Recording: Milmine/Vespaziani/Lynn

Artist: Kayla Milmine/Bob Vespaziani/Michael Lynn

Song: [1st piece]

Recorded at Wenona Lodge (Track Could Bend #101), February 4, 2025.

Kayla Milmine/Bob Vespaziani/Michael Lynn - [1st piece]

Track Could Bend's one hundred and first show was originally conceived as a reflection on the very first one back in April 2015. One hitch there was that featured performer Michael Keith is out on the West Coast now (and still making music!), but Michael Lynn and Bob Vespaziani (who backed him on that gig) were available, so I asked them to propose someone to perform with. Bob suggested Kayla Milmine (who, by chance, played at TCB#2) and added that the set would be an acoustic one. The results were fully satisfying, with the trio exploring some different textures and techniques over three pieces, drifting and galloping in all directions

You can check out some more from this set over on youtube:

[Track Could Bend is back at Wenona on Tuesday (March 4th) with sets from M.D.N.R. (Max Donaldson and Nate Robertson) plus Del Stephen's Totoloto.]

Recording: Kay/Milmine/Vespaziani

Artist: Andrew Kay/Kayla Milmine/Bob Vespaziani

Song: [two excerpts]

Recorded at Gerrard Art Space (Faster Presents: juice?$#%*), March 23, 2024.

Andrew Kay/Kayla Milmine/Bob Vespaziani - [excerpt 1]

Andrew Kay/Kayla Milmine/Bob Vespaziani - [excerpt 2]

This trio set saw horns up from from Kayla Milmine (soprano sax) and Andrew Kay (clarinet, bass clarinet, wooden flute) backed by Bob Vespaziani's expansive wavedrum sounds.

You can check out the complete set over on youtube:

Recording: Ell Trio + 1

Artist: Ell Trio + 1

Song: [excerpt]

Recorded at The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge), August 2, 2023.

Ell Trio + 1 - [excerpt]

With Victor O on drumkit and Bob Vespaziani on Wavedrum (plus Eric Kinsella adding some cymbals and shakers to his synth work) it's reasonable to assume that the Ell Trio on their own would be a percussion-centric unit. But with Marilyn Yogarajah (trumpet, piano) as the plus-one, there were plenty of textures to offset the clatter.

You can check out footage of the full set over on youtube:

Recording: Bob Vespaziani & Brian Abbott

Artist: Bob Vespaziani & Brian Abbott

Song: [excerpt from an improvisation]

Recorded December 4, 2022 at The Tranzac's Southern Cross Lounge (Audiopollination 10th Anniversary Bash).

Bob Vespaziani & Brian Abbott - [excerpt]

A round number anniversary is always worth celebrating, and more so for this labour of love devoted to creative expression and community building. Kudos to Mike Lynn for putting in the work to keep Audiopollination going for a decade — definitely worth celebrating with a slice of pie and a crowded room in the Southern Cross.

Late fill-in Brian Abbott offered up some old-fashioned many-styles stop-start guit-wrangling to accompany Bob Vespaziani's wavedrum clatter. The set started like a sack of bells being tossed down a staircase and kept moving from there.

You can check out some footage from this set over on the Audiopollination youtube channel:

[Audiopollination is back at Array Space on Friday, January 13th with sets by Mike Barber/Daisy Betlej/Tegan Dietsch / Kousha Nakhaei/Owen Kurtz / Jamie Eriksen/Adrian Russouw/Bri Clarke and Kimberly Ivany/Katheryn Merriam.]

Recording: Baron/Vespaziani/O

Artist: Simone Baron/Bob Vespaziani/Cheryl O

Songs: [two excerpts from an improvisation]

Recorded at Wenona Lodge, January 21, 2020.

Simone Baron/Bob Vespaziani/Cheryl O - [2nd piece, excerpt 1]

Simone Baron/Bob Vespaziani/Cheryl O - [2nd piece, excerpt 2]

Cheryl O put together this early "dinner hour" show to get a chance to play with the visiting accordionist Simone Baron, a co-conspirator when the pair were at the Banff Centre. She also brought frequent collaborator Bob Vespaziani along, and although the resultant trio of accordion, cello and percussion might have looked to a casual onlooker like something that might be playing pleasant tunes at the edge of a European sidewalk café, there were definitely some stranger currents flowing here. Although the trio indeed improvised through some gavottes and tarantellas, things were destabilized by wavedrum clatter, whistles, and a dedication to exploring the percussive sounds that an accorion body can generate.

[Cheryl O's unQuartet will be sharing a night with Clara Engel on Friday, March 27th at The Amsterdam Bicycle Club.]

