A fitting ode to the Man in Black

“Hello, I’m Johnny Cash.” Well, Jim Yorifido, actually, but the show will have the look and feel of the real thing when Yorfido and his wife Pam, channeling June Carter, take to the stage next weekend at the Commercial Tavern.
Entitled Johnny Cash: From Memphis to Folsom, the touring production covers a good swath of the life of an icon, known to generations as the Man in Black.

It’s a role Yorifido has been honing for about seven years, the latest part of a music career that spans more than four decades, since his teenage years growing up in Welland. While he’s always included some Johnny Cash songs in his repertoire –“Folsom Prison Blues” is a favourite – he really got into the swing of things when he joined The Sun Records Story, the official international touring show of the legendary Memphis-based record label that launched the career of Johnny Cash, Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis and Roy Orbison. Produced by Sam Phillips in the early 1950s, Sun Records was the home base for many of Cash’s best known hits, including “I Walk the Line,” “Folsom Prison Blues” and “Get Rhythm.”

After the run of that show, the couple decided to keep the act going, playing across the country.

“It gets a great reaction. We’re really lucky that way – we keep working,” he said this week from his home in Fort Erie.

Yorfido’s portrayal of Cash, the music icon who died in 2003, has won him plenty of accolades. In fact, it got him the role of the Man in Black in a film called Resurrection of a Guitar Hero, currently being shot in the Niagara Region. He also sings the title song.

From the makers of the award-winning Under Jakob’s Ladder, the film tells the story of up-and-coming guitarist Jimi Lazer who makes a deal with a witch to become a superstar. He buys an enchanted guitar that, when played, is supposed to bring him 30 years of fame. When he realizes the price, he tries to back out… only to find out there is no turning back.

It’s a brand-new experience for Yorfido, who’s enjoying a behind-the-scenes look at filmmaking. Shooting earlier this week and next, he should be wrapped up in advance of his jaunt up to Maryhill.

With Johnny Cash: From Memphis to Folsom, you can expect all of the hits –“All the classic Johnny songs and the duets with June Carter.”

Yorfido’s voice covers the same baritone range as the man himself. The look is there, too.

“The older I get, the more I look the part,” he laughs.

The set list will include “Ring of Fire,”  “Boy Named Sue,” “I Walk the Line” and the famous duet with June Carter “Jackson” amongst other classic songs. As well, Pam Yorfido will perform some country song favourites from Tammy Wynette, including the classic “Stand by Your Man.”

Also on tap will be some of Cash’s later recordings with producer Rick Rubin, particularly his cover of Nine Inch Nails’ “Hurt.” His covers of modern rock offerings exposed Johnny Cash to another generation of music lovers, a fact reflected in the age mix at the shows Yorifido plays.

“It’s a real mixed bag out there,” he said of the crowds, noting that’s different from some of the tribute shows he’s been involved with, where there’s definitely a much older audience.

The couple is looking forward to returning to the Commercial Tavern, praising the venue for keeping true to authentic country music and its performers.

Johnny Cash: From Memphis to Folsom  takes to the stage at the Commercial Tavern May 6 at 3 p.m. Tickets are $15, available at the venue, 1303 Maryhill Rd., or by calling 519-648-3644.

When the going gets tough, women get going

Anybody who’s anybody in Chinquapin, Louisiana goes to Truvy’s beauty parlour to get her hair done. On the day we first join that lively bunch, Shelby’s getting married and there are preparations to be made. We’ll follow their lives – focussing on what happens with Shelby – for the next three years, all without leaving the beauty salon that’s central to the story of Steel Magnolias, the Elmira Theatre Company production that opens next week.

Getting things rolling, we meet Truvy (played by Chris Grose) and her new assistant Annelle (Danielle Ball), who isn’t sure if she’s married or not, but won’t let that get in the way of “doing good hair.” Their clients are M’Lynn (Trish Starodub), a social worker who will do anything for her soon-to-be married daughter Shelby (Tracy Leighton); Clairee (Pam Webb), an eccentric millionaire; and Ouiser (Rita Huschka), a curmudgeon who says she’s just “been in a bad mood for 40 years.”
The action centers around Truvy’s salon and the women who regularly gather there. The drama begins on the morning of Shelby’s wedding to Jackson and covers events over the next three years, including Shelby’s decision to have a child despite having Type 1 diabetes and the complications that result from the decision.

