Hello!

I'm off to Burlington tonight, and I haven't played the drums since last Thursday so I'm quite excited to do some playing. The holiday season has freed up everyone's schedules enought to even allow us to do some jamming tomorrow. EdZ, MikeP and I are getting together, for, wait for it..... fun. :)

Anyway, that's pretty much it for me for 2005. There's lots coming up in the next two months, so please stay tuned and try and be a part of as much of it as you can. Thanks for your continued support my music, Happy New Year!

Head over to drumLAB to check out the posters for the Drum Mondays concert series in February 2006. I'm playing twice (2.6 cc+mo, 2.27 cc3+EZ), but will be there every week as the host, for lack of a better term.

A light week for me musically (the universe has filled up my idle hands with such fun as a natural gas leak in my home and other near-death experiences :)), only two gigs: I'm playing with Paul Fitterer's Solsticks ensemble for the Kensington Festival of Lights parade from 5pm-7pm on Wednesday and then with cc3 in Burlington on Thursday.

If I don't blog before next week, Happy Holidays to all and Merry Christmas to those that celebrate it. (we have a tree and presents under it in my home, but we've edited out out the manger and other exotica, I guess our holiday is better term Santamas, or Clausmas....).

The Toronto area is getting ready for a major snowstorm, but cc3 is unstoppable! We're planning to head out to our regular gig in Burlington, so maybe we'll see you out on the snowy roads, and then hopefully at our gig.

I rehearsed tonight for my good friend (and trusted drum tech) Paul Fitterer's drum ensemble, Solsticks for the Kensington Festival of Lights next week. It's a huge parade and we'll be one of the travelling bands. I'm playing bass drum. We're doing some second-line grooves, African, Brazilian, and plain old funky stuff. It should be fun, and incredibly cold. The event happens next week on December 21st in Kensington Market in Toronto around 5pm.

Things are slowing down for a few weeks on the gig front, which may mean that I'll be busier on the blog and my websites in general. We'll see. With the exception of my old faithful cc3 hit in Burlington, my holiday season begins after Wednesday this week. Perhaps it began tonight when a fellow citizen decided to hurl insults and obscenities at me because I wouldn't let him drive through my car to jump the line at the gas station. The price of oil is dignity, I guess.

Anyway, back to music! I'm booking the first round of Drum Mondays gigs for drumLAB. I'll post an official lineup ASAP, but looks like we'll have a CC+MO gig (the first since November of 2004) and hopefully another night with cc3+ Ed Zankowski, Joe Sorbara's great trio, and someone else TBA. Those gigs are in February.

I've put some more stuff on the free download page, including a rare live gem from Relax with Trudy's February 2000 run at Clinton's. We did a weekly gig there, it was some of the most fun I've ever had onstage. There was never more than 10 people there, but instrumentally we were KILLING it. Really, off the hook. I was playing just snare, hihat, bass drum and an 18" Paiste 2002 medium cymbal and we were playing everything from fusion to funk to metal to pop and country. It was wild. Unfortunately we were also experimentally vocally A LOT. So, while I have recordings of 3 of the 4 nights, much of the material with singing is sub-par (well, the singing is). Plus, in between tunes we got just a wee bit irreverent, resulting in a lot of absurdity. The mp3 I've posted to the download page is the tip of that iceberg.

I miss that band. I miss being able to convince musicians of that caliber to show up four weeks in a row for NO MONEY.

As planned, the complete free download of the fruits of our limitations has now been removed from chriscawthray.com. You can currently purchase it at Puretracks.com and (hopefully very soon), iTunes.

Fans of free stuff fear not, as soon as I get a chance, I'll be uploading some unreleased music for your enjoyment. Please bookmark the LISTEN/DOWNLOAD MUSIC page at chriscawthray.com and check back often.

This week is fairly light, I'm off today, and then the rest of the week is dance classes at ESA, PSB, and for Toronto Dance Theatre, the cc3 Thursday night and that's about it. I'll be wearing my drumLAB hat this week as I try and finalize a special clinic/lessons appearance by the great Joey Baron for January and the first "Drum Mondays" concert series to start in February. So far, it looks like the first show will be a very fun lineup of cc3+EZ, myself, ericB, mikeP, and ed zankowski. I am hopeful to also feature bands led by Joe Sorbara, Great Bob Scott and Paul Fitterer that month too. Stay tuned...

I can't resist the remote-blog!

I'm currently at The Gladstone awaiting my 8pm set with Chip Yarwood at the hotel's grand opening. They have WiFi here, and on Chip's gig I run Reason sequences from behind the kit.

There's no cover, come on down (there's lots more going on beyond my gig too....).

fruits is up at Puretracks. Can iTunes be far behind? (yes I bet they can...). I'm going to be taking the free version off the site very soon, so don't delay if you haven't downloaded it yet.

I guess this is a re-blog or something. I recently discovered the music of guitarist Rob Price, based in NYC and through listening to his music, and finding his website, struck up an email dialogue with him. I noticed on his website today that he made very kind mention of me and my music. I've been enjoying his very cool record "At Sunset" (available on iTunes, that's where I found it) in private, and I have been remiss in not mentioning it more in public. The record features the fantastic Joey Baron, it's a very very fine work.

I had a dream last night that I was playing a double-drum gig with Paul Motian. He was guesting with my band (I am not sure who was in the band), but most of the dream involved me coordinating the cartage of his drums and during the lengthy process (this kind of stuff always takes a long time in dreams, doesn't it?) I kept seeing Paul walking on the street with what appeared to be his "posse".

Hey, good news! Chip Yarwood's band (including me) will perform again at the Gladstone Hotel on Friday December 2 in the Melody Bar @ the Gladstone. We're doing one set at around 7pm for the grand-opening party for the hotel.

I just picked up a pre-mastered copy of a record I played percussion on over numerous sessions between 2003 and now. I was curious to hear what the finished product might be, and lo and behold it turns out I'm on a smooth jazz record! :):)

Yep, this stuff is pretty smooth. There's some fantastic playing from all involved, but man, oh man, the quiet storm is rolling in on a few tunes. Who knows, it might just be a hit! It'd be a great band to play live with, in fact, most of the band is in the Kevin Cooke band, a blues big band that gigs intermittently.

This record, as yet untitled, is going to be released under the sax player Mike Skinner's name, but includes, on various tracks (and I'm probably leaving some people out):

kevin cooke: bass, mike skinner: saxes, david monis: drums, michael monis: guitar, myself: percussion, martin aucoin: keyboards

I'll post an mp3 when I can. The copy I was given was one single 55 minute track on a CD so I'll have to do some cut and paste.

HBS had a great gig last night. The band sounded very very good (having Lester McLean is great because he's a fine alto saxophonist, so the band sounds that much bigger with him), and the audience was very much into what we were doing. It was a private party, and our hosts easily rank amongst the best clients I've ever had the pleasure of working for. For all I know that may have been the last HBS gig, we have nothing on the horizon, and I'm keen to book more cc3 than HBS. But, if offers come in and I can get last night's lineup, I don't see why I wouldn't pursue them.

And, now for an installment of my very intermittent listening list. These days, I tend to buy my music from iTunes, and only buy DVDs in material form. It saves space, and the music is much more affordable ($9.99 for a download album as opposed to $20 for a CD). Here's what I've iTuned lately:

Wilco - Kicking Television (live in Chicago): this band only gets better. Wilco leader Jeff Tweedy seems to serve the music above the band (the lineup seems to be in a steady, slow flux). The band has two musicians equally versed in "rawk" and the avant-garde in Glenn Kotche (drums) and Nels Cline (guitar). It shows, in the most wonderful way.

Bill Frisell - Further East, Further West: I bought the first installment of this a few months back on CD (because they were charging the same amount for the download and the CD for some reason). This second installment is download only and is frankly a helluva lot more interesting than the first. In truth, the last few Frisell albums have been boring for me. It's dissappointing that they would decide to release the much better collection as a hush-hush download only release.

About to go pack up for a private party gig tonight in Burlington with HBS. Lester McLean is singing lead tonight, which is a rare treat for HBS. The clients for this private party specifically asked for Lester and I was lucky enough to get him for this gig. The rest of band is me, Mike Bowell, and Mike Pelletier.

Tomorrow is a rare day-off for me this month, and then another busy week. cc3 has picked up an extra gig this week playing at an Acura dealership for a car launch, and FYI Dave Patterson will be back with cc3 on 12/1 subbing for Eric Boucher who will be away in NYC for a theatre gig.

My good friend Altaf Vellani has returned to Toronto from living in Germany for the last 4 years. It's great to hang with him and he's a fine drummer. He has a new book/CD coming out and we're talking about doing a drumLAB clinic in conjunction with its release in March 06.

The optical drive on my iBook has died, but I have 20 days left on my Apple warranty, so I'm crossing my e-fingers. I'm going to try and stay online (by resurrecting an original iMac sitting here in my office), but if I'm not around, this is why. Having said that, my blogging has been rather sparse of late anyway.

The tap dance project has finished, for now. The performance went reasonably well (there were some timing issues with the vocalist, due I suspect to a lack of rehearsal for us as a group...), and I think the piece was successful in getting its point across. I like the piece more now that I've performed it, actually. The "big picture" is clearer. The next step is to do a studio recording of the music so that the company may incorporate the piece into their repertoire (and not have to pay for musicians to perform it every time). We'll hopefully get to that in December.

A perk of the show on Friday night for me was being asked to perform with another tap artist in an impromptu jam. The dancer, Van Porter, had been flown in as the "headliner" for the show. There was some sort of mix-up with his music or musician (I really didn't ask...) so I was asked to perform with him. We spend about 20 minutes working up a "show", and I played a single conga while he tapped. It was all improvised, but we did some trading, and had worked out an ending. It was cool, the audience loved it too. I hope I'll work with him again.

