Artist: Thom Gill
Song: [3rd piece]
Recorded at Wenona Lodge (Kurt Newman presents: an evening of cool solos), July 16, 2024.
It's a rarity to get to see Thom Gill playing solo improvised guitar — and perhaps unprecidented to see him jamming on the Casio DG-10, gleefully shredding with several synthesized tones, including (as heard here) the GLOCKEN setting.
You can check out some more from this set (and the rest of the evening's first half) over on youtube:
Artist: Holy Oak Family Singers feat. Ryan Driver / Alex Lukashevsky / Dorothea Paas / Luka Kuplowsky
Songs: Picture a World / Bein' Green / The First Time It Happens / Everybody Eats [all composed by Joe Raposo]
Recorded at The Tranzac's Southern Cross Lounge (Tribute to Joe Raposo), July 3, 2024.
Holy Oak Family Singers feat. Ryan Driver - Picture a World
Holy Oak Family Singers feat. Alex Lukashevsky - Bein' Green
Holy Oak Family Singers feat. Dorothea Paas - The First Time It Happens
Holy Oak Family Singers feat. Luka Kuplowsky - Everybody Eats
The name Joe Raposo might not ring a bell, but chances are good you've got some of his songs lodged in your brain. One of the key writers in the classic Sesame Street/Muppets era, he not only composed the Sesame Street theme, but piles of instantly-familiar tunes, including "C is for Cookie", "Doin' the Pigeon", "Would You Like to Buy an O?", and "Sing" — as well as a fair few other TV themes. That meant there was plenty of material for the usual mix'n'match insta-ensembles at H.O.F.S.' regular night of musical tribute. The best results came when the singers mined the vein of bummed-out melancholy that's just below the surface of many of these songs — but the bursts of pure ebullience worked pretty swell too (Alex Lukashevsky tackling the Three's Company theme was everything you could hope for).
[Do note that H.O.F.S. are taking August off! You'll find them back in the Southern Cross on the first Wednesday in September.]
Artist: Aline's étoile magique
Song: Blue Ghost Firefly
Recorded at Toronto Jazz Fest — Village Stage, June 24, 2024.
Aline's étoile magique - Blue Ghost Firefly
I'm not, admittedly, usually bowled over by the offerings at the local Corporate Jazz Fest, but generally speaking they do manage to spotlight some corners of cool local talent every year. (This set, in fact, was a re-booking of a cancelled set from last year, when forest fire smoke was choking the city, so kudos to the festival for making good with the artists.) In any case, it was absoloutely delightful to take in some sounds in Village of Yorkville Park, with shady trees overhead and the occasional rumble of the subway underfoot.
The generous set from violinist Aline Homzy's group mixed album tracks with newer material (including some pieces that have had their debuts at Homzy's Ghostgirl residency at The Tranzac) as well as reinterpreting works from composers like Carla Bley and Fats Waller. The sound on-site was unexpectedly excellently rendered, giving clarity to the group's sounds as well as solo spots from Michael Davidson (vibes), Marito Marques (drums), Dan Fortin (bass), and Thom Gill (guitar).
You can check out some more from this set over on youtube:
Artist: Luka Kuplowsky & The Ryōkan Band
Songs: How Can I Possibly Sleep When There is Music + I Knew it Would Be You! [from a poem by Ryōkan Taigu]
Recorded at The Tranzac (Main Hall), June 18, 2024.
Luka Kuplowsky & The Ryōkan Band - How Can I Possibly Sleep When There is Music
Luka Kuplowsky & The Ryōkan Band - I Knew it Would Be You!
Luke Kuplowsky has been developing his book of songs from and inspired by poets for a few years now, so it was a delight to see it come to a culmination with the release of the double album How Can I Possibly Sleep When There is Music. For the release celebration, the full band presented the album in order, accompanied by some gorgeous visuals, including on-screen footage of a dancer (Noriko Yamamato) who then appeared in the flesh onstage — a perfect encapsulation of these songs breathing life into centuries-old poems and making them viscerally present in the here-and-now.
Artist: The Heart of Going La
Song: Conniptions
Recorded at The Tranzac (Main Hall), June 18, 2024.
