A crazy day

The month of June has been very busy and very good music-wise, culminating with the IJO playing a fab show at the Jazz Festival on Monday night, and a double-bill with the quartet for Canada Day. In fact, life has been more or less non-stop since re-Cycles moved into its new shop back in early April, as it seems there's always something that needs doing there, and now the shop is way too close to my place (3.5 blocks). But last Thursday was a special nutso day...

I have my regular gig with Steve and Tom at the restaurant each Thursday from 5-8, but Tom called me for another gig that was scheduled from 2-5. Now, we take these gigs because the restaurant one is not guaranteed - if the gig is called off due to the weather we do not get paid, so obviously one takes the gig with guaranteed money. But in the interest of not wanting to strand Steve by subbing out 2/3s of his trio, and also because we're mercenary bastards that want to make as much money as we can (wink), we came up with a plan.

We said we could do the restaurant gig if it was bumped to 5:30, because the 2pm gig was about ten blocks away in the downtown core. Steve said OK, but we made a hassle for ourselves, because there's no way to tear down from one gig, travel during rush hour, and set up for the next in that space of time! So we had to take gear for the later gig and stash it at the restaurant ahead of time, so Steve could pull the stuff out and have it waiting for us.

The 2pm gig was a quiet one in an office, so Tom had minimal gear and I just used two drums and cymbals, and then that stuff could be combined into the other gear for the second gig. But since we'd be moving it all during rush hour we knew we'd just be sitting in traffic forever, whether in Tom's van or with my cargo trike. So... we were going to move it on foot, using a dolly and a handcart. Why not, as it's certainly faster than driving at that time of day!

Here's how it went:

Noon: Tom and his partner pick me up and we proceeded to the restaurant to stash the gear.

12:20: Drove to the office building for the 1pm set-up.

1:30: Our sax player shows up and we do the gig from 2-5, and then the day turned rainy so we figured the 5-8 gig was off.

5:00: Packing up we had not yet heard from Steve via Tom's cell phone canceling the gig, but presumed it to be off since it was still spitting. So Tom calls his wife and she will pick us up and we'll just take our time through traffic to get back to the restaurant to collect the gear we didn't end up needing.

Or not...

5:30: Inching our way along Wellington St. and passing the restaurant (have to approach it from behind) and we see Steve standing on the opposite sidewalk obviously looking for Tom and I, since we're supposedly walking our gear down that sidewalk.

5:33: Make it to the back of the space and I run and tell Steve we're here and why we took so long. No worries, as the patio was just starting to fill up and we couldn't have started earlier anyway, but now that we're here let's go!

Turns out the restaurant had said to Steve that might as well wait on the weather until we showed up to decide if the gig was on, since they all knew we had to return. But Steve forgot Tom's cell number and so could not tell us this. So we were off the hook in terms of being behind schedule, we got the gig started at 6:00, and were able to play two sets until the rain started up again at 8:00.

So it was nice to finish early, because THEN Steve and I had an orchestra rehearsal from 9:00 til 11:30, and it allowed us time to grab some food along the way (oh, and also stop at our individual residences to pick up the sheet music we had both forgotten in all the hectic-ness), and then out to St. Laurent and Smythe.

So that was three music events pressed into just over eleven hours. I was very happy to finally fall into bed that night...

Oh, and today's Canada Day gigs? The first one was for the Mayor's Breakfast with a 7:15am load-in, so I was up at 6:00am. We did that gig, I came home and had a nap, then off to the second one at External Affairs because it had a 2:30 load-in. Then went and had dinner, then back to play from 6:00 till the fireworks.

And with that, it'll be a 19-hour day by the time I get to bed...

What a maroon... (to quote Bugs Bunny)

Our mayor continues on his path of dopiness, this time posting ill-advised comments about various City councilors on his blog. Read all about it at this Ottawa Citizen page.

Propeller Dance Fundraiser follow-up

I had a fabulous time last week at this event! The dance class that I work with performed at the Tuesday night show, and everything went well. Propeller Dance president Dave Scrimshaw has a pile of photos at his Flickr page. Ours is the group dressed in black and using pieces of fabric as props (above photo).

When I was at the official media launch of Propeller Dance the previous week, a profound thing was said. Both Renata and Shara (co-founders) said they are often told "it's wonderful what you do for these people", and Renata said (paraphrasing) "they also do something wonderful for us - they show us how to move in ways that our professional dance training never gave. So we all learn from each other."

And it's very true. People with disabilities, whether developmental or physical, have to work and play around certain "limitations". But those limitations just make a person find their own, very personal way of expressing themselves. Yes, you can indeed dance in a wheelchair! And these classes are for people of all abilities, so we indeed all help each other to transcend physical, mental, and emotional barriers.

