When we originally contacted Gabrielle Papillon through her Pigeon row Records promoters, she was completely thrown by the phone call.
We had arranged to give her a day’s breather after arriving home in Canada from songwriting work in England, as it seemed likely she’d want some time to recover from the jet lag. Then the pandemic caught fire! Given that the tour she was returning home for was subsequently cancelled, and that there had been some question of her even managing to get on a flight with the Covid-19 wildfire sweeping across Europe, the last thing Gabrielle
We sit down with Jonathan Gresl, the bassoonist of the Perfect Cadence Wind Quintet. and His Fox Renard 222 looks impressive at their recent performance.
“It is not even the most expensive bassoon you can get,” explains Jonathan. “This one is…”
When MUSICAlive! first hears about the 2019 Femm Wave Festival, it’s only a few days away! But it sounds too cool to miss, and fortunately both our photographer and the Board Member manning the front desk are willing to help us put it together for our fearless readers: we made it to Calgary’s Feminist Music & Arts Festival!
Motherhood, a band out of New Brunswick formed in 2010, makes music that ranges from cool cheery Beach-Boys vibes to what Penny, bass and keyboard player, calls “a shrodell”—that is, a cross between shrieking and yodelling…all in a single song
When MUSICAlive! first learns about Murray Kinsley’s guitars for the blues-rock mix of Wicked Grin’s latest album, it’s pretty encouraging!
“I use a Fender Telecaster modified Thinline (and) I call it the ‘Frenken-Tele’ that’s the modified part); I have a 61 Strat that I used on it, and a
MUSICAlive caught up with the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra’s newest Associate Conductor, Karl Hirzer. After some back and forth, the conversation started with the absolute basics.
“What is your job as a conductor?” we ask.
When MUSICAlive! and musician Bebe Buckskin begin their interview, they start at the very beginning.
“I basically came out of the womb singing,” Bebe says, leading them both into laughter. “My poor mother!”
The question that prompted this was, “Why are you doing this stuff?” When the laughter dies down, Bebe elaborates.
Steven Taetz is wandering through the streets of Toronto while we talk, going from one place to another as songwriters are inclined to do anyway: moving from one inspirational situation to another to meet the needs of their musical craft. In Steven’s case, having done time in the electronic dance and country/roots genres, we ask him what he would call the music he’s bringing to
When Harpdog Brown answers his phone in Vancouver, a month before he arrives on tour here at Calgary’s Ironwood Stage and Grill, he declares, “You’re a minute early!” And then laughs when I offer to call back 60 seconds later. So begins the storied conversation with this 35 year veteran of Canada’s blues scene.
Roberto López was one of the surprises of Calgary’s 2018 Folk Music Festival. Born and raised in Colombia, living in Montreal, his website describes his music style as modern Latin music with hip arrangements. Under Colombian grooves he unabashedly adds jazz, funk and electronic music to the mix.
Some accidents are not only happy, they are positively confounding. Witness MUSICAlive! popping down to a Stampede breakfast to Hear a Calgary country favourite of ours, Tim Buckley, play on the mall, and meeting the similarly talented Mariel Buckley (his sister), also singing and playing some sweet alt-country guitar. And then, when visiting the Calgary
Well, now we know why Damon Johnston of the ProArts Society resonates so much with the work MUSICAlive! does: he’s been involved in many of the projects that have helped form the Calgary arts scene in the last 30 years. He’s part of our musical DNA, from Decidedly Jazz Danceworks, Dancers’ Studio West, the seminal 10 Foot Henry’s nightclub (from which today’s
It occurs to MUSICAlive! afterwards that we never asked Geraldine Hollet, lead singer for The Once, the significance of the band’s name. Sure, “once” is an adverb meaning “on one occasion”, or “for one time only”; but as a noun it becomes capitalized as their bandname and means “a Newfoundland-based folk-pop trio who have been combining 3-part harmonies and acoustic guitar and keyboards to confound
Mick Flannery’s Facebook page says that he bridges the gap between folk and blues rock. Well, he doesn’t fit in a box, that’s for sure. Still working as a stone mason, he’s touring all over the world as an artist: Canada this summer; Ireland in September; New Zealand and Australia later this year.
In their efforts to expand the diversity and reach of the piano competition performances, the Honens stretched it’s possibilities in 2012 with Bison Noir (a nod to New York’s cool, adventurous Le Poisson Rouge). Here’s what Honens says:
“I am the Artistic Co-director of the Sound Symposium. I’m also the host: I will be hosting most, if not all, of the evening concerts, and some of the earlier concerts; I may be introducing some of the workshops; I will be performing with 2 bands that I play with. And I might even be singing with my improv choir: I direct an improv choir, and there’s discussion underway now to have the improv choir involved in Improv Night, which is a night where artists and members of the general public (if they wish) can get up on stage and improvise.”
Attending an “80’s and 90’s” dance party on Saturday was an interesting experience: while the music was definitely from the correct era, the DJ had clearly NOT been in dance clubs at that time, as the late 20th Century music had been mixed with an early 21st Century sensibility. Beat-mixing 80’s hits like Michael jackson, Amii Stewart or the Pointer Sisters together without the songs’ opening or closing sequences never occurred in 1980’s
Sarah Nematallah is a violinist in the Cecilia String Quartet, and she and her ensemble are also the founders of Xenia Concerts Inc., for which she is the executive and artistic director. Her performance experience is not limited to the expected carpeted venues, that’s for sure:
“Throughout my career as a violinist, I’ve had the opportunity of performing in incredible concert halls all over the world: in Berlin, in A
“A ‘palimpsest’ is a manuscript in which traces of the original can be found, and through performance, I rewrite my emotional scripts.” – FOONYAP
In a normal precursor to the interview, MUSICAlive! asks Calgary-born alternative musician FOONYAP to tell us what instruments she played on her debut
When MUSICAlive! asks David Skidmore of the Third Coast Percussion Ensemble what instruments he’ll be playing when they premiere their “Paddle to the Sea” performance in Calgary (8:00 pm, April 8 at the Rozsa Centre), he goes on, and on, and on . . . listing 16 different instruments!
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