The Heart of Going La - Conniptions
This group is a union of three musicians exploring a mutual interest in the repetition of mantra. Fan Wu, Thom Gill & Christopher Willes (later also incorporating Felicity Williams, Evan Cartwright and Luke Kuplowsky from the evening's headliners) mixed spiritual abstractions with a few more earthly concerns (and even some hocketing bells) in a playfully epigrammic set.
Artist: The Allison Cameron Band
Song: Maggie Dargai [excerpt]
Recorded at The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge), April 5, 2023.
The Allison Cameron Band - Maggie Dargai [excerpt]
A too-rare chance to see the "new" AC Band, with Allison Cameron (mostly on banjo here) joined by Thom Gill (guit/keyb) and Kurt Newman (guit/effects). There were some improvisations from the trio but it was especially excting to see some compositions being essayed, including this piece (carrying over some Martin Arnold deconstructed folk vibes) from the essential self-titled album.
You can catch the full piece, as well as an improvisation, over on youtube:
Artist: The Holy Oak Family Singers
Songs: I Believe [Loretta Lynn cover] + Wrecking Ball [Emmylou Harris cover]
Recorded at The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge), October 9, 2022.
The Holy Oak Family Singers - I Believe
The Holy Oak Family Singers - Wrecking Ball
This time out, the HOFS was essentially a songwiters' circle convened by Luke Kuplowsky, Thom Gill and Alex Lukashevsky — plus a few friends called up to sing some tunes, natch. The hosts completed the first round robin, where Kuplowsky paid tribute to the memory of Loretta Lynn with a rendition of a song that she covered. A bit later on Ivy Mairi also contributed a cover-of-a-cover, with a sweet rendition of Neil Young's "Wrecking Ball". Showing the back-porch spirit of the night, I left the full lead-in here, where you can feel their musicians feeling the way into it, and Mairi a bit unsure of the key at the start before falling right into place.
Artist: Joseph Shabason
Song: 13-15
Recorded at Yonge-Dundas Square (Intersection Festival – Day 3), September 3, 2022.
Returning after a couple pandemic hiatus years, the Intersection Festival made its way back to the concrete expanse of Yonge-Dundas Square, bringing abrasive and strange sounds to the wider public. Keeping to the main stage (except for Kristina Guison's circular sander art installation), this was a bit more of a stripped-down affair than years past, but the organizational caution meant things went off without a hitch. Even on a Labour Day weekend afternoon, downtown feels a little less hectic than it used to be, but it was nice to be outside and run into some familiar faces for the first time in so long.
This was my first chance to catch Joseph Shabason (and a stageful of his excellent frequent collaborators) since the release of last year's The Fellowship. This piece from the album was expanded onstage into a nice, long Hassellriffic groove (and the centrepiece of the too-short set) with tasty spotlights for Thim Gill (guitar) and Hugh Marsh (violin).
Artist: Bernice
Songs: Underneath My Toe + Big Mato
Recorded at The Tranzac's Main Hall (TONE Festival), June 26, 2022.
A full house came out for this TONE Fest show that saw a smartly-combined lineup of two groups approaching the intersection of pop forms and sonic questing from different directions. This local institution, playing thwir first full-on quintet gig since The Beforetimes, centres the "pop song" but engages in a lot of play in doing so. The stretch/squish of Time and Events means that there's a whole album of tunes that haven't been engaged with on stage so much by band or audience, and those songs are already being gently nudged aside by the next batch (including the first selection here).
Artist: Country Phasers
Songs: Most of the Time [Bob Dylan cover] + Blank Lace [excerpt, in two parts]
Recorded at The Tranzac's Southern Cross Lounge (Cosmic Country + Comedy for Communists), May 12, 2022.
Country Phasers feat. Thom Gill - Most of the Time
Country Phasers - Blank Lace [excerpt, part 1]
Country Phasers - Blank Lace [excerpt, part 2]
This version of Kurt Newman's Country Phasers included frequent phasers Andrew Furlong (double bass) and Patrick O'Reilly (guitar) alongside first-timer Madeleine Ertel (trumpet), as well as a special appearance from guitarist Thom Gill, who not only added his usual crafty, subtle tones but also stood up to close out the second set as the group's improvised abstraction coalesced into a spare version of Dylan's "Most of the Time". The first set, meanwhile, was given over to "Blank Lace", Newman's open score that here was rendered in a manner that can be best described as "country ambient". An album version of this, please!