Ok, this week I am doing dance classes at three three-letter places: ESA, TDT (@ PDT), and PSB. cc3 hits on Thursday and Hot Buttered Soul plays its first gig in a while Saturday night. It's also going to be HBS' last gig for a while. I've stopped booking work for the band, after a frustrating summer of trying to maintain a level of professionalism in the face of some members that felt more comfortable showing up whenever they wanted, both at the gig in general and during the songs! Too much hassle for not enough danger pay. cc3 is far more agreeable to me. Never say never, though. We'll see....

drumLAB is getting set to launch via it's first email mail-out. Stay tuned.

Tonight is the performance I am doing with Paula Skimin's tap dance company, Turn on The Tap. The show is at Mississauga's Living Arts Centre and a link to info about it is here.

I have to do a tech rehearsal in the afternoon which I am dreading because tech rehearsals for a show like this (many artists doing single pieces) translates into hurry up and wait. I see a lot of sitting around doing nothing in my immediate future. The tech is at 2:20pm, and the show is at 8pm. I am really hoping to be able to go home in between these two events. Pray for me. :):):):)

Last night's cc3 hit was fun. The music shows up on a pretty regular basis now with this band, there's always some great moments. We did a nice version of "hope song", my ballad from Winter Music, Eric and Mike have really taken that tune somewhere.

I've got a busy week (and November is turning out to be a busy month), so I apologize for the scarcity of posts. I'm scrambling to get the music finished for Paula Skimin's dance piece, which we perform on November 11 in Mississauga at the Living Arts Centre. I am actually hoping to finish it later tonight, we rehearse Friday and Sunday.

cc3 hits twice this week, our regular (we're going to put last week's mess behind us, thank you) in Burlington and a private function for the Society of Travel and Incentive Executives (or something like that) at the swanky Carlu club in Toronto on Saturday night.

I'm also playing dance classes at Ryerson University this week, where I am somewhat of an exotic animal it seems; they're quite appreciative of my playing. It's nice. The studios there sound good too, and they're stocked with Yamaha Clavinova keyboards, which are surprisingly cool sounding.

drumLAB is still working. Private lessons is an area that is taking off slowly, but I'm excited about the first clinic/workshop, but can't say much until it is confirmed. Also, I want to start a thing called Drum Mondays, where drumLAB will curate a weekly concert of a group led by a drummer. I want to do it at least once a month, and also sit in with other groups.

stay tuned!

Hey, much to my surprise "paper tiger" got some airplay on 10/19 on Mike Hansen's fine "whynotjazz" radio show here in Toronto. He even mentioned the website on-air. Thanks!

He does a great show 7am-11am Wednesdays, but you can listen to archived mp3s of each show at this site.

For the first time ever, cc3 failed to make our gig tonight. We commute about 40km down the main highway out of Toronto to get to the gig, and while traffic is never good, we all get there. Tonight we didn't. So I had to decided to cancel the night when I was there by myself more than 30mins past downbeat. I can't remember the last time this has happened to me, if ever. I've got to gigs to find out the bar had cancelled us, but I've never had to cancel out on a client.

Anyway, it sucks. I feel bad for all involved, including myself. To those that came out this week, while I am sure you would have enjoyed 3 hours of solo drums :), please accept my apologies on behalf of Eric and Mike that we couldn't bring the music like we always do.

See you next week.

Page 162 of the new Modern Drummer magazine (12/05 issue) mentions my latest release, the fruits of our limitations. Download it here. I'd love to sell it to you, but iTunes is dragging its digital butt about uploading it, so it's free for the taking here at my site.

You can see some photos of my new Tempus drum kit @ chriscawthray.com. For those gearheads out there, here's what's in the photos:

TEMPUS drums:

7x12 tom (blue)
10x15 floor tom (orange)
11x22 bass drum (gold)

SONOR drums:
6.5x14 ferro-manganese Phonic snare drum

PAISTE cymbals:

14" Alpha custom hats (SoundEdge TOP, Power BOTTOM)
16" Alpha crystal crash
18" Innovations crash/ride

hardware:

SONOR Designer Series hihat and bass drum pedals, + a vario clamp (for tom)
SONOR Phonic tom arm
Pearl and Yamaha cymbal stands
Pearl snare stand
Gibraltar flloor tom legs, tom suspension mount, bass drum spurs

I'm typing this post from onstage @ the Gladstone Hotel in Toronto. The building has WiFi, and I'm running some Reason files from behind the kit tonight. It's definitely a luxury to have WiFi onstage. I feel like I'm in Peter Gabriel's band or something. :):)

Come down tonight, if only for the WiFi! The music's gonna be great too. Here's the link with all the info.

Tonight is Chip Yarwood's CD release gig for his really really excellent record, one fork. It's like Dylan's "Time Out of Mind", but with a worldbeat sensibility. I like it a lot, and I'm so glad to be playing this music live. We're rocking out on a few things that are somewhat more ambient on the disc. Also, tonight will be my first time playing my new Tempus drums. I'll take some pictures once they're set up at the gig. So far I've been tuning and tweaking them in my basement and am really impressed with the bass drum. I don't think I have the right drumhead combo for the toms (I have a 2ply coated head on the 15" floor tom and it seems to be choking the drum a bit). The shells are so thin, perhaps they need thinner heads to really sing. No worries, they may open up beautifully in the brick/wood room at the Gladstone.

Anyway, if you're in Toronto, come down to the Gladstone Hotel tonight (Queen/Dufferin), first set is at 9pm, cover is only $5, or $10 and you get the CD too.

see you there,

I'm getting things going on drumLAB. It's going to be a "nomadic" drum school, running at various (temporarily rented) locations. I'm working on bringing up a VERY COOL artist for a clinic. Stay tuned...

cc3 hits tonight, and my new Tempus drums should be here tomorrow (I missed the FedEx guy today).

Great gig last night. A small but appreciate audience came out, and the venue and its staff treated us very well. It was a real treat to be able to play with Ed and Mike, each of them so generous to my songs and my ideas in their own way. I'll try and post a video clip later this week from the gig.

I'm starting to get a clearer picture of how to make this project work. For instance, the club normally provides a sound tech for all gigs. The tech last night was a very capable and helpful guy, and by all reports the gig sounded good. But, his fee squeezes the venue's margin to make any money. We don't need a PA to do this music, so Ken from PJC and I already decided that when we return we'll do it without a sound tech. As such, a small but appreciate audience (that is also thirsty and hungry) can make it a great night for all involved.

There were so many great moments last night where Ed was playing completely off-mic and filling the room with his tone. The soundman told me he could have turned the PA off at times and no one would have noticed. I take that as a compliment. I read in a great Bill Frisell Trio interview in DownBeat years ago that they used to set-up onstage so they could hear each other, and then let the soundcrew do whatever they want. They didn't worry about monitors or anything.

Anyway, we'll be back at Pepperjack's in a few months I hope.

The rest of this month starts to splinter into different foci:

-Completing the tap dance piece with Paula Skimin (we perform Nov. 11 at the Living Arts Centre in Mississauga, ON)
-rehearsing and performing Chip Yarwood's CD release (Oct 25 @ The Gladstone Hotel, Toronto)
-attempting to get a new workshop/performing initiative off the ground, drumLAB

Plus, of course, dance classes @ ESA and PSB and the cc3 hit @ Canyon Creek.

Check back later for the video from last night...

MikeB, EdZ and I rehearsed this afternoon, and we're all feeling great about tomorrow's show at the fruits of our limitations but also manages to bring out other shades of the material. Mike and I go way back musically and personally, so it's a good fit. I think Mike's digging it too.

Now it's your turn to dig it! See you at the show, 8pm start time.

On a whim I went and checked out the Juno Award submission regulations. The Junos, as some may know, are the Canadian recording industry awards. Anyway, it would be neat (and not much more than that, just neat, maybe neato), if "the fruits of our limitations" got nominated. What category? I guess some sort of Jazz.

Anyway, I'm too futuristic for the Junos. They don't accept download-only releases for submission. More specifically, they only accept submissions on CDs, and the CDs must be manufactured, not burned promo copies. So, I'm out of the running.

My opinion is that digital is here to stay, and physical CDs are a waste of valuable resources to the independent artist like me. I want to make the music and get it in your ears, I don't need unrecyclable plastic discs and cases to do that anymore.

The Junos still do.

My new article (part 2 of 3) is out in the October 2005 The Dance Current. I got two pages + graphics this time! Also, my dear friend and collaborator, Arwyn Carpenter has an article in this issue.

I rehearsed with Ed and Mike today and it was great, we're going to take advantage of Saturday's gig being cancelled and get together and play that day too. I really hope you can make the show in Hamilton this Sunday, show starts at 8pm, $5.

my music is now available at MSN Music

i've done a new poster for pepperjack's this week. see it here

see you at the show!

yeah, so October 15 is going to be cancelled.

The hit in Hamilton on 10/16 is still very much happening, and I think it's going to be a great time. The story on 10/15 is that the plug is being pulled because the show was likely going to underwhelm the venue financially, not to mention yours truly. To solve that issue would require energy that I want to devote to the music itself, instead of marketing and other non-musical things.

Which is what I'm doing. MikeBowell, EdZ and I get together tomorrow, and I'm very much looking forward to it. We'll put all of our stuff into the Hamilton show, and hope that a Toronto venue becomes a possibility. To the very few people that were going to be able to make the 10/15 show, please accept my apologies.

Ok, I've edited together a 6 minute demo medley of cc3. You can hear it and/or download it here.

I'm getting worried about the 10/15 show. I'm worried there'll only be 3 people in the audience. I'm not worried about this because I want to be popular; my concern is that it all amounts to a big waste of time if no one shows up.

If there's no one there, no one buys drinks (which hurts the venue), and then they get sour on having music at all. Fact is, I am really starting to push myself to focus on making music, not organizing events to sell beverages or whatever. No disrespect to the venues, none at all; but I didn't get into drumming to sell drinks. I have no issue with performing at such venues, I just don't want to be involved with that side of it.

