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Volume 13 - Issue 6 - March 2008

Jazz Notes CONTINUED

Jazz Notes CONTINUED FROM PREVIOUS PAGEevidenced by the fact that his greatest influence was trumpeter/arranger Buck Clayton.He hand-picked the musicians for "The Clear Wind Dance Band"and his goal was not just to play jazz, but to create Chinese Jazz,introducing elements of Chinese songs. This offended his many criticseven more and they declared his music "decadent" especiallysince it was being played in night clubs! But for a number of yearsthrough the 30s and 40s jazz enjoyed something of a heyday in Shanghai.Eventually, political upheavals and the "cultural revolution"meant the end of Shanghai's nightlife. Clubs were closed and jazzwas not only labeled as "indecent", it was outlawed.It was to be 25 years before jazz would be officially allowed inShanghai and another 25 years before it would once again enjoy adegree of real resurgence.Note: "Shanghai Shuffle" was first recorded by Fletcher Hendersonand his orchestra in 1924.Worth NotingThe jazz listings of this issue are comprehensive as ever, but thereare a couple of upcoming events I would mention.Chick Corea will be at Massey Hall on March 5 and The YorkUniversity Jazz Festival will take place from March 17-20 with 6concerts and close to 20 ensembles showcasing the talents of studentsand faculty. The performances are free and include presentations bysmall ensembles on the March 17, jazz choirs and small ensembleson the March 18, Jazz Vocal Ensemble and small groups on theMarch 19 and York University Jazz Orchestra also on March 19.Please check the listings for details of these and the other jazz happeningsaround Toronto this month.Have a good month and make sure you hear some live jazz.Saturday March 15Music Gallery presentsROB MacDONALD,guitar+ THE PARKDALEREVOLUTIONARYORCHESTRAA Newest of the New-Musicscene double billCelebrating the relaunch ofwww.rnusicgallery.orgBpm • / member/ studentSaturday March 8DIAPASON"The Slow Monument of Sound"Sunday March 30NEXUS PERCUSSIONwith Lydia Wong + Midori KogaSunday April 6LIGHT TRAPby Greg Pope + Knurlpart of the Images FestivalNew MusicBY RICHARD M ARSELLAMy good friend Mendelson Joe calls broccoli "little trees. " Joe eatsbroccoli nearly every day. It' s good for us. I was raised on broccoliand Italian pop music. It was only in university that I took a verykeen interest in modern music.Lately, I've been comparing new music, that is, music written bymodern, mostly living composers, to broccoli. Our society seems tohave spun modern music to be a difficult listen, unpopular, maybeeven ugly to some. Hogwash. It's the same as broccoli. When I wasa kid, I hated it. I was more interested in McDonalds or a good JoeLouis than a mere piece of broccoli. Luckily, my parents saw thevalue in maintaining a healthy diet for me. Now that I'm older, I seethe value in broccoli myself, as my parents removed the trainingwheels on my eating habits. The same applies to how we developour childrens' hearing habits. If we feed them new music-musicthat makes you think and challenges you from several perspectiveseventuallymodern music will become something that does not needto be force-fed.I present to you dear reader: a menu of cultural relevance. T hefollowing is the stuff you simply cannot do without:On March 2 at 3pm the great Canadian composer John Beckwithwill premiere his piece Derailed at the Mississauga Living Arts Centre.This new "sound documentary" commissioned from the MississaugaChoral Society is based on the 1979 train derailment in Mississauga.This disaster was considered the largest civil evacuation inNorth America, before the 2005 Katrina disaster in New Orleans.The piece incorporates found text from interviews, radio and printmedia reports, and is scored for singing choir, speaking choir, andpercussion.Luckily that concert