You can check out the full rendition of "Blank Lace" over on youtube:
While live music is on pause, I've asked some friends of MFS to dig through the archives and put together a playlist of some things I've posted that have registered with them in one way or another — contextualizing blurbs preferred but not required. Expect to see a variety of different takes and approaches as the playlists get posted — and hopefully we'll all be reminded of some cool things that have happened in the past. This list comes from don't-call-him-a-composer Jason Doell.
Here is a broad sampling of what I believe to be the boundless and genre defiant "Toronto Croon" (as captured by Joe). Not all of the voices heard in this playlist live here still, but all have done so in the past, and all have adopted or adapted the Toronto croon in their own special way.
S W A N H E R D S - The Turning Larch
Thom Gill + Musica Reflecta - Consider Me Gone
The Ryan Driver Sextet - Two Sleepy People
Artist: Heather Saumer feat. Felicity Williams/Alex Samaras/Thom Gill/Robin Dann
Song: unknown*
Recorded at 918 Bathurst (Women From Space Festival – Night 4), March 8, 2020.
Heather Saumer feat. Felicity Williams/Alex Samaras/Thom Gill/Robin Dann - unknownAfter spending three nights at the cozier Burdock, Women From Space wrapped up its second festival on International Women's Day, moving to the more expansive surroundings at 918 Bathurst — and it packed the place out for a triumphant conclusion. In retrospect, this was for many of us "the last big night out", the last night when hugs and handshakes were exchanged without reserve. The words "social distancing" had been uttered, but they were still an abstraction, compared to say, sharing a piece of cake or lingering with a group of friends. It is possible that these things might be thinkable again when International Women's Day rolls around again next year — one can only hope that Kayla Milmine and Bea Labikova get a chance to build upon the success of this year's festival.
Trumpeter Heather Saumer has been sharing her voice for awhile now, though often hewing more in a folk vein. This set saw her pivoting towards pop — albeit an airy, abstracted form of pop, which made her choice of collaborators (serving in and around the orbit of Bernice, "Toronto's ever-evolving backing band") entirely fitting.
* Does anyone know the title to this one? Please leave a comment!
Artist: The Holy Oak Family Singers
Songs: That's What Makes You Strong [Jesse Winchester cover; Thom Gill vox] + Dear Darling [Mary Margaret O'Hara cover; Ivy Mairi vox] + I Don't Know [Kate and Anna McGarrigle cover; Alex Samaras vox] + Thirty [The Weather Station cover; Thom Gill vox] + Runs in the Family [The Roches cover; Robin Dann, Felicity Williams, Alex Samaras vox]
Recorded at The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge), February 20, 2020.
The Holy Oak Family Singers - That's What Makes You Strong
The Holy Oak Family Singers - Dear Darling
The Holy Oak Family Singers - I Don't Know
The Holy Oak Family Singers - Thirty
The Holy Oak Family Singers - Runs in the Family
A really wonderful night, once more bringing together this loose aggregation of immensely-talented musicians that once congregated at the much-missed Holy Oak. The special occasion this time was a milestone birthday for Luke Kuplowsky, who got to pick the setlist, populating it with some of his mournful/joyful favourites. As always, the crew ranged through the songbooks of the artists they'd paid tribute to in the past (Gordon Lightfoot, Joni Mitchell, Arthur Russell in addition to the ones posted above) and a few special one-offs, like the especially-relevant Weather Station tune. And as always, there were a series of friends rotating in and out of the backing band and vocalists' chairs. Truly a really special time, and worth remembering these days as to why we used to gather together (and hope to someday again).
Artist: Puh-Lease
Song: [track 2]
Recorded at Wenona Lodge (Track Could Bend #58), January 7, 2020.
Puh-Lease - [track 2]This project was Thom Gill's no wave day-dream/fever-dream, an avant-garage excursion that saw him joined by Alex Lukashevsky on guitar, Claire Yunjin Lee on synth, and Germaine Liu on percussion. Wobbly and trebly throughout, sometimes it sounded like Discipline-era King Crimson being run through three or four high pass filters, and at others like one of those projects salvaging the sounds and lost to mp3 compression.
