Well, another year has ticked over. I write this from Divonne Les Baines, France where I have been blissfully ensconced with famliy for the holidays. It's been great to be away from the grind of Halifax - no cello, no computer, checking email once a day instead of every 5 minutes - a real break. But as the year ends and 2010 begins, my brain kicks in. Plans are being dreamed up for next season, I started promo on Timeless Pulses, and I'm looking forward to the CNMN next week in Halifax. 2010/2011 with be sL's 10th season, so I'm really hoping to make some big plans to celebrate. No concrete plans are locked in, but please stay tuned. Needless to say I want to include musicians from across Canada, and around the world, some new and some favourites from the past 10 years. It's going to be tough to decide! Timeless Pulses will be a fun show I think. Granelli, Crofts and Haley are my favourite Halifax creative musicians. Jerry Granelli spreads a big dollop of love and joy over every sound he makes and it is so infectious that it charges the whole concert! Over the last several years I've played a bit with Jerry and each show has been surprising and fun. I love playing and hearing Jerry growl "yeahhhhh" behind me - you just don't get that in the orchestra world...... Geordie is a guitarist that is so tasteful you'd never notice he was amplified, driving a ton of processing with preparations! And I say "notice" because it's never too loud, or overpowering, or dense, all of which is very easy for him to do. I played with Geordie in November on a concert in Sackville NB, and it was such a natural experience, I felt total comfort and trust - both essential in the making of any kind of music. Tim is a pianist I've played with frequently, and a person I learn something from each time we talk or play. His thoughts and music are so clear and sure, it's always interesting and honest. Total respect. So this concert is going to be exciting, full of wild joy, and great interaction. Magic will happen, and I'll be listening to the recording pretty carefully! The CNMN gathering will be very cool, listening to, learning from and meeting so many of the really important people in Canadian new music. And Tim Crofts, Lukas Pearse and I will play a set of trio music on the concert on Friday night January the 8th. I encourage all interested people to check this event out. I'm hoping to strap on my "outgoing guy" shoes and try to meet some of these folks - woohoo! Hobnobbing with the stars!! So please keep in touch, let me know your ideas, let me know if you are reading and enjoying these posts, I'm going to keep writig them anyways, but it's always nice to know......
Jan 1, 2010 at 14:20