is during the day, so you can also get to theJane Mallett Theatre for 8pm, as the Esprit Orchestra present "Offthe Edge", their 25th anniversary season. This debut Esprit concertof 2008 will include an impressive program of pieces by ClaudeVivier, Harry Somers, Philip Cashian, Ron Ford, and DouglasSchmidt.From the magical sewers of Parkdale comes one of the finest newvenues in Toronto (so new that you won 't find it in WholeNote's listingsyet!). Somewhere There is run by composer/trombonist ScottThomson. The venue is run by artists, for artists, and the celebra-.,~~I MICHEL GONNEVILLEMichel Gonneville and his Proteges I Friday March 7, 2008 8pmGilbert I Ristic I Cote I Frechette I McKinley I Collado I G~nnevilleGlenn Gould Studio I 250 Front Str~et West I 416.205.5955~~I PREMIERES + THE JULES LEGER PRIZE *Premieres I Friday April 11 , 2008 8pmAlice Ho I So Jeong Ahn I CP Hamon * I Rodney Sharman I Juan TrigosGlenn Gould Studio 11 250 Front Street West I 41 6.205.5555www.NewMusicConcerts.comnmc info 416 .961.95941 nmc@interlog.comthe Music Gallery• 197 John St., Toronto ON, MST 1X6416-204-1080 • www.musicgallery.org.., ~~· ~_!;'- ~or.~~,=~! t!_=OUO~II "'::~~~D';';:;,nlu.,: 1 :'.,~,.u:,;: ••• ~=~:.;:" ~::.::" SOc~.f\JB1P, Canada Council Conseil des Arts J)A_ ONTARIO ARTS COUNCIL~ for the Arts du Canada )Lo\ CONSEIL DES ARTS DE L'ONTARIOto r on t d a rt s b o u n c i IAn arm 's lonnth body of I h o C i1~· of Toron?cnonHe 1NsmurTORONJO24 WWW . TH EWHOLENOTE. 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Robert Aitken conducts small NMC Ensembletion of the most cutting-edge music in the city. This month's programmingat Somewhere There is typically diverse, and highlightsinclude the Wednesday night residency by Ronda Rindone's Quorumin March and April, and the Association of Improvising Musicians'Toronto (AIMToronto) Interface Series with renowned Montrealbasedviolin virtuoso and composer Malcolm Goldstein from March7 to the 9. Each night of the Interface Series with Goldstein willfeature a different group performing his text-based and graphicscores: The found-and invented-instrument trio, Odradek; Joe Sorbara'seight-piece improvising chamber group, Ensemble for Now;and the seventeen-piece AIMToronto Orchestra under the directionof Kyle Brenders. More info: www.somewherethere.org .When you witness a performance at Somewhere There, you willcertainly appreciate the intimacy of the venue. Similarly, pianist AdelaideBell presents an ongoing intimate concert series from herhome at 4 Dominion Road in Etobicoke. On April 6, the all-Canadiancomposer program will showcase the profound work of Canadiancomposer Oskar Morawetz, featuring Susan Spier on violin, alongwith works for piano, voice and violin by Gallant, Dela, ConwayBaker and Beckwith.New Music Concerts continues its 37th season with a concertdedicated to Canadian music, spotlighting the brilliant Montreal composerMichel Gonneville and a group of his proteges from the Conservatoirede Musique in Montreal, where he teaches. The evenmgfeatures two of Gonneville 's most significant compositions (LeCheminement de la Baleine for solo clarinet, ondes Martenot andlarge ensemble, and Perdre la trace, suivre le fil for string quartet),new works by award-winning composers Benoft Cote, Nicolas Gilbert,Andre Ristic and Frans Ben Callado-written especially for theoccasion-as well as Charles-Antoine Frechette's Purete violee andMaxime McKinley's Wirkunst-Nijinski. The Accordes string quartetshares the stage with soloists Max Christie on clarinet, Jean Laurendeau(ondes Martenot) and the New Music Concerts Ensemble underthe direction of Robert Aitken, who is also the soloist in Jules­Leger Prize laureate Andre Ristic's Partita for amplified flute andlive electronics.HOLD YOUR NEXT RECITAL-hcliconian hallA beautiful restored Carpenter's Gothic board and batten churchbuilding in