Tuesday, June 20, 2006

Festival season

Ottawa's outdoor festival season starts in May with the Tulip Festival, though it is often at risk of rainy and / or cool weather (not to mention unpredictable tulip growth). But June is when things really get going. This past weekend saw the Franco-Ontario Fest. outside of City Hall, the Fringe Fest. in around around Arts Court, and the Italian Fest. on Preston St.

Next up will be the Jazz Festival, immediately followed by BluesFest (the 2nd-largest Blues festival in North America!). I will be appearing at the Jazz Fest with the "Impressions in Jazz Orchestra", a project put together by Ottawa bassist Adrian Cho. Adrian began this ensemble last summer, and I joined as drummer back in December to prepare for some February concerts. Now it has become an official repertory group, and this time we are playing some jazz with both latin and classical flavours in the mix, as well as straight-ahead Swing. We even have some NACO (National Arts Centre Orchestra) musicians in the group, so it's a great ensemble that I get to power along with my drums, and the sound can be tremendous!



The February performance at Dominion-Chalmers Church
(Photo by Brett Delmage)

Way-too-early 8:00am rehearsal for same
(Photo by percussionist Alvaro)


Steve's Music is the official instrument supplier for this festival, so a drumkit can be made available for me, but I'd rather use my own, so as usual my cargo trike will be pressed into service to move it to the National Arts Centre and back.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Do they have valet parking at the NAC?

Mark said...

You mean valet bike parking? Nope, just some racks near the Box Office door. And there is a nice space where the trike fits just fine.

And I'd rather park it myself anyway, since one needs rather long legs to pedal the thing, and young valet punks are likely to take it for a joy ride and try and get it up on two wheels. ;o)