For me, I've spent most of my life sitting behind a drumset and playing fairly straightforward music. Yes, I can of course improvise (and love to!) and am often looking for ways of putting my stamp on the music, but both with the Grasshoppa dance group and Propeller I often have to make music and sounds on the spot, and not always just melodic ideas or themes. And it took me a little while to feel comfortable with the idea that some of the more "interesting" ideas were musically valid. But the more I do this the more I know I'm doing the right thing.

But back to the event...

I not only get to provide music for this inspiring group, but as often happens when the various classes get together (both at shows like this and also our Community Days) the different accompanying musicians help each other out when musically suitable.

At all of these events the Sunday performing group is the main feature, and they were ably accompanied by Dominique St. Pierre (synth, effects, African flute, darabuka, and electronic effects) and Mike Essoudry (drum set, clarinet, and kalimba). I joined them where appropriate (as they also did with me), which makes things interesting because we do not rehearse this ahead of time. Dom and Mike have of course worked out the structure of their music, and so having me add my little bits won't throw them off. I have just have to keep my ears wide open and stay out of their way and watch for any cues.

Here's our collective set-up, with my gear on the left:

For my group, this is only the second time we've performed together, and I had to create sound for about 25 straight minutes with no delays or dead air between sections. And each of the seven sections had its own theme, so I needed to create different moods or textures throughout.

In order to do this I decided to add some more hardware to my usual set-up. So in addition to my trusty Kawai K4 synth, alto recorder, djembe, and percussion toys I included my 1990-vintage Roland SPD8 drum pad, a very new Boss RC-2 looping pedal, and ran it all through an equally new Behringer K1800FX keyboard amp (the little amp I use for classes is not powerful enough for most live gigs).

While the amp is great (having four channels, 7-band EQ, and built-in effects), it's that cool little looping pedal that made things interesting. I programmed the loops ahead of time with the synth and drum pad, and ran the pedal into its own channel, with the synth bypassing it into another channel so I could separate the effects. So I could fade the loops in and out and let one run while calling up another synth sound, or hold a synth chord or play the drum pad or djembe one-handed while quickly changing pedal programs.

Here are two views of my set-up:

The only tricky part was that I got both the amp and pedal about two weeks before the gig and so did not exactly have a ton of time (incl. only two rehearsals) to get familiar with them! And I'm an acoustic drummer before I'm anything else musically, and using electronics and pregramming, while not foreign, is not something I've much of in a live context. But as noted earlier, part of the thing with this experience is taking myself out of my comfort zone of sitting behind the drums and grooving. And I'm loving it!

So much so that I'm also incorporating the amp, drum pad, and pedal into my Thursday night gig at the Met with the Orbiters. Tom is playing his baliset, which has full MIDI capabilities for all sorts of sounds, and Steve is running his trombone and voice through an effects pedal at times, so I thought I might as well join the fun. More on that in another post...

And as usual, during the dance event the cargo trike waited patiently, sporting its new cargo box cover, made in my usual fashion from scavenged sheets of coroplast, held together with duct tape, and tied down with bungee cords. It so far has worked extremely well, keeping all the gear (both acoustic and electronic) as dry as possible.

Swap Box

I had never heard of these things, and a month or so ago found this fastened to a lamp post a few blocks from my place. What a lovely idea!



Fellow HPVOoOer RealGrouchy has more about this at his blog.

The stupidity of Critical Mass

I've been wanting to post my thoughts on CM for a while now, but the Interwebz once again have saved me the typing so I can simply provide links to others that have already said it:

http://www.joeydevilla.com/2006/09/29/critical-massholes-or-why-i-no-longer-ride-with-critical-mass/

http://www.joeydevilla.com/2008/06/01/critical-massholes-strike-again/

Propeller Dance

I've been working with Propeller Dance for a few years now, providing musical accompaniment for the classes taught by Renata Soutter, who I met through the Grasshoppa Dance Exchange.

Propeller started out as DanceAbility, which is dance classes for people of all abilities, whether handicapped or in a wheelchair, as well as able-bodied people. It operated under the auspices of The School of Dance, and last year Renata and co-founders Shara Weaver and Alan Shain decided to go on their own and hence Propeller Dance was born (someone else owns the rights to the name DanceAbility, so they could not call it that as a legal entity).

The original class was (and still is) on Sundays, and it's the main performing group. Twice a years we have Community Day performances and once a year a fundraiser at the NAC's Fourth Stage. Our Monday class did well at our last Comm. Day, and is turning into a performing group in its own right, and so this year we will be at the fundraiser as well.

