I'm moving the blog to a new service (to me) called WordPress. I was experimenting with it and it offers some features I haven't been able to access here with Blogger (they may have these features, they're just not obvious to me :)). I don't think I can transfer the archive over so I will keep a link up to this blog so that anyone so inclined may view historical entries.


Please update your bookmarks and join me at:

chriscawthray.wordpress.com

Since INDIEpool has let me down (see my post from a few days ago...) and Steve Coleman is giving away a pile of music on his site, I've reposted a bunch of mp3s for your enjoyment. Now you can get almost all of the fruits of our limitations again at chriscawthray.com. I couldn't put Japan up because I ran out of space and I'd like to keep some videos and other stuff over on the download page.

In other news, I'm going to be pressing a short run of CDs (I know, I know, never say never...) which will be officially cc1003 - limited edition compilation. It's going to be a compilation of both fruits... and winter music. The plan is to use it as a demo to send out for gigs, and to sell a few off the stage during the drumLAB gigs and elsewhere.

And, cc3 may be doing a show or two at the Gladstone Hotel in Toronto. Stay tuned for details...

Rob Price and I are putting a band together. Essentially, I'd like to play in New York, but the logistics of bringing my own band from up here in Toronto down to NYC is simply too daunting to be worthwhile at this point. Rob, he a fine guitarist and composer in his own right, and I have struck up a mutual-admiration society of late. I recently proposed that he be the guitarist in my New York trio, and he graciously accepted. I'm more than excited about the possibilities of this, and hope to have some sort of actual action ("actual action", haha) in this regard in 2006.

So, a public thanks to Rob for being so cool; I've plugged his great record, At Sunset before. You gotta get it, you can download it from iTunes or buy it on CD from his website.

INDIEPool is hopeless. I gave them two chances, first with winter music and then with the fruits of our limitations. In the former's case, they managed to get my record to 3 or 4 of the major download retailers (iTunes, MSN Music, Rhapsody and crappy Puretracks), but so slowly that any momentum I had built up with gigs or press was a distant memory by the time it was there for sale. With the latter, apparently it's only up at Puretracks.com, a Canadian PC-users only site that must be minutes from going out of business. I have been waiting since August for them to deliver the record to any e-retailer that matters. So far, no dice. Of course, the letter of agreement between us doesn't specify how long it should take for this to happen, but 5 months is useless to an independent musician or record company.

Thankfully, the fees I paid for their services are too small to warrant trying to get a refund, so I guess a public complaint like this is my only recourse. Thanks for listening...

Catching up....

I've woken up early this morning (in anticipation of the delivery of some furniture to our house; and of course, the 4-hour-maybe-we'll-show-up-maybe-we-won't-but-don't-dare-expect-us-to-phone-you delivery window is for "my convenience") to some sad news that I'm presumably a little late on finding out.

The master guitarist Derek Bailey passed away on Christmas Day. I can't describe his work better than the essay I've linked to, so go check it out. Bailey was a DIY kind of guy, and I have a deep respect for that. He took control of the world of his work, started his own label, and simply, got down to work. The lesson in that for musicians who's muse carries them to the "outside" is simple, yet essential. If I may add one further recording recommendation to the essay's list, it would be David Sylvian's Blemish album featuring DB on many tracks.

Now, about getting down to work. I had a great jam with EdZ and MikeP last week. Very loose, but very fertile. Ed sounds better than ever. A concept I'm pushing for the repertoire that I've built around Ed's playing is that we abandon the seemingly unnecessary layer of "form" for these tunes. Meaning, one of the hurdles in the gigs I've done with EdZ and with either Tim Posgate or Mike Bowell on guitar has been my dictating a song form (meaning ordering the solos, do the intro twice, etc.), which invariably gets misunderstood or forgotten due to the lack of available rehearsal time and the infrequency of our gigs. The result has been that we spend our time onstage caught up in worrying about what is supposed to come next, and forgetting that we are in control of that, and we should really just be letting our ears tell us what the path is through listening to each other onstage. Our hearts and minds should commit to the music and not the formal instructions. I think this concept is compatible with this repertoire because the songs themselves are rather simple in structure, and the structures themselves are easily heard. So, if a member of the group chooses to extend or eliminate sections through the course of their improvisation, we will hear it and go with it. My hope is that playing this way will drive us right into the heart of pieces, and subsequently turn them out for our listeners to hear beneath the surface of the writing.

A tangible effect of this way of playing occured to me last week while we were jamming. Ed played the head (the main melody) of Paper Tiger and then added another 8 bars of improvisation to it, then paused. In the moment, I first thought "oh, Ed is soloing...", but when he stopped playing so soon I realized that the notion of "taking a solo" is less important given the concept I had laid out. Ed stated the melody, made a comment and left Mike and I with a space to respond. In retrospect, it makes so much sense, and from a listener's p.o.v. certainly doesn't seem "avant-garde".

Ok, off to wait for deliveries (I neglected to mention that my new iPod shuffle may be arriving today, if the FedEx tracking info is on-target)...

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.