Recording: Maraj/Vespaziani/O

Artist: Kieran Maraj/Bob Vespaziani/Victor O

Song: [excerpt]

Recorded at The Tranzac's Southern Cross Lounge (Karen Ng Presents: The Boxing Day Special), December 26, 2019.

Kieran Maraj/Bob Vespaziani/Victor O - [excerpt]

Karen Ng (away for her regular night at The Tranzac) left things to guest curator Victor O, who assembled a fine night of electroacoustic sounds. He also joined in with this trio, with a tableful of percussive implements being processed by Kieran Maraj's granular manipulations alongside Bob Vespaziani's wavedrum and pedals. This lead to some complicated clattering, relieved by Victor O's piano meditations.

Recording: Lorde Awesome

Artist: Lorde Awesome

Song: [excerpt]

Recorded at Yonge-Dundas Square (Intersection Day 3), August 31, 2019.

Lorde Awesome - [excerpt]

Once more, Tad Michalak's Burn Down the Capital brought a full day's worth of entertainment to the concrete canyon of Yonge-Dundas Square. Random passers-by would occasionally stop and regard the proceedings with curiosity, bemusement or disdain while in the background the thrum of the busker's amplification outside Eaton Centre seems to grow louder every year, sharing the sonic space with sirens and engine roars. Starting the day was a rare field trip for this east-end drone collective, who have been holding down a monthly residency at the Only Café for the past 8+ years under the guidance of Avery Strok. Playing seven deep at one of the side-stage zones on the floor of the square, the group shored up their sonic ramparts with plenty synth textures, sax diversions, and occasional theremin.

[You can always catch Lorde Awesome at The Only Café – just around the corner from Donlands Station — on the first Thursday of the month, so keep an eye out for the next one will on November 7th.]

Recording: cheryl o & Bob Vespaziani

Artist: cheryl o & Bob Vespaziani

Song: [excerpt from first piece]

Recorded at Wenona Lodge (FASTER Presents), July 30, 2019.

cheryl o & Bob Vespaziani - [excerpt from first piece]

Filling in an extra Tuesday night at Wenona, FASTER brought this night of electronic and acoustic improvisational explorations. Pared back from a planned trio, Bob Vespaziani (wavedrum) and cheryl o (cello) had plenty of space to explore.

Recording: William Davison & Bob Vespaziani

Artist: William Davison & Bob Vespaziani

Song: [excerpt]

Recorded at Wenona Lodge (Track Could Bend #47), February 5, 2019.

William Davison & Bob Vespaziani - [excerpt]

Noise sculptor William Davison has popped up at Track Could Bend several times now, but it was a thrill to have percussionist Bob Vespaziani (who last played at the series in its very first show!) acting as his sparring partner. Mixing crunchy outbursts and quiet rustling, there was oodles of atmosphere here in what was essentially a meticulous percussion duet.

[Track Could Bend is back at Wenona Lodge on Tuesday, May 7th!]

Recording: Tena Palmer + Bob Vespaziani

Artist: Tena Palmer + Bob Vespaziani

Song: [excerpt from first piece]

Recorded at Array Space ("Audiopollination #31.1"), June 9, 2015.

Tena Palmer + Bob Vespaziani - [excerpt from first piece]

Bob Vespaziani once again proved himself a master of the abstract possibilities that can be drawn from the wavedrum, eschewing straight-ahead percussion in favour of ratcheting, thrumming electroacoustic sounds, while Tena Palmer matched every move with her vocalizations.

[Audiopollination will be busy for the next month or so, offering up a spot for some touring musicians (including New York visitors Mob Job on Monday, June 22nd and bass clarinetist Kathryn Ladano on Saturday, June 27th), a "regular" Audiopollination featuring Michael Keith, Bob Vespaziani, Michael Lynn, David Sait, John Kamavaar and Mani Mazinani on Sunday, July 5th, plus the return of the self-curation project on Tuesday, July 14th.]

Recording: Keith/Lynn/Vespaziani

Artist: Michael Keith/Michael Lynn/Bob Vespaziani

Song: [second piece]

Recorded at April 7, 2015 at Johnny Jackson (Track Could Bend #1).

Michael Keith/Michael Lynn/Bob Vespaziani - [second piece]

There's a nice expansion here from the recent solo work that Michael Keith has been doing on his three-string baritone ukulele, with Michael Lynn (on double bass) and Bob Vespaziani (on cajón and percussion) adding a bit more musical momentum. Lots of invention and interplay at work, but also the feel that Keith was tapping into something much older — this sounds like it could have been played at someone's wedding in Persia a couple hundred years ago.

[Track Could Bend continues at Little Italy's Johnny Jackson on the first Tuesday of every month, with shows starting & ending early. The next one will be Tuesday, May 5th.]