[Track Could Bend is back at Wenona tonight (February 4th), with sets from the Pete Johnston 4, Claire Yunjin Lee, and Tidal Pool.]
Artist: LUKA
Songs: Me for Real [Arthur Russell cover] + O, My Heart is Full
Recorded at a house party, November 2, 2019.
Are house shows the Next Big Thing? Wooed by the glitz of app-enabled venture capital companies, there've been some thinkpieces on this topic lately, as if people gathering together with their friends and making music was an unconsidered possibility before there was a profiteering digital middleman on the scene. Still, as affordable spaces for intimate performances dwindle in our city, more folks do seem to be open to sharing their spaces for small-scale shows — which, on the one hand, creates wonderful opportunities to see great artists up close (and pay them money directly for their art!) but could also reinforce our music scenes as siloed, gated communities, where you have to "know someone" to even know that a cool show is happening.
A house show like this is also a chance to play for a very on-side crowd, so Luke Kuplowsky and company (which was, on this night, Josh Cole on bass, Thom Gill on guit and Evan Cartwright on drums) were able not only to "rehearse" some new covers before taking them into the studio, but also to bring out some old faves for a hearty singalong. (Karen Ng, after playing a solo set to open up the night, is sitting in for the latter.)
Artist: Barnyard Drama
Song: Improvisation for Justin + We'll Be Okay
Recorded at The Tranzac's Main Hall (Service for Justin Haynes), April 19, 2019.
Barnyard Drama - Improvisation for Justin + We'll Be Okay [composer: Justin Haynes]Some things are hard. In the aftermath of a sudden loss, family, friends and collaborators joined together to celebrate the life and music of Justin Haynes. Famously banned from The Tranzac, the sad smiles at the fact of his return were indicative of the vibe: shock and sadness with a grimly-funny streak. Hopefully being together helped some people move forward in processing this tragedy, and hopefully Justin's music and spirit will be remembered and celebrated. Over the course of the afternoon and evening, many of his fellow-travelers paid tribute by revisiting Justin's material or offering some new tributes. Here's a few of the sounds from the day.
Starting with Christine Duncan's voice and Jean Martin's percussion, this farewell grew to encompass most of the day's performers as it slowly transformed into Haynes' hymn to hard-won okayness, serving as a benediction to close out the event.
Artist: John Southworth
Song: Simple Simple Boy
Recorded at The Tranzac's Main Hall (Service for Justin Haynes), April 19, 2019.
John Southworth - Simple Simple BoySome things are hard. In the aftermath of a sudden loss, family, friends and collaborators joined together to celebrate the life and music of Justin Haynes. Famously banned from The Tranzac, the sad smiles at the fact of his return were indicative of the vibe: shock and sadness with a grimly-funny streak. Hopefully being together helped some people move forward in processing this tragedy, and hopefully Justin's music and spirit will be remembered and celebrated. Over the course of the afternoon and evening, many of his fellow-travelers paid tribute by revisiting Justin's material or offering some new tributes. Here's a few of the sounds from the day.
Haynes was a longtime member of singer/songwriter John Southworth's backing band, reaching back from his brand new album all the back to this one from 2004, which Southworth described as the first song they played together.
Artist: Public Recordings
Song: To Valerie Solanas and Marilyn Monroe in Recognition of Their Desperation [excerpt, in two parts] [composer: Pauline Oliveros]
Recorded at City Hall's Council Chambers, February 17, 2018.
This joyfully ambitious undertaking saw Chris Willes and his Public Recordings crew bringing music — radical music, music that demands deep listening and focused attention — into the City Hall chambers, a space associated with noisemaking of a different kind. The culmination of a process reaching back a couple years (including its previous mounting at the Gardiner Museum), this version brought a larger audience and bigger crew of musicians into its larger space. (Adding to the logistical complexity of the entire undertaking, there were also a series of public rehearsals in different venues in the week leading up to the performance.)