My music should have a value that I can sell to the venue/promoter, and they can make money however they wish. I want to be concerned with creating this value in the music, not with the back end. This is not idealistic, this model is in place and I am working as such all the time with cc3 and HBS. The irony is that my most personal projects always require me to feel like I'm planning a wedding, and the preparation of the music takes a back seat.

Anyway, the Canopy @ Birds and Beans is a great idea, and I hope it happens; but the next few days will tell me whether it's going to start with me, or not. (Simply put, if i can get 15 confirmed guests, I'll go ahead and do the show, and happily lose $ in the process. If I can't get 15 folks to make it out, I'm not doing it.)

I have a moment here on the last day of my 30th year.... I did a session yesterday for Kevin Cooke, it's a record he's been working on for quite some time, a "solo" album for saxophonist Mike Skinner. Basically, it's the Kevin Cooke Band, but MS is featured (it's an instrumental album). Anyway, due to some ProTools magic, my conga track on one tune went missing; so I went in to replace it. I played it down twice and did a third pass on the ending. Kevin seemed happy, and I was too. Then I replaced a tambourine track that MS had done. It was the outro of a gospel-ish version of Wayne Shorter's "Adam's Apple".

One thing that I find folk rarely mention is simply how DIFFICULT it is to play good tambourine. It's an elusive instrument, and requires a huge amount forearm and wrist strength to do it musically. Anyway, the outro was a doube-time thing, and I was grooving with that, but THEN, I had to double that, so I was essentially playing fast 32nd notes, all by wiggling my wrist back and forth. I believe it is the EXACT method to acquire carpal tunnel syndrome. :)

This week includes a rehearsal with tap dancer Paula Skimin, seeing the master Steve Jordan hit with John Mayar, the regular cc3 hit, and hopefully rehearsing with EdZ and Mike Bowell for our October 15/16 gigs. The gig on the 15th is presenting a difficulty in that it require advance tickets to be sold for it because there is limited space. While I've had lots of interest from y'all, there's been no online ticket sales to date. So, I may have to re-think this. Make sure you send me an email if you are planning on attending and I will draw up a guest list.

Also, I'm getting anxious for my Tempus kit. It's a week or two overdue from the original projection, and I really want to start using it!

We recorded tonight (cc3). It went very quickly. After attempting to set up the mic pre-amp I rented, to no avail (it actually had a similar malfunction at the store, but the rental guy assured me it was a bad mic he was using.... I tried it at home and it worked Ok, then got to Mike's where we were recording and it died again...), I recorded us with the internal mic on my iBook.

It actually came out fine, whaddya know? We recorded little excerpts of a bunch of the tunes in our book, and I'm going to edit them together into a medley. This will be our demonstration recording (or "demo" as they say in the industry). I'll post it to the website when it's done.

It's starting to look like cc3 will be worth investing some more time into. We're going to record a demo this week and shop around for more gigs. Our house gig at Canyon Creek is great, and I'm so thankful it appears to be going indefinitely, but Mike, Eric are really hitting our stride in terms of repertoire and consistency, and I think it deserves a wider audience. Furthermore, we can actually make money playing this stuff.

Anyway, I'll post the mp3s when they're ready. Stay tuned.

Last night was fun. MO came to play, and we played to a full-house for the first set and then exactly 2 people for the second. The second set was musically superior; since there wasn't so much noise from the patrons I could hear everything better, and I'll be damned if it didn't actually sound kinda warm in our corner of the patio. We also (since it was the last night and only two people were there, and ignoring us) stretched a bit; a rather exploratory version of "Tune Up" was the highlight for me.

In-between set talk was of the rather dismal state of affairs for jazz music. Once you remove Norah Jones and Diana Krall from the list, the only artist really selling anything is Metheny. As such, very few artists are getting to tour in any significant way. This leaves a presumably dire situation for artists yet-to-emerge on an international scale (such as myself). Or does it? The prevailing wisdom is that the industry in grinding to a halt and as such, will re-invent itself. If that levels the playing field, then maybe, just maybe, folks like me can establish some little atoll out in the ocean of this industry, and you all can visit.

Having said that, you first have to order your tickets for 10/15 @ the Canopy (this is the newly founded name for the upstairs of Birds and Beans.

There's less than 20 tickets available, if it doesn't sell out, well, so much for my atoll. :)

Tonight's the last night we have booked at Canyon Creek Square One, I'll be playing in a trio with Eric Boucher (keys) and Michael Occhipinti (guitar). The bass-less thing is always fun, and I haven't played with MO (with the exception of a rain-soaked one set HBS gig in July) in a while.

I'll be sporting my new hardware ("trap") case. It's like an RV for drummers, I can pack all my stands, spare pedal and snare stand, full microphone setup, tambourine, cowbell, and there's even room for my lunch if I really tried. It fits snugly in the back hatch of my car and I'm just do damn pleased with myself for buying it. :) It's an SBK TPX-1 or something like that.

If you don't like music, but like "intelligent storage", come on out just to see it. If you happen to like both (as I do), well, then tonight is your night!

I had a great time last night playing with Chip Yarwood, Celina Carroll and Kevin Cooke. We were improvising to a series of films created by Toronto visual artists. While I get the chance to play with Kevin quite a bit, I hadn't played a gig with Chip and Celina in years. The three of us were the backing band for a spoken-word artist, Mary Elizabeth Grace. Chip is a unique and complete musician, a true multi-instrumentalist and the real deal when it comes to "world music". Celina has been, and continues to be, my favourite singer in Toronto, and elsewhere too. She's also a fantastic percussionist, her conga playing last night was very impressive. In short, I had a great time, and we reconvene to support Chip's CD release on Oct. 25. I got a copy of his record last night and gave it a listen today. It's great. Very much reminds of me of Dylan's "Time Out of Mind" album. It's going to be a thrill to bring these tunes to life onstage. The gig on the 25th sounds like a good deal too: $10 get's you in the door AND the CD!.

But, yeah, forget about all that! Have you ordered your Birds and Beans tix yet? October 15th!

Also, the October 16 show in Hamilton at Pepperjack's will be great, as I've added a support act, the "electrocuted" ensemble of Topher Stott (drums), Lyle Crilly (laptop) and Laurel James (vocals).

...this may be the most HTML I've put in a post in a while. :)

I've just been called for a last-minute gig tomorrow night at the Gladstone Hotel. I'll be in a band with Chip Yarwood, Celina Carroll and Kevin Cooke accompanying a live film called "Queen Street By Numbers".

Here's a link to the details, I think my set is at 10:30pm

Ok,

here's the poster for the October gigs



BUY TICKETS FOR THE 10/15 show HERE

FYI, the birdsandbeans gig Oct 15 is an 8pm showtime. I will have all the details over the weekend, but don't delay, ORDER your tix!

I have an article in a magazine this month, The Dance Current is a damn fine reason to learn to read, and Canada's only dance magazine. I am writing a three-part series on Time, and I have yet to mention Morris Day in it. Anyway, I still don't have a copy of the magazine myself, but you can find out about getting yours here.

Also, the details are still formulating, but you can order tix for my Oct15 show @ Birds and Beans for $7.50 CDN through my website. Or right here, BUY TICKETS. Oh, and don't worry if it shows shipping charges when you click to buy, those will be removed before your credit card is charged.

Here's the cool part: THERE ARE ONLY 15 TICKETS TO BE HAD. This venue is small, and the smoothies they make downstairs are way too good. So, order your ticket, I'll email you an e-ticket to print with your name on it. Also, there will be a list kept at the gig so you can just show up if you don't bring your e-ticket printout.

ONLY 15 TICKETS. Don't delay!

We played our last cc3 with Anesti tonight. It was fun, and I think we actually sounded our best so far tonight, so that counts for something. The crowd was a bit sparse (everyone has homework I guess since it's the first day of school...), but an OK night overall. We hit for two more weeks with Eric Boucher (and actually, mike PELLARIN subs for mike PELLETIER on sept 20.) there on Tuesdays.

Today's real news is that Mike Bowell has offered to play some shows with Ed Zankowski and I, including October 16 @ PJC in Hamilton. Mike and I go waaaaaay back, and he is a wonderful player and a helluva guy. I'm excited about Mike joining this trio, and I think he'll bring a lot to the existing repertoire. Where's Tim, you might ask? Tim is very busy, as you all know he is a fine fine guitarist, but he's also a bandleader of more than a couple of his own very great bands. The near future was becoming complicated in terms of reconciling the amount of time I needed from Tim and what that would cost him in terms of his own work and life (obviously, this project is not a big payday, yet...). It was with great reluctance that I chose to "freeze" this project, as opposed to try and eek out a few more gigs before Tim's time became very very tight. To my surprise, a casual phone call to MikeB revealed that he was not only available, but looking for something to get involved in. Supply and demand. (Supply and defrost?)

Stay tuned for official gig details, later this week, I hope.

My team of interns churned out a new "one sheet" bio for me, all before 10am!

download the PDF of it here

NEWS:

<> the 10/16 Pepperjack Cafe date, originally scheduled to be a show with Tim and Ed, will now be a "special project" concert, featuring a unique "one night only" lineup, stay tuned for details.

<> a very dear old friend, who in many ways gave me my start in the music scene here in Toronto, Chip Yarwood, has asked me to play drums for his CD release concert October 25 at the Gladstone Hotel in Toronto. I couldn't be more pleased, and the band is shaping up to be quite killer: Chip plays everything, Kevin Cooke on bass, myself, Celina Carroll on vocals, and guests. Just like the old days, when I was 17 and they were only 40. :):):):)

What's news?

Well, we hit tonight (I hope, the skies are graying, but I think the rain will stay away until later tonight) with cc3 @ Canyon Creek Square One. This is Anesti's second-last (or, penultimate, if you must) night with us, as his teaching practice begins again in two weeks. Eric Boucher will take over, and so far we're only slated to play Tuesdays until Sept.20, but I hope a gig-fairy decides we should move inside and play through the winter too.

Speaking of that, cc3 will continue weekly in Burlington at Canyon Creek, hopefully until we Return to Forever with the illegitimate son of Al Di Meola. :)

Back in drum-land, two things:

-I'm mulling over a new venture which might allow me to have an even more obnoxious stance on the greatness of PAISTE cymbals.

