Recording: joe-naomi-reknee

Artist: joe-naomi-reknee

Song: Dancing Through [intro] + excerpts from two unknown pieces^*

Recorded at The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge), January 8, 2020.

joe-naomi-reknee - Dancing Through [intro]

joe-naomi-reknee - [1st set, 2nd piece, excerpt]

joe-naomi-reknee - [2nd set, 2nd piece, excerpt]

This regular quartet with Joe Sorbara, Reknee Harrett, and Naomi McCarroll-Butler was missing usual fourth member Madeleine Ertel, giving the others a bit more space to play around with different sounds and ideas with a bit less adherence to the book of tunes they're building. McCarroll-Butler brought the most variety here, not only switching between clarinet and sax, but also deploying the drone generator phone app seen before.

[The full quartet will be back in action next Wednesday (February 12th), launching the next phase of their residency by bringing in local guest performer/composers — in this case the great Lina Allemano — to explore thier work and incorporate some of it into their repertoire.]

^* Does anyone know the titles to these? Please leave a comment!

Recording: Ertel/Harrett/McCarroll-Butler/Sorbara

Artist: Madeleine Ertel/Reknee Harrett/Naomi McCarroll-Butler/Joe Sorbara

Songs: Untitled [composer: Reknee Harrett] + Pink Eye [composer: Lina Allemano]

Recorded at The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge), October 9, 2019.

Madeleine Ertel/Reknee Harrett/Naomi McCarroll-Butler/Joe Sorbara - Untitled

Madeleine Ertel/Reknee Harrett/Naomi McCarroll-Butler/Joe Sorbara - Pink Eye

Returning to town after a couple cycles on the West Coast, Joe Sorbara oversaw the conclusion of the "Music By and For Ken Aldcroft" series before transforming the timeslot to celebrate both presentness and local legacies in a new way. After working on their own book a bit, the plan for this as-yet unnamed new quartet (spotlighting three emerging talents on the local creative music scene) is "to have a guest each month who will add a few original compositions to our book and join us in playing their music to open the night." In a preview of that, the group tried on this Lina Allemano piece in addition to a variety of their own works.

[You can see this group at The Tranzac on the second Wednesday of the month, so next one up will be December 11th.]

Recording: Reknee Harrett + Josh Sinclair

Artist: Reknee Harrett + Josh Sinclair

Song: Grief Cycle

Recorded at Wenona Lodge (Track Could Bend #50), May 7, 2019.

Reknee Harrett + Josh Sinclair - Grief Cycle

Always radiating a deep sense of empathy and a dry sense of humour on stage, this piece (plus a couple covers) saw double bassist/composer Reknee Harrett joined by Josh Sinclair on piano. Harrett can add some pedal-based manipulations to her sound when called for, but with a rental bass and this brand-new composition in hand, things were stripped back for a raw and honest encounter with this "song for the dying and those who were left behind".

[Track Could Bend is back in Wenona's basement on Tuesday, August 6th with performances from Hiroki Tanaka, Del Stephen's Today Versions and Liz Lima.]

Recording: Cheryl O/Meghan Cheng/Irene Harrett

Artist: Cheryl O/Meghan Cheng/Irene Harrett - [second piece]

Song: [second piece]

Recorded at Wenona Lodge (Women From Space Festival – Night 1), March 8, 2019.

Cheryl O/Meghan Cheng/Irene Harrett - [second piece]

The first Women From Space Festival saw four excellent concerts take place over the course of the International Women's Day weekend. Organized by Bea Labikova and Kayla Milmine, the festival felt like a really savvy gathering, always more than the sum of its parts and showcasing the depth of talent in the city's various creative music streams in a women-centred environment.

This first night saw a couple of the festival's quietest sets, including this improvised string ensemble mixing Harrett's double bass, Cheng's violin and O's cello. There were some squeaking, sawing drone sections, a jaunty gavotte and moments of drawing-together into a spontaneous chamber sombreness.

[Two-thirds of this ensemble will be playing in separate sets at the next Track Could Bend (Tuesday, May 7th at Wenona), while a different two-thirds will be playing together as part of unQuartet at Gallery 345 on Friday, May 17th.]

Recording: Irene Harrett

Artist: Irene Harrett

Song: Tennessee Waltz [composer: Pee Wee King]

Recorded at The Tranzac's Southern Cross Lounge (Music By & For Ken Aldcroft XXV), January 9, 2018.

Irene Harrett - Tennessee Waltz

A rather satisfying musical introduction to double bassist Irene Harett, here taking a familiar country refrain into abstract zones via some skilful pedal manipulations. As we have seen several times recently in this series, Harrett described another path taken towards discovering the work of Kan Aldcroft, in being inspired indirectly through some of the younger musicians who were playing with him.