With Steel Magnolias, we’re taken on a ride that’s about relationships – the ups and downs – and how six southern belles with backbones of steel help each other through it all, says the play’s director.
“When I look at this, it’s like we’re going to take people on a rollercoaster ride – you’re on an emotional high one minute, and then on a low the next,” said Cathy Judd, adding the story’s appeal lies in the characters. “It’s always about the relationships. My vision was to show the strength of these women in times that are difficult.”

Written in 1987 by Robert Harling, who was raised in Nachitoches, Louisiana, a town of about 17,000 that bears a strong resemblance to the fictional community of Chinquapin Parish, the story takes on an extra resonance in that it was inspired by his own real-life experiences. Steel Magnolias is based on the tragic events of Harling’s sister, Susan. Like the character Shelby, she died at an early age as a result of complications caused by diabetes following the birth of her only child. The play also honours Harling’s mother who, like the character M’Lynn, donated a kidney to her daughter in a transplant operation that ultimately failed.

Filled with fury at the time, he pumped out his first work in 10 days, hoping to provide his nephew, then two year of age, with a story that he would one day read to know more about his mother. In writing the play, he painted a portrait of the community of women that surrounded his mother and sister at the time.

Although based on a heartbreaking situation, the story features plenty of comedic moments. As Harling has been quoted to say, “my family and my community have always been characterized by a tremendous sense of humour, even in the darkest moments.”

That’s clearly in evidence, Judd notes, pointing to the well-written script.

“It’s a sad story, but it’s got a lot of humour in it,” she said. “This is going to take people on a ride. They’re going to be sad, but they will have fun.”
Walking out of the theatre, audiences will be feeling good about the time spent at Turvy’s.

In recognition of the story’s origins, ETC is partnering with the Canadian Diabetes Association to raise diabetes awareness. An education evening was held for the cast and crew by members of the CDA to provide guidance in the onstage portrayal of a diabetic episode. Representatives from the association will be present at each show with information on diabetes.

The Elmira Theatre Company production of Steel Magnolias runs Apr. 27-29, May 3-6, and May 10-12 at 76 Howard Ave. Show times are 8 p.m., except Sunday (2:30 p.m.). Tickets are $18, available at the Centre in the Square box office in Kitchener by calling 578-1570 or 1-800-265-8977, online at www.centre-square.com.

Celebrating Jazz Live From The Registry

Every musician that steps out on stage is looking for that performance, the one where all the players are so in sync with the vibe that the audience feels it, turning the show into an event. Nowhere is that more the case than with jazz, where getting into the groove is what it’s all about.

Having captured some of that magic during a 2010 concert at Kitchener’s Registry Theatre, saxophonist John Tank will be back at the venue Apr. 20 to celebrate the release of the album Jazz Live From The Registry.
As was the case two years ago, Tank will be joined by Bernie Senensky (piano), Jim Vivian (bass) and Ted Warren (drums). But don’t look for this to be a repeat of the show from the CD – “I kinda like to break it up,” said Tank on the phone from Manhattan, the place the K-W native has called home for more than 30 years.

In fact, he’s recently been incorporating parts of his entire repertoire – substantial given his decades-long love affair with the instrument – into his live shows. And, because this is jazz, spontaneity and variety are an essential part of the mix.
After some 50 years, Tank has no interest in getting into a rut. Songs long left unplayed are making an appearance. Others are constantly getting new approaches.

“I do have an idea about what we’re going to do,” he said of the Kitchener show, “I’ll be playing stuff from my first CD and through my last CD. I like to mix things up. And I want to keep the musicians interested, too.”
We can expect this to be jazz in the old-school style, in keeping perhaps with his experience recording with Charles Mingus. There’s lots of John Coltrane and Dexter Gordon to be heard in his playing.

