Blog

Thoughts on music, the arts, and interviews with friends.
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On March 28, 2020 I wrote a chord progression based on some of the Random Harmony Exercises of Kenny Werner. I continued to write at least one progression a day for a year. I used two 12-sided dice. One pink, one blue. On the pink die, I assigned a number to each of the 12 types of chords that comprised my universe. I adapted this list from Kenny's and used some things he didn't use. For example, I hang with George McFetridge a lot and he's into things like Bmi(ma7)/Bbma7 so I created some space for those possibilities. Essentially that's the whole...

17 September, 2021

Thrilled folks are digging LULL: Sounds for Sleep. Find it on Bandcamp, Spotify, iTunes, or any other platform you dig. Thanks to Andrew Waterman at The Telegram for this great piece. Check out the audio portion. It was lovely chatting with a fellow musician about what we love: MUSIC! Thanks to Ramraajh Sharvendiran at CBC NL in St. John's for this fun chat! Thursday April 29 I'll be on As It Happens with Carol Off. Sunday May 2 I'll be on Weekend AM with Paula Gale.  ...

29 April, 2021

CHECK OUT MY FIRST CHRISTMAS SINGLE EVER! Maybe Christmas, he thought, doesn't come from a store. Maybe Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more. How The Grinch Stole Christmas Everyone met a grinch this year. This solo guitar version is tailor made for those to like to clomp around at a distance and get into the spirit of the season. 100% of all donations for this recording go to the Red Cross effort in Yemen. Celebrate the release of this holiday classic on FB Live Sun Dec 20 at noon PST. Come to YULE SLIDE CAROLS where I'll play some seasonal music plus some Bach...

17 December, 2020

Hee-Haw wasn’t that funny to me. I watch it now and actually laugh at the jokes. But when I was younger, it was the music that seduced me. I felt like I had to sit through the jokes and the girls sitting on hay bales in order to get to Roy Clark. The first instrument I ever wanted to play was a pedal steel guitar. I saw someone play one on the Tommy Hunter Show. I was maybe 7, possibly younger. “How can you sit down and play music?” I thought. “This is for me.” For several years, Mark Bragg left his...

20 November, 2018

My love of The Shaggs is no secret. Their music intoxicating and pure. My journey towards them led to Brittany Anjou. Out of the blue, I contacted her about her work with Dot Wiggin and she graciously agreed to answer these questions in detail.  Brittany wrote to me from the Sheikh Jaber Al-Ahmad Cultural Center Music Academy located in the Kuwait Opera House where she is currently in residence. On a planet full of original musicians, Brittany stands out. I am deeply moved that she has taken them time to answer questions about The Shaggs and her own music. Read on...

11 November, 2018

I feel sad writing this next sentence in the past tense. Roy Hargrove was an incredible musician. He died this weekend at only 49. As a trumpeter and musician, he stayed open. He found a way to bring his unique sound and ideas into a range of situations. To me, that’s about the best you can ever hope for. Here are some personal favourite Roy Hargrove moments. The Jazz Futures played at the Newport Jazz Festival in 1991. I taped this concert from PBS and watched it a hundred times. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0kMh4r2Bkdc   Roy Hargrove - trumpet Benny Green - piano Christian McBride - bass Carl Allen -...

04 November, 2018

My new record “After Forgetting” is finally out. This one took a while to get together. It features my dear friend Bill Brennan on piano. Bill and I have a great relationship on and off stage. We know how to make each other laugh and we’ve really been there for each other through the years. On bass, you’ll hear Mike Downes. Many moons ago, I cold-called Mike to play on a different project. We have since become great friends. I love Mike as a bassist but I’m also drawn to his compositional mind. He contributed a great deal of direction...

19 October, 2018

31. Frank Zappa – Hot Rats (1969) Many moons ago I inherited/borrowed/stole many dozens of records from my uncle. Mainly Beefheart and Zappa. So this music has been a big part of me since grade 9 – not yesterday. The jazz inspired aspects of this record stand out for me, but it is in many ways an outlier in the Zappa catalogue. It’s not his funniest or most musically dangerous record. And yet it’s my favourite. It unites a post-bebop language with advanced forms and electric instruments. In grade 9, when learning the first four chords to “Teen Spirit” was a major...

15 August, 2018

26. Weather Report – Mysterious Traveler (1974) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T3qDGChRDDY This is like all of the music of the world at once. How many hours did I spend in the Music Resource Centre listening to this on vinyl with the headphones smushed right into my wear? That years later my love of this record was shared and confirmed with pals Jim Vivian and Ed Squires. For the range of forms and timbres and for the spirit of teamwork throughout, Weather Report loom very large in my life. It is the well I always return to. Zawinul is a guy I’ve transcribed through the years. His...

08 August, 2018

17. Dave Douglas – Charms of the Night Sky (1998) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=opNFFsZ-5T4 People always ask me “what trumpeters do you like?” I know they don’t mean anything by that question, but when I hear it I am reminded that I am musician who happens to play trumpet. I sometimes wish I picked something easier, something that didn’t transpose, something that required less of my body. But yet all of those “obstactles” contribute to my love of the instrument. Anyway, my answers inevitably involve “Dave Douglas” in some way because in Dave, I hear a musician who also happened to play the trumpet, whose body...

29 July, 2018