(This story was published in the Ormsby Review earlier this year, but by posting it again on this blog it means to celebrate the current Vancouver Jazz Festival which, due to the ongoing crowd restrictions and border closures, will still largely be streamed online, spotlighting our best local musicians instead of international stars. The story … Continue reading Readers of History, and all that Jazz
Try to imagine: a ‘Bierstrasse’ restaurant as big as a football field in the midst of Harlem where you can get beer, sausage and kraut delivered to long wooden tables while Japanese jazz-organist Akiko Tsuruga plays with our very own Cory Weeds, of Cellar and Frankies’ fame, on saxophone! It’s all true. Cory never fails … Continue reading New York: Jazz with Cory Weeds
At an ‘oldies’ concert in the ‘eighties, I experienced the sound of the stratospheric falsetto voice of a male singer for the first time, live and in action. I had heard it before of course, having come into ‘musical awareness’ in the early ‘sixties, shortly before the Beatles came out. We had just entered high … Continue reading Men, singing window-shattering High Notes
(Note to readers: this is #4, the last in a series, so I’d recommend you start by reading #1, Chuck Berry, and read your way back up) Combined with his 6.4 height and big muscular body, Dave Van Ronk’s seemingly smoke-and-booze saturated, decidedly big-piped voice would scare you if you didn’t know him. He looks … Continue reading Bad Boys of Music Series #4 Dave Van Ronk
David Lindley is a brilliant multi-instrumentalist and a hilariously wicked musician who writes and sings songs especially to gross you out. The stage around him is filled with stringed instruments of all descriptions, a Greek bouzouki, a Turkish saz, an oud, a Hawaiian lap-guitar and a banjo among them. Lindley started out playing folk and … Continue reading Bad Boys of Music Series #3: David Lindley
In January of this last year, 2020, I went on the ‘Blue Note Jazz Cruise’ with three friends. What? Mariken went on a cruise? Yes, incredible! I had always sworn, in front of everyone I know, that I’d never, ever go on a cruise – because it’s so obviously anathema to the kind of travel … Continue reading Jazz Cruise peruse
For me, the second most memorable musical event in my drawing career was Frank Zappa’s appearance in Vancouver, even though it took place a year before Chuck Berry’s. Not so much in terms of the quality of the drawing itself, but for ‘being there!’ A truly wicked musician and, really, he was a much worse … Continue reading Bad Boys of Music Series #2 Frank Zappa
Some of my favorite drawings, the ones I made during what I consider my ‘heydays’ of productivity – the eighties and nineties – feature star musicians, many of whom have died by now. I realize what a treat it has been to be in their presence, observing them do what they did best: give their … Continue reading Bad Boys of Music Series #1: Chuck Berry