That New York sound is a long way from those made by a five-year-old taking lessons on the Hawaiian guitar. He stuck that out for about a year, but it wasn’t until his teens that he came back to music lessons. He considered the guitar but was introduced to the saxophone through a friend, what would prove to be the defining moment in his musical career.

The first time he heard a saxophone played live, he was hooked.

“After I heard the saxophone, it was story over. I saw the saxophone, and that was it,” he laughed.

His father had taken him to see a big band perform at the Kitchener Aud – all that brass was so much to take in. Later he heard a sax solo and knew he’d found his musical calling.
“I thought to myself, ‘wow, that has got to be the greatest sound.’”

Starting on a $3-a-week rented saxophone, along the way he encountered local high school music teacher Michael Bergauer, the legendary mentor for many local musicians. Bergauer had an eye for real talent and knew from early on that Tank was special, having him concentrate on the tenor sax. With Bergauer’s support, he began to play in local dance bands. It did not take long for Tank to realize that he wanted to make his life in music.

Beginning in 1961, he sought out the great Canadian saxophone player and teacher Paul Brodie, himself a student of Marcel Mule, director of the Paris Conservatoire and considered the world’s greatest classical saxophonist.

Following two years of intensive study with Brodie, Tank attended Boston’s prestigious Berklee School of Music. He returned to Canada and played the Toronto scene in the early ’70s before settling in the heart of the jazz world, New York City, and has lived in Manhattan ever since.

While jazz’s fortunes have ebbed since he first started, New York still remains the center of the jazz world. The golden age of jazz has gone, but there’s still a determined group of musicians and devoted fanbase, despite whatever might be getting play on pap, erm, pop radio.

“The worse music gets, the more people can appreciate something with substance,” said Tank of jazz’s continued influence.
For him, there’s no option but to pick up the sax and make music.

“If I don’t play, I feel like something is missing in my life.”

He’ll certainly be playing for all to hear Apr. 20 when the John Tank Quartet takes to the stage at 8 p.m. at the Registry Theatre, 122 Frederick St., Kitchener. Tickets are $25, available at the Centre in the Square box office by calling 578-1570 or toll free 1-800-265-8977 or online at www.centre-square.com.

Paying tribute to the fiddle masters

That Scott Woods will be  playing a fundraising concert at a church in St. Jacobs is the result of  a happenstance about eight years ago. That he’ll be playing the fiddle is something that happened naturally many years earlier. That he’ll be paying tribute to some of the legends of the instrument, well, that just comes with the territory. Woods, whose band performs Apr. 14 at Calvary United Church, came to music at an early age: his dad, Merv, had his own band starting back in 1944. His mom, Carolyn, joined the Merv Woods Orchestra in 1956 as a piano player, eventually becoming Mrs. Woods in 1960. The couple had four children – Elizabeth, Kendra, Bruce and Scott – all of whom studied classical violin and piano and performing with the band by the time they were eight years old.

Suffice it to say Scott Woods was immersed in music. So much so, in fact, that as a kid he used to cue up albums or cassettes of fiddle music when he went to bed, , letting the music sink in as he drifted off to sleep.

“I think I picked it up subliminally. I didn’t always know the name of the song – you’re not really taking in the details at that point – but I certainly learned a lot,” he said in a telephone interview this week from his Fergus home, having just arrived back from yet another tour.

Having been inspired by the likes of Don Messer, Al Cherny, King Ganam, Graham Townsend and Ward Allen, putting together his newest show – Fiddle Legends – seemed like a natural fit.

“These are the guys who inspired me. These are the real pioneers in fiddling.”

Paying tribute to Messer, a much-loved Canadian icon, is nothing new to Woods. Starting in 1998, he spent seven years playing the part of  Messer in Memories of Don Messer’s Jubilee, a tribute show that toured the country from coast to coast.

It was near the end of that stint, while continuing to play with the family band that now contains the third generation of Woods, that he became involved in concerts organized specifically as fundraisers for churches, charities and community groups. Following the death of his father in late 2003, Woods’ mother said she might spend more time doing more mission trips.

