Fisher Peak Winter Ale Concert Series – 2020

@@@@@@@@@@@

FIRST CONCERT OF THE FIFTH SEASON – January 22, 2020

OPENING ACT – TALL TIMBERS featuring Drew Prinn on vocals; Ken Vargas on guitars and vocals; Landon Vargas on guitars, Ukulele, congas and vocals.

         

MAIN ACT – KOOTENAY LATELY featuring Pam Ruby on vocals; Theresa Reichert on upright bass; Bryan Reichert on guitar and Chad Andriowski on drums and backing tracks.

        

    

Thanks must go to the organizing committee of Fisher Peak Performing Arts Society, Key City staff and volunteers and all the sponsors of this series.

@@@@@@@@@@@

SECOND CONCERT OF THE FIFTH SEASON – Wednesday February 19, 2020

OPENING ACT –  Douglas Francis Mitchell: Vocal, Banjo, Guitar and Songwriter extraordinaire

Over the years Canada has been blessed with many, many singer/song writers who often defy pop culture expectations to produce songs and stories that entertain and truly document the extraordinary richness of the Canadian cultural mosaic. To the list of Gordon Lightfoot, Valdy, Murray McLauglan, Ron Hynes, Stan Rogers and others we can now add the name Douglas Francis Mitchell. Just the name of his songs tells a story. Heiden Guitar  pays homage to a recently acquired instrument from the master Creston Luthier Michael Heiden; Rocky Mountain View is a happy reflection of local geography; Open Happiness  and ode to demon drink (Coca Cola); Laughter of the Heart, Three Chords and the Truth, Change of Pace  and the comic masterpieces Plumber Troubles, Prairie Oysters and Sibling Rivalry. With his songs and stories  this open act was a tough act to follow.

 

MAIN ACT – CARMANAH – all the way from Vancouver Island with a musical mix that I can only describe as Van-Isle Reggae (what ever that means). The band featured Laura Mitic on guitar, vocal and fiddle; Lo Waight – back up vocals and percussion; Mike Baker – Keyboard and vocals; Pat Ferguson – guitar and vocals; Jamil Demers – bass and Graham Keehn. They presented a program of mostly original material.

   

  

   

   

@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@

POST SCRIPT

@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@

TAKE 4 at Soul Foods

Thursday 2019/12/19, 7pm

Piano players and, to a lesser extent, guitar players are lucky. Without the need of having any one else in the room they can sit down and play unaccompanied music. Depending on their individual skill level they can do it all. Melody, harmony, rhythm, dynamics and sonic shadings. It’s all there under their finger tips. Horn players, woodwinds, string players, drummers and bass players are not that fortunate and usually have the need for other musicians in the mix to complete the musical picture. At an individual level that is a drawback but it does force those musicians into ensembles that can go beyond the limitations of individual solo performances. One such musical configuration is the jazz combo and lucky for us in Cranbrook-Kimberley area we have been recently blessed with another Jazz group. TAKE 4, featuring Randi Marchi on trumpet, fluegelhorn, valve trombone, guitar and vocals; Jim Cameron on electric bass; Steen Jorgensen on drums and tenor sax and Tim Plait on piano. All of these musicians are locals. Some, Randi Marchi and Tim Plait, have been away to other parts of Canada and the world and have returned to the Kootenays and our little slice of paradise. The group is newly formed and, I believe, this is their second engagement. For well schooled musicians such as these the advantage of playing jazz is that there is a vast standard repertoire of tunes that players can easily access. From simple tunes way up to very technical, and very complex music there is a lot of music out there to explore. Last Thursday night at Soul Foods the group served a varied mixture of tunes that included Beginning to See the Light, Satin Doll (Duke Ellington’s masterpiece), Summertime (from George Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess), Blue Skies, King of the Road ( Roger Miller’s 1964 Hit song), All of Me (written in 1931), Beyond the Sea (Bobby Darin’s 1959 hit) and my all time favorite, A Day in the Life of a Fool, or as I prefer to remember it as, Manha de Carnival (Morning of the Carnival) from the magnificent 1959 Academy Award winning film Black Orpheus. This film introduced western audiences to the wonders of Bossa Nova and the music of Antonio Carlos Jobim and Luis Bonfa.The second set kicked off with The Way You Feel Tonight, Don’t Get Around Much Anymore (it is a 1940 classic by Duke Ellington originally called Never No Lament), and Quando, Quando, Quando ( originally a 1962 Italian Pop song written in the Bossa Nova Style).

Here are some images from the first set:

                     

Towards the end of the evening Take 4 was joined on stage by Randy Tapp on tenor sax and Shindo Murata on valve trombone to play the tunes Flip Flop and Fly, Route 66 and Van Morrison’s Moon Dance. During these performances a young musician from the audience sat in on drums while Steen Jorgensen moved up front to join the horn section on tenor sax. For me the resulting sound brought back memories of the magnificent Gerry Mulligan Concert Band recordings from the 1960s. Bobby Brookmeyer’s valve trombone was part of the signature sound of that band.           

