Category Archives: #Vancouver Music #Vancouver Events

Looking forward to Frankies and the Blue Frog next year!🦋🐣🦄🐋⭐️🎹🎷🕌⛲️ ah…yes…

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I know I know it’s a ways off and all but we can write new music and practice like mad and perhaps dream of an OPERA featuring a Sasquatch with a lisp in there somewhere as well…and why not?! Frankies will be with Holly Burke & The Naturalz on Sunday January 18th, 8 pm. tickets here: http://www.frankiesjazz.com and Valentine’s Day at the Blue Frog will be with Don Stewart and Friends. It’ll be a total blast with lots of room for solos, yes? fun fun fun, and what good company. In other news my poem-song “Love is a Traveller” will be published in the upcoming winter edition of Persimmon Magazine. Yea…it feels good to be fruitful and flute-full, despite life’s challenges. My heart and my flute Seraphina are happy. She’s always been my passport to good things. Let’s see what happens next!

The Naturalz

At this interesting and evolving time here in Canada, I am indeed grateful for so much, the band! Kristian Alexandrov on piano, Randall Stoll, drums, Brent Gubbels on bass, Nick Apivor on vibes (that’s the full festival band) and most of all my beloved Bill Runge on saxophone. I couldn’t imagine having more compassionate and talented players to create with, or a more wonderful audience. Our colourful friends and family, my grand-cat Ishi who was lost AND found today (!) for having hands and a brain, any kind of brain, and a body that is able to dance and explore and do things I like to do. It’s so wonderful to be in touch with you and share our creativity with you!

Ishi the wise

Say…it’s not too late for a fall poem is it? there’s still some sumac out there – like this.

Flames of Sumac

The fall brushed air swirls around my face and ruffles my hair

I see runes written in the moss that grows

along the stone wall by the lagoon

There are dandelions still standing

stretching as long as they can

toward the falling green and golden light

flames of sumac

be inside it

and the wind lifts these pages ))) )))) )))))

Wishing all of you fine folks a very good festive season, and good cheer in 2026 and beyond! 🎄🌹🦒🐰🌈🌟🏆🎹🎷🌎 See you at Frankies January 18th🌟💥 and the Blue Frog on Valentines February 14 ❤️❤️

hb and the Naturalz ~ the end continues...ok I borrowed that from Spinal Tap 2 🤣 – highly recommended!

*merch is available here: please do! https://hollyburkeandbillrunge.bandcamp.com/album/dreamride

https://hollyburkeandbillrunge.bandcamp.com/album/nature-girl

‘The Flute Player’ by Angela Brown

Celebrating Spring: A Poetry Showcase at VPL

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Hi Dear Readers,

Spring is sprung- da grass is riz

I wunda where da boidies iz?


I’ll try to do better than that at my poetic maiden voyage April 1. Seriously though. Spring is going beserk without much coaxing from the weather at all. Yet there is…more light. Let’s move towards it!


I’ll be reading selections from the collection I’m working towards entitled “Travelogue.” Come on by! there will be four readers. The Montalbano Room, 8th floor. 6:30-8pm. I would leuuuv to see you there!

May you have a Spring in your step, dear reader.

The Poetess of Lost Lagoon*

*(which is not lost – it’s right there on the map!)

(Artist: Simone Viegas, Portugal )


Click here for the full event details!

Reunion Concert: Experience the Naturals Live Friday January 3

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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 outpouring of 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!





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Come on a Dream Ride Sunday September 4

				

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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





Featuring: 





      Linda Lee Thomas – piano





             Pablo Romero – vocals





                    Bill Runge – soprano saxophone and clarinet





                              Holly Burke – flute





Here’s a video taste of what you’re in for…





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

			

	
	



			
				


	

		
‘Two Eagles’ takes flight January 8 @ Frankie’s Jazz Club

				

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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. 





Listen to an excerpt of “Two Eagles”!





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 ))))) 





Your buddies, 





Holly and Bill











			

	
	



			
				


	

		
What a Difference a Note Makes (24 little half tones )

				

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Greetings Fine Folks!


