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