the heart ofYorkville can be rented at reasonablerates for musical events. Steinway Grand piano included.A high, vaulted ceiling provides excellent concert-hall acoustics.Capacity up to 120. Tel: 416-922-3618 Fax: 416-922-2431www.heliconianclub.orgrentals~lheliconianclub.orgOn March JO at 7pm, New Music Concerts and the Goethe Institutpresent an An Intimate Evening with German Avant-garde composerDieter Schebel at Gallery 345. On March 11 , Schebel will also givea lecture/demonstration on his Symphony X at the U of T's Facultyof Music.The very powerful imagery evoked from the seven last words thatJesus spoke has inspired several masterpieces, including Russiancomposer Sofia Gubaidulina's Seven Words for cello, bayan, andstring orchestra. On March 16, 2pm at St. Anne's AnglicanChurch, Soundtreams proudly presents Gubaidulina's Seven Wordsand Canadian composer Paul Frehner's contemporary setting forsoloists, chamber choir and strings.Again too recently spawned to make the WholeNote listings, laterthat night, at 7:30pm in Victoria College Chapel, as part of theUniversity of Toronto's debut Festival of the Arts, FoMenTs,emerging improv ensemble of the Faculty of Music, joins AparnaHalpe, a Sri Lankan poet living in Canada, to present selectionsfrom Halpe's portrait cycle, "Subway Diaries." As part of the sameprogram, Red Doors is Christopher Willes's newest work which .blends sculpture, electronics and installation art with new compositionalpractices. This piece was created as part of a "Transgressionsin Art" course taught by Atom Egoyan. More info:www .arts. utoronto .ca/artfest08. htmToca Loca, moody alt-sinogoth media darlings, are playing theironly Toronto show on March 25, 8pm, at the Glenn Gould Studio,presented by CBC's Canada Live. Their P*P Project is currentlytouring Canada, and will include p*p-flavoured work from hardcorenew music composers like Andrew Staniland and Veronika Krausas,jazz composers like Quinsin Nachoff and Andrew Downing (2004Juno Winner) and indie-rockers like Nicole Lizee (2007 PolarisNominee - Besnard Lakes).From March 5 to the 16, check out the new audio-visual installationBreath Control by composer Darren Copeland. There are twocomponents to the work: the breath of the artist and the breath ofthe visitor both of which control the sound environment of the installation.Breath Control will be installed at Gallery 1313 in Toronto.More info can be found at www.darrencopeland.netContinuum Music Ensemble present a Sunday afternoon concertat the ROM on March 23. Continuum wi ll also perform on Sunday,April 20 at the Music Gallery, performing works by Czech-CanadianRudolf Komorous and new works by Gyula Csapo, CassandraMiller and Justin Christensen. Music of sparseness, intensity andrestraint.Indian musician Ustad Shahid Parvez has been acknowledged byPandit Ravi Shankar as one of the finest sitar players alive, and thetorchbearer for the current generation. The concert on April 5 at theU of T's Medical Science Auditorium is not to be missed.If you are not in the Toronto area and seek a varied musical diet,note that NUMUS, one of Canada' s foremost new music societies,presents a three-day mini-festival of turntablism at the Starlight Clubin Waterloo from March 13 to 15 . Hats off to Waterloo for takingmusical risks ...Richard Marsella is the Ontario Regional Director for the CanadianMusic Centre and composer for the modern music ensemble TheLollipop People.~ Long & McQuade.,. {J I ( / /{/A seri es of free career-enhancing clinics specifi cally tail ored tothe needs of musicians, so ngwriters, producers and home studio enthusiasts.During the month of March at all lo cal L&M locations.Visit www.long-mcquade.com for clinic and registration informatio n.I~';>~~~ 1 ~?au~d;w w w. Ion g - m c quad e. co mMARCH 1 - APRIL 7 2008 WWW. THEWHOLENOTE.COM 25

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