“I remember talking about that, and I said, ‘if it was me, I’d probably do a show somewhere instead to help them raise money.’” From that suggestion came 12 or 15 fundraising shows in 2004 as something of an experiment.

“It kind of caught on. The word spread,” Woods recalled.

In 2005, the Scott Woods Band did 85 such shows. In 2006, 160 concerts. Today, they try to keep that to about 150 shows a year, 99 per cent of which are fundraisers.

It’s been a great fit for Woods, who’s a two-time winner of the Canadian Open Fiddle Contest, two-time winner of the Canadian Grand Masters Fiddling Championships, and Canadian Fiddle Entertainer of the Year. As well, he’s won competitions and performed throughout Canada, the United States and Europe.

Next weekend’s show at Calvary United will be a real family affair, with Woods joined by his mother Carolyn (piano), sister Kendra (fiddle, clarinet, saxophone, accordion, vocals), nephew Ben (drums, fiddle, guitar, bass, mandolin) and 17-year-old Kyle Waymouth, who, along with bass, drums and fiddle, will be leading a very physical step-dancing performance.

“There’s going to be a lot of energy. It’s just a fun, family show,” said Woods.

The Scott Woods Band take to the stage at Calvary United Church Apr. 14 at 7 p.m. Tickets are $20 ($10 for children), available from the church office (10 a.m. to 2 p.m., Tuesday-Friday) at 48 Hawkesville Rd. Call 519-885-5012 or 519-669-5912 or visit www.calvaryunited.com for more information.

Easter musical looks at the choices we make

To mark Easter weekend, Woodside Bible Fellowship in Elmira is presenting the musical The Choice. Written by Robert and Cindy Sterling, the musical features the drama and spectacle of ancient Rome during the rule of Tiberius Caesar and the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.  The musical is an Easter story set in a seaside city where a young Roman centurion, Marcus (played by Dustin Martin), falls in love with a beautiful Jewish girl, Hannah (Elycia Martin), who is a follower of Jesus. Over the course of the production, Marcus becomes fatefully intertwined in the events leading to the execution of Jesus and must weigh the words and example of Jesus against the wealth and power of the world – in that balance hangs a choice he must make. “It’s a story of the forbidden love and the cultural difficulties of the two main characters that takes place during the biblical time of Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection,” said Darlene Frede, one of the three directors of the musical.

Frede, along with directors Brenda Barriage and Darrell Martin, have built a chorus and cast of more than 40 people to produce an “emotionally strong musical.”

“]The trio has worked together on numerous productions over the years, with Martin focusing on the music direction and Frede and Barriage concentrating on the drama and stage directing.

“This is the first time we have worked together in 10 years but we have found our old groove and everything is coming out just great,” said Frede. “It was the perfect time to set up this production and this time of year is a great time for people to come out a see a production especially about the Easter story.”

This is the second time the church has tackled this musical, the first production having taken place 12 years ago.

“We are re-doing the musical but we have a new vision for it and it is a bit different than the last time we produced it,” said Frede.

The troupe has been rehearsing since January leading to the opening night.

The Choice will run over three nights, Apr. 6 through Apr. 8, with doors opening at 7 p.m. and the curtain rising at 7:30 p.m. The production is 70 minutes long and admission is free.

“I feel this is an important story for people to see,” said Frede. “We do find that Easter is a time when people go to church, that and Christmas, so we feel that Easter is a good time to present something as it bring people out.”

A play with plenty to say

EDSS drama teacher DJ Carroll has something different up his sleeve for this year’s Sears Drama Festival to be held at Kitchener-Waterloo Collegiate and Vocational School (KCI) next week.
Over the years the school has won a slew of awards in the directing, acting, stage management and music. This year Carroll hopes that his student’s production of Tuna Fish Eulogy will bring home some new hardware for the trophy case.

