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Jazz.fm Youth Big Band at Jazz Lives 2012
Michael plays in the Jazz.fm Youth Big Band, an educational outreach program of Jazz.fm, the not-for-profit all-jazz station here in Toronto. A couple of weeks ago they played a set in the big annual fundraising drive, Jazz Lives, to a sold-out crowd Koerner Hall, the biggest venue they've ever played.
Here's a 12-minute video describing the goals and accomplishments of this wonderful ensemble of young musicians.
Jazz FM 91.1 is my go-to radio station in the car, which is pretty much the only time I have the radio on. They broadcast in the GTA and northern New York, and stream online around the world. Their fundraising drive is almost over, and while I miss the music, it's fantastic to hear where people are calling in from. Jazz stations are slowly disappearing...there's no all-jazz format in London (UK), Chicago or Philadelphia. Today there was a caller from Israel donating in the name of her father. This station is accessible to anyone with an internet connection and brings jazz lovers from all over the world together, and showcases a ton of Toronto and Canadian talent. Their educational outreach is the way they hope to build the audience of the future.
Seven Quick Takes Friday
- It's been a tough week. I surrendered our dog, Wilson, to Toronto Animal Services yesterday after a biting incident earlier this summer. He's a terrier mix, with a lot of Jack Russell in him, and he charged and bit a letter carrier after he got off-leash. It was a horrible accident (although the bite was a minor injury), but I realized that his behaviour was too unpredictable for us to manage. Every visitor to our house was a stress. We have no yard at our current home, unlike when we adopted him in Georgia, and even with 3-4 walks a day, we were unable to provide him with sufficient opportunities to burn off energy. I've been weepy all week, and broke down at the shelter when I took him in. My greatest hope is that they can find a home for him where he will be able to be the dog that he is. I can't really say any more.
- I got my hair cut after my trip to Animal Services yesterday. It felt kind of like mourning, but at the same time a fresh start. It's shoulder length and layered a bit. And I feel so silly writing about it now.
- Last night, we attended the Season Opener for the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, a wonderful program including Tchaikovsky's Romeo and Juliet Fantasy Overture, and a commission from Toronto Composer Larysa Kezmenko called Behold the Night, based on a Midsummer's Night Dream. The second half was William Walton's Henry V: A Shakespeare Scenario featuring actor Christopher Plummer (who also arranged this work) reciting parts of the play from memory. Walton scored Larurence Olivier's film Henry V, from which this work is derived. It was spectacular, and great finish to what had been a very sad day. The evening was capped by the TSO's after party featuring the Heavyweights Brass Band in the lobby of Roy Thomson Hall.
- Z and I head to Orlando on Sunday where he is attending a conference and I will take five days to relax in the sun. I was able to score a very cheap flight and there's no upcharge for me to stay at the (very nice) hotel hosting the conference.
- Michael auditioned for and was accepted into the Hannaford Youth Band and Jazz.fm Youth Big Band, both of which he played in last year. These ensembles are wonderful ways for him to get experience performing repertoire on both the tube (Hannaford) and bass trombone (Jazz.fm) and I'm pleased that he'll be playing with them again this year.
- While we were downtown yesterday, we picked up tickets for Noel Coward's Private Lives, now in previews at the Royal Alexandra. Starring Paul Gross and Kim Cattrall, it's been getting a lot of positive buzz. Mirvish is also bringing War Horse to Toronto in the new year and I'm looking forward to that as well.
- Friends from our parish were featured on the front page of the Star this week. John and Kathleen Rudolph are both professional musicians. John is Principal Percussionist with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and Kathleen teaches flute at the Glenn Gould School and University of Western Ontario. Kathleen and I are altos in the parish choir, and Kathleen often fills in on the organ. Their daughter, Theresa, was just hired by the TSO, their first parent-child pair. The piece in The Star is lovely and worth a read.
More Quick Takes over at Conversion Diary.
My father and the Ozark Rambler
I've been browsing through a box of old photos from my father's mother. I've been through them many times before, but these caught my eye and I'm trying to follow up on them.
The first is of my father, Franklin Berkman, who would have been six years old.
The second has some writing on it. It says "Bunny's girl Gloria Jane and the Ozark Rambler of KMBC Radio on the roof of Pickwick Nov 8/30." Bunny was the name that my grandmother called my father all his life. I have no idea who Gloria Jane is.
I did some online searching and determined that KMBC (now KMBZ) joined CBS in 1928 and moved to the 11th floor of Kansas City, Missouri's Pickwick Hotel in 1930 (Reference)
[Image courtesy of CardCow.com.]
All I've been able to find out about the Ozark Rambler is from some photos on the site of the Kansas City Public Library's Missouri Valley Special Collections. I haven't received permission to reproduce images here, but you can go to the links to check them out.
