Hi everybody,
It's been a busy summer and fall season. I have been very fortunate to have been hired to play back-to-back productions at Stage West which has kept me busy playing nightly since the end of June. More importantly, the summer was spent preparing for the Baritone Madness Recording!! So aside from the theatre gig, it has been a summer and fall of shedding and writing in preparation for the recording session. With all that practice I feel great about my playing.
On September 28-30, Pat, Gareth and I (with our rhythm section) set up at OCL to record our first album as a group. I am extremely happy with the result!! I think we have a great selection of pieces with compositions from Gareth, Pat and myself along with a few standards that I arranged for the session. I have uploaded a few short clips of rough tracks (not the final mixed and mastered version) as a teaser. There is much more to be done, we have only started the mixing process and all the physical production "stuff" will be starting soon, but we're well ahead of schedule to release the album for Spring 2019.
For anyone looking to check out my next jazz show, I'll be teaming up with Andre Wickenheiser once again on November 23 to present the music of our influences. This time we'll be presenting the music of Horace Silver. Horace was a prolific writer, so we have a lot of great music to choose from. You'll have to stop by Lolita's Lounge to see exactly which tunes we'll select, but I'm sure that everyone will leave the club humming one of Horace's memorable pieces. Joining Andre and I on stage will be Jon Day (Piano), Jason Valleau (Bass) and Tyler Hornby (Drums).
As always, I'll be playing with the Prime Time Big Band for nearly all of the fall concerts at the Ironwood. Dave is working hard to program some great music and I've had fun with a few really nice solo selections with another one coming up this Saturday. Also, now that the Baritone Madness album is recorded, I will be finishing up two half completed big band works. If I'm quick, they might even be ready for one of the fall concerts.
For those that are interested, my summer and fall of music at Stage West started with "Red Rock Diner" and I'm currently playing "The World Goes Round". I'll also be in the pit for "Beautiful: The Carol King Musical" as it comes through town in a couple weeks as part of a Broadway Across Canada tour.
I hope to see you all at a gig soon. Please sign up for my mailing list to receive up to date information on upcoming gigs and teasers from the recording in advance of the CD release next spring.
All the best,
Keith