The play was written by Carroll’s friend Lindsay Price and won the 1996 National Playwriting Award for best one-act play. It offers mystery and misery in a challenging theatrical package. It is a very complicated play, said Carroll.
Traditional plays are written with one line after another with easy to follow dialogue. Tuna Fish Eulogy is something different. It is what’s called a ladder play. That means the text is written in columns with each character in the play getting his or her own column resulting in characters speaking in unison. The play is known as a choral play taking advantage of the ensemble of characters. All the characters in the play never leave the stage.
“It takes a lot of work to perfect but the result is musical,” said Carroll. “I have wanted to do this play for a few years now and I just thought I had a great group of kids that would be able to handle it.”

The play examines the tragedy of a young boy’s death in the 1950s. As the story unfolds, the mysteries start to pile up. Was it a suicide? Could it have been prevented? Who is responsible? The boy’s mother? The boy’s babysitter?
“With all the characters speaking at the same time it can be confusing at first but it is designed so that the audience still gets the whole story and in some ways it sounds like real life when people are all talking at the same time,” said Carroll.

It took the students quite a few reads before they understood the premise of the play. With no main characters the play is a true ensemble work and the audience is left trying to figure out the mystery when the final curtain falls.
“This show has so much depth to it, it is all about the character work and looking around the stage and seeing those little moments that the supporting actors have together,” said Candace Kuepfer, who plays Mrs. Cherry, the babysitter’s mother.

“I had a lot of fun just working on all the little character moments where a character looks to the left and you are left wondering what is she thinking – that is the exciting part of this show for me.”
The stage is quite minimal for the production with Carroll having everything painted black to emphasize the characters on stage.

“The set is nothing, it is not important. The actors, the story that is what is important and we are creating levels for the audience,” he explained.

The production will have a one-night showing at the EDSS gymnasium on tomorrow (Sunday) starting at 7:30 p.m., with tickets available at the school for $5. The play will then be a part of a three one-act show at the Sears Drama Festival at KCI on Mar. 29 starting at 7 p.m.

Canadian country music legend

After more than four decades in the music business, Jimmy Phair is giving free rein to his inner songwriter, as can be seen on his latest album, Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Blue.
The new disc, which gets its official launch next month at Maryhill’s Commercial Tavern, contains six tracks penned by the septuagenarian country legend. It’s the first spate of songwriting he’s done in more than 20 years; some of the songs have been percolating for ages, others partially completed and filed away in his desk drawer. In working on a new album, pushed for and produced by Kitchener dobro guitar player Bob Tremblay, Phair went to the writing well in earnest.

“I discovered that, way down deep inside, Jimmy Phair was a songwriter,” he laughs over the phone from his home in Sarnia.

Faced with a new album, a song like “Back Sliding Christian,” which he started writing six years ago then filed away in a drawer, suddenly fell into place: he got out of bed at 3 a.m. one morning and finished it in 20 minutes.
“Some songs just come to you. Others you have to to fight and struggle with,” he explained.

Other originals include “Country Music Makes More Sense,” “Cold Nights In Nashville” and “When Roy Acuff Was The King.”

The other tunes on the 17-track disc are ones he loves singing – “I have to like a song before I’ll record it.”

That’s always been his way, even when he started out decades ago with Jewel Records in Cincinnati and, later, on Jimmie Skinner’s Nashville label. It was common to do covers and to record other writers’ music, but Phair had to connect with the song before he’d record it.

This time out, there’s the likes of “Everybody’s Going On The Road,” which he originally heard on a Hoyt Axton record, and “Old Five And Dimers” by Billy Shaver – “it’s my style of song.”
“I wanted to find songs that Jimmy Phair would sing.”

Prompted by Tremblay, Phair began recording Something Old, Something New in January 2011, taking a year to complete the project while making weekly trips to the Kitchener recording studio. Along with Phair on vocals and flat top guitar and Tremblay on dobro, the album features names familiar to local country fans: Paul Weber on bass, Grant Haywood on drums, Dan Howlett on fiddle and Doug Dietrich on steel guitar.
“I own so much gratitude to not only the great musicians I recorded with, but to Bob Tremblay for putting the album all together. He put his heart and soul into it,” said Phair, noting much of the time was spent getting the vocal parts just right.

“As a vocalist, I’ve very critical of myself.”

