

Odds and ends

2011-02-25T08:51:00.000-08:00

Last night, some of my students mentioned that they are actually reading my blog. I have been quite delinquent in my blog writing duties of late. Despite the fact that Capilano U is on reading break this week, I have been quite busy with my usual range of performing activities and other teaching jobs. I did take a morning to buy myself some lovely new Italian shoes (on sale of course!). That made it feel a little more like a holiday. My wife and kids often tease me about the number of shoes that I have, but for someone who performs all the time it is actually pretty important to have some options for the stage. Shoes and chocolate are really my only serious vices.

On Wednesday I had the perfect opportunity to put those new shoes to work as I played at Presentation House Studio with Joe Poole (drums), Coat Cooke (saxes) and Clyde Reed (bass). Joe is a fellow shoeist and he thoroughly approved of my purchase. The music was superb. Clyde and Joe were in particularly fine form, grooving very well together and creating a kind of buoyant, joyful swing feel that such as I have rarely experienced. Coat was really wailing as usual. His sound is always so powerful and his ideas very original and fluidly connected. It was a privilege to make music with them.

Last week the jazz choir I direct at Cap U, the 'Combo Choir' (must think of a catchy name...), performed with Len Aruliah at two concerts, one at Cap and one at the West Van Community Centre. Both gigs went very well and the students did a fine job with Len's music. Len had a very good time as well and was impressed with the ability of the students to playing such difficult music. I spent yesterday arranging a whole new concert worth of music for the group: five Kenny Wheeler tunes. I think these will be great fun for the students.

I have no big plans for the coming week. For a change there are no gigs or significant projects. I will just enjoy my teaching and get some practicing and composing done. Lastly, Adrian Caballero finally sent me a picture from the gig I did last month with the Australian saxophonist Jason Thornton. Jason has now asked me to play on some tracks for his new recording. It should be fun to send digital tracks back and forth across the world. From left to right: Jason, Me, Joe Poole, Brent Gubbels.

Len is Here

2011-02-10T08:47:00.000-08:00

My good friend, Len Aruliah, has arrived from London. As I explained in an earlier post, Len is a saxophone player that I have known for over 20 years and with whom I have played a lot of great music. We'll be making a lot more music in the next few weeks. Next Wednesday is a quartet gig at Presentation House with Len, Stan Taylor, and Clyde Reed. Earlier that day Len will be a guest artist with a jazz choir at Capilano University. I have arranged his "Full Circle Suite" for the student group and they are doing a great job with his music. This group will also be performing on Friday at West Van Community Centre. The following week we will try to do some recording with the aforementioned quartet. Usually Len is only here for a couple of weeks and his schedule is busy but this time he will be around for a few months so I'm looking forward to hanging out and creating some new things!

In other news, I had an amazing gig with Sound Image Net last night. I talked about this band in an earlier post. The show went very well and Krista brought in a very fresh and interesting repertoire of new images. Gregg Simpson, Carol Sawyer, and Clyde Reed are such excellent musicians. They are always so responsive and empathic in their improvising. It was a very satisfying gig in every respect and helped me clear out some musical cobwebs that have been gathering in my brain.

8th annual South Delta Jazz Festival

2011-02-08T09:23:00.000-08:00

Preparations are once again underway for the South Delta Jazz Festival and Jazz Workshop. The Workshop is a summer jazz camp with thirty-five students, seven full-time faculty members, and two TAs. The Festival comprises seven concerts during the week of the workshop and the concerts feature faculty musicians and guest artists. Last year was our seventh annual event.   My friend, Stephen Robb, and I started this event back in 2003 with the idea of providing ourselves with some summer teaching work and a chance to get together and play music with our friends. Since then it has grown to be the most significant arts event in Delta.
The workshop takes place at Delta Community Music School which is situated in a very cool old heritage house in the Ladner Village (at left).
This year we welcome back  our usual core faculty Stan Taylor (drums) Brad Muirhead (trombone), Stephen Robb (clarinet/piano), Rob Kohler (bass). The very creative and cool Bill Clark (trumpet) will be joining us this year, as well as a great saxophonist, Dr. Ed Orgill. These folks are all wonderful performers and very experienced educators. I'm really looking forward to playing and teaching with them this summer. The Infinitus String Trio will also be in residence both as students and as performers on some of the concerts. We'll have our usual jam session at Petra's Arts Cafe, outdoor shows at Diefenbaker Park and Delta Hospital Grounds, lunchtime shows at Ladner Community Centre, and an evening concert at local church.
It hardly seems possible, but this will be our 8th year for SDJF. I am really proud of the work we have done to make this event so successful and especially happy with the way it has become integrated into the community in a kind of organic and natural way.

