well, things change, sometimes quicker than you expect. I won't be getting a new teaching studio march 1, after all. Having said that, I am still going to be pushing ahead to offer more lessons. So, do call if you're interested!

Starting March 1st, I'm moving into new practice/teaching studio in downtown Toronto (Queen St. West&Bathurst). I am hoping to be able to expand my teaching practice with this new location, so if you're interested in a lesson, do call me 416-888-2544 to set something up. I teach drumset, hand drums (congas, frame drums, etc.) and rhythm skills in general. All necessary equipment will be provided at the lesson, and the studio is equipped to record the lessons to MD, cassette or any other piece of connectable equipment. We can videotape your lesson too!

I've been meaning to make mention of my friend Sean O'Rourke's new solo CD, check it out at www.seanorourke.com

...just got in from cc3. nice night, a few folks even got up to dance, on a kraftwerk-meets-the meters version of duke ellington's "blue pepper"....

MO is going to the Junos in Winnipeg April 1, so I'll be bringing another duo partner to Leftover Daylight.. stay tuned.

cc3 is me, mp and MO tonight...

I just read my last post, the icipari radio is the cc+mo mascot, but then I went on to describe how crappy the icipari sounds (while looking so good). cc+mo is somewhat the opposite (sounds good, looks crappy). :):)

good things today:

Tim Posgate has agreed to do 2 weeks of cc3 march 17 + 24, fantastic.

I've put up a crappy little "poster" for the Leftover Daylight show on April 1. The poster is on the front page of the website. Anyway, all of the cc+mo posters have featured the same graphic: a picture of Philippe Starck's icipari radio (I own one, but have never photographed it, i just steal the images from Starck's website). here it is:



Anyway, it's kind of cc+mo's mascot.

As a radio, it's actually quite crappy sounding, but I love it's look and some of the design elements are very thoughtful and cool. I guess to make it sound good would make it very expensive. I don't know. We have a Kloss Model One radio in the bedroom, one tiny mono speaker, and it's the best sounding small system I've heard. I love it. When you're going micro, mono is way more potent and lush that wimpy stereo....

tim posgate's blog (guildwoodrecords.blogspot.com) turned me on to this great interview with Henry Threadgill:

http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=16376

he makes a very prescient comment about releasing CDs, saying that it's useless since there are so many, it's unlikely that your CD will get noticed. He's planning on releasing his next album on vinyl, since his small fanbase probably wouldn't blink if they had to get it on vinyl, and it might get the release noticed by reviewers. interesting.

I'm committed to the download-release model, I think it brings the costs of making music available way down, and might make it possible for new listeners to "try" me out without committing to a whole CD... My actual entry into this market is moving slowly (I think "winter music" will finally be up at Puretracks.com within a week or so....), but I'm hopeful.

As for my next project, it's building steam slowly. I am in the midst of organizing my "work" playing for the summer, meaning Hot Buttered Soul and cc3 gigs, dance school teaching etc. That should be better formed within a few weeks, then I'll know if I'm going to have any time and money to do a project this year. Oddly, if I have few gigs, I'll have lots of time (but no money to pay people to work on my stuff); if I have lots of gigs, I'll have the money to get people together, but less time to do it.

...had a great gig last night at Canyon Creek. MP was away and I managed to get Mike Pellarin to fill in on bass. I had never met Mike, but had seen him play. Well, it turns out we're neighbours, and he was free this week so he was more than happy to play. The trio was me, Mike Pellarin and Mike Bowell on guitar, and it was fantastic. I can't speak highly enough of Pellarin's playing, attitude, and general vibe. A total pro; he didn't fumble on anything we threw at him, in any style, and often ended up leading the way. He lifted the energy on the bandstand in so many ways and played some great solos too. And on top of all that, a helluva nice guy. The total package. :) Anyway, I'll stop gushing. Suffice to say it was fun.

Looks like the Creek will be changing things up on Thursdays, but it's all good for me. When the warmer weather hits (whenever that may be, it is Canada after all, so maybe 2056) they want to do the music on the patio, and want things to get a little louder and funkier. So, cc3 will turn into Hot Buttered Soul for the summer (we'll add a singer, hopefully most of the time HBS's full-time singer, Todd Harris), and then when we head back inside into the bar in the fall go back to cc3. Cool with me, it's a little more work (I have to bring a PA system, etc.), but I know it will be a success. It's not confirmed yet, but I hope to within a week or so.

Ok:

Here's my new phone #, these are the digits to get a hold of me for gigs, lessons, any M4M-related business, etc.