-I may buy a set of fiberglass drums made by Tempus. The owner/builder of this company has been very attentive in emailing me different options for a light gigging kit. Turns out he has some orphan shells in his facility that he can create into a kit for me at a very very reasonable price, shipped to my front door no less. I am interested in trying a shallow, yet wide bass drum (22inches wide by 11inches deep to be exact). My current feeling is that "you can't fight science" and that trying to tweak 16" and 18" drums to sound like 22s is a bit silly. By making the drum shallow I'll lose some "length" to the note, but it should still be pitched nice and low. Plus, the fiberglass combined with the shallow depth will make the drum much much lighter than my SONORs.

The only quirk will be that since these shells are orphans, they are not all the same finish. They are all "glitters", but the bass is gold, the floor tom tangerine, and the rack tom is purple. I think it'll be cool, and Abe Laboriel, Jr. had a DW kit with each drum in a different finish. If it's cool for Abe, I can't learn to love it.

The sizes are 11x22, 10x15 (with floor tom legs), and 8x12 I'm deciding today to get them or not. I would have them in 3 weeks if I decide yes.

I finally have a moment to type, so I'll re-cap since Thursday's gig.

- cc3 in Burlington was fun, it had some nice moments. We don't get to play as much contemporary material without Eric, but it was a good time nonetheless. (Though I must admit, our weekly renditions of Wichita Lineman and The Rain Song are addictive; I quite missed getting to do them on Thursday.)

- on Friday, Pacy Shulman and I met with the proprietor of an organic coffee shop called Birds and Beans, which is located in our neighbourhood. They have a fantastic upstairs "parlour" that is going unused, and Pacy and I have assembled to curate a concert series for this venue. The plan is to do intimate shows for 15-20 people in a very non-restaurant/bar environment. Stay tuned for more details. I am hoping to bring Tim and Ed in to do one of the first shows, but these first few shows are somewhat pilot projects and the revenues are expected to be low, so that may prohibit people from being able to be involved.

- Saturday was a HBS gig, with two subs: Jenni Burke on vocals and my old pal, the incredible Mike Bowell on guitar. A sparsely attended, heavily rained show was put forth. MB sounded wonderful, and Jenni put her own stamp on the material (much of which she was singing for the first time). HBS:classic returns to Canyon Creek Sherway next Saturday (sept3) for another show.

-Today, I sold my drumKAT! Believe it or not, someone here in Toronto read my blog entry about my frustrations with it and that I was willing to sell it. Voila!

Due to a family matter, EricB can't be with us tomorrow @ Canyon Creek. Tim Posgate has graciously made himself available to fill in, it'll be a great night. We hit @ 7pm.

I have begun booking rehearsals with Paula Skimin for a tap dance piece that will premiere November 11 and then re-appear in a show in February. I'll keep you posted. Our first rehearsal is Sept. 12

What else? Steve Jordan showed up in my mailbox (on the cover of Modern Drummer magazine) with a blue bass drum identical to the one I just had for a week. Could it be the same kit in the photo? Could I be regretting giving them back? :)

Mike Ferfolia

I had the pleasure of playing with this fine musician for the third time tonight (he subbed in with HBS). He's great, a total pro and very very musical. I hope I have lots more work to offer him.

I bought the new Bill Frisell live CD today (double-disc). iTunes wanted $19.99 for it, and I think that's a bit much for a download of a 2-CD album. I think it should no more than 1.5 times the price of a single CD album. So, I bought the CD. So far, so great. I like it. It reminds me (in terms of the song choices) of what I'm trying to do with cc3.

anyway, it's late/early. Tonight cc3 hits @ Square One Canyon Creek with Bruno Ierullo guesting on guitar.

I'm in the midst of lots of gigs, basically every night, with little time to rest during the day. It's quite tiring, but rewarding. It's good to challenge one's self to play at a high standard every night, and I can't say I mind making more money than usual. On the other side, I just ordered some concert tickets to see Ornette Coleman (I've never seen him) and Wayne Shorter's Quarter. OC is in October and Wayne is all the way in April. The trick now is to try NOT to get gigs on those nights so I don't have to give up these expensive tickets, and I really want to see these shows!

I'm taking the Yamaha drums back today. I like them but don't love them. The 18" bass drum leaves a bit to be desired on the HBS gigs, so it's not a perfect fit for the work I'm doing. The wood-hooped toms sound awesome, though. However, I noticed last night that the tension rods were starting the back out (loosen) while I was playing. My SONORs don't have this problem, at least not with that degree of frequency. Anyway, I'm still in the market for a lighter set of drums, so we'll see what else they have at the store... :)

Tech time....

I've been hanging on to two old Mac computers for some time and finally decided their occassional usefulness does not match the amount of space they take up in our home. I put ads up on craigslist.org and the stuff is pretty much sold, in less than 12 hours! Too cool.

I'm trying to de-clutter and raise some "found money" to make my impending drumset purchase a non-issue to the accountant in me. :)

A few things:

+ OCTOBER 16 - my trio with Tim and Ed returns to Pepperjack Cafe in Hamilton, mark it down! (the tinyTour may happen too, with this date included, stay tuned...)

+ I played the Steve Jordan drums on a cc3 gig tonight, they're cool. I will try them with HBS Friday (pretty much the opposite end of the dynamic spectrum in terms of my playing) to see if they cut it. If so, I'll have to find the money to keep them...

+ The trio's return to live playing in Toronto is now less certain. I was resting comfortably with the idea of returning to the Red Guitar, but that may not be possible (they are trying to book A LOT of different acts and my request for an October date may just be too soon... amongst other reasons), so I'm looking for another venue. October 14 or 15, if anyone has ideas, e me at chris@chriscawthray.com

I went to the music store today to trade in my rental PA cabinets for lighter ones. I did that. But I brought home drums as well.

A set of YAMAHA Maple Custom Definitives (a line that is apparently not available in the US market). 6ply Chinese maple shells, made in Japan with all the YAMAHA bells and whistles. They are modeled after a vintage Gretsch style shell (rounded edges). I think they sound killer. The finish is exactly like my first set of drums, 60's Rideau (also made in Japan) that were handed down to me from my grandfather (an amateur drummer). So, there's sentimental value.

But, here's the kicker:

These were Steve Jordan's drums!

He subbed for Al Foster with Sonny Rollins here at the Toronto Jazz fest in June. I missed the show (gigging myself), but YAMAHA Canada provided Steve with a kit to his specs, which means they had wood hoops added to the tops and bottoms of the toms. They are very cool, and musical sounding. They give the drums a darker tone, some warmth. I like it.

So, I have the drums on rent for a week until I decided whether or not I want them for good. They are so much lighter to carry around than my 1inch thick beech shelled SONOR Phonics. So I think the Phonics may get promoted to "big gig" status and these would be the working drums.

Oh yeah, the sizes are:

8x10
9x12
13x14floor tom
15x18bass drum

I am in the midst of two weeks accompanying Peggy Baker. It's fantastic, for a few reasons. I decided to take almost two months off from playing for dance classes; it was getting tedious (or rather, I was.) and I didn't want to burn out on it. The offer came to do Peggy's professional training intensive at the National Ballet of Canada and I knew this would be my perfect re-entry into the dance world. Peggy is pretty much the top of the game, the $$ is great, and I'm challenging myself to play new and different things. For one, I am playing a Roland SPD-6 in my setup, allowing me to have 6 virtual instruments under one hand. It's very cool and I think will be the new direction I'm going to take my accompaniment. I want to add a small keyboard to play bass lines and trigger sounds of my iBook, but generally, I'm going to push towards a majority MIDI/sampling setup for dance work. For those that are keeping score, I've given up on the drumKAT, it's way too hard for me to program, I don't have the patience. It is simply too much instrument for me. The sounds in the Roland gear is not as good, but it's pretty much plug n' play, and that's what I need right now (the KAT is for sale, a steal at $750 CDN for anyone who is interested).

Also last week I did a 3 night workshop called Taps and Percussion with dancer Paula Skimin, which was also very illuminating. I'd never worked with tap dancers before, and I don't know why I've waited this long. The rhythmic dialogue going on between drums and taps is very lush and energizing. We were doing a workshop based on the concept of PULSE, and we subdivided and re-envisioned the same pulse in various polymeters. It was hard to do, and I was a bit rusty to be honest, but the whole experience was so much more than I expected it to be. Looks like I'll be working on a piece with Paula for Novemver of this year.

On top of all that cc3 and HBS gigged this week, once each. This week coming is a killer for gigs. I'm doing Peggy's classes mon-fri in the morning, and then gigs on tues, thurs, fri, sat, sun, mon, tues, thurs, saturday. Way too much lugging of drums and PA gear. In fact I am going back to the rental place tomorrow to trade-in my rented PA for something with lighter speakers. The Yorkville Elite's I rented are breaking my back when I have to load and unload them 4 times in one night. I must confess that this coming stretch will not be possible without the aid of my trusty tech and friend, Paul Fitterer who will be teching the HBS show on Saturday Aug 20. Without his help on this it wouldn't happen, due to other commitments in my schedule that day.

Also, my good friend and creative collaborator Laurie Raymond is opening her new dance school, Creative Childrens Dance Centre this week. I am not exactly sure how I will fit into that new venture, but I plan to make myself available for whatever they need. Laurie and I go back many years through her PBJ Dance Projects company, which in my opinion, was one of the finest projects for young creative people (Laurie fostered a professional dance company entirely run by the kids that were in it. Laurie provided guidance and creative ideas and choreography, but the kids themselves raised the money, hired the various staff, booked the gigs, etc.); out of which I have forged many amazing friendships with the various kids that passed through it while I was working with them. PBJ is on hiatus while the CCDC starts up, but I am hopeful the spirit will remain the same...

I took some time today to watch the DV of the Red Guitar gig, so many great moments in it, and a few horrifying train wrecks too! I've got to get going on booking for October.... Stay tuned..