Aeroplane Trio Gig Review

2011-01-27T23:15:00.000-08:00

Aeroplane Trio was the featured band last night at Presentation House Studio. The band has been around for about 10 years now and features some very fine musicians: JP Carter (trumpet), Russell Sholberg (bass), and Skye Brooks (drums). The music last night was very carefully and slowly constructed, mostly arising from very small, delicate and gentle sounds. Using free improv as the basis for much of their playing, the group creates extended drone-like textures and repeated rhythmic patterns which evolve very gradually. JP has an extraordinary range of extended techniques on the trumpet: digeridoo-like, circular-breathed pedal tones and all manner of squeals grunts, and squelches in combination with various mutes. He seems to carefully ration his use of his remarkable sound arsenal, squeezing every possible variation out of each texture while avoiding repetition and recycling. When he finally lets the trumpet speak in a conventional way, the sound is very fat and brassy and he diplays his gift for lyrical and poignant melody. Russell and Skye not only have a great rhythmic 'hookup', but also have developed a common vocabulary of unique grooves and clever ways of cueing and altering these in subtle ways. I thought Russ' new bass sounded especially great.

I have played with all of these guys in various settings and what always strikes me about them is that they are great listeners. Of course a lot of musicians are great listeners, but these three are special in that they each seem to approach the bandstand without preconceptions and with a willingness to contribute only what naturally arises from a group's musical dynamic. One never gets a feeling of ego or musical 'selfishness' when listening to them or playing with them.

I had a great time listening and especially liked hearing a band that plays completely together in such an organic and unified way. It is obvious that they have played together a lot and have worked hard to create a cohesive group sound and aesthetic. Unfortunately, the turnout was the worst we've had at the concert series for several months. Maybe there was a hockey game? It was a shame really as I think the music was of a very high calibre and also that the band was one of the best-suited groups we've had there in terms of the acoustics of that room. Presentation House Studio can feel a little small when a band gets loud, but these guys had a such a great control of the dynamics that you could hear every detail with wonderful clarity. Whether for good or ill, some of the best music in the jazz and improv traditions seems to be made for small but appreciative audiences in do-it-yourself conditions. This has been true for many gigs that I have played and also many where I have been one of the few listeners. I think perhaps the sense of intimacy and trust which is more natural under these conditions helps to feed the music in a different way than the energy of a big crowd. Those of us who were there had a special experience. Thanks guys!

The band has a new CD out on Jesse Zubot's fantastic dripaudio label. Check it out. http://www.dripaudio.com/releases.php

Gig with Dylan Van der Schyff and Clyde Reed

2011-01-17T21:26:00.000-08:00

I'm playing Wednesday evening at Presentation House Studio with Dylan Van der Schyff (drums) and Clyde Reed (bass). I've known Dylan for over 20 years now. He was the drummer in a band called Sound and Fury that I co-led with Len Aruliah in the early 1990s. We worked together in a number of other ad-hoc musical situations around that time and then, in 1997, I left Vancouver for a few years and only saw Dylan on occasional visits back home. While I was away, Dylan kept very busy making very fine music with other great players all over Europe, the US and Canada. He is an extremely creative and intelligent musician with a tremendous capacity for listening and intense interaction. These are also qualities shared by Clyde Reed. When I moved back to Vancouver, I somehow started playing a bit with Clyde and now we have become very frequent collaborators in music, academic writing, and as co-presenters of the Presentation House Series. Clyde has been playing improvised music since before I was born and has turned out to be a very important mentor for me in many ways. I'm looking forward to continuing my musical explorations with Clyde and reconnecting with Dylan. Music starts at 8:30pm. Address is 333 Chesterfield St in North Vancouver. $8 at the door.