416-888-2544

Everything should be up and running by tomorrow...

In the meantime I am happy to announce that cc+mo is booked for april 1 @ Leftover Daylight (see my website for a link). MO hasn't confirmed yet, but the organizer, Ken Aldcroft, has kindly offered that I may bring another duo partner should MO not be able to hit. Cool.

good news, bad news....

good: I got an email from Dan Wall yesterday, he's interested in doing some recording! this is fantastic; now i have to determine if it is possible on my end (budgets, etc.)... more good, but not nearly as significant: I've been battling my cell-phone provider for years, basically, they suck. finally another company has an offer that will maintain my current level of service (in terms of airtime, etc.), give me a new phone, free voicemail, and a year's free service. In the end I stand to save about $320 in the deal... The only downside is that I will have to change my #. Stay tuned for updated contact info...

bad: in the live music business, one is unfortunately often working in bars and clubs, which is a pretty unstable world. I got a call last night that Hot Buttered Soul will not be working this weekend as the bar we were booked at has shut down as of yesterday. So, we're out in the cold for gigs this weekend, with really no recourse. The bar may re-open under new management as soon as this weekend (which may mean we will work), or it may not. It makes me appreciate the stability of the Canyon Creek venue for cc3. Now, they could cancel us at any time too, but they don't appear to be going out of business anytime soon (they are owned by a parent corporation...).

For those reading this who are in the northeast US, NOJO (the Neufeld Occhipinti Jazz Orchestra) is on tour as I type this, here's the remaining dates:

5th – Blues Alley, Washington, DC
17th – Night Town, Cleveland, OH
18th – Charleston Jazz Series, Charleston, WV
19th – The Firefly, Ann Arbor, MI

Go on out and see them! The band is led by two frequent orbiters into the cc3 world, Paul Neufeld and Michael Occhipinti. They've won Junos (canadian grammys) and are up for more this year, and the band is killer. Also, there's 9 of them, in minivans and double-occupancy hotels rooms (I don't know if this makes me a dilletante, but the thought of sharing a hotel room with anyone other than my wife, at this point in my life, no thanks, I'd rather be paid less on the gig and have my own space than bunk-in......), so my hat's off to them for hitting the road in the first place. So, if you're nearby these venues, check em out!

In local news, Ken Aldcroft (fine guitarist and curator of the Leftover Daylight Concert Series) has offered cc+mo march 4 or april 1 as possible dates for us. I have a feeling it will be april 1, but stay tuned.... It's very gratifying to get an offer for a gig, as opposed to having to scavenge for them. So, Ken, if you're reading, many thanks.

I have to correct myself: bruno, mike pelletier and I have been playing together since 1991, not 1992. (Canadian) Thanksgiving 1991 was our first gig together @ the Silver Dollar in Toronto. At the time, the Silver Dollar had been turned into a strip joint by the then-current owners. The strip joint (which is now a club called The Comfort Zone, that both of my bands, HEARSAY and Relax with Trudy would play in the years between then and now) was called Johnny Vegas, and the upstairs lounge was known as the Silver Dollar Room. Anyway, it was Thanksgiving Sunday 1991 and we were on a "jazz" gig under the name "the Jazz Delegates", which is easily one of the worst names in the history of music. It speaks so much to the nature of where we were at intellectually at the time. All of us were in our first years of university or college studying in the "Jazz Program", and learning the textbook-correct way to play this music that was in a time-capsule from 1958. We were it's "delegates" that evening, I guess. Anyway, the band was a quintet or sextet and mp, bi, and myself were the rhythm section.

Thursday's gig was fun, Todd Harris (Hot Buttered Soul's singer) came by and sang a bunch of tunes with us. No mic, it was great, the audience had to LISTEN if they wanted to hear Todd. We even managed to play a tune that we'd never done before that will end up in HBS' full-time repertoire, so it was a fruitful evening. I played my new PAISTE ride and it's a wonderful instrument. On that gig, since I play with brushes and my hands almost exclusively, the full tonal capabilities of the cymbals are never really heard, but it was satisfying just to see it up there vibrating. :)

