jazz festival . . . two
 A couple of months ago Bruce Freedman played me a recording of his seven-year-old daughter, Ruby, singing what I assume is a Buddhist song, Milarepa (listen here). It was stunning, I thought. So it was a delightful surprise to find that Ruby was to be a guest vocalist with Bruce's quartet at Performance Works, for one song. Ruby Freedman's professional singing debut! I've known Bruce for 30 years and as I wrote in the Jazz Forum, he's one of my favourite players.I'm not getting older . . . it just feels that way. I'm no longer into running around like a madman trying to catch everything every day . . . Halfway through Bruce's second set I realized that if I was going to the Vancouver East Cultural Centre later I had to get home so I'd have time to snooze a bit, have dinner, etc. So I took off.  For the most part I stick to the downtown, Granville Island venues because getting to the more far-flung venues is too much hassle for me. No car. But when I ran into Ken Pickering a couple of days ago he made a special point of recommending the Mark Helias Sextet gig at the "Cultch" so I decided to make the effort. Opening set was Marilyn Crispell with Helias and Dylan van der Schyff. Frankly, it didn't do much for me. These are all great players and the music was happening but, you know, it's a subjective thing and I just wasn't digging it. The Sextet's another story. I thoroughly enjoyed it. I had my camera with me but sometimes I'm just not in a photo mood, thus the promo shot of Helias. I chatted with Don Chessa out front and did grab a shot of him. Chessa was one of the owners of Black Swan Records years ago . . . lives in Victoria now and is involved with the Open Space Art society in Victoria. Stopped by O'Doul's later, caught the end of Jennifer Scott's set and stuck around for the jam. Got home around 2:30. Here's one more of the Freedman band:  Stan Taylor, Clyde Reed, Bruce, Ruby, Bill Clark Not sure what's on for today. I was planning to catch Yusef Lateef at the Cultch . . . he's been one of my tenor sax heroes for a hundred years and while there's no telling how he'll sound at 86 years of age, this would most likely be the last time I'd hear him live. But when I heard that he's not only imposed his religious beliefs on the presentation but that the presenters have gone along with them . . count me out. I hate that shit. But I could easily change my mind. I'm not religious about my convictions. Jazz Festival posts |