Collaboration with Jason Thornton

2011-01-10T10:55:00.000-08:00

I'm playing at Presentation House Studio this Wednesday evening with Dr. Jason Thornton. Jason is a very fine saxophonist and music educator from Sidney, Australia. He's up in these parts skiing with his family and enjoying what in Vancouver passes for a Canadian Winter. Jason contacted me through my website and we decided to set up a gig while he's here to try making some music. I just rehearsed yesterday with Jason and the band (Brent Gubbels on bass and Joe Poole on drums) and it looks like it will be a lot of fun. He has a very thick and warm sound, a very direct and emotional approach to the tunes, and seems comfortable playing just about anything. Like a lot of Australians I have known, Jason is a very friendly and gregarious type and seems really to enjoy life. On the gig we'll play a few standards, a few of my tunes, and do a little free playing as well.

I especially enjoyed hearing Joe and Brent yesterday. Their approach is very different from the players in my quartet, Stan Taylor and Al Johnston, but it is great to try some different sounds and grooves with such fine musicians. They are one of the best rhythm sections around and make it very easy to play music. Brent has one of the best upright bass sounds I have ever heard and seems to be able to amplify the instrument in a very 'transparent' way. Joe has recently acquired a bunch of cymbals that belonged to Elvin Jones and boy does Joe know how to make them sizzle. At the rehearsal he was playing the ride cymbal that we are fairly certain was played on Coltrane's "Crescent". For a Coltrane nut like me this was a magical sound and feeling!

Joe and Brent and I have been friends for years and they are also great guys off the bandstand. As I said in my last post, the friendship and community feeling with other players is one of the big rewards of being a musician. I really love the fact that the jazz tradition provides these opportunities to play with people from anywhere in the world with very little notice or rehearsal. People who have never met before can become fast friends in just one gig when the condifitons are right. I always enjoy making these connections with visiting musicians and when I'm abroad I do my best to do some playing. I'm looking forward to this one!

Influences

2011-01-08T12:12:00.000-08:00

I've been thinking a lot about how I have become the musician I am and what kind of musician I'd like to be.

with Len Aruliah at the The Cross Kings, Kings Cross, London.

Last week, I started writing arrangements of some tunes by my great friend, Len Aruliah, and it was very striking to me how much I had learned by playing his music. Though we have both had many important teachers, I came to the realization that Len and I really taught ourselves and each other to play by writing tunes for our various collaborative bands and playing a lot of gigs together. This was especially true when I was in my early twenties, but continues today. A lot of musicians talk about their influences only in terms of the famous musicians to whom they listen. This is quite right of course. My musical direction has been deeply affected by recordings by Jim Hall, John Coltrane, Django Reinhardt, Kenny Wheeler, and a big list of others. Nevertheless, it seems that the older I get, the more I see the influence of my friends as paramount for my musical growth.

This is quite a natural thing, I think, and very much a part of the jazz tradition. At my quartet gig this week, I really noticed how we are starting to play certain kinds of phrases and chords in more and more unified way. I'm not just talking about playing 'tighter' as a band, though that is part of it, but that our playing is actually influenced and developed by the music we have made together over the years. You notice this kind of thing in some families where certain unique phrases, expressions, or ideas are shared. I'm deeply grateful for the musical and personal influences of my musical family: Rob Kohler, Len Aruliah, Stan Taylor, Brad Muirhead, Clyde Reed, Daniel Heila, Al Johnston, Lorne Kellett, Joe Poole, Tim Barrett, Bill Clark, Dave Robbins, Al Matheson, Dave Branter, Coat Cooke, Hari Pal, Karen Graves, Tommy Babin, Stephen Robb, Curtis Andrews, Pepe Danza, Brent Gubbels, Ed Orgill, Kevin Hoferer, Sonya Lawson, Ross Bliss and so many others.

Jared Burrows Quartet Gig

2011-01-04T20:40:00.000-08:00

My quartet is playing tomorrow night at the Jazz at Presentation House Studio series in North Vancouver. The band is Lorne Kellett (piano), Allan Johnston (bass), Stan Taylor (drums) along with yours truly. We'll play my tunes and a few by the other band members.

This is an artist-run weekly series embracing the full spectrum of jazz and improvised music from trad to post-bop, free improv to world music fusions. Clyde Reed and I founded the series and do the booking. Presentation House Studio is an historic former church with excellent acoustics where the audience can be up close and personal with the musicians. The series has been running since April of 2009 and it is starting to become an important part of the scene here. I have really enjoyed playing with a lot of different people on the series and, equally, have enjoyed hearing some of the great bands that have come to play. Come on out!

333 Chesterfield Avenue (3rd St. one block west of Lonsdale)
North Vancouver
Wednesday, January 5, at 8:30pm.
Admission $8 at the door. Free tea and cookies.