Soul Foods seems to have become a hot bed of live music with live performances every Thursday evening 7-9 pm.

@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@

Andrea Superstein at Stage 64

“Live in the Gallery” with Jazz Guitarist  Don Glasrud

This new series of pre-concert performances has been made possible by a grant from the BC TOURING COUNCIL, BC ARTS COUNCIL and THE BC GOVERNMENT. The grant has been made available to support performances by BC musicians. Don is a well known Jazz Guitarist in the community and has been a fixture on local scene as a teacher and performer for around 20 years. For the evening’s performance Don was playing his new GODIN Nylon Strung guitar. His repertoire, as usual, consisted of tunes from the Great American Song Book and well known Jazz standards. It was a wonderful opportunity to hear Don up close and personal in the Centre 64 Gallery .

 

Andrea Superstein – Jazz and Blues Fall Concert Series #3 – Stage 64, Kimberley  2019/11/23

Andrea Superstein is a Montreal born, Vancouver based artist. Her music combines the jazz sound of the east and the indie scene of the west. She has been featured on a Women in Jazz compilation, has received international radio play, on top of being interviewed for a number of jazz publications. She was also invited to perform at the first jazz showcase at Canadian Music Week in 2012″.  On this tour she was supported by fellow Montreal native Elizabeth Shepherd on piano and two young musicians,  James Meser on bass and Kyle Hutchins on drums. James is a full time professional musician from Vancouver while Kyle works out of Montreal.The performance was mostly a mixture of originals from Andrea’s CDs with a few cover songs added to the mix. Of the originals the French song De Temps en Temps was the standout with some great textural percussion by the drummer Kyle Hutchins. Thoughout the performance he switched from jazz brushes to mallets with lots of sonic shadings before finishing with traditional sticks. Elizabeth Shepherd was responsible for the arrangement. A jazzy version of Bob Dylan’s Don’t Think Twice, it’s Alright was a novel interpretation of a well known Dylan song. Elizabeth also added to the mix with one of her originals Feeling Good from her CD release Rewind.

  

      

As always, thanks to the MC Keith Nicholas, the volunteers and staff of Centre 64 and the merchants around town who donated their food (The Burrito Grill) and accommodations (          )for the musicians. Together they make this series possible .

@@@@@@@@@@@@

The Mistress of Cool – Elizabeth Shepherd

Elizabeth Shepherd is a Singer / Song Writer, Jazz Pianist, Composer, Arranger and all round superb musician. Elizabeth is from Montreal and, despite the great distances and weather challenges of this vast country she manages to visit and perform in this area on a regular basis. She was at Stage 64 in Kimberley last Saturday (November 23, 2019) as part of the Andrea Superstein band.

@@@@@@@@@@@@@@

Kimberley Pipe Band – Road to 2020 Ceilidh

Kimberley Pipe Band benefit events are always a blast and this was no exception. This particular one was held in the convention center at the North Star Ski Hill in Kimberley and, as usual, featured the Kimberley Pipe Band, Hali Duncan & Liela Cooper Highland Dancers, a silent and live auctions and live entertainment. After the close of the auctions  The Choice (James Neve – Guitar and Vocals; Rick Parsons playing five keyboards and Brian Hamilton on drums) took to the stage for an outstanding selection of classic rock tunes. They were later joined by The Brass Monkey featuring Jim Cameron on bass,  Keith Kendall on Tenor sax, Randy Marchi and Shinobu Murata switching out on trumpet and valve trombone. They ended the evening with a full on big band experience. Money raised by the event is ear marked for the Kimberley Pipe Band’s planned trip to The Netherlands Remembrance Day Celebrations in 2020. Despite the atrocious lighting conditions in the center I did my best to capture images to document this fun event. Here they are and I apologize for the general poor quality of the images.

 

Pipe Major Jock MacDonald

Retired Brigadier General David Corbould

    

The Bands –  The Choice & Brass Monkey….. Although the evening was a celebration of “Pipe Band Culture” and a somber tribute to the Remembrance Day Fallen it had to finish on a danceable note and that was provided by The Choice and The Brass Monkey with the band’s organ driven classic rock tunes and the crackling snap of a horn section.

          

   

In the near future I am sure there will be another fund raiser for “The Road to 2020”. I am looking forward to that.

@@@@@@@@@@@@

Debra Power and the Steve Pineo Band

Malcolm John Rebennack Jr (aka Dr. John) a blues influenced piano player of more than small note died June 6, 2019.

Sister Rosetta Tharpe (March 20, 1915 – October 9, 1973) was a Gospel singer, songwriter and trail blazing guitarist.