Also this week I was rummaging in a filing cabinet looking for something (now I don't remeber what) and I came across my copy of the first HEARSAY CD, "there and back again" (which only recently have I discovered that Bruno lifted the title from something out of Lord of the Rings! how embarassing..... :)). This record was from 1995/96 with myself and bruno ierullo and mike bowell on guitar and nikku nayar on bass. For years I've just assumed it was not worth listening to. I mean, I was 19 or 20 at the time of this record, and I think I just as much figured anything I played then should stay back there. Well, I was wrong. This record is great, and sounds really good (thank you to the recording engineer Fred Duvall). I was playing Sonor Hilite drums and mix of Sabian and Zildjian cymbals (actually, the cymbals leave something to be desired to my ears, hence the switch to PAISTE soon after that record). I wrote half the songs and Bruno wrote the other, plus one tune written by our friend Lisa Patterson. It's jam-band/fusion record of the most obvious degree, woefully out of step with my tastes now, but I think for what it set out to do, it more than acheived it. Plus, I have tremendous respect for Bruno on this CD, he sang lead, simply because I was too chicken to do it. So, I can't fault him at all from that point of view. I think he wouldn't argue that from a musical standpoint the vocal performances are not at the level of the instrumental work, but so what? My tunes on the record are weird, multi-part jamfests, with extremely surreal lyrics that I now can't figure out what I meant. (But I remember back then having very clear understanding of the lyrics I wrote). Things about snails, kiwi, jewels, driving under bridges, burning up in the atmosphere.... oh well. :)

I think I'm going to create webpages about the HEARSAY records, there were three of them (2 full-length and one EP). Only a few hundred people ever bought or were given these records, so this music is hardly "over-exposed".

Ok, so mr. bruno is in this week to fill in for David Patterson. The lineup for cc3 then this week has actually been playing together on an off since 1992, 13 years, almost half my life. I hope we've improved in those 13 years, Mike is actually playing some of the same gear that he had way back then.

As for me, I can't say that. :) I am a bit fickle with gear, and usually end up selling off everything from time to time (usually to friends, so that if i ever wanted to use it again, I can buy them dinner and borrow the drums!). I rarely sell cymbals, because you just never know when you'll need THAT SOUND again. Plus, drums are much easier to tweak sonically than cymbals, so you can often make a new set of drums sound like your old set (or close to) with the right heads. Usually, I change drums because of logistical conveniences (newer hardware designs, smaller or larger sizes, etc.) than their actual sound. The last time I purged a bunch of drums was when I realized I had 3 kits going and only one of them was actually going out on gigs. The SONOR Hilite set I was simply too gorgeous and expensive for me to drag it out to clubs, and risk it getting damaged in the process. So, I sold them to the fantastic drummer and friend, Christopher Stott (www.cstottrun.com). I also had a SONOR Jungle kit that I wasn't gigging with because I didn't like the way the mounting hardware worked (it always slipped loose on me), but they're very cool drums, and once again Stott snapped them up! Which left me with my trusty old Sonor Phonics, which I guess are now considered vintage drums (built over 20 years ago), which I bought out of the rental dept. at Long&McQuade music here in Toronto. These drums have the distinction of being used in a skit on Kids in the Hall, before i owned them. Anyway, they sound profoundly awesome, they were cheap, and they're indestructible. I think I'll always have them. Having said that, I am itching to buy a new set....

in the meantime, I'm picking up a new cymbal from PAISTE this week, a Dark Energy Mark I ride, one of the new hotties out of the PAISTE braintrust. I'm quite excited. Thanks to Rich Mangicaro @ Paiste, and Sean Browne @ yamaha (paiste's canadian distributor), the cymbal is available to me at my endorser price (which makes the cymbals affordable, but not cheap). The cymbal's list price is $795 CDN, and I think you can get it in a store for around $450. My price is less than that, but no where near free (FYI, very few endorsees get their gear for free). I don't mind, it's like endorsing a Ferrari, they're not gonna give them away. These instruments are made by highly paid artisans in factories in Western Europe, the price can't be anything but high with those factors involved.

anyway, I hope I'm getting it today, so that I can play it on Thursday....

I just got off the phone with David Patterson, who was supposed to be guitar-ing with cc3 this week. He's had to cancel, which is too bad because I was really looking forward to playing with him. However, I completely understand, and now I'll have to grab someone else for Thursday. Stay tuned to see who it is...

I am off to buy a new case for my hardware (cymbal stands, seat, etc.). This is a good sign. If your cases are wearing out, you must be gigging. :)

Playing tonight for a private event at Canyon Creek with Bruno Ierullo and the newly revitalised Kevin Cooke (I say that because he goes for long stretches of not playing bass while he's composing, recording/producing, etc.... He's just finished the rehearsals and performance for his CD release, so he's hot to trot). Should be fun.