Recording: Arnd Jurgensen and Friends

Artist: Arnd Jurgensen and Friends

Songs: [set 1 excerpt] + [set 2 excerpt]

Recorded at The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge), November 12, 2014.

Arnd Jurgensen and Friends - [set 1 excerpt]

Arnd Jurgensen and Friends - [set 2 excerpt]

Guitarist Arnd Jurgensen had the booking for this early timeslot in the Southern Cross, though word was the set was going to be a group backing the mercurial Mary Margaret O'Hara. She didn't make the gig, but this was still a more-than-adequately-interesting combo to hang out and listen to, with Jurgensen joined by Aidan Closs (percussion, piano), Michael Herring (double bass), Bob Vespaziani (wavedrum), and the wonderful Jeff Burke (bassoon and theremin). What was originally going to be a duo followed by a larger group was combined into two sets of improvised music by the quintet, touching on a range of vibes, from the first set's abstract space blues heard in the first extract to the second set's spontaneous ballad heard in the second.

[You can check out Jurgensen, quite possibly with a different mix of collaborators, in his next Tranzac appearance, Wednesday January 15th in the early slot.]

Recording: Broomer-Bull-Vespaziani-Lee-Stach

Artist: Stuart Broomer/Arthur Bull/Bob Vespaziani/David Lee/Eric Stach

Song: [excerpt from an improvization]

Recorded at The Tranzac - Main Hall (The Second Annual Somewhere There Creative Music Festival – Show 1), February 21, 2014.

Stuart Broomer/Arthur Bull/Bob Vespaziani/David Lee/Eric Stach - [excerpt from an improvization]

Full review to follow. Although I had some things to say about the Somewhere There Music Festival, there were several strands I left out for brevity's sake. One thing I held back that was on my mind was the notion that when you're making resolutely uncommercial music you're probably not too worried about "making it", and instead of a chase for the golden ring, a career is more of a lifetime pursuit.

It worked out nicely, then, that one of the festival's threads was an attendance to the historical context of improvised music in Toronto. David Lee gave a spirited discussion on the roots of the scene, reaching back to the 60's to talk about the links between the visual arts and experimental music. And after that, he brought together a group of musicians that he has played with over the years, including Stuart Broomer (who as a youth played in the Artists' Jazz Band, the first-ever free improv unit in T.O.) and Eric Stach (who has been central to London, Ontario's creative music scene for several decades). This starts with some nifty guitar interplay between Broomer and Arthur Bull before the whole band joins in. There's a lot of decades of experience in this group, and a lot of now.

Recording: Michael Keith and friends

Artist: Michael Keith and Bob Vespaziani / cheryl o

Songs: [first piece with Bob Vespaziani, part 1] + [excerpt from first piece with cheryl o]

Recorded at Array Space (Audiopollination #14.1), January 14, 2014.

Michael Keith and Bob Vespaziani - [first piece, part 1]

Michael Keith and cheryl o - [excerpt from first piece]

Full review to follow. Though I had never caught him playing before, guitarist Michael Keith has a good name in Toronto's improvised music community. This edition of the Audiopollination series saw him and Bob Vespaziani as featured performers playing in duos, both together and with a couple guest artists. Keith had a couple tricks up his sleeve (including some prerecorded sounds courtesy of his phone and some nifty amp effects) but largely relied on savvy craftsmanship to being bring different textures to his set, from knotty note clusters to bluesy grooves. These selections see him paired with Bob Vespaziani on wavedrum and Cheryl Ockrant (who performs as cheryl o) on cello. As always, you can check out the whole carefully archived performance, and once again, I'll mention that if you want to hear some cool improvised music (with improvised live visuals!) in a casual setting, you really should really come check this monthly series out — next one up is February 11th.

Recording: Build to Suit

Artist: Build to Suit

Song: [excerpt from an improvisation]

Recorded at Array Space ("Somewhere There"), December 29, 2013.

Build to Suit - [excerpt from an improvisation]

Full review to follow. The line between "noise" and "improvisation" is wafer-thin and can sometimes be more or less the same thing pitched to different audiences. This unit, with Alan Bloor (violin), Jim Bailey (electronics/found objects), Bob Vespaziani (wave drum), Arnd Jurgensen (guitar), Matthew Poulakakis (guitar), and Guy Leblanc (trombone/noisemakers) produced a found-sound bricolage that could range from pleasingly abrasive to intriguingly textured with a good group dynamic that kept things sounding like an ensemble more than just six guys who all showed up to play at the same place. My sense is that these guys play gigs mostly in the free improv scene, but this would be right down the alley of a lot of noise/weird heads who don't go to that kind of show.