Jazz Guitar Duo

Two distinguished-looking men sit on wooden chairs, angled towards each other. Each holds a stunning hollow-body guitar. They seem as though they're conversing as they trade off soloing and playing rhythm. One has a trim mustache, the other a soul patch. Both are clearly engrossed and they create intricate, smooth jazz which brightens a cold afternoon.

The scene was CJ's Café in Bronte last Sunday. The duo was 1 + 1. BH Maitland and Dr. Z were introduced by their guitar teacher, Martin Taylor. They play Latin jazz, “gypsy jazz” and sophisticated arrangements of standards.

My favourite pieces that afternoon were Reinhardt/Grappelli's Swing '42, Jobim's Girl from Ipanema and Just Friends. 1 + 1 made their melodies sound effortless. I felt a sense of movement and serenity. Like taking a vacation without travelling anywhere.

On break I spoke with Maitland and Z. Miles Davis came up. We talked about how not so long ago Davis was racially targeted and brutalized by cops outside Birdland, where he was performing. 1 + 1 does a beautiful version of All Blues. On a lighter note, Z also recalled that at one point Miles had platform shoes with built-in fishbowls.

1 + 1 sometimes takes requests. Certain numbers are harder to place as instrumentals. A couple of patrons beside me were enjoying naming tunes like Gershwin's Lady Be Good and Stella by Starlight.

1 + 1 play CJ's Café April 27th, 12-2. The Sunday after Easter. Free.

Pink Floyd as Reggae

Today I was at a café with my mom and sister. At one point we heard Pink Floyd's Breathe as a reggae cover. It turns out NYC's Easy Star All-Stars have made a tribute album of Pink Floyd's classic, in its entirety. It's hugely entertaining and very well realized. Their discography also includes their versions of OK Computer, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band and Thriller.

On Radiodread their instrumentation is inventive. To great effect, they've chosen to use brass, piano and melodica where the original used completely different instruments. A number of guest singers are featured and their vocals are unique. On Paranoid Android Kirsty Rock sings Thom Yorke's melody in his range. On Exit Music (For A Film) Sugar Minott sings in a lower register and the sense of the song is still smooth, dreamlike, disconcerting. Let Down works particularly well as an up-tempo ska song.

Pink Floyd is a favourite source for covers. Canadian band Luther Wright and the Wrongs interpreted The Wall as a bluegrass album. Also a surprising choice, skillfully executed. Comfortably Numb is a real departure from the flavour of the original, while the arrangement is unified and catchy.

Toronto residents are used to the posters for Reg Hartt's screenings of The Wizard of Oz paired with Dark Side of the Moon and Nosferatu with Kid A/OK Computer. Easy Star All-Stars' Dub Side of the Moon also includes instructions on how to sync the record with the 1939 film. Curious, I checked YouTube. In the opening there are some parts which align well (Dorothy balancing on a railing, then falling, the farmhand running to her, the first appearance of the “witch” on a bike). I'd say, though, that there are big sections where audio and visual don't make sense together, at least not while sober. If anything I found the intro goes better with the All-Stars' idyllic rendition of Breathe, even if the jungle beats of On the Run are totally at odds with the visuals for Somewhere Over the Rainbow.

The Easy Star All-Stars play the Opera House April 5th.

Jazz History in Toronto

A couple of weeks ago I asked my dad if he'd like to go to a concert with me on his birthday. He said yes. The event, Syncopation: Black Roots featured a number of top-notch ensembles showcasing the Toronto Black music scene from the '50s, '60s and '70s.

The man behind the show was Archie Alleyne. A preeminent jazz drummer, bandleader and dedicated activist, his presence is charming and welcoming. Alleyne's career has spanned six decades. Since 2003 he has been awarding scholarships to young musicians to help them pursue advanced music training. In the program Alleyne keenly says, “When I started playing professionally, men and women were still required to use separate entrances at some entertainment establishments, while others barred Blacks from entering outright. Thankfully, the times were changing.”

I was surprised to find my dad knew of Alleyne from performances in the '50s. At that time my dad was a commercial artist and aspiring actor. Not a jazz aficionado per se, he was always on the lookout for new and exciting experiences. Departures from his conservative upbringing. In the '50s Alleyne was quickly establishing himself as a distinguished jazz player.

The Syncopation MC invited audience members to share their memories of groundbreaking musicians and venues of Toronto past. The room seemed shy at first, however, Archie joked that they should speak up before they got “volun-told”. My dad remembered seeing Alleyne at the First Floor Club, near bohemian Yorkville, and enjoying every minute of it.

A high point of the afternoon for me was Jay Douglas' set. Not only was his singing bold and soulful but his dancing was riveting. While Douglas is a senior he could hold his own with anyone in terms of raw energy. He had expert moves, fancy footwork and a mischievous expression. He made use of the entire stage.

The show was a fantastic view into the history of musical entertainment in Toronto. It was lovely to unexpectedly discover a bit of family history as well.

Inside Llewyn Davis

Last night I saw Inside Llewyn Davis. It's one of the Coen brothers' intense movies. While it does focus on music like O Brother, Where Art Thou?, it doesn't have the lightness that film had at times. It's the story of a fictional folk singer, Llewyn Davis, who's an unlikable character.

I found the themes interesting. What stood out most for me was the choice to make the lead role a musician who isn't on the road to fame, who is good but not exceptional, who is struggling with personal issues and botching all his relationships in the process.