When Debra Power and The Steve Pineo Band took to the stage in Kimberley on Friday night they were channeling the  spirits of the above artists. Debra’s powerful piano playing was in full keeping with the blues traditions of Dr John and her Gospel tinged vocals took us right back to church. Added to that were the guitar and vocal skills of Steve Pineo, the organ/bass skills of Paul Wells and the solid drumming of Ross Watson. The set list lists for the evening ran the gamut of blues and Gospel tunes and  original songs by both Debra and Steve. All musicians are from Calgary.    

Debra and her powerhouse vocals and sparkling keyboard skills, have a long list of performance/recording credits across Canada and the U.S. While growing up in Newfoundland she was was weaned on Big Band music. Her father was  a bandleader during the dance era. Encouraged by her parents, Debra studied piano in her youth. In high school she formed her first band, an all-girls group that played local concerts and venues. She then headed off to study music at Memorial University of Newfoundland, where she majored in voice. This period also saw her launch her professional career, where she began developing her broad skill set and gaining experience in R&B and Rock & Roll bands. She moved to Alberta in the late 80’s.

Steve’s band opened the first set with three tunes that included She Ain’t No Good (And I Ain’t No Better) and The Boogie Man. Debra followed up with a set list that included That’s How I Roll, Turn me Around, Just a Little Bit, Streets of Heaven, Grateful Song (for her brother Ted), I’m Coming Around and Let me Love You Tonight. In Streets of Heaven I could very easily imagine Sister Rosetta Tharpe belting out this song. The only thing missing was a blazing Sister Rosetta guitar solo (this is no reflection on Steve’s stellar solo work). There was some nice “Ticky Tickety Tick” drum fills and down home and organ back up on Grateful. The second half of the night show cased Steve and the band and more original material from Debra. During the night Steve switched out guitars for a workout on some open G slide tunes on a Pink Strat. On the tune Hard Wired for the Blues  he wailed away in open D on a slide guitar that looked almost like a toy.

Debra’s second set included Even Redheads, Love Glasses, Temptation, I’m So Happy, You Bring Out the Lover and All Night Playing the Blues. In one of Debra’s song there was a classic line “You can have my husband but don’t mess with my man”.

Here are some more images from a stellar night of music ……..

                

For the gear heads out there: Debra uses a Roland FP-F7F. Paul uses a Nord Electro3 Keyboard with a special German Lesley Speaker effects device and a Yamaha CP4 for the bass lines. Steve uses an entry level Gretch Country Gentleman (slightly modified), a pink Squire Strat and that weird red thing he picked up in a music store in Canmore                        For this stellar night of music I would like to thank the two “Rays”. Ray Foxworthy for putting himself way out there to bring the band in from Calgary; Ray Gareau for the lights and sound. I am sure there was a crew of volunteers somewhere in the background that made the evening possible and for them I am truly thankful. Lastly, but not least, Debra and the band for such fine music.

@@@@@@@@@@@@@@

 

Holly Hyatt and her Band

This is the second concert in Live@Studio 64 Fall Concert Series 2019

“Jon and Holly”, the Father and daughter soul/blues duo have been a staple act on the Kootenay musical scene for ever. I first remember Holly as a teenager touring the area many, many years ago. Of course, now she is all grown up with a daughter of her own and now fronting a crack-a-jack soul/blues outfit that includes Jon Burden (her dad) on lead guitar and back up vocal; The marvelous reed player Clinton Swanson on flute and Alto and Baritone saxes; Steve Wilson on  drums and Jack Taforo on Keyboards; Last, and not least, Holly Hyatt on electric bass and vocals. To the best of my knowledge all the musicians are from Nelson. There must be something in the water over there. There has to be some reason to explain the high quality of musicians and the musicianship that comes out of that area. Perhaps it is the music school in Nelson  that acts as catalyst for developing fine young musicians. This current edition of the Holly Hart Band is just another example of the quality that comes out of the West Kootenays. The evening was a mixture of soul and blues numbers, and an occasional reggae piece and some originals. I am not a avid Soul music fan so most of the repertoire was fresh to my ears. Tunes played included Walk Away, Wild Heart, Rainbows; One Desire; If I Call You, Get Funky, Gravity, Just a Little Bit (the Etta James Classic), Take me to the River (the Al Green 1974 classic soul number), some shuffle blues numbers including the original Home Reno Blues. There were several numbers described as “Disco Blues” (what ever that is) that called for dancing shoes. The music  was all there with a great vocalist and a solid repertoire grounded in retro soul and the R&B feel of earlier days. Performances were all spiced up by Jon’s fine lead work on guitar, Jack Taforo’s wailing and moaning keyboard playing, and the fine sax and flute excursions of Clinton Swanson. Tucked away in the back was the excellent drumming by Steve Wilson nailing down the rhythm section.

Here are some images from the evening …….

   

                   

Thanks to the organizing committee, the volunteers and sponsors for another concert in this wonderful series.

@@@@@@@@@@@@@