Attention Canada’s Jazz Community:

The deadline for my blog competition is about three weeks away (Jan 30th).

If you’re a member of the Canadian jazz community, please forward this notice to your students, friends and colleagues.  This is important for a number of reasons:

For Professionals:

The future of our music lies with kids and students.  This is an opportunity for us to reach out to the younger generation.  We need to be open to how they think and how they perceive their future.

For Students:

This is an opportunity to help yourself and the community you want to belong to (music, jazz, classical, pop or otherwise). This blog competition is an open channel to professional musicians.  We’re listening!

Ultimately, your feedback will be used for your benefit.  At the very least, for our understanding, but also so we can craft more optimal learning environments for students like you.

For Everyone:

Issues are solved and pushed forward using common ground and compromise.  The ramblings of the jazz community suggest that finding common ground and compromise is much needed! So let’s communicate!

Please forward this message along!

Dear readers,

I’ve published an advertisement in this blog post.

I wasn’t very comfortable with this, considering it’s a product I’m unfamiliar with. So to make it up to you, I’m sponsoring a blog competition!

Eligibility:

• You must be Canadian.
• You must be a student enrolled in a post-secondary, undergraduate jazz program in Canada.
• You must be 25 years or younger.

Rules:

• Publish an online article at least 500 words in length.
• Send me a link to your article (using comments below) by January 30, 2012.
• Reflect on the following: “How do you get people out to gigs? How do you build an audience?  How do you support live music?”

Prize:

• $200
• I’ll publish your article on my website (approx 4000 viewers per month).
• Good articles will receive honourable mentions.

Ideas:

• Start a discussion.
• Engage the community.
• Read other blogs in the community. Here’s a list:
• JazzBlog.ca
• Jesse Cahill
• Pianoblabber
• Trap’d
• X…Y…Jazz

Good luck!

I’ve been on a blogging hiatus the last few months.  One reason is that I’ve been devoting a lot of time to developing two new projects:

Wolak / Donnelly Duo

Kornel Wolak is a monster clarinetist.  His specialty is classical music, though he has many traits rarely seen in classical musicians.  For one, Kornel always performs from memory.  He and I agree that music stands, sheet music, page turning and page-turners are communicative barriers.  They obstruct our personal relationship with the music, our relationship with each other, and our connection to the audience.

Second, Kornel is the most spontaneous classical musician I know.  One thing I’ve learned from Kornel is how much room there is for spontaneity in classical music.  This is rarely achieved because certain conditions need to be met in order for it to be realized:  Spontaneity requires artists with extremely high levels of discipline, artists who are willing to rehearse rigorously/obsessively, and artists who are willing to take risks.

Kornel Wolak is such an artist.  I like to say he’s the jazziest classical musician I know!

Together, we’re playing music by Mozart, Brahms, Gershwin and much more.  We also mix our programs with solo pieces.  Keep an eye out; this guy’s good.

Myriad

This jazz trio consists of Ernesto Cervini on drums and Dan Fortin on bass. As with my duo with Kornel, Myriad strives to perform without music.  Why is this so rare in jazz?

The best ensembles play without music; it’s a goal all ensembles should strive for.  But, there’s a counter argument here: Jazz is just as much about ensembles as it is about the individual.  In some cases, you could say playing in ensembles is only a means to expressing oneself.  In which case, I have no right to criticize band mates for reading music.  They can do whatever they want!  Still, relationships within an ensemble and also with an audience are best achieved without reading music.  And this is what Myriad is doing.

Another thing I’ve noticed: even though we’re dedicated to rehearsing and jamming regularly, we’d much rather “rehearse” and develop our tunes on the bandstand.  Think about it: If our goal is to cultivate a “group sound,” or to enhance relationships within the trio, can’t this be done by jamming in a basement?  Perhaps.  But you’ll learn more about yourself and the ensemble if you make mistakes in public.  There’s an element of risk in live performance; there’s more at stake.  Cultivating a group sound may be possible in your basement, but performing live will do that faster and more profoundly.

Myriad has plans to record an album, tour Canada and continue playing throughout the GTA.  Stay tuned!

Dear readers,

I’d like to tell you about one of my upcoming performances in the GTA.

I will be performing at the TD Toronto Jazz Festival on Wednesday, June 29th @ 12:00pm.  The venue is at Metro Square, located on the south side of King Street between Simcoe and John Streets. See map: Google Maps

For everybody from the Toronto area, I hope to see you there!

Chris

Thanks to everyone for a successful CD release!

Information on the new CD can be found on my Music page.

And thanks to Karen Reeves for the great photos.  Here are a few:

Dear Readers,

I’m happy to announce the release of my 2nd album “Metamorphosis”!

It will be available for purchase next week; I’ll be posting more information shortly.

For Torontonians, I’ll be performing the music twice in the coming weeks.

Thurs. Mar 24, 2011
12 – 1pm
Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts
145 Queen. St. W., Toronto
More Info

Thurs. April 7, 2011
7pm
Paul Hahn & Co
1058 Yonge Street, Toronto
More Info
Send RSVP to alexhahn@paulhahn.com

Hope to see you!

Starting today, I’ll be taking a short, holiday break from blogging.  I’ll resume on January 3rd.

Happy holidays, thanks for reading!

If you’ve been reading my blog lately, you’ll know that I’ve been reading and writing about Stravinsky’s Poetics of Music.  So far, I’ve written fifteen posts!

A considerable amount of energy went into these.  I have a few more posts in the works, but I need to take a break and come back to them when my mind is a little fresher.

Actually, I’m going to take a short break from blogging in general (less than two weeks!).  This will give me some time to catch up on some other projects, which include transcriptions, and a few interviews that I’m working on.

So for the next two weeks, I’ll be recycling some of my older posts.

Be back soon!

I was in the studio (The Driveshed) on April 21 recording the new album.  I was fortunate enough to play on one of the best pianos in Toronto (from Remenyi). Here are some pictures, check out the signatures inside!

I’ve been inspired by the creators of The Taruskin Challenge.

They’re reading and blogging about Richard Taruskin’s 3,856-page The Oxford History of Western Music.  There are lots of interesting discussions happening there.  I highly recommend you check it out!

I have a number of books on my shelf that I’ve been meaning to read or meaning to read again.  The books are about theory, or composing or about the arts in general.

Now I have incentive to read them: to share with readers!  Starting next month, I’m going to read them and post summaries, discussions and my own personal reflections.

First up:  Igor Stravinsky’s Poetics of Music

(Chris’ posts appear every other day at chrisdonnellymusic.com.  If you enjoyed this post, please share using the buttons below! Sign up for free email updates or RSS updates.  Thanks!)