New guitar finished!

2010-12-22T11:33:00.000-08:00

My latest guitar commission is finished and delivered. The happy owner is Keith Sinclair, a talented young guitarist in the 4th year of the Capilano Jazz Studies program. Keith is also a fine singer and performs with the acclaimed Chor Leoni men's choir. Here he is in my living room with the guitar:

The instrument was designed around Keith's ideas; essentially it is his dream guitar. I have taught him in several classes at Capilano so I had a pretty good idea of his playing style and the kinds of sounds he likes. The design is a semi hollow archtop with two humbucking pickups. The body is made of African Mahogany with a Sitka Spruce top. The unusual shape is very comfortable and ergonomic - especially for the right forearm. this was a significant concern for Keith and he is very pleased with the results so far.

I'm happy to have this one done as it took several months longer than I anticipated. My other jobs kept eating up the guitar building time. I have a few other commissions already but really won't have time to do anything about them until later in the spring. I also have a couple of classical guitars that I'm building just for fun. For now, I'm glad to be finished this one and eager to spend some time practicing over the Christmas break. I find all the fiddly work of polishing by hand, making nuts, tailpieces, and saddles, adjusting string height etc. is hard on my fingers and I want to get back in top playing form for post-Christmas gigs. (TBA soon)

Recordings online!

2010-12-13T13:54:00.000-08:00

There are some new recordings up at my website http://www.jaredburrows.com/

First is a very recent recording from July of this year and a band I'm calling "Delta Quartet". Several tracks from this session are up and ready for listening. Second is a 2009 recording from the Jared Burrows Quartet. The complete session is available online for FREE listening.

It seems that CD manufacturing is almost completely unnecessary except as a sort of fancy business or trading card for musicians. For the moment, I think it is important to get the music to the people so I've decided to just let folks listen to complete tracks for free at my website any time they feel like it. The sound quality of MP3s these days is quite good and just about everyone has a computer. I hope you enjoy listening.

Just go to http://www.jaredburrows.com/ and click on music and select JB Quartet or Delta Quartet to hear some tunes.

In other news...

I'm finished with most live performing now until after Christmas. Between teaching and playing, the last few months have been so intense that I just had to schedule a break for myself, though I won't be idle. Christmas break is typically a time for me to re-focus on my guitar building. I'm just finishing off a lovely semi-hollow electric guitar for local guitarist, Keith Sinclair. Three or four days more work should see it completed! Then I have some more electric guitar commissions to design and think about.

Gig tonight with The Offering of Curtis Andrews

2010-12-08T16:15:00.000-08:00

I have a gig at Presentation House Studio tonight with The Offering of Curtis Andrews. 8:30 downbeat, only $8 admission. 333 Chesterfield in North Vancouver.

Curtis is a fantastic percussionist/drummer/composer who has recently moved to Vancouver from Newfoundland. In fact, some of my father's ancestors and my wife's father's ancestors are from the same little town as the Andrews family, Port de Grave, Newfoundland. Perhaps we are very distantly related...

Curtis has studied south Indian and West African styles of drumming and he combines these with other influences from jazz, rock, etc into a wonderfully groovy polyrhythmic stew.

The band is a great group of players: Curtis (drum kit), Jack Duncan (percussion), Colin Maskell (saxes/flute), JP Carter (trumpet), Robin Layne (marimba), Tommy Babin (bass), and yours truly on guitar.

Here is a picture of Curtis in Ghana. He leads special trips to a little village called Dzogadze for people interested in learning about the music, dance, and cultural practices in this part of the world.

Keeping Up Appearances

2010-12-08T12:30:00.000-08:00

A week ago some of my students from Capilano University played an off-campus concert as part of a small ensemble class. In an email to them I suggested that everyone dress to show respect for themselves and their music. Only two of the six were not dressed in jeans. This is not the first time this has happened. My purpose is not to shame these guys for not dressing to my standards, but I am quite interested in the idea of how standards of dress and behaviour relate to music and performance.