Wow, what a busy week. Lots of music going on, I'm really enjoying it. Hopefully I'll be able to post soon about what I've been doing, no time now....

The Red Guitar is a cool place, and we had a great time last night. The crowd was on the intimate side, but appreciate and listening (what more can we ask for? :) ). The band had its moments and had a lot of fun too. As usual, my feeling post-gig is that I can't wait till the next one. I still feel like Tim, Ed and I are still learning each others' moves, which is cool (and has its musical benefits), but it also can contribute to some onstage confusion. 50% of the material we did last night was brand-new as well. Anyway, I hope to those that came that they enjoyed themselves as much as we did.

This week coming up is insanely busy: 5 days with Peggy Baker at the National Ballet, 3 nights with Paula Skimin at the Taps and Percussion workshop, 2 nights with cc3 and 1 night with Hot Buttered Soul. At some point today I have to figure out what gear is going where, and how much I can leave in any one spot without being short a pedal or cymbal stand at another gig...

Tonight! First set is at 9pm, see you there!



chris cawthray @ the Red Guitar
with his trio: tim posgate/guitars + ed zankowski/tenor saxophone
603 Markham St. (Markham/Bloor), Toronto
$9 cover
CD and DVD giveaways!!

On a whim (partly influenced by the extreme heat wave we're under and the thought of lugging drum hardware) I took my congas and a cymbal to cc3 last night. It worked really well, and I got to play a whole night on congas, which is somewhat rare these days. Thankfully, we didn't try and become Miami Sound Machine just because the congas had shown up. It was far more interesting for me to play our existing material than to tailor the sound of the band to the congas. Anyway, I think Mike and Eric liked it too.

I met a young drummer last night at the gig, named Max Lazich. He's a PAISTE fan like me, so we hit it off immediately. I showed off my Giant Beat cymbal too, and he dug it (I think). He told me he's got some custom stuff from PAISTE on order right now, including a 24" NOVO China. That's a big beast of a cymbal! Anyway, it's always good to meet drummers, and to play drums for them!

Today is a day off, so I'm working. :) Putting together promo CDs, etc. I'm heading to Hamilton tonight to see my old friend Jimmy Herring play with the Codetalkers @ Pepperjack's... I haven't seen Jimmy in a few years, I missed his entire tenure with The Dead, basically. It happened to coincide with me getting married, having a baby, etc. All sorts of settled-down kind of stuff that puts a cramp in any travelling and concert-going. :) Anyway, I'm excited to see him and hear him play, he is undoubtedly one of the finest musicians I've had the pleasure of hearing, let alone knowing.

cc3 tonight has been cancelled due to weather, and the fact that most of the roads leading to the venue have been closed or are jammed with traffic due to the plane crash at Pearson Airport, which is only a few minutes away from the Creek.

We hope to see you all next week at Canyon Creek, and please send some good thoughts out to the people involved in this horrible accident.

Allrighty, the Red Guitar show is imminent! Our Saturday rehearsal got moved to Tuesday, so I'll report back after that. In the meantime, I'm looking ahead to shows in October, the fabled "tinyTour" will rise again. I'm also talking to a publicist about handling those dates ("doing it up right" as it were). The plan all along has been to divert CD manufacturing money (since we're DOWNLOAD-ONLY over here at cc.com) into publicity. So, we'll see. Right now I'm projecting to do the tour in the first couple of weeks of October. It'd be nice to do the dates in sequence, just because I think everyone's focus on the material and the general vibe improves in such situations; but since everything will likely be in 2 hour or less drives from home, we could space them out a bit too.

OK, here's what you need this week:

tuesday - cc3 @ Canyon Creek Square One
thursday - cc3 @ Canyon Creek Burlington
saturday - Chris Cawthray @ The Red Guitar, Toronto

We had another great night at Canyon Creek. The Thursday cc3 (with Eric Boucher) is a helluva band. We played two new charts tonight that I had prepared:

Hope Song (my tune from winter music )
Hunter (a Bjork cover)

Both of these tunes are being added the the "fruits..." trio with Tim and Ed, so it was cool to hear the charts played before I rehearse them with T&E on Saturday. It was particularly gratifying to hear Hope Song, because it really just felt like another tune in our book, not an ugly duckling (as sometimes originals can feel next to a book of established REAL songs by Ellington, etc.).

So, the rest of my week is all happening on Saturday, with a rehearsal during the day and then a Hot Buttered Soul gig at night. I have to get my act together in terms of finishing the promo for the Aug6 gig, but if you're reading this, I hope you're already coming to the gig. :)

cc3 @ SQUARE ONE has been cancelled tonight, july 26. The whole area is under a severe-weather watch so the venue has decided to cancel this date and add an extra week to our contract into September. See you next week!

.... in other news

I had my first-ever "meeting with my editor" today over the phone, for my Dance Current article. She (Megan Andrews) likes my article but wants to break it down into a series of 3 articles, as she thinks the topic is worthy. I'm cool with that. Stay tuned....

My blog couldn't be more boring right now in comparison to my "the fruits of our limitations" mate Tim Posgate. He's in Scandanavia touring with his own band featuring Howard Johnson, and getting into all sorts of trouble/fun. Go read all about it.

I did another night at Joe Dog's last night, and unless I get really desperate, I can't see myself doing it anymore. The fighting (in the audience, not the band) and general chaos of that place are just, dare I say it, beneath me. I really have so little desire to entertain people who want to finish their evening with violence. Such pointless stupid displays of aggression are so trite given the fact that so much of our world is mired in brutal violence.

Today and tomorrow are family days, which I of course wish we had more time to just do that, instead of the usual scheduling and juggling of schedules and nap times (naps for all of us!). I am sneaking away to do this post and to finish my first draft of my article for the Dance Current, due tomorrow. We may do a series of articles, as the topic is hard to completely discuss in 600 words.

Tonight is Joe Dog's with Hot Buttered Soul. This gig is a poorly paying 2-nighter that holds sentimental value for our singer, so he books us in there. It's loud, goes late, and there's usually a fight or five at the end of the night as the patrons exit (the patrons fight, not the band). It's the only gig I play locally where one of us has to "guard" our vehicles when we load-out. Feels like Detroit.

The weird part is that the club is in a reasonably affluent area in an overall upper-middle-class city of Burlington. Drink brings out the worst in people, I guess. Hopefully soul music in the form that we deliver it soothes that savage beast.

.......

I'm very humbled by the emails I'm getting from folks who've downloaded "the fruits of our limitations". I'm very pleased with the record and this band in general, so to find out that others are "getting" it too is just wonderful. I can't wait to get some gigs and touring happening. I did some mail-out today of promo copies and I would like to think that things are only looking up for this project.

I played my new Giant Beat 20" cymbal last night, it's very very cool. These cymbals are THE sound of heavy British rock from the 60s. In the middle of the cc3 gig last night I was playing a figure on the GB between its bell and shoulder and it sounded like we were listening to the middle of Whole Lotta Love... MP noticed it too. It's a bright cymbal with a lot of air in its tone, I like it, I am hopeful it will blend well in the trio with Tim and Ed.

I've begun printing promo copies of "fruits..." for sending to reviewers, etc. I have no illusions that reviews actually generate sales, but it might bring traffic to the site and hopefully get folks downloading. I've already noticed the traffic stats for my website are higher, so that's a good thing. With the plethora of online reviewers these days, the chances of someone linking from a review to my site are much higher than the chances of someone logging on after reading it in a magazine. The music has also gone to Lauren @ INDIEPool for setup @ iTunes. He assures me their turnaround time is speeding up, so considering that their price is right and Lauren is a helluva guy (he's a very attentive sales rep, but in a good way, not the cloying telemarketing way), I'm trying their service again.

I'm also working on more repertoire for the Aug6 gig, and then also looking towards the realization of the TinyTour for late September (my committments to Hot Buttered Soul should be much slower by then). Hopefully a friday-saturday-sunday matinee run of toronto, hamilton and guelph. Stay tuned...

AND:

if you haven't yet, please, DOWNLOAD "the fruits of our limitations"

My gig tonight got rained out after one set, and then Pacy phoned to tell me that my master CD was waiting to be picked up in his mailbox.

So, I got busy.



the new release, DOWNLOAD ONLY. Go get it.

like "winter music", I'm going to offer it for free until it becomes available on iTunes.

Mastering went very quickly last night. Pacy had suggested I bring some CDs with me that I thought sounded good. Not "good" from a performance/composition point of view, but "good" sonically, good engineering, etc. I picked the last The Bad Plus disc GIVE, mixed by Tchad Blake, and an old Pheeroan AkLaffCD from 1990 called Sonogram.

It was amazing, when loaded up in ProTools, how different those two records are. Much of it is attributable to changes in digital recording technology, but the Bad Plus record was a much larger sounding record, and much louder too. The AkLaff record has such a nice ambience, but ultimately we decided to use the Bad Plus as our reference. So, what we did was put a track from that up onto the "board" and A:B'd my tracks against it until we got a similar volume, spread, and tonal quality. It took alot less time than we thought it would actually. Our pre-masters were so good. That's all Pacy, of course. Anyway, After about 90 minutes we were satisfied and Pacy was planning on doing one more check of everything before he delivered the final product to me.

I'm excited, and I think you'll like it.

Meanwhile, I have to start promoting The Red Guitar gig, so yeah, August 6! See you there!

I'm mastering @ HiLo Studio tonight. This is the final stage before "pressing", which raises an interesting issue. I am still undecided about releasing this as a CD. My gut tells me to simply make it a download, and stay ahead of the curve (any money I would have spent on manufacturing CDs can be spent on other areas of promoting and performing with this band). I'll burn copies for promotion, but what I will be promoting is that the music is available for download, as opposed to promoting the sale of a hard-copy CD.

The download concept is here to stay (in the last six months my parents have both bought iPods, so what does that tell you, it ain't just for crack-smoking teenagers anymore.....), and my music is contemporary and (hopefully) even forward-thinking. Why shouldn't its presentation to the marketplace be at least as current?