Shirley Granger Album Cover


We used to do that tune, “What a Difference a Day Made” as a nice bright samba cookin’ along at about 120 bpm. I also sang it in the present tense, using “makes” rather than “made” it seemed more vivid that way somehow. Shirley Granger was the first performer I worked with who did the tune that way and it just stuck. Shirley’s band performed all over Vancouver in the 70’s along with Clive Guard and Gary O’Bray.  We played places like the International Plaza, the Cave, and all over Gastown. Shirley had a larger than life pirate-like steel-hulled sailboat with her husband Alex called the Black Eyes, famous for its wild parties. Many a fond memory of Shirley, our gigs together and all the fun in between.


Hurtling from the disco era into the present, Bill and I have been busy creating our latest labour of love. It’s a collection of Twenty Interesting Pieces for the Contemporary Pianist with lots of beauty and character and treasures for the ear. For example, we had just finished one of our new pieces and suddenly found ourselves singing and dancing ‘What a difference a note makes – twenty four little half tones…’all over the living room. Stay tuned for more on these tunes!


SPRING!Spring starts making her entrance long before the calendar says it’s official and proper to be Spring, eh? It’s undeniable, unstoppable, and the most welcome thing in the world. A signal that maybe the cosmos does care about us, after all. Climate change notwithstanding, is it wrong to enjoy some early warmth in February and March?


 

			

	
	



			
				


	

		
Bill Runge’s hot new Quintet steps out!

				

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I wanna tell the world how wonderful it is to have such a creative and accomplished partner! These musical flowerings are nourishing for all of us. Like my swirly leafed begonia plant…it’s been in bloom for weeks now! But plant music is tremendously quiet <PPPPP>


Bill’s new Quintet is exciting! dynamic! filled with verve! His writing is peerless and he’s chosen his musical companions well.  Come and find out tonight!


44199732_1221037598051594_3677340682323755008_o


Featuring a bucket list of favourite tunes from Weather Report, Steps Ahead, Don Grolnick plus some of Bill’s best original pieces from his recordings. Bernie Arai – drums, Nick Apivor – vibes/perc, Miles Hill – bass & Kristian Alexandrov – piano. Reservations recommended.


Aaaand at Frankie’s too this Saturday:


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Are you the type of person that scrolls all the way to the bottom? Well here’s your reward! A sneak preview of this hot new band!



			

	
	



			
				


	

		
Horns at the Atrium – July 22 – 5pm

				

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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…




 


 


HRO-Atrium-Voices-Poster-2018-Digital

			

	
	



			
				


	

		
Come to Spacious Music at the Atrium September 24!

				

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Oh yessss…if you couldn’t make it to the June 25 Concert ~ now’s your chance…incredible new music from John Korsrud, Hugh Fraser, Bill Runge and moi! It’s a free concert in a public space…fabulous musicians…super music in the great spaciousness…


 


See you there!


 


Here’s a sneak peek at my co-write with Bill Runge, “Lagoon”, which will have its second performance on September 24.



			

	
	



			
				


	

		
Progress Report and Invitation 😀

				

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Dear Friends,


Seraphina (my flute) and I have been noticeably quieter this last year and a half as I continue to recover from my little accident. (I fell off my mother’s bed while clipping her toenails and went backwards into a chest of drawers! strange but true!) Although I’m not back to performing yet, I have been enjoying writing at the piano, very much. Bill asked me to collaborate with him on a piece for the jazz festival. It’s called “Lagoon,” and I’d love to share this new piece with you. I’ll be there in the back row probably, with my ear plugs and shades…but feeling very happy! Eventually we’ll get back to the Naturals recording we were working on. Can’t say exactly when. I certainly am learning a lot about the brain though, neuroplasticity and all that. Brains are cool 🙂


Hope to see you on next Sunday, June 25 at the Atrium at the Woodwards Building! Performance is at 5pm!


Be Well,

Holly