When I was a young boy, two wonderful old ladies played a major role in my life: my maternal great grandmother, Frances Astbury, and her younger sister, my great-great aunt, Mabel Potter. Grandma and Auntie Mamie were, quite literally, from another era. They grew up around the turn of the 20th century in a tiny village in rural Kent without electricity or running water and had only minimal formal schooling. As soon as they were old enough to go out and work they did. Despite their humble circumstances, they somehow learned to speak the English language with impeccable grammar. They dressed with meticulous attention to detail with every article (no matter how old or worn) meticulously cleaned, pressed and mended. They behaved with immaculate good manners and a sense of personal dignity and propriety in all situations. Though I fall short of their examples in many ways, they certainly did instill in me a sense of what was 'proper'. My mother picked this up too. I remember going to see The Who (on their last big tour before Entwhistle died) and Mom scolding me for wearing jeans to a concert. My Grandfathers were also important sartorial influences. Grandpa Burrows was a self-made business man and wore a tie every day, only removing it for physical work in the garden. This kind of dress is much more rigorously formal than I can manage. Grandpa Tidmarsh has more of a thrift-store aesthetic and is not a tie-wearing type, but always has a fantastically creative combination of unusual shoes, coats and hats. I'll probably never match his fashion daring. From all these people I have somehow inherited some sense of the importance of keeping up appearances. To this day, I don't think I could bring myself to wear jeans to work or to leave the house without shining my shoes or ironing my shirt.

Some of you may think this is all just incredibly uptight and pointless, but I don't. I'm simply talking about clean clothes appropriate to the situation and a sense of respect for myself, my work, and the people with whom I interact. I don't think this requires a lot of money and I don't think it requires fancy things. Earlier this week I took some students to breakfast at Bon's, the famous greasy-spoon, all-day breakfast place at Broadway and Nanaimo. The crowd there, though sometimes diverse, tends to wear a carefully prescribed uniform of 'studied scruffiness'. It was clearly important to these folks to have the right amount of beard growth, the right rips in jeans of the correct brand, and toques of the correct size and shape pulled down to the eyes. From the smell of several people standing with us in the lineup for tables, washing seemed to be discouraged. Unfortunately, the 'marginal' position of jazz music in society seems to be influencing a new generation of young players to dress in a similar way to the Bon's crowd. They are creating a subculture that proclaims its own marginality in a self-perpetuating cycle.

For jazz musicians of bygone eras, the Brooks Brothers suit was the basic uniform for work. (Check out the MJQ at left) Think of Miles Davis, John Lewis, Duke Ellington and so many others in those photographs from the 1930s, 40s and 50s. Those guys looked good on stage and their appearance was only a tantalizing hint at their musical artistry. Miles famously said that he could tell how a musician would play just by looking at them and the way they dressed and carried themselves. Now the standard is quite different. I rarely see jazz musicians wearing suits or even jackets to a gig. Classical players, by contrast, have maintained a very high standard of concert dress. Classical players demand respect for themselves and their music through the way they dress, the venues in which they perform and the fees they demand for their services. There are notable exceptions in the jazz world today of course. Wynton Marsalis and his Linclon Center colleagues adopted early on the sophisticated and suave urban dress of their musical role models from the Blue Note era. John Pizzarelli similarly cops the 1940s crooner look to match his music, and some of the 'downtown' New York players are very much aware of the latest contemporary (even if casual) fashion trends.

Most of the players with who I perform do not dress up for a gig unless it is a 'formal' situation like playing at a hotel reception or a wedding (a type of performance which on the West Coast we ironically call a 'casual gig). I have never suggested (well, ok, maybe once or twice...) that people dress differently when they perform with me. I don't think it is my business to say so and, frankly, I care much more about musicians abilities than I do about their appearance. I'm also not suggesting that anyone should share my taste in clothing or that everyone should wear suits or jackets to gigs. I simply think that making music and performing in public is a very special activity and that some effort should be made to make one's dress and comportment reflect that. This could be accomplished in numerous ways without conforming to a specific, standard mode of dress. Take my friend Curtis Andrews as an example. Curtis is a wonderful drummer from Newfoundland who has studied music in Africa and India for many years. When we perform he wears a fantastically personal blend of African and Indian clothing which he has gathered on his travels. His appearance reflects the varied and colorful nature of his music. Talking of drummers, a few years ago I saw the wonderful Chicago drummer, Hamid Drake, perform at the Vancouver Jazz Festival. Drake walked out in a colorful ankle-length robe and this, combined with his large stature and tremendous pile of long black dreadlocks, made him look like some kind of African king from a storybook. His appearance was reflected in his incredibly powerful playing on that day. His mode of dress was thoroughly in keeping with his artistic greatness and I could feel that his visual impact had a palpable effect on the crowd.