Ozark Rambler (second from left) with touring cast of Happy Hollow Gang outside Pickwick Hotel. The Happy Hollow gang performed a radio show that was a precursor to the Beverly Hillbillies.
Informal group portrait of "Ozark Rambler" (left), Brookings Montgomery, and others.on roof of Pickwick Hotel.
I'm not sure what my father was doing in Kansas City. He was born in Regina Saskatchewan in 1924 and by 1934 he was living in Ottawa. His father David had a fur shop in Regina until 1930 and then owned dress and hat shops in Ottawa where his mother Vera worked. His parents eventually divorced and I never met David, but Vera married Maurice Winer and they were known as Grandma and Grandpa Winer.
[Update Aug 18: A check of my family history records reminded me that one of Vera's younger sisters, Lally, had married a KC man named Conrad Orloff in1929 and so Vera was very likely visiting her.]
Anyway, I'd love to hear from anyone who knows anything about the Ozark Rambler in 1930s Missouri. Or recognizes Gloria Jane.
Seven Quick Takes Friday
- The boys are both away from home this week and it's been nice, in a wierd kind of way. Alex is up at the cottage witih his girlfriend and they're due back sometime today. Michael is working at the Toronto District School Board's Music by the Lake camp for elementary school students. He's a junior staff assistant, asked to work sort of last-minute-ish as they needed a trombone player. From the few texts we've received, it sounds like he's having a good time. We'll pick him up tomorrow around noon and then he needs to study for his exams next week.
- Saw the absolutely thrilling production of Alice in Wonderland last night at the National Ballet of Canada. I'm not a big ballet afficianado...I've only ever been to The Nutcracker (multiple times, from childhood) but this got such raves that I thought it was worth checking out. I'm a convert! Originally a production of the Royal Ballet, it's full of surprises with stunning sets, props, and effects, and the score by Joby Talbot is terrific.<Image courtesy of National Ballet>
- Saw an old friend from high school on Wednesday evening. It's been years, yet we fell into conversation as if it had been a few days. Isn't it wonderful how that happens? I'll see her again tonight as we're both attending Verdi's Un Ballo in Maschera, courtesy of Opera By Request, in which a mutual friend (also from high school) is singing.
- The annual Luminato Festival starts this weekend and we've actually lined up tickets to some events this year! On our calendar:
- One Thousand and One Nights, a new theatrical production of these Arabic folktales. It's actually being staged in two three-hour segments, but we'll see one of them.
- We tried to get tickets to hear Lebanese author and creator of the script for 1001 Nights Hanan al-Shayk, but they were sold out. I'm hoping maybe they'll repeat the event.
- Next weekend, we'll see "a raw and shocking re-imagination of Racine’s classic play [Andromache] from provocative Scottish director Graham McLaren." Z studied the play in school, but I am completely ignorant, so I should probably do a little reading about it ...
- I'm keen to take in the free installation by architect Philip Beesley called Sargasso. It was at the Vienna Biennale. There's a little promo video about it at the link that's well worth a watch.
- Next Friday is a free outdoor concert in David Pecaut square featuring kd lang. Yay!
Can you see why I love Toronto?! - Next Thursday, I'm heading to Stratford with two gal pals to see Seana McKenna in Richard III. As Richard III. The play did NOT get great reviews, but I'm looking forward to it nonetheless.<Image courtesy Stratford Shakespeare Festival>
- Our garden is actually looking somewhat acceptable this summer. There is still a whole section to tidy up, but I've started putting mulch down after I pull weeds, and the grass seed I picked up at Costco on the spur of the moment is doing really well in filling in some of the patchiness of the lawn. Being on a corner lot, everuthing is basically exposed, so it's been kind of embarrassing to have this wild and wooly thing happening on our property.
- Just finished a terrific book, Brooklyn
, by Colm Toibin. It's the story of a young Irish woman in the 50s who emigrates to Brooklyn and finds herself stuck
between her old and new lives. It's a compelling portrait of that time, relations between Irish, Italians, Jews, and African-Americans in this bustling city of immigrants. As a genealogist, it gave me some insight into what it must have been like for single women to come to the "new world" for a better life, without family, having to make new friends and find their way on their own (or, as in this case, with help from her parish priest.) I highly recommend this quick read.
- Bonus: I am desperately trying to break my habit of putting two spaces after a period. There has been so much mockery of old-school people like me who were taught that in the last century, and it's terribly ingrained. But I'm trying.
Visit Jennifer over at Conversion Diary for more Quick Takes!
Sheet Music and Scores @ Toronto Reference Library
M is for Ma(r)y
As we move into the month of May, my parish choir presents songs to Mary. This has to be one of the most beautiful choral pieces ever written, and was apparently Rachmaninoff's favourite composition. We sang this on Sunday and below is a version sung (by men only) by the Westminster Chorus.