I enjoyed Justin Timberlake's performance as a clean-cut, hard-working nice guy who's in complete contrast to Llewyn. The scene where the two record a novelty song in the style of Space Oddity was a particular high point.

The soundtrack also stands on its own. I found myself singing Five Hundred Miles afterwards. Actors Oscar Isaac (Llewyn), Carey Mulligan and Stark Sands did their own vocals. Isaac arranged Fare Thee Well (Dink's Song) with Marcus Mumford of Mumford & Sons. The piece carries all the difficult emotions at the centre of story.

The poster shows Llewyn carrying an orange cat under his arm and the cat is definitely a character in the movie. Before the show I was waiting for my sister in a mall. There was a man standing beside the escalator with a cat, also orange, in a green knitted sweater. He was there for quite a while and he got all kinds of reactions. In the end was told to leave by security guards. The whole thing was unstaged.

Nick Hornby’s School of Rock

Nick Hornby is up to something I'd describe as a school of rock.

Hornby is best known as the author of High Fidelity and About a Boy. Last year he realized a unique project. He held workshops for school children and had them write song lyrics. He then got professional musicians to write and record songs using those lyrics. The collaboration was called Share More Air and the results are engaging.

Hornby is a founder of the Ministry of Stories, a non-profit organization. Big names such as Zadie Smith, Colin Firth and Emma Thompson have been part of the ministry's activities. In 2012, Hornby organized an endeavor similar to Share More Air. He taught kids about script writing and had them write their own soap series. The students were mentored by an EastEnders screenwriter and their series was fully produced.

Last fall Hornby was interviewed on Jarvis Cocker's Sunday Service. Cocker rose to fame in the '90s as frontman of the Britpop group Pulp. They were my favourite band in high school, so I was thrilled to see Jarvis has recently been hosting a radio show. This year is a "fallow" year for the show, as Cocker describes it, however the BBC has posted plenty of clips.

Friction Drum

I was listening to samba music this week and I wanted to learn about the instrument that makes a high-pitched squeak characteristic of the musical style.

It’s called a cuíca (“kweeca”). It’s a Brazilian “friction drum”. The sound is made by changing the tension of the drum skin. The drum has a stick through the centre of the skin, which the percussionist moves with a wet/resined cloth/fingers.

The sound is such a part of samba that some bands without a cuíca player will mimic the drum vocally. Before doing any research I wondered if it was a kind of rattle or whistle. The noise sometimes reminds me of cheering or laughing. In fact, the cuíca is also called a laughing gourd, and the word is Portuguese for a possum, which makes a high-pitched sound. The drum is thought to have originated in Africa. Historically, friction drums have also been played in Asia, and found in Europe in the 16th century.

Here are 5 songs I like featuring the cuíca.

1) The cuíca immediately makes me think of ’60s lounge music - it’s no wonder since Quincy Jones’ famous song Soul Bossa Nova is from 1962. It was also on the Austin Powers soundtrack.

2) Teresa Cristina’s cover of Meu Mundo é Hoje (Eu Sou Assim)
Cristina is a very popular samba singer in Rio.

3) Pascal Parisot’s Je reste au lit
Parisot combines Latin rhythms, lounge style and ironic lyrics. The song sounds sweet and mellow, but is about the narrator’s feelings of futility. I played this for my Dad and at first he thought the cuíca was a dog barking.

4) Seu Jorge’s Convite para vida from the City of God soundtrack.
Jorge is a musician well-known in North America, especially for the soundtrack of The Life Aquatic, which I still have yet to see!

5) Gruff Rhys’ Gyrru Gyrru Gyrru
A departure from the traditional style of music with the cuíca. Rhys is frontman of the Welsh psychedelic rock band Super Furry Animals.
 

Hedwig and the Angry Inch

*Spoiler alert: If you haven’t seen the movie, I recommend watching it before reading this post. I refer to some major themes/plot points.

Around this time last year I went to see a live performance of Hedwig and the Angry Inch at the Drake Underground. The production took the form of a rock show with the lead singer telling her life story between songs. Seth Drabinsky dazzled as Hedwig.

The musical tells the fictional story of a musician who grew up in East Berlin. As a young adult, then called Hansel, he falls in love with an American G.I. who wants to marry him, but only if he has sex reassignment surgery.

Drabinsky’s portrayal was involving and adept. Trained in opera, his voice was extremely powerful. Most of the songs are glam rock, and his falsetto spanned graceful to aggressive. In this live version Drabinsky played many of the supporting characters with his voice. I did a double take when Hedwig was describing meeting the G.I. and her voice suddenly became his voice – low, macho and American.

There’s an intriguing myth told by Hedwig’s mother: The Origin of Love. The idea is that in the beginning people had two heads, four sets of limbs and looked like two people back to back. The gods became scared of the people’s strength, so they split them in half, and the reason we fall in love is we’re looking for that other half.

In the movie that section is told with animation in a very minimalist style. The two parts of a person look like a circle torn in half. When the halves join it looks like a face. I want to get a tattoo of that, like Hedwig in the movie. My friend pointed out to me that it’s easy to think that the meaning of that song is that love completes us. On closer examination, though, the message is of self-love.

The role of Hedwig is designed to be played by an actor who also plays her nemesis and ex, Tommy Gnosis. At the end of the musical, Seth Drabinsky sang in Tommy’s style and he could literally have been the singer of a band like Blink-182. The finale is the lovely ballad Midnight Radio. I take it to be about inner reconciliation. The core idea: “Know that you’re whole.”