May 27th concert. I've
May 27th concert. I've listened to just about ii.ll of Monk's major recordings and a good portion of other folks who've covered his tunes. Gennaro' s drumming made me sit up and take notice. An indle rock b;ickground has also given Gennaro organizational skills and determination that are not as prevalent as one would like in art music circles. Simply put, rock musiciaIV> don't wait for government grants. They make things happen. If a loft concert series doesn't work out at the Victory Cafe, he will make it happen at ARRA YMUSIC. If it doesn't work there, then he'll · find somewhere else. It will happen. The art music world could use more Mike Gennaros. By Wally Wood · Emilie-Claire Barlow has ' to be the best-kept-secret jazz chanteuse in Canada, but not secret fot much longer, I'll bet. She is singing at Toronto's Rex Hotel on June 21 and 22 as part of the JVC Jazz Festival, and has other jazz engagements in Ottawa and Torontp in JUiy. She has also just released her second CD, called Tribute backed on the CD by Toronto musicians Tom Szczesniak, Rob Piltch, Scott _ Alexander, Brian Barlow, Russ Little, John Johnson, Guido . · Basso, Steve McDade and the late Moe Koffman. The CD is a tribute to, among others, Antonio Carlos Jobim, another late Brazilian ~usician, Manfredo Fest, Ella Fitzgerald, Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn. Emilie's father, Brian .. Barlow, is at the heart of her . career, as drummer, arranger, promoter and friend. _Brian Barlow, who was known in a previous inc(\rnation as Brian Leonard, was a longtime member of the superlative Toronto-based aggregation, the Boss Brass, and was the Jazz Report's 1999 Percussionist of the Year. ' "Brian is a musician's musician, and a fabulous arranger," says Guido Basso, himself a fabulous horn player, Chasing the Music 36 wholenote JuNE 1, 2001 - JuLv 7, 2001 of annual festival pumps concerts per year. It's a big help, ln quantitative terms, Toronto's inspiration and energy into the but no.t enough to carry the day. I New Improvised Music is local scene, but the prime need is percolating quite actively. But for venues which function year- There are two other steady gigs: the scene is constrained by a lack round. Mike Gennaro's Friday night of stable, central venues. The 1 The timing of the Music series at ARRA YMUSIC's studio · music is there, but you have to Gallery's callous eviction from its '.in the We'st End loft district, and pay attention and sometimes. central location was especially · Eugene Martynec's Sunday night venture to out of the way places egregious for improvised new series at the Artword Theatre. in or,der to check things out. music in this city. The improv Then there are more sporadic The crown jewels among the scene hadjust developed to a events at places like Clinton's Golden Horseshoe region's New point where central location and Tavern, the Art Bar, and Blue Improvised Music venues are, visibility were needed to help Moon. Attending the two steady respectively, the Guelph Jai:z take things on to a new stage. gigs on a regular basis would Festival and the Music Gallery. Now that the Music Gallery is provide a solid sampling of The Guelph Festival, which takes settling down in St. George-the- Toronto's Eliroimprov musicians. place September 5-9 this year, is Martyr Anglican Church, there That would be less the case for one of the best festivals of its will be an opportunity to. make up the jazz side of things. The type in North America. The for lost time. Roughly a quarter closest place to get a semi-regular artistic director, Ajay Hebble, of the Gallery's concerts present dose of avant-garde jazz is the presents a fu\l range of ~minent a gamut of music ranging from Hallwalls Contemporary Arts new music improvisers from both avant-garde jazz to Euroimprov. sides of the Atlantic. This kind This amounts to aro~nd 20 Musicians in Our Midst ~ith a unique flugelhorn sound, a . at two, then the member of the Order of Canada, violin, then the et al. cello then the "And Emilie is something special (as a singer)," says Basso. "She has a great voice and is a consummate musician. She sings in nine, and her phrasing is impeccable. Plus, she also . happens to be a wonderful young woman. I feel as pr,oud of her as a grandfather might," he adds. Count him among a growing number of her fans. There are deep roots to the E-C Barlow musical family tree. Ht~r pure voice may have come in the genes. Her two grandmothers were professional.singers in ToroJ:!tO. Her mother Judy Tate, was with a Canadian institution, the Laurie Bower Singers. Her father has long been a high profile musician in Toronto. And the late Bob Homme, television's Friendly Giant, was Emilie's step-grandfather. Now Emilie, 25 on June 6, stands, unaffectedly, on the edge of something big. 'She feels as though she has been in the music business forever already. Recording jingles a:s a seven-year-old, she was scared to talk, but eager to sing. "I can't remember a time when I couldn't read music," she says. She was playing the piano clarinet, then the trombone. But her · main instrument is a focused voice with the capability - lyrically slow and eye-opening fast - to leave even hard-nosed Toronto musicians entranced. Father Barlow, her most enthusiastic fan says that she is the hardest working · musician he has ever known. ·Music has surrounded Emilie virtually all her life, from support at home and particularly supportive teachers at school, to playing Anne in Anne of Green Gables in Grade 7, to Bob Homme (with Rusty the Rooster and Jerome the Giraffe) additig endless adventure on his 100-acre farm near Toronto. Emilie remembers sitting in a tree-house there, where she could "see the whole world." Emilie has been a member of ACTRA sinee the age of seven. She went to the Etobicoke School for the Arts, in Toro~to, then Center in Buffalo. • studied voice, music theory and arranging at Toronto's Humber College, and then decided simply "to get out there and do it!" She ·has sung at virtually all the top jazz spots in Toronto, including the Montreal Bistro, the Rex Hotel, the Ontario Science Centre and at the Jazz Report A wards at the downtown Holiday Inn. in downtown Toronto. Catch her at the Rex Hotel on June 21 and.22; at the Ottawa • Jazz Festival on July 15; at Toronto's Montreal Bistro ori July 19, 20 and 21 and at Toronto"s Beaches Jazz Festival on July 28.
IMPORTANT NO.'J'lCE?·' Strad Various Ltd., a division of Remenyi Music, has managed the Royal Conservatory Music Bookstore since 1991 as their print music division. Effective April 1st, 2001 we will relocate from the Conservatory Building to our main premises across the street at 210 Bloor Street West COMBll\JtN0 ALL oua. DIVISIONS t.YNOBR ONE Roen~ f 1or a Mtt1Sl¢ Store hike No Other - fi.ne .Hringtd tutrunenu itelQWay Piano ijaUuy Htii< .BOOkUQ.U and "ffU)lki.i\l"(hllaren'1 Ruh Hilrt Remenyi House of Music 2.10 BLOOR STREET WE.ST (iµstW .PfAven.ue Rd.) Tel.: 4.16.96L3111 ""'"''-v.remen,ytco.m