Stanley H. Clark: 1933-2011
I have reconnected with many high school friends through social networking, and there is a special bond with those who were in the Stage Band. Stan's family have put up a Facebook page where many of his former students have shared their memories. As announced on that page:
Stanley H. Clark
1933-2011
Mus. Bac., M.Mus, ARCT, Conductor - Royal Regiment of Canada (Capt. ret.)
Teacher - North Toronto, Parkdale and Glebe Collegiates
Conductor - National Capital Concert BandAfter a lifetime of glorious music and marvelous adventure, Stanley H. Clark - teacher, composer, maestro, father, friend - has shuffled off this mortal coil.
Stan’s legacy lives on in the lives of children, grandchildren, countless students and fellow musicians who were inspired under his baton.
No regrets, no condolences. This was a life well lived. Please share your stories and memories at www.crgamble.com. In memory of Stan, support of music and arts in our schools would be appreciated. We suggest musicounts.ca or youngawards.ca or an investment of your time.
A celebration and final blow in Stan's honour will be held at Christ Church Cathedral, Ottawa, from 12:00 to 4:00, Saturday April 30th. If you’d like to play, bring a music stand; downbeat at 2 p.m.
I would love to be there.
As a side note: Our son Michael plays in the stage band (among others) at Lawrence Park CI here in Toronto and with the Jazz.fm Youth Big Band. Whenever I go to a concert or gig of his, I get extremely nostalgic for my own high school days. He has an excellent school music teacher who is also a brass player, and someone who knows how to swing. It makes me immeasurably happy to see his pleasure in playing jazz, and love that he loves the same music I did at that age (and continue to love.) He is looking to music as a career and I know how inspiring great teachers are.
In the search for the Voice of God...
...some believe Gregorian chants are preferable to folk music
Charles Lewis Apr 22, 2011
When Philip Fournier sings a line of Gregorian chant, it hangs like a puff of smoke in the air before it slowly dissipates above the empty pews below.
The sound, listening to it live from a distance of just several inches away in the choir loft at St. Vincent de Paul Parish in Toronto, is ancient, elemental. The sound originates in his abdomen — a line of text that flows out like a wave, sung in tones that are dark and rich. The words are in Latin. It is not a song so much as prayer that is sung.
Mr. Fournier, with his ragged sweater and perpetual five o’clock shadow, is part of a small cadre of traditionalists for whom singing Gregorian chant is an attempt to restore what they see as the real music of the Catholic Church — sounds that go back to the time when King David sang psalms in the temple.
If they had their way, they would storm the parish churches and hurl all the guitars and drums into the street because they believe substituting modern music for ancient music has eroded worship.
Read the rest at the link above.
I'm a huge chant fan, although realize that to encourage congregational participation in the novus ordo mass, we need to sing familiar hymns and (re-)inroduce these more traditional forms slowly. Both of the parishes I have belonged to since I became Catholic moved to Latin mass parts for Advent and Lent, and my current choir uses a lot of renaissance (and some medieval) music during the offertory and communion periods. We are also (apparently) ordering the Parish Book of Chant and this should go a long way to including more chant in the liturgy.
Duruflé Mania
I missed choir last week due to illness, but I was happy to be back today, particularly since both of our pieces were by Duruflé. During the Offertory, we sang Ubi Caritas.
Here's the Chor of King's College Cambridge....
Then, during Communion we sang Duruflé's Notre Pere.
Here's the Ensemble Vocal de l'AVP singing at l'Église Saint Merry (Paris 4e):
These pieces are stunning in their harmony and forward movement, and are a joy to sing. While I'm excited to be travelling to England in the next couple of weeks, I'm sorry to not be singing with the choir over the Easter weekend.
Music bonanza!
I attended the U of T Faculty of Music Spring Record and Book sale last Wednesday and scored some great stuff (no pun intended)! Thanks to Jay Lambie, and old high school friend who works at the Faculty Library for alerting me to this event.
- RCM Piano and Theory books for Michael
- 40 French Hits of Our Times (not really MY times, but great tunes!)
- Ain't Misbehaving arranged for the Canadian Brass (Quintet) - will donate this to Lawrence Park CI's Music Department for their brass quintet
- Sammy Nestico arrangements for jazz band of Take The "A" Train and The Spirit is Willing (donated to Jazz.fm Youth Big Band where Michael plays trombone
- An arrangement for jazz band of "Sunny" (also donated).
I was hoping for some trombone or tuba stuff for Michael but there was very little music for brass. Couldn't get anywhere near the CD table! Lots of swarming around the piano and vocal scores as well. The prices were great and I was glad I got there early. Afterwards, I dropped into Remenyi on Bloor and picked up the RCM Theory syllabus and a book of etudes for Bass Trombone.
And now, for your listening pleasure.
- Posted from Toronto, Canada