Whether musicians like it or not, public performance does have a visual component. Even if it is "all about the music" for a musician, it will rarely, if ever be so for the audience. We live in a visual culture where subtle, subconscious messages are sent and received all the time through our dress, speech and manners. For musicians who are interested in elevating the status and importance of their music in our culture, I believe it is worth considering the content and the impact of the messages we are sending.

Dissonance

2010-12-05T13:59:00.000-08:00

Over the last 2000 years or so Western culture has been the incubator for the development of a system of tonal harmonic organization. Unlike many of the other great musical cultures in the world, Western European musicians and thinkers have spent a lot of time figuring out how to put together stacks of simultaneously sounding musical tones. That means that we have neglected a lot of other things of course, but that is the subject of another post.   Tonal harmony is based on the organization of consonant and dissonant collections of pitches.  Very simply put, consonant collections of pitches are ones that we feel are stable and dissonant ones need resolution to make them consonant.

The feeling of harmonic tension is established in two principle ways. First, it predominates in most of the music we hear in Western culture.  Most of us hear harmony even while in the womb. Second, there are actual physical processes involved in the perception of intervals and chords. In his book, "On the Sensations of Tone", Helmholtz described how consonant intervals like a fifth or fourth create simple vibrational modes int he eardrum. He said that we perceive these vibrational modes as having a smooth texture whereas dissonant intervals produce a feeling of roughness due to their more complicated vibrational patterns. These sensations of smoothness or roughness would therefore be independent of culture. If this interests you, read Helmholz.

Just as some people will learn to experience pleasure from bitter or sour flavours, human beings can learn to appreciate the complex sensations of dissonant intervals. In fact, without dissonance, tonal music would be very boring indeed. We use musical dissonance or harmonic tension to provide a sense of motion and progression. Tension helps us to go to interesting places and also to feel a need to return to a state of stability or consonance. In the past 150 years or so, musicians have increased their ability to deal with and accommodate dissonance in tonal music to the point where some people (probably a very small number in truth) will tell you that the ideas of dissonance and consonance don't mean anything anymore.

I could go on and on about this but really all of this talk has meant to prepare you, dear reader, to think about harmonic dissonance as an analogy. I have been thinking a lot about the idea of cognitive dissonance between ideas.  I am fascinated by the fact that people can entertain simultaneous thoughts or concepts which somehow contradict each other or which are in some degree in conflict. In other words, I think we are, almost by nature, a species of hypocrites. We espouse moral ideas which we do not live, we legislate laws which no one can obey, we harbour values and concepts which contradict each other. Philosophers often concern themselves with clarifying such tensions and popular culture abounds with advertisements for various schemes to find inner peace.

In my own life I experience various levels of ongoing cognitive dissonance. As a person who professes to be a Christian, I am keenly aware of the fact that my actions frequently betray my best intentions and fall short of my ideals for behaviour. I claim to value kindness, yet I have a deeply sarcastic streak. I claim to value mercy, yet I can be judgmental with my fellows. These are clear dissonances between moral ideals and daily action. These are dissonances that I seek to resolve through efforts to improve each day. These dissonances are a spur to change and which seem to be of a certain class; they make me uncomfortable and unhappy. To the degree which I can resolve them I seem to find more happiness.

There is another class of cognitive dissonances with which I am infinitely more comfortable and these are perhaps of a more rarefied type. For instance, though I have a great faith and appreciation for science and the power of the human intellect to apprehend its own experiences in the world, I seem to have a lot of experiences in my life which are not easily explained by intellect or observation. I am keenly aware of experiences which seem to transcend the objective. Abraham Heschel describes such experiences as encounters with the ineffable. For folk of religious faith, this is not so unusual.  There are of course many who do not believe that such experiences are anything more than fabrications and imaginings of the subconscious mind. On extreme ends of the spectrum there are religious folk who discount science as a poor substitute for faith and at the other end there are those who deny the possibility of anything beyond the objective. For people at these extremes, it seems to me that dissonance is unacceptable. It must be resolved and put to rest permanently.

Most people I know come down somewhere in the middle. For me, the dynamic interaction between faith and doubt, between the reliable methods of science and Heschel's experience of the ineffable is of great value. The dissonance in these ideas provides fuel for inquiry of various kinds. In "Israel and the World: Essays in a Time of Crisis", the Jewish philosopher (and Heschel's teacher), Martin Buber, suggests a view of religious faith (and doubt) which has a deep resonance for me as a way of relating to the cognitive dissonances I experience.  He helps to reinforce the idea that dissonance need not always be resolved, or at least that it need not be resolved permanently.