The beginning of a new form of composition from Pauline Oliveros, this piece for open ensemble has guidelines, but few musical directives, meaning there are a wider range of possible sonic outcomes than with a through-composed piece. With simple instructions and shared light cues, this large ensemble of musicians and non-musicians weave together a drone symphony, a slow-moving sound-river that invites closed-eye meditation (though, especially in an environment such as this, also some open-eyed gawking at how the spectacle is creating itself). The participant list reveals artists from many fields coming together to make these sounds: Anne Bourne, Allison Cameron, Victoria Cheong, Prices Easy, Ishan Davé, Ellen Furey, Thom Gill, Claire Harvie, Ame Henderson, Brendan Jensen, Germaine Liu, Bee Pallomina, Liz Peterson, Heather Saumer, Brian Solomon, Anni Spadafora, Evan Webber, and Christopher Willes.
[This concert was co-presented by the Music Gallery, who have had an ongoing stream of Pauline Oliveros-related events this season. The last instalment of the Anne Bourne-facilitated Deep Listening Workshops ("Sounding Difference Through The Text Scores Of Pauline Oliveros") will be at 918 Bathurst on Sunday, April 28th. Free with registration.]
Artist: The Allison Cameron Band
Song: [excerpt from 2nd piece]
Recorded at Array Space (MFS 10th Anniversary Celebration: A Night of Improvised Music), February 10, 2019.
The Allison Cameron Band - [excerpt from 2nd piece]Every year around Valentine's Day, I tend to remember that it's this blog's anniversary. Then I check back to that first entry, see I'm already a day late, and go on with life. This year, I was thinking about it well ahead of time, and seeing that big, round (and mightily unexpected) tenth anniversary approaching, it seemed befitting to do something a little special. That ended up being a pair of shows, conceptually split into "improvised" and "rock" nights.
For the former, Somewhere There helped out by lending me their regular second Sunday of the month slot at Array, and from there, it was just a matter of winnowing it down from the dozens of people that I wanted to ask to play. It was a no-brainer to ask Allison Cameron to play, as her work as an improviser has inspired and taught me so much. By sheer good luck, three busy schedules aligned and I managed to wrangle a rare show from the "new" Allison Cameron Band (and, as far as I know, their first away from the Tranzac) where Cameron's banjo, keyboard, toy hedgehog squeezebox and tableful of Honeytone mini-amps are augmented by Kurt Newman's guitar and Thom Gill's guitar and synth. There's been talk of working out some pieces for this group to play, but for now, it's just improvisations finding intriguing meeting points in loud and quiet places.
[Allison Cameron will be debuting a new trio named Agar Agar (with Germaine Liu and Andrew Zukerman) at a very cool/noisy Burn Down The Capital show at The Burdock on Tuesday, April 23rd, and will be bringing some Two Ted Country Blues to The Tranzac next Wednesday (April 17th) alongside Nick Storring and Kurt Newman. Newman will also be playing a trio with Mark Zurawinski and Allison Cameron that night, and you'll also be able to find him at The Tranzac tomorrow afternoon (April 14th), doing some pickin' at Ayal Senior's monthly.]
Artist: Joseph Shabason
Song: Treat it Like a Wine Bar
Recorded at Array Space (Invocation Presents), January 10, 2019.
Joseph Shabason - Treat it Like a Wine BarJoseph Shabason's Anne can be viewed as more a development in continuity with his previous Aytche album, but there are still striking developments here. Foremost among those (and in addition to its ample technical merits) is its deeper and more personal emotional palette, weaving in fragments of interviews with his mother (the titular Anne) on the subjects of family, identity and "perfection" in the face of a degenerative illness. This special release show gained poignancy with Anne's presence, getting a chance to see her son presenting this intricate and beautiful music to a packed house.
Shabason's backing band for his hometown shows can expand and contract depending on who's available, and this night saw him being joined by Hugh Marsh (violin), Nicole Rampersaud (trumpet), Thom Gill (guitar/synth/piano), Phil Melanson (percussion), Kieran Adams (samples) and Bram Gielan (synth/bass/piano). That talented and deeply flexible group allowed a lush presentation of the material that rivalled the album's intricate arrangements. The selection here (which closed out the set as it does the album) was presented as a "placid sendoff", a gentle reminder that sometimes our difficulties can be ameliorated by looking at things in the best light.
[Joseph Shabason will be opening for Laraaji at the Toronto Spiritualist Temple on Friday, April 12th.]
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