It's taking place over two nights this week, Tuesday June 3rd and Wednesday June 4th, though our group is only performing on Tuesday. I will be playing keyboard, djembe, percussion, and recorder, all during the course of our 20 minute segment. I've got a new Behringer amp for my keyboard, and a Boss RC-2 looping pedal that I'm still getting used to (just got it last week, and it's a neat little tool for making more involved music when one is the only musician). More on this gear in a future post, as I'm also using them on my regular Thursday gig with the Orbiters.

Please check the brand new Propeller website for more info on this week's shows.

Oh, and the Monday classes are out in Vanier, but in my years of doing this I've only used a car three times, with all the other trips done by bike (in the winter, towing a trailer) or via the cargo trike.

Three Speed Gallery

Just added a new link to the "Elsewhere" section: http://threespeedgallery.blogspot.com/

Jim Thill at planetary-gears started this one "as an antidote to fixed gear gallery". I like the sound of that! ;)

re-Cycles media coverage

In last Thursday's Ottawa Citizen the bike co-op was featured in a story titled "Five great places for a bike tune-up". The online edition only shows one photo, but the print version had all five shops across the top of the page, with re-Cycles featured first! There are a few inaccuracies - in our case our overhauled bikes do not range from $25 to $75 (our As Is bikes are in that range, while overhauled ones start at $100), but at least they didn't get our address wrong as they did for McCrank's!

And while it's nice to get the press attention, I was uncomfortable with the photo shoot. They want a photo of one person, since the photos would be small, and of course the want the "guy in charge". Easy to do with the other shops, but since ours is run as a collective I get a little uneasy when I'm singled out. Sure, I'm the Director and at times that will mean being viewed as a figurehead, but re-Cycles only works because of everyone involved.

drum trikes!

Some of my friends call my cargo trike "drum trike", since it was built mainly to move my drums around. I have a recurring fantasy to create an actual drumtrike; that is, a trike and drums combined. Using my friend Richard's BMX trike I did sort of create one for a day...

...to accompany the Grasshoppas during the 2006 Canada Dance Festival, but will create my own some day.

But in the meantime others seem to have beaten me to it...

(No further info on this beast)

(From: http://www.lourider.net/home.html)

And:

(From: Pulling-the-Drummer-out-from-behind-the-Bandstand)

Back at the Met.

No, not the famous Opera House, but the restaurant at Rideau and Sussex. We've just begun our third season of gigs on the plaza there, playing straight-ahead jazz for the Sunday Brunch crowd from 11am - 2pm, and "Swingin' 60's acid jazz" on Thursdays from 5pm - 8pm. And while we perhaps sound best to the crowd on the patio (because we face them) you can still enjoy the music by simply sitting on the plaza's perimeter.

And yes, I continue to use my cargo trike to get to these gigs.

(Previously blogged here and here.)

Hop to it

The Grasshoppas wanted to celebrate International Dance Day. So the call went out and we teamed up with students from Sylvie Desrosiers' modern dance program for some noon-hour fun. I was the only accompanist, which was fine, though it was a bit hard to both take photos and keep the music going!

More at the Grasshoppa website.



A smaller group did a Hop back during Winterlude on the canal.

Cheap therapy

Ever felt the urge to smack someone? (Well, that's rather violent, and I'd never go through with it myself).

Ok, ever felt like like hitting something with a stick (wait a minute, that's called "drumming"...).

Ok then... Have you ever needed to just get some frustration out? Well, here's the Net version of the old adage "therapy is expensive, while popping bubble wrap is cheap":

http://www.therightfoot.net/mystuff/whatever/swf/bubblewrap.swf

And make sure your speakers are on when you click "fresh sheet".

I've been blogged...

... by Kirstin Endemann of the Ottawa Citizen. She contacted me regarding the re-Cycles Co-op for an article she was writing, and we found we had a music connection as well.

Earth Day gig

Upcoming IJO gig

This coming Friday night the Impressions In Jazz Orchestra offers up perhaps it's coolest program yet. We will be playing some great arrangements of the music from My Fair Lady, as arranged by Johnny Richards (best-known for his work with Stan Kenton). We'll also do the medley from West Side Story as made famous by Buddy Rich, which features your blogging drummer.

And to top it off, we'll also play a whole bunch of TV theme tunes from the 60's and 70's, mainly along the lines of spy and detective shows. So not only do I get to wail away on some great jazz, but also stuff like the theme from Hawaii Five-O, and Batman, and Perry Mason, and Star Trek...

Oh, and we'll even have Laurence Wall from CBC Radio as our "Guest MC and Quiz Master"!

For this show we are back at Dominion Chalmers Church, which has wonderful acoustics, but hard wooden pews to sit in. There are some seat pads scattered about, but you might wish to bring your own.

re-Cycles move

On Saturday the 5th we moved the entire re-Cycles Bicycle Co-op shop to its new address at 477 Bronson Avenue.