.... in other news: I rec'd a box from PAISTE today with my new Giant Beat 20" cymbal, it's gorgeous. Go check 'em out online here.

I received an email today from Megan Andrews, the editor of The Dance Current, Canada's national dance magazine. Her and I had discussed me writing an article for them back in the spring, and while I started it, I shelved it while other things came up.

Anyway, she still wants the article, so I'm going to finish it. It should be out in the September issue. My plan was to write the article on the rhythmic theory I use when teaching music to dancers. What is that? Oh well, you'll have to wait for the article. :)

The gig last night was great, EricB really came through playing bass+keys (he played organ sounds and a "split" of a wood bass and piano). He even took a few "bass" solos. Tim sounded great and the decent-sized crowd was quite appreciative. So, all in all, a good night.

I'm starting to think about a "cover" image for the new release and may use some photography by my friend Ed Pas. he takes wonderful pictures and posts them at his incredibly prolific blog (the Bog).

With any luck I'll find time this weekend to finish this work, then Pacy and I will be mastering, then (hopefully) you'll be downloading!

I just finished printing and cutting colour handbills for the August 6 gig w/Tim & Ed. This kind of work has nothing to do with drumming, composing, or any of the things I am passionate about. But it has to be done. And I'm just the man for the job, in fact, I am the only man for the job. :)

BTW, the Red Guitar (the club we're playing August 6) has its grand opening this weekend, the website is here at theredguitar.com

I'm playing with TimP tonight in Burlington, we may touch on a few tunes from the new band's repertoire, but we're hitting with Eric Boucher, so we'll do alot of other stuff too.

7pm in Burlington @ Canyon Creek, see you there.

A light week this week with just two gigs, tomorrow @ Creek Square1 and Thursday at Creek Burlington. Both gigs are cc3, but with all-new lineups (since MP is away on vacation):

tuesday: cc, anesti karantakis (guitar), mike pellarin (bass)
thursday: cc, eric boucher (keys), tim posgate (guitar)

I'm totally humbled by the fine musicians that come out to play with me, it's going to be a great week.

Luther Vandross has died, much too soon. He was an incredible singer, and one of the last true soulful singers in mainstream music. There is a live album from Radio City Music Hall that was recorded just before his stroke (check it out here) that contains some damn-near perfect performances by him and his band.

A singer like Luther is hard to find in this "Idol" era. Luther knew how to sing with a groove, to push and pull against it, and using phrasing to evoke various nuances out of the lyric and the melody. Most contemporary R&B is just a bunch of bogus vocal freakshows, completely devoid of musicality, and rife with "gymnastics". A waste of time.

Luther made some awesome records, and in the process, collaborated with some of the finest musicians available. In my opinion, Yogi Horton and Buddy Williams' performances on "Forever, For Always, For Love", are essential listening for all drummers.

So, in tribute to Luther, go do some listening....

Tonight's gig was effortless, from the first note to the last. What a great night, waaaay too hot outside, but Eric and Mike sounded great, and we nailed cool versions of some of my faves in our repertoire (wichita lineman and isobel, and of course the cc3 staple, rain song by zep). I'm keen to bring in some new charts, maybe a Radiohead tune, and another Bjork....

Next week it's subs-ville, with MP away on vacation at the Montreal Jazz Fest. Mike Pellarin subs on Tuesday with Anesti and myself and I'm looking forward to that. He's SO good, and a helluva nice guy too. Thursday is still up in the air, but with any luck we'll do a keys/guitar/drums trio. Stay tuned...

I'm taking the weekend off to celebrate a wedding and a birthday, it'll be nice to have a few uninterrupted days with my family; and I'll take some time to listen to the pre-mastered mixes of the new record (tentatively titled "The Fruits of our Limitations").

We had a good gig with Anesti last night at cc3's new Tuesday install, Canyon Creek Square One. We're playing very different material with Anesti than we do with Eric (or anyone else). Anesti, for one, brings lots of gear, so his guitar tone changes on every tune; his view is that if he's melody and harmony then he should bring some variation sonically to each tune. It's a cool approach, and he's a damn fine player. We're still settling on what the repertoire should be (I think we played too many rock tunes last night, but the audience seemed to enjoy it....), but this is going to be a fun gig.

The topic of the musician's union came up last night in our conversations. Without going so far as to say I am "anti-Union" (I may be, I just won't go so far as to say it), I do feel that it's goals and mandate do not represent what I am doing professionally. Anesti argued that the Union protects musicians by guaranteeing a minimum fee for our services; yet he acknowledged that a vast majority of Union musicians regularly take (and rely on) gigs that pay below that scale. The question we debated was whether the Union is failing the musicians, or whether musicians are failing the Union?

I tend to support the notion of a free market for the exchange of creative services, and as such, have found that in addition to being a drummer I am also a record company executive, booking agent, online commerce manager, etc. At times, it may be prudent to use my drumming as a "loss leader" for other things to flourish (such as with my trio with Tim and Ed). If I squarely defined myself as a drummer only, my professional mandate would not allow for that (I would place the financial compensation for my drumming above all other aims).

Yes, "Union" gigs pay better than most of the gigs I do, but I wouldn't be working at all if I relied on Union gigs to pay my bills. The amount of gigs in that category are far fewer than the number of musicians capable of playing them. Does that mean I should stop playing until those gigs become available to me? I don't think so; I find work for myself and my groups at what I deem to be a fair price for my time/effort/expertise. My career, as such, is a rather complex combination of creative services that I sell to variety of clients, not all of whom immediately associate me with "drummer". There is always someone willing to work for less than the "going rate", and that is what the Union tries to discourage (they can't possibly believe that they can eliminate it). The fact is, the Union doesn't seem to have time to spread it's message beyond symphony orchestras and musical pit bands in this city. Most of the venues I make music in would simply stop presenting live music if they had to comply with Union rates and regulations. It's as simple as that. The music business is one that requires its participants to make their own opportunities, and to be flexible and adaptive to a changing marketplace. I have my doubts as to whether Union affiliation would be an asset or a hindrance in that regard.

For those of you that visit here before the homepage, the poster for the August 6 gig is now up.

This morning I am making notes on the mixes Pacy sent to me and I'm beginning the digital "booklet" that will accompany the download of our new EP.

There's a momentum happening here. The cancellation of the tinyTour that never was has yielded another opportunity: we may do an "off-site" gig in the Guelph Jazz Festival sept 7-11. The GJF this year features the Art Ensemble of Chicago, which is just plain AWESOME. Also, Ed Z mentioned to Tim and I at our gig in May that many years ago he wanted to be AEC's Roscoe Gordon, with the exception of wearing the dress. :)

The tinyTour is no more, for now.

Scheduling and expense have dictated that the tinyTour should wait until the fall. In the meantime we'll still be hitting at The Red Guitar on August 6 and hopefully doing a Sunday @ Pepperjack's in August. Stay tuned for a tinyTour in September or October.

Meanwhile, I am definitely in the thick of my SIRCorp/Canyon Creek monopoly gigs for the summer. When HBS plays, I am soundtech + drummer + bandleader, so my night includes transporting, setting up and tearing down the PA (then unloading it back at home again), plus setting up and tearing down my drums, plus carrying enough cash to pay the guys in the band and bringing an invoice and collecting and depositing the payment from the venues. Oh yeah, and play the drums. In addition to this I am on the phone between gigs making sure there are players for each show, etc. Needless to say it's a lot of work. But, it's good work. I'm rewarding myself with a Giant Beat cymbal from PAISTE, I can't wait!

This week it's just cc3 on tues and thurs and then HBS hits at Canyon Creek/Sherway with Chris Stott on drums Saturday night (I am taking the weekend off for two very important friend and family functions).

I stumbled into booking shows for the new three-o this week. While my idea of a miniTour hasn't come to fruition, other things have presented themselves. Expect us back at Pepperjack's (Hamilton) in September and the miniTour has been re-named the "tinyTour", as it is now (if it happens) only 2 dates:

Saturday August 6 - The Red Guitar - Toronto (evening)
Sunday August 7 - TBA - Guelph (time TBA)

Ok, over the course of the day the three-o miniTour has been squashed from 3 possible dates to 2. Looks like we'll be gigging August 6 in Toronto and (possibly) August 7 in Guelph. Stay tuned....

The new three-o (tim, ed and myself) are hopefully booking some shows in the beginning of August. If it all falls into place, we'd do August 5-6-7 in three cities in Southern Ontario. Tentative scheduled so far is August 6 in Toronto at a new venue called The Red Guitar. I will confirm this soon, and then officially post it on the website.

Our new 5-song release will come out in July as a free download at cc.com, and then soon to follow available at iTunes. I'm still working on a title and cover art, I hope to have that soon.

My Canyon Creek sched this week:

Tonight! cc3 debuts @ Canyon Creek Square One! 7pm-10pm
Thursday: HBS w/ Lester McLean @ Canyon Creek Burlington 7pm-11pm
Saturday: HBS /Todd Harris @ Canyon Creel Sherway 7pm-11pm

Kevin's gig tonight was fun. Probably the loosest of the gigs this band has done so far. Everyone played well, and I think it was perhaps the most appreciate crowd we've had yet, but the gig just felt a bit sloppy. I am not sure where this band is headed next: it's 10 pieces and no one is really making any money. Kevin has built up alot of goodwill amongst the musicians in Toronto, and he's rightfully cashing in some of it with this project, but it can only last for so long before everyone's schedules start to conflict to the point of disintegrating the band. The music is excellent, as are the players and everyone's intentions; the band needs some sort of patron saint to drop an extra $1000 in the cashbox everytime we play. Then we could all go home renumerated and Kevin's music would make it out to the world.

