Fog Horns
The chilly Vancouver fog really is oppressive today
We quiet down like birds at night still stopped waiting
pondering which colour of tea would be most beneficial
green matcha, yellow camomile, red rose. we have all the colours.
you just can’t see them today.
How about this: I invite, entreat, any and all of the wind players in Vancouver to meet at Prospect Point to play today at 2 pm to play improvised communal tones together, to blow the fog away.
weather permitting
Seasons change brings us closer than ever
putting on socks for the first time
that cosy comfort ~ these small sleeping bags for our feet
reach for your favourite sweater, fine old friend,
here’s my moss coloured second skin now
it begins to sink in
as our landscape colours flame up in glory
and the sticky sap sinks down within
We are here
somewhere in the middle
Dear Friends,
Michael Creber have been having so much fun at the Café Ça Va. I guess you could say that “The duo
that goes where no duo has gone before!” got a promotion.
We’ll be playing the next two Saturdays , October 18 and 25, instead of Fridays. You are so
warmly invited to join us at this softly sparkling venue, with all the earthly comforts you could possibly
want. Thank you for being you 😉 Thank you for your shining faces! Also this weekend some wonderful
news; scratch DJ, band teacher and extraordinary pianist Jason de Couto will be joining me on the
piano. You can count on an evening filled with magic, mystery, and wit. Come and see us in real life (he’s
much larger) 1860 Marine Drive, across from west van florist. 8:30 – 11pm reservations 604 – 925-
2503, or just drop by 🙂
Jason De Couto
…and how much the celebration of our freedom to love means, on the world stage.
St.Andrews Wesley Church and Jamie Croil of Jazz Vespers are kindly hosting us.
Where: The Wall Centre Outdoor Stage – Burrard/Nelson right across from the church.
When: Saturday August 2nd 4 – 5 pm.
So c’mon…jump in!
😉
Everything in the West End seems to build up to the Pride Parade happening this weekend…The Fireworks series, the many towers getting washed down, cleaned up, and drilled upon…On top of all that is the little Ziggurat project they’re working on right next to me (which sounds a lot like dental work) One way and another, I figure it’s a great time to escape the clutches of the city and lean my arm up on the juice bar at the old hippy hangout in Roberts Creek, the Gumboot Cafe. Seraphina enjoys these types of outings. We’ll be playing Wayne and Patti Miller’s original music and Patti will dance! They are born – again Hawaiians. Summertime music will be made, and a good time will be had by all.
😉
Holly
Naturals Light ~ a tasty trio version of Holly Burke & The Naturals will be appearing at the historic Sylvia Hotel on English Bay this Thursday, where we’ll delve into the mystery of the history…of this legendary ivy covered hotel, The Grande Dame of English Bay.
Did Errol Flynn really die there? is it haunted? And what about that cat, Mr.Got to Go?
Come find out.
1154 Gilford St. 8-10 pm. Two delicious sets. n/c
with all six of us, at last…
New friends, old friends
We share our hearts with each other
and the music rises
like a sail on the wind
drawing us forward…
almost to Antibes
The Naturals relaxing at Calabash. Brent Gubbels, Randall Stoll, Nick Apivor and Bill Runge, who bicycled over from his Symphony performance…Kristian Alexandrov was on his way.
Who left the beautiful Magnolia on my door handle, I wonder?
The tune that became “Serengeti” first came to me as a sort of wistful celtic melody in 6/8. It was hard for me to play it though. The melody soon became a wonderful obsession, and most challenging tune, the problem child of the whole batch! It took long hours and days for me to be satisfied with the initial Zoom recording. When my brilliant friend and collaborator Bill Runge first heard it, he was excited about the time signature because we had nothing in that feel yet. In all, we had ten versions of Serengeti going over many weeks before the chart was completed. Bill and I going back and forth with it like a game of ping pong. Bill had the vision of transforming it into an African adventure…complete with a small plane flying in over the Serengeti above herds of wild zebra and wildebeest. I had some grooves to add in and the intro. Bill added the awesome solo changes, sprinkled his stardust over the whole thing and named it. The band was sounding and feeling so amazing that day we recorded it was easy to be adventurous and free.
Almost everything you hear on this track is from the original recording day at Bluewave Studios in Vancouver. Randall Stoll came in and added layers of percussion over his epic his drum tracks. I had a lot of fun adding sound effects afterwards, like the animal hooves, crickets and the Morrocan woman’s “ululation”. Finally I asked John Korsrud if he could come in and lay down some trumpet because I thought that would be “elephant-like” and just take the track over the top. John also suggested fluegelhorn for the melody parts, rather than trumpet because it was a better blend with the other horns. Good call.
Our engineer Ken Burke was fooling around with his new camera on a recent float plane trip he took. He decided to put “Serengeti” under it and post it on You Tube, just for fun. It went viral and had over 6000 hits within a month, now over 7000.
I guess our Serengeti child has grown up.
I hope you enjoy “Serengeti” as much as we enjoyed creating it.
wild zebras running over the Serengeti
The Players:
Chris Gestrin – piano
Doug Stephenson – electric bass
Randall Stoll – drums/percussion
Bill Runge – soprano sax/synth pad/arrangement
John Korsrud – trumpet/fluegelhorn
Holly Burke – flute/vocalese
Engineer – Ken Burke @ Bluewave Studios
We fell in Love last night @ 7 Dining Lounge formerly the Kozmik Zoohttp:/
Holly Burke Music & Poetry 