As I now sit at home in Halifax, having experienced the past week and especially the most recent two whirlwind days, the tour seems a bit like a distant blur already.
Hamilton to Toronto was a pretty straightforward transfer, with the added intensity of dropping off the van at the sketchy rental car agency near Pearson Airport. Cem came through again and picked me up, saving me what would have to have been a heroic effort on my part to return the rental.
The Rex Hotel is a bit legendary (at least in my mind) as a Toronto jazz venue, and as a humbly un-jazzy musician, I was amused and a little honoured to get to sit on the stage that has supported so many great and way more swinging players before! The space served us well: the piano was a grand, there was beer, and the vibe fed our music. Thanks to Ron Gaskin, our local impresario for that bit of inspiration!
In the performance, the quartet rose to the occasion! The music was inspired: groovy at times, minimal at times, soothingly consonant at times and even crunchy and noisy too. All with good doses of patience, tenacity and listening: All of the variety that inhabits our performances.
So we all felt pretty good about it, we had a nice sized house, and good friends to hear us. I was happy to have Sue there (and enjoying it!) too.
So we pulled it off! There were no major oversights, no major disasters, and we all continued laughing together until the end! Our quartet developed well, and the C/A/P Trio deepened and consolidated our sound with all those performances. And Gerry Hemingway! Did I mention he was there? What an experience to get to play over and over with one of the greats. We all learned volumes from talking with him, and playing with him. Thank you Gerry, it was a great honour.
Without the support of the Canada Council all this couldn’t have happened. Our country is simply too big to make anything but regional (even local) touring possible. So thanks to them for seeing the value of our project and helping us out.
And thanks to you for reading.
Apr 7, 2015 at 11:31