"Real faith does not mean professing what we hold to be true in a ready-made formula. On the contrary: it means holding ourselves open to the unconditional mystery which we encounter in every sphere of our life and which cannot be comprised in any formula. It means that, from the very roots of our being we should always be prepared to live with this mystery as one being lives with another. Real faith means the ability to endure life in the face of this mystery."

Music for me is an inquiry into mystery but not an inquiry which I hope ends in a comfortable and complacent truth.  It provides a very rich and complicated system of actions and interactions where we can explore seeming conflicts between dissonance and consonance. In my best musical experiences, the physical reality of sound and the tactile, tangible control of instruments and bodies interacts seamlessly with complex interpersonal   issues, the depths of human intellect and creativity and, in special moments, a brush with the ineffable. Dissonance keeps us searching, keeps us moving somewhere. We can learn to savour it and value it. The resolution of dissonance is not the end, but only a moment of calm and stability before motion begins again. Without dissonance and tension we have only stasis. An unending drone of boredom.

soundimagenet

2010-12-05T00:25:00.000-08:00

Last Wednesday I played a wonderful gig with Soundimagenet at Presentation House Studio. We also played a show at the Museum of Anthropology as part of the Man Ray exhibit there a few weeks ago and it was great.

Here's Krista amazing poster for the MOA gig:

This group is an interdisciplinary collaboration between video artist, Krista Lomax and musicians Carol Sawyer (voice), Clyde Reed (bass) and Gregg Simpson (drums). I have worked with a lot of great video artists and film makers in improvised music settings, but Krista Lomax really has the goods. She listens and improvises like a musician and, working through her laptop, has a virtuosic control over her incredibly diverse repertoire of evocative moving images. She is also a really friendly and fun person to work with. The musicians with whom I collaborate in this band are among the finest improvisers around. Clyde Reed and Gregg Simpson are real pioneers of improvised music in Canada and they play with a rare depth of feeling and incredible improvisation intuition. Carol Sawyer has an amazing ability not only with extended vocal techniques but also a rare talent for improvised 'dadaist' deconstructions of text and spontaneous poetry.
Like me, the musicians in the band also have 'other lives' outside music. Clyde is an emeritus professor of Economic History, Gregg is a world-renowned surrealist painter, and Carol works in various visual media from photography, to collage and painting. I think somehow this makes the music better and makes our collaboration with Krista work more smoothly somehow. I can't yet say for sure how or why this is. Maybe after a few more gigs I'll be able to understand better the nature of what we are doing. So far it just works on some kind of subconscious level. Fuji Mooney, a student from my FPA 140 class at SFU said that the music and video had a kind of "dream logic". The music and visual elements feed each other in a very natural way somehow without obvious surface connections. Now that we have played a few gigs together, I am starting to recognize elements of Krista's visual improvising 'vocabulary' and I think she must also recognize elements of our collective musical vocabulary. We haven't talked about this much, if at all. I always think it is a good sign when collaborative art can be made without a lot of talk.

Projects like this make me feel very happy and fortunate to live in Vancouver, which is absolutely loaded with very creative and talented people who are willing to try new things. There should be a video up soon with an example of our collaboration.

Let's Start at the Very Beginning

2010-12-04T23:55:00.000-08:00

Everyone seems to be writing a blog. Why not me? I suppose there is a small chance that I might think of something interesting, witty, or even worthwhile to say, something that someone would want to read. A lot of people say that I am a sort of 'renaissance man'. I do have a very full and rich life as a guitarist, composer, bandleader, university teacher, concert promoter, luthier, writer, husband and father. My students, colleagues, and other smart people who don't try to confuse themselves with such varied pursuits have often said that I should keep a diary of some of the things I do and see and think. maybe this will be it?

The great composer, John Cage, is reported to have said, "I have nothing to say and I am saying it." I have never really been able to identify with that idea. It is a sort of Zen fib really isn't it? In some ways I feel it is quite an egotistical thing to imagine that anyone else would be interested in reading anything I throw out into cyberspace, but then I remember that has never stopped me before in other situations. This kind of 'ego projection' is essential to being a musician or a writer and I've been both for quite a while now. It really boils down to having the confidence that people will want to hear what you have to say. Perhaps this blogging activity will be another avenue of performance for me.