While a pedal-powered move would've been interesting, we had so much stuff that it was just not practical. We rented a 16-foot truck, and it took three full loads! We had a good crew of people, and the first loading to the last unloading took only 6 hours. And that included waiting a half hour for the new space to be swept of drywall dust and the floor mopped, which was supposed to have been done for us beforehand...

The new shop is quite conveniently about three blocks from my house. And I don't feel at all guilty about it, as someone else found the address. I simply approved it. ;) We were able to close on a Thursday night as usual and open the new shop for a regular Tuesday shift, so we did not miss a single evening. Which was good, as this is our busiest time of year.

And now a few photos, while I compile a full page of them for the re-Cycles website.

The old shop.

Quiet Mike and Derek hold back the pile.

The new space has two rooms plus basement storage. This is the "showroom", slowly getting organized, with the entrance to the work room just past the shelves.

Most of the moving crew after beer and pizza (some had left earlier).

busy busy busy

I'm currently a tad swamped...

The re-Cycles Bike Co-op has entered into a partnership with Causeway Work Centre, and on top of putting this together we have been scouting for a new location in which to set up shop, as they will use our shop facilities during the day, since the co-op is only open during the evenings. The new location has been found, and we're moving in this coming Saturday!

It's going to be a ton of work moving all the bikes and tools and parts and getting the new space set up, but it'll be worth it, as we'll finally have a proper retail space, and will no longer be in our old basement space surrounded by noisy band rehearsals (yes, I know - strange irony for me to be driven half-nuts by other musicians, but even the best bands sound bad when more than one is playing at a time!).

A rather nice aspect for me is that the new space is at 477 Bronson Avenue, which is only three and a half blocks from my house. This will make it much easier to just drop by and help out, aside from my role as the co-op's Director. And no, I did not find this location for us, so I don't feel too guilty about its proximity ;)

On top of this fun, the Impressions in Jazz Orchestra has another fab show coming up on April 18 at the Dominion Chalmers Church. One of the numbers we'll be playing is the West Side Story medley made famous by Buddy Rich. Since it's a drum feature I'm doing my best to get this piece memorized, as it's eight pages long and my hands will be way too busy to turn them!

I'm also rehearsing with local bassist Tom McMahon for some shows we have coming up featuring some of his original music. And after four weeks off my gig with Propeller Dance starts its Spring season mid-month.

All in all the month of April is shaping up to be rather stimulating! Now if the snow would finish melting so I can get the cargo trike out of hibernation, as riding the winter bike and towing a trailer for the past four snowy months has lost whatever "fun" factor it may have had...

dance show

My friend Amanda Bon is a local dance artist, and she is in a show at La Nouvelle Scene this coming Thursday and Friday. She is also a very talented singer-songwriter, and I've been working with her since last September. We've done a couple of gigs and are constantly working on new music, and are in the midst of putting a demo together. Her "day job" is in Modern and Flamenco dance (both as teacher and performer) and I'm going to enjoy seeing her in action at the Friday show.

Parade fun

This past Saturday the HPVOoO gang once again took part in our local St. Patrick's Day Parade. I could not attend last year, so it was fun to make it this time. Photos can be found here.

St. Patty's Day joke

(Courtesy of my friend Ian in Montreal)

Paddy had been drinking at his local Dublin pub all day and most of the night celebrating St Patrick's Day.

Mick, the bartender says, " You'll not be drinking anymore tonight Paddy." Paddy replies, "OK Mick, I'll be on my way then."

Paddy spins around on his stool and steps off. He falls flat on his face. "Shoite" he says and pulls himself up by the stool and dusts himself off. He takes a step towards the door and falls flat on his face,

"Shoite, Shoite!"

He looks to the doorway and thinks to himself that if he can just get to the door and some fresh air he'll be fine. He belly crawls to the door and shimmies up to the door frame. He sticks his head outside and takes a deep breath of fresh air, feels much better and takes a step out onto the sidewalk and falls flat on his face.

"Bi'Jesus... I'm fockin' focked," he says.

He can see his house just a few doors down, and crawls to the door, hauls himself up the door frame, opens the door and shimmies inside.

He takes a look up the stairs and says "No fockin' way". He crawls up the stairs to his bedroom door and says "I can make it to the bed." He takes a step into the room and falls flat on his face. He says "Fock it" and falls into bed.

The next morning, his wife, Jess, comes into the room carrying a cup of coffee and says, "Get up Paddy. Did you have a bit to drink last night?".

Paddy says, "I did Jess. I was fockin' pissed. But how'd you know?"

"Mick phoned... you left your wheelchair at the pub."