Merci, monsieur Truffaut.

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

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

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.