Gloria Blizzard and Jesse Ryan talk on saving calypso; fiftieth anniversary reprise of the Frog Bog sound walk (bet no-one's said that before!); Gregory Oh on the necessity of failure and curatorial choices that break down barriers; fanfares for an uncommon man at the RCM; and festivals galore in our 20th annual summer green pages; plus a summer's worth of music in our listening room. All this and more!
post-concert crowd
post-concert crowd retired to Koerner Hall’s glass-enclosed second floor lobby bar for good cheer and the musical offerings of guitarist Michael Occhipinti and his terrific group, the unifying and efficacious results of Simon’s articulated values and vision were on full display. “It comes down to will. I am 100% for music and for the arts, the thirst for excellence in that [domain] and my belief in its power. On this I will rarely, if ever, compromise in any way. In terms of programming philosophy, there is always a balance of things that is required, of course, but excellence is always number one. Because otherwise…why?” Important final words indeed. Not only in relation to the May 23 event, but for the RCM that, starting in September, must continue under the leadership of Simon’s successor Alexander Brose (who on the night proved himself, in equal parts, both a capable singer and potentially charismatic fundraiser, with On the Street Where You Give – a craftily manipulated version of Lerner and Loewe’s timeless lyric) to reach out to the larger society that exists beyond the confines of the RCM’s hallowed and historic Bloor Street walls. SOUND ART Andrew Scott is a Toronto-based jazz guitarist (occasional pianist/singer) and professor at Humber College, who contributes regularly to The WholeNote’s DISCoveries record reviews. MY PIECE OF THE CITY A scene from the Regent Park musical The Journey Daniel Taylor My Piece of the City is a new program that assists small cultural organizations and individual artists financially, helping them present concerts and events in Koerner Hall. It's an initiative of The Royal Conservatory of Music, in partnership with The Daniels Corporation, inspired by a desire to foster inclusivity, diversity, and equitable access. Full details are available at rcmusic.com/ performance/my-piece-of-the-city. Applications opened May 15, 2024 and will close July 1, 2024 for projects, events and concerts occurring between September 1, 2024 and August 31, 2025. Songs from The Journey is a new theatrical production that will debut on June 20, 2024 at 8pm in Koerner Hall and will raise funds for this program. With narration, spoken word, music, and dance it features the greatest hits from a musical called The Journey which was performed at Daniels Spectrum in Regent Park between 2013 and 2018 that chronicled the transformation of Regent Park into a vibrant, thriving community. An homage to the resilience of the Regent Park community, this new production reflects the profound impact of community involvement in shaping the future of urban spaces. Fifty Years of Frog Bog Soundwalk Soothing Whispers of Nature: Sounding Ontario Spring Wetlands ANDREW TIMAR Beginning in the early 1970s I began a series of nature sound-walks, field expeditions, interspecies sonic meditations, explorations and mediated threshold music performances. They eventually coalesced under the banner “Frog Bog.” Its novelty attracted media attention back then. I took musicians on Frog Bog sound fieldwalks, and played my field recordings in concert halls in music and modern dance settings. Excerpts found their way onto albums, like the 1981 Jon Hassell and Brian Eno track These Times. After several dormant decades, overlapping impulses and emerging research reactivated my interest in the Frog Bog. For example, in his best-selling 2005 book Last Child in the Woods… American journalist Richard Louv coined the phrase “Nature-Deficit Disorder” for what he deemed “human costs of alienation from nature.” He’s been pointing ever since to research on attention disorders, obesity, a dampening of creativity and depression as problems associated with a nature-deficient childhood (and adulthood). Concerned by shrinking Ontario Greenbelt wetlands, eager to get back to the rich sounds of nature in the springtime and inspired by 16 | June, July & August, 2024 thewholenote.com
DEWI MINDEN L to R: “Jamming at the Frog Pond” (Ann Farrell in the Sunday Star, May 28, 1978) If memory serves, the journalist conducted the interview in Queen’s Park, the Star photographer asking me to pose against a large tree. Yes, that’s a toy frog on my right shoulder. No, I don’t play the clarinet, it was a prop. Playing suling gambuh at Frog Bog Soundwalk Presquile Provincial Park, May 2024 renewed interest in the soundscape projects I inaugurated five decades ago, I decided to go back into the field and get my boots and ears wet again. This time out I chose to sound out the state of frog population choruses along the shores of Lake Ontario’s Presqu’ile Provincial Park during the height of the spring mating season. According to Brighton, ON composer and musician Graham Flett, frog groups throughout the area were already vocally active in April – historically a week or two early. Was this yet another local reflection of global warming? On two consecutive early May Sundays, along with intrepid colleagues Graham Flett and Dewi Minden, I led Frog Bog Soundwalks at three secluded sites. The evenings were peaceful, dark, cool, misty, foggy – decidedly frog-friendly conditions. We encountered no fellow humans. Dewi captured the look and sound of our first exploratory Frog Bog Soundwalk in this suitably dark video clip. WESTBEN CELEBRATING 25 YEARS OF MUSIC IN NATURE SUMMER FESTIVAL June 14 to August 4, 2024 26 concerts of jazz, broadway, pop, rock, classical and artists from Alderville and Curve Lake First Nations Getting ready for the 50th anniversary Frog Bog Soundwalk DEWI MINDEN Jeremy Dutcher & Forest Bathing July 6 Angela Hewit July 18 At the second event I was inspired to play suling gambuh (long, low bamboo ring flute from Bali, Indonesia) and other sound makers in response to the sonic beauty all around: sunset bird calls and swirling frog choruses. It’s a kind of interspecies sonic performance I’ve dubbed “music-adjacent.” While Graham played melodica in the spirit of Threshold Music, Dewi made documentary audio recordings and stills. To my surprise they’ve garnered interest in unexpected places. On my personal Facebook page Indonesian musician Tatang Sobari said the video clip reflects, “…a truly extraordinary natural music. Negative murmurs which defeat the soul disappear, replaced by soothing whispers of natural music.” Mexican modern dancer Marina Acevedo exclaimed, “…what a great sensation arises in the body from that unique and diverse sound environment!” While my awareness of and interaction with what I call Frog Bog extends just over 50 years, the phenomenon itself has been a regular feature of our Southern Ontario spring soundscape for at least 4,000. As Acevedo cannily observed, such rich sonic environments are experienced by the entire body as we walk through it with care and respect. We listen with all our senses, with everything that makes us human - with an awareness of all our relations and our responsibility to uphold them. Andrew Timar is a musician, composer, music journalist and sound explorer with curious ears. Active in and outside Toronto since the 1970s, he has recently been nominated for the Anugerah Kebudayaan Indonesia award for four decades of service to Indonesian music in Canada. New Zealand String Quartet July 19 & 20 Colin Ainsworth & New Zealand String Quartet July 2 Gerald Finley July 31 Sarah Slean July 21 Jackie Richardson & Joe Sealy present Africville Stories August 4 FOR INFORMATION & TICKETS VISIT WESTBEN.CA CAMPBELLFORD, ON thewholenote.com June, July & August, 2024 | 17
