Hi There Wonderful People Third is a funny word now I look at it. Must be a truly ancient brit one methinks. Here I am holding the flute. amazing. next we’re in the pool. very very groovy indeed. Such great smiles! can’t wait to share the Naturals music with you again 🙂 at Vancouver’s premier Jazz Club, Frankies! and warm Season’s Greetings to all 🎄🌟🌲✨🎄🌟
It feels so amazing to be singing and playing again! I mean what’s ten years between friends? I hope this wee note finds you well and happy and full of mischief! We’re alive! and happy to be so. There’s going to be a great outpouringof beautiful Naturals music at our much anticipated reunion Concert Friday January 3rd 8 pm at Frankie’s Premiere Jazz Club 755 Beatty St. Please do join us for this exciting concert and groove to our greatest hits (visualize scrolling titles here with deep male voice-over- lol) thrill to “Serengeti” drift away with “River of Stars” be warmed by “Let me Stand Next to your Fire” as well as gorgeous and tuneful new material as well. Get your tickets ➡️ here ⬅️ for a passionate night of musical magic and mystery with the Naturals!
me actually singing
Bill Runge – saxophones and inspiration 🌟🔱💫👑
Randall Stoll – drums and heartbeat 🥁 ba-doom ba-doom
Kristian Alexandrov – piano – our magic sorcerer – ha!🔥🌪️
Brent Gubbels –bass – holding it all down ⬇️ and 🆙
Nick Apivor – good vibes and percussion
Holly Burke – voice and flute – so very delighted to participate🕊️🪭
So let’s be together and wish each other a very happy New Year and beyond ))) )))) ))))) 🌟🐣🌈🕊️🌴 hb and los naturales sending out love to all but especially you 🆙🌻🐋 pass it along 🙂 and see you there!
Hello Flute Fans! I’ll be playing in the Main Hall of the West Vancouver Memorial library from 2-3 pm. this Monday December 18, that is. Come and browse and flip magazine pages while I pour my heart out flute-wise…
It’s not set up for a Concert – more for a pleasant flute hang. Very casual and a bit of a scholarly vibe you know…lovely!
You’re invited! and a Merry ’tis the Season to All!
Dear Fine Folk… you are warmly invited to come on a Dream Ride with us September 4, 4pm @ St. Andrews Wesley Church in Vancouver.
DREAM RIDE
Can’t believe eight years have passed since I bounced off the end of my mother’s bed and into a very different head space!
All was not lost though. Beautiful new music has come to the surface, twenty pieces for solo piano and new project called Dream Ride. Serendipitous events that have urged us forward in surprising ways, like finding baritone Pablo Romero in the forest.
Featuring Linda Lee Thomas, renowned VSO pianist, also known as the “Queen of Tango”. Dream Ride explores the Tango idiom while venturing into realms of pure lyric beauty.
Next Performance: September 4 @ 4 pm – 5 pm
St. Andrews Wesley Church (Burrard and Nelson) Vancouver.By Donation *no upward limit! free parking under the church.
Dream Ride ~ the music of Holly Burke and Bill Runge
On the subject of heads…here’s another cool thing I stumbled upon in the forest.
This amazing carving known as “Twin Spirits” is just off of Rawlings trail in Stanley Park, not far from Second Beach.
The Parks Board in their greater wisdom do not “acknowledge” this remarkable creation because the artist failed to go through their application process. Hey maybe the artist didn’t know where the office was – didn’t have a computer – was living in the park? I’m just so glad this carver went ahead with their vision, their inspiration for all the people to enjoy.
Thank you, Park Banksy. Love to know who you are and meet you one day ❤️
“Cos you know two heads are better than one” – Twisted
Yes, it’ll be the first public performance of Two Eagles ~1000 hours later…or is it ten thousand hours later…Bill has meticulously finished the band arrangement of ‘Two Eagles.’ Can’t wait to hear it played by Bill’s stellar band The Bill Runge Quintet. Miles Black on piano, Bernie Arai on drums, André Lachance on bass and Nick Apivor on the magical vibes. It was a full circle type of experience with this tune. It began on a cold clear February day when I spied two magnificent eagles in the large evergreen just off my building. They were there for hours…just hanging out. I went to the piano and found a figure I liked, and a couple of potential places to go and Two Eagles was born (I kept running back and forth from the piano to the window to the window to see if they were still there.) Last week, Bill was completing the full band arrangement and looked out his window to see two glorious eagles soaring around his building. “We’re not changing the name!” said Bill.
Can’t help but get a little excited about stepping out onto the new terrain of a new year. The forever hope of things being better. Things will be better, it always feels that way, even this year. So here we are sending some good vibes your way )))))
Standing in the echoing expanse that is the atrium in the heart of downtown…
notes float…
quivering quavers… and semi-quavers… and demi-semi-quavers until a trill fills the sonorous soundscape…. and then a saxophone…
deep drone from the trombones… Ellen and Andrews’ auditory ovation to the next wash of sound to gently caress your malleus, incus and stirrup to pure ecstasy!
Will you please join us tomorrow?
2-4 open rehearsal, 5-6 show SFU Woodwards Atrium (London Drugs)
….here is a harmonious historical recollection of last year’s happening…
As I sit around here twiddling my thumbs still waiting to be over the whole concussion thing…I came across an interesting envelope in my desk. “Hols Costa Rica memories,” in my mother’s handwriting no less. Bless her dear heart! I wrote and played a lot while I was living up in that incredible location, on the Continental divide, Monteverde, C.R.
“I wasn’t sure if I should really mention anything…but a large ape has been coming to me out of the forest, almost nightly, and for some time now. What I like so much about him is not having to deal with the whole Spanish thing. What is Spanish anyway? you put an ‘ito’ or an ‘a’ or an ‘o,’ or sometimes a ‘dad’ at the end of English word, and that’s Spanish, pretty much. True there are occasional surprises, like the word “banano.” But think about it, of course a banana is male. Frank and I (he’s so wonderfully direct) often enjoy a kilo or two of bananos together, all in good fun. The locals here prefer them nice and ripe and even feed bananos to their horses.
Then there’s the pig farm down in the valley. I had to go down there to check it out. It’s actually more like a concentration camp. Barbed wire, large grey windowless buildings, dour looking men in gumboots and the cries of the damned, that’s what. I’m so glad I stopped eating bacon. I’ll occasionally get a good whiff of pig shit up here but I still tell myself it’s paradise.”