Tomorrow is the Waterfront Festival in Port Credit with HBS. I'm on a kick right now to expand the current repertoire of HBS and clean up some rather ugly versions of tunes we do now. I'm getting some resistance and I find that disheartening. My reasons for pushing for these renovations is that the work we are getting demands it. We're often doing 4 set gigs and we find ourselves at the end of repertoire before the end of the 4th set. Furthermore, there are some tunes that our versions have become so idiosyncratic (different lyrics, goofy arrangements, etc.) that the audience isn't digging them. When the audience wants to sing along, we better be doing the song the way they know it. Anyway, I was hoping for a more positive reaction to my suggestions.... let's just hope it's only 3 sets tomorrow. :)

Busy night tonight:

It began around 3:30, when I delivered a bouquet of gerber daisies to my grade 12 students @ ESA in celebration of their final performance tonight. I chose the complimentary "Happy Retirement" card for the bouquet. My work @ ESA is something I don't really blog much about, but it's a big thing for me, and I really dig working with such talented young people.

From there I delivered Hot Buttered Soul's PA system to Canyon Creek: Square One location for the HBS gig tonight that Chris Stott was subbing in on for me. Then I headed down to Burlington, and had some extra time so I stopped in to visit my brother and his family for a bit before hitting @ Canyon Creek: Burlington with a special cc3 of myself, Kevin Cooke on bass and David Patterson on guitar. It was cold tonight on the patio, and the general mood somewhat subdued. David is such an excellent player, so smooth, he really makes it seem effortless. Kevin is an interesting contrast to that. He's like a big kid, blowing HUGE solos on his 6-string bass, and then grooving and accompanying in a somewhat scattered fashion. Just when I thought he wasn't listening to me and it wasn't "there", I realize he's right there with me, but kind of reversed (like on cop shows when they look through the two way mirror into the interrogation room). At any rate, I think we made some nice music. I'm looking forward to playing with both of these gentlemen Saturday night in Kevin's big blues band @ Clinton's.

On the negative side of things: a bird shit on my drums while I was playing tonight. Everyone's a critic.

After packing up and getting paid and paying out at Burlington I headed back to Square One where HBS was just finishing up. They sounded good, but it was still weird for me. Like watching someone dance with your wife. :)

We packed up and got paid there, and then Stott started busting my balls about how they didn't get a meal for free at the gig. I know he was kidding but I think my bandleader nerves were a bit frayed by that point: I suggested he go join the Musician's Union if he wants dinner. :)

It's a touchy subject. Back in the "old days" free booze and food was a given when playing restaurant gig. These days, it's not so cut and dried, and to be honest, from my position as a bandleader/booker, I'm not really interested in negotiating for food and drink. I think "soft" beverages should always be free (and they almost uniformly are), but the booze and the food are where these restaurants make their profits, and live music is almost always paid for out of profits; it's not a line item in their budget.

Anyway, some places we play are very generous, and we appreciate it (note to working musicians: if you get dinner and drinks SERVED to you, TIP THE SERVER based on the retail value of what you're eating or drinking). But, it's certainly not a deal-breaker for me if they don't want to feed the band. Alot of people disagree with me on this, and insist on maintaining that it's just a common courtesy. My opinion is that I'd rather not be in a situation where my clients are "doing me favours" (which is how some venues view feeding the band). They get a great service at a fair price (not cheap, but fair), and let's leave it at that. I've operated on this principle in my dealings with the Canyon Creek organization and my invoices to them have increased substantially every year.

Anyway, now I'm home with some inexplicable extra energy. So y'all got a late-night blog. Tomorrow is a day off, with shopping and socializing scheduled. Saturday is Kevin Cooke @ Clinton's, then Sunday HBS plays the Waterfront Festival in Port Credit from 1pm-5pm.

Here's the official plug for my gig with Kevin Cooke Band this Saturday night:


==================================
Mark your calendar: Sat. June 18th

THE KEVIN COOKE BAND

"All the horns & twice the percussion!"

LIVE AT CLINTON'S TAVERN
693 Bloor Street West
at the Christie Subway Station


map to venue


Featuring the 10 (possibly 11 or 12) piece band
for a paltry $5.00 cover

Show starts at 9:30pm
Come for dinner -- stay for the show!

Bring your friends out to see the amazing
ELECTRIC HOCKEYSTICK!

I played a dance class this morning, and will head out @ 3:30 to view my students' dress rehearsal for their final show @ ESA (I'll miss the show due to a cc3 gig). In between I've been doing some admin and realizing that times are pretty good in my career-world. I went to the mailbox to find three cheques from various clients. All three of these cheques, for various reasons, arrived with an absolute minimum of hassle on my part and the work I did to receive them was very pleasurable and creative. My email Inbox contained an offer this afternoon to teach and play at the Toronto Dance Theatre Summer School, which I am not sure I can do (the offer while well-intended, may be too late for me to fit into my schedule) but have nothing but fond memories of doing it last year. I've got a healthy calendar of live gigs for the next three months and at some point in that period will be releasing the new collection of music by myself, Tim, and Ed. Will this last? I don't know, it never has before, but I should start trusting that it will return when it does go away, and maybe bank a bit of $$$ while I've got it. (Which may mean not buying a full set of PAISTE re-issue Giant Beats, which even at my endorsee price could be quite pricey, but they're SOOOO nice.)

My only problem these days is that I can't figure out how my friend Ed Pas blogs so freaking much!, and it's interesting!

Pacy and I had a mixing session @ HILO yesterday. Wow, the stuff sounds INCREDIBLE. All credit goes to Pacy's fine facility and his ability. Thanks to him, we've ended doing a lot of mix "moves" one normally doesn't see on a so-called-jazz recording. The result is going to be a collection of pieces with lots of sonic depth (beyond the performance itself), we've done a few "headphone mix" type of things in terms of sonic spatiality. I can't wait to finish. Probably at least another two weeks before we can get done (not that there is that much left to do, but more because of scheduling to get into the studio together).

Anyway, I think this new band is something special, and once you hear the recordings, hopefully you'll agree.

The MHSB shows are off to a good start. I caught all my cues, and managed to play some interesting music in the process. I'm still working out some technical issues with Reason. With each different patch I use the volume goes up and down, so depending on what I'm playing with it (i.e. synth and drumset, or synth and Tibetan cymbals, etc.) the Reason sounds are sometimes too quiet.

I experienced a "first" tonight: my chair collapsed underneath me. All comments about my weight aside, I was using my "C" drum stool (as in "A" being the best), or the third of the three stools I own. During the first show I thought my stool was just really squeaky, and then in the second show, after it collapsed (thankfully I wasn't playing at the time, but it still made a HUGE noise), those sounds revealed themselves to be metal fatigue. I ended up sitting on my amp for the rest of the show. I'll have to take stool A or B in tomorrow.

My set-up for this gig is kinda cool, a synth keyboard on the left, a 3 pc (snare, kick, floor tom) kit in the middle, and then hand drums and various percussion to the right along with the iBook, all in somewhat of a semi-circle. The cymbal array is quite a mixture: left to right, 13" Signature medium hihats, 18" Innovations crash-ride, 14" Sound Formula crystal crash, 20" Visions Novo China, 6" FO 602 Bell, and a gorgeous 22" (I think) Peace Gong. All PAISTE (of course), all exquisite.

Tomorrow is a matinee with MHSB and then an evening hit with Hot Buttered Soul.

Just checking in while I have a few hours between gigs. I played two dance classes this morning and the studio had to have been at least 30Celsius; way too hot for the work we were doing. Anyway, I complain about winter so I can't really start complaining about warm weather now, can I?

We had a great gig last night at Canyon Creek. The re-constituted full-time cc3 of myself, mp and eric boucher is coming up with some great stuff,and getting to play outside allows us a bit more room volume-wise. Mainly, I get to use sticks, as opposed to brushes, blasticks and my hands. Ironically, the most "noticed" (in that post-set listeners mentioned it) part of my playing last night was when I put my sticks down and accompanied mike's bass solo with handclaps. Anyway, it's going to be a great summer making music with this band.

But, next week it's a substitute trio of myself, david patterson and kevin cooke. Then the following week, Hot Buttered Soul takes over the Canyon Creek patio. So, cc3 re-convenes on June 30. Also, the "other" cc3 of myself, mp and anesti karantakis starts up in two weeks on Tuesday nights @ Canyon Creek Square One.

I'm trying to focus on my gigs with the Martha Hicks ballet school this weekend. I'm playing improvised interludes between their dances, it's a fun gig, lots of experimentation, and the people are all very cool and oh so nice. However, today has been bogged down with my duties as bandleader&booker, as I find myself short of a singer on a bunch of HBS dates. Rather than panic, I'm going to hope. And beg. And maybe have to pay more than I want to get a substitute singer. :)

On Monday I'm mixing @ HILO with Pacy Shulman. I'm excited, this is going to be a great suite of tunes. I'm thinking about making it a freebie here at the website, in exchange for a little data-mining: To access the entire "album" one has to sign up to my email list. Sounds fair? I hope so. You can always email back and be taken off the list, but I'd like to try this approach.

I'm hoping to announce a gig for the band soon. With any luck it will be in the first week of August at a new venue in Toronto, stay tuned...

I am staring in the face of a very busy week! In addition to 10 dance classes this week @ ESA, I'm doing a cc3 hit on Thursday and an HBS on Saturday (which I have to rent the PA system for...). Squeezing in around this are 6 shows for the Martha Hicks School of Ballet. The MHSB gig is one I have done for a few years now, and it's great fun and a great group of people to work with. Essentially, I perform musical interludes in between dance pieces in their show. The shows are thematic (this year is a "colour" theme) so my interludes "set up" the next piece and its theme. Sounds simple, right? Well, there are 9 shows in total (Nick Coulter is subbing for me on shows 1,4&5), 50 pieces (about 20 in each individual show), and different running orders for each show. It gets crazy from an organizational standpoint.

My hope was to utilize the drumKAT this year in the show, but alas, I am still struggling to find a way to make this device useful for me and my work. I spent Friday afternoon at Evan Ritchie's studio, and he generously and patiently helped me program some "kits" (trigger setups for the KAT to talk to sound source, in this case a rented Kurzweil device). I decided to can the idea when we were basically taking an hour to finish the first kit, and it still wasn't what I wanted. And I had 20 more kits to create! The interface for the KAT is cumbersome and to actually use it as a performance tool require so much prep-time that I lose interest in playing music on it by the time it's ready!

I decided to just use my crappy Yamaha Portasound keyboard as a MIDI controller for my iBook (running Reason), as I did a few months back on that Melissa Rebronja gig. I spent about half an hour creating a bunch of Reason setups (basically just picking patches for the internal sampler), which will all sit on the iBook desktop and I can simply open these files and the new sound will appear, no need to scroll through menus and find the right patch. With the keyboard I can just improvise and play what I hear in the moment, as opposed to pre-determining which notes will be played by the KAT pads.

The KAT itself is an awesome tool, if you take the time to program it. Perhaps if the work I had provided a large pre-production budget, I could allocate time and money to getting the KAT set up, but that magic gig hasn't come yet.

GIG REPORT:

Here's a clip of my song "megtwo" from my gig on Friday night. This is a cool trio, and the more I think about it, our demo will probably become an actual release (download or CD, or both, stay tuned...). Anyway, let the music from the gig speak for itself, click here to watch a clip.

Mixing sessions @ HILO are probably delayed until next week. I'll report track-by-track once we're into mixing.

Otherwise, this week is dance classes and a cc3 hit @ Canyon Creek Burlington w/eric boucher and mike pelletier. Next week is wild, with dance classes, a 6-show theatre gig and a cc3 gig and a Hot Buttered Soul... yikes!

I implored my PC-using brother to check out if Winter Music was available at Puretracks.com, the Canadian download site for PC users. It is, at over $2 more in price. What's up with that? I assure you I am far, far away from those making this decision, and I can't in good conscience ask people to buy from Puretracks, when iTunes offers it for $3.99.

PC or Mac. Both are supported by iTunes. If you have an mp3 player that isn't an iPod, you'll have to drag-and-drop your mp3 files from your iTunes library onto your player; that's the only catch with the iTunes software.

Anyway, the marketing department here at chriscawthray.com has already devised our slogan for the new WINTER MUSIC download release:

"the sounds of summer: winter music"

catchy, huh?

go here to download the iTunes software

WINTER MUSIC is on iTunes!

FINALLY.

I shouldn't start to get picky since it took almost 6 months, but they listed me under the ROCK genre. Maybe. I don't know, do I rock? That record doesn't, but whatever.

Please, check me out on iTunes. Please. I've waited so long. :)

hey!

Big weekend, the gig in Hamilton was a blast. I'll try finish my studio report this week, and a offer some thoughts on the gig. Stay tuned....

Studio report: part one

Wednesday night was great. Instead of going in and doing the original plan of three songs, we played our entire repertoire, six tunes! While I had hoped to take pictures and video, little of that actually happened. I was busy drumming. I'm going to start making a concrete plan to get a DV/digicam person at sessions and gigs so that good stuff gets documented. At any rate, here's two photos I managed to take:

tim

ed


First of all, I can't speak highly enough of our host and engineer, Pacy Shulman. HILO studios is by far the finest "home" studio (in actuality it's a dedicated, soundproofed, professionally designed building separate from his house) I've ever recorded in. Pacy's skills are complete and efficient. We got great sounds very quickly, and the entire recording experience was seamless, with no delays or breakdowns during the recording (which are far more common than you may think in the recording world). If you are planning to record, call Pacy: 416-399-6567

We recorded to ProTools, and I was able to take a complete copy of all of the files from the session (over 5 gigs) home with me on my iPod. Then, using GarageBand, I was able to reconstruct the session here at home, and in about an hour (time spent importing files, etc.), had useable rough mixes of all six tunes to listen to until Pacy and I can schedule a true mixing session. The basic sounds Pacy put "to tape" are impressive, and other than adding a bit of reverb to the guitar and sax, I didn't have to do anything to get it together. If it sounds this good under my control in GarageBand, the finished product is going to be stellar.

We did six tunes, and one or two takes of each, a few of them were "done in one", usually after a false-start or two. The tunes we did, in order were:

1. megtwo (an original of mine)
2. paper tiger (Beck)
3. tragic magic (NRBQ)
4. caravan (duke ellington)
5. japan (original)
6. good (original)

For myself, I find the actual recording experience to be somewhat disconnected. When playing interactive music with headphones on and the guitar amp in the bathroom (the "porcelain isolation enclosure") and the tenor sax behind baffles, it all gets a bit weird. I don't necessarily think it is detrimental to the music, but I'm much more comfortable assessing what I or we did after the fact, from the recording itself; as opposed to judging it from within the recording environment. Come to think of it, that's what makes a great producer great, I guess. That ability to hear the work in the midst of wires, headphones and baffles. Anyway, I was willing to trust my musicians and myself that we'd get good takes, so I didn't really listen all that critically until I had the rough mixes on CD.

Before I get to that, I'll quickly run down my gear for the session:

I used my trusty Sonor Phonics, 13"tom, 16" floor tom and 22" bass drum. They, as always sounded great (thanks again to the technical support of Paul Fitterer for his care and feeding of my drums a few weeks ago). I used a 6.5x14 Sonor SignatureLite snare drum from most of the tunes, and a 13" Sonor Artist Beech (27plys!) for "japan" and a 6.5x14 Sonor Phonic ferro-manganese steel for "good".

The first two drums had single-ply coated heads for batters and the latter drum has a coated double-ply head. No muffling was used, with the exception of my hand muting the batter head on "japan". The toms had coated 2-ply heads on the batters and were wide-open, except on "japan" where I placed SONOR clip-on mufflers on the toms. The bass drum had a Powerstroke 3 on the batter and my new front-head design (adapted from LA session drummer Russ Miller): a single-ply clear head with 8 -1/2" holes cut around the edge. I have a "banana" shaped muffling pillow (I think the brand name is a "Thumper") attached with velcro to the inner shell, and it rests slightly on the batter head.

For cymbals, all PAISTE, of course. I used 13" Signature Medium HiHats throughout, and an 18" Traditionals thin crash above on my left. I had a double-cymbal stand on my right that hosted various combinations:

megtwo: 20" Signature Rough Ride (left) and 20" Dark Energy Mark I Ride (right)
paper tiger: 20" Rough Ride (left) and 6" FO602 Bell (right)

for "good", "tragic magic" and caravan, I used just the Dark Energy Ride, and no 2nd cymbal on the stand. for "japan" I used no cymbals at all.

next post: rough mix rundown....

I'm home from setting up at HILO studio, sounds good, feels good, tonight should be fun.

Here's a few pics so far:

the exterior

my drums

a mic and engineer Pacy Shulman bending over, working hard


more photos tomorrow

TimP and I have been "telerehearsing" last night and tonight over email and phone. One of my charts for tomorrow's session was written wrong (damn interns.....), and Tim has been trying to solve the riddle. He did valiantly, and as of now I think we have a corrected chart for tomorrow. I can see it now from Apple: "iRehearsal"

...you heard it here first!

I've just posted some photos over at cc.com that Christopher Stott took on May 14. Here's one:



The rest are here

The photos from last week at Pepperjack's are starting to email in.... here's one:

Last night we went to see a performance of Ukranian dance. A very good friend, and a number of my students @ ESA are in the company; I say this because without this connection, an event like this would probably pass under my radar. The last time I saw this company was a few years ago, and while the style of dance is very much historical/storytelling with a lot of miming, the athleticism and accuracy is stunning. What struck me most though was the power of the cultural statement. This company tours the world and has so for many years. Their schedule has been a way in which my friend in the company has been able to travel to places that she's never been (nor have I for that matter). Anyway, all of this is happening due to the efforts of a displaced community of Ukranians living here in Toronto. I am not sure to what degree, if any, they are funded by government arts money (my guess is ZERO). They exist because of the passion of those involved (including their local audience).

That, to me, is culture. In my opinion, the model of Canadian artists relying on government subsidies generates "subsidized" work that makes no impact on the people who funded it (Canadian citizens). I'm not suggesting that Ukranian dance is on the cutting edge of contemporary dance, far from it. But, it thrives because of a shared passion between performers and audiences, and that is priceless.

Mike and I played with David Patterson last night at Canyon Creek, Dave sounded great, and he brought 2 amps so he could play in stereo (he said it wasn't for volume as much as being able "move more air" at a lower volume), which sounded great. Next week is Martin Aucoin, and then with only one or two exceptions it will be Eric Boucher with us all summer on Thursdays. When our Tuesdays start Mike and I will be playing with the great guitarist Anesti Karantakis for most of those dates this summer.
I've enjoyed having the rotating "third man" situation, but it does mean alot of extra work for me, booking players, finding subs when one cancels, etc. I have less time to bring new charts of music to the band when I'm busy on the phone. I don't necessarily think the music has suffered (each new "third" brings in his own music, so cc3's repertoire stays fresh), but I'd like to be able to bring in more stuff.

Hopefully we'll see you this summer at one of our gigs!

I'm just getting home from rehearsal. Tim and Ed sound great, and the drummer had fun, to say the least. We're all pretty excited to be recording and gigging next week; there's a great energy in this trio. Ed's tone is simply too big to begin to describe, it just cuts through the cymbal wash and the guitar. So nice. I can't wait to post up an mp3 on the website, but it'll have to wait. Our rehearsal recordings, while exciting, are full of starts and stops; not the best representation of the tunes (but a good representation of the rehearsal!). In a good way, everything has been left unfinished in some way, so there'll be some element of surprise during the recording session, and then presumably, new loose ends will be discovered and resolved on the gig.

Overall, it's a bit more "out" than I'd originally conceived, but I'm pleasantly surprised. Plus, I'm now singing one tune, which is a challenge for me, but I have the support of my band mates, and it will open the door to a whole other avenue of repertoire.

It's a very healthy diversion from the current web-wrangling I'm doing with the M4M site, which is better left not talked about. If you really want to know, log in the to M4M blog here.