With the album done, he’ll be back on the road touring again soon. Last year, there was 110 dates from spring through fall, and his calendar is already starting to fill. That includes a stop in Maryhill on Apr. 22 for the CD launch, with the whole band out to perform.

Phair, of course, is no stranger to live shows, even if he still gets nervous before each performance. His first paying gig came at the age of 14 in Sarnia, for which he was paid $1.
“I thought to myself ‘I’ve hit the big time,” he laughed.

Playing around town eventually landed him a radio show on CHOK, 15 minutes a week, which was a key way to get people out to his live shows. That, in turn, landed him a TV show on the CBC station in Windsor, which ran for five years. The TV show was instrumental in Phair’s decade-long association with the Wheeling Jamboree, the most listened to country music radio variety show after the Grand Ole Opry.
At 71, he’s got no interest in slowing down – music is not something you have to retire from.

“I love to entertain, and I’m not going to stop until people tell me to stop,” chuckled Phair.

And with the songwriting bug in full force, he’s already looking forward to starting work on another album; despite not being a huge fan of the recording process, the music will out.
The CD release party for Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Blue takes place Apr.22 at the Commercial Tavern in Maryhill, 1303 Maryhill Rd. Call 519-648-3644.

Where the music’s concerned, it’s all Good

In recent years, the legendary Good Brothers have been getting back to their  roots – country, bluegrass and folk. Returning to perform in this neck of the woods for the first time in the better part of a decade, the group is a natural fit for Maryhill’s Commercial Tavern, which works hard to promote traditional music. The show set for Sunday (Mar. 18) marks their first appearance at the historic venue, the latest stop for a group that’s been on the go for more than 40 years.

Things got rolling in the’60s, with Richmond Hill-born twins Bruce and Brian Good getting caught up in the music scene. Meeting up with James Ackroyd, they became James & the Good Brothers, getting their big break in 1970 by playing their first gig at Maple Leaf Gardens as an opening act for Grand Funk Railroad. An album, which was released on Columbia and aided by members of the Grateful Dead, catapulted the group into the Canadian country music spotlight.

Then came the Festival Express tour that had them touring with Janis Joplin, the Band, Ten Years After, and the Grateful Dead. They also performed with Gordon Lightfoot and John Hammond.
By 1973, Akroyd had opted to remain in the States, while the Bruce and Brian Good returned home, where they enlisted younger brother Larry to become the Good Brothers. In 1976, they released their self-titled debut album, which was a mix of their traditional roots, folk, and country background with a range of rock blended in. The album earned them a Juno Award for Best Country Group, an award they received each year from 1976 to 1983. They also received a gold record for sales of their live album in 1981.

Things are a little less hectic these days, but the brothers have continued to write songs, make records and tour tirelessly. And they’re still having a blast doing it.
“We got into the business because we were having fun playing music, and we’re still having fun,” Bruce Good said this week in a phone interview from his Toronto-area home. “We’ve been really lucky that we’ve been able to follow this dream.”

Sticking with that dream has won the Good Brothers a string of accolades over the years. More recently they were honoured by being the 2004 inductees into the Canadian Country Music Hall of Fame as well as two nominations for Country Group and Roots Artist of the year at the Canadian Country Music Awards

There’s less of a rock tinge to the new albums, with a renewed focus on a traditional sound. That will be in evidence at Sunday’s show, where the brothers will be joined by fiddler Dan Howlett, who’s no stranger to country music fans and the Commercial Tavern in particular. His playing will go along with Bruce Good’s autoharp, Brian’s guitar and Larry’s banjo.

“It’s going to be a fun show. We’re really looking forward to it,” said Good, noting the concert will offer up a mix of traditional and classic stuff – fans can certainly count on staples like “Fox on the Run.”
Typically touring Europe at this time of year – as they’ve done for the past 18 years – the Good Brothers are performing closer to home just now. They’ll be heading overseas in the fall instead, playing before receptive audiences in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Holland, where they’ve got a particularly strong following.

It’s the audiences that keep the brothers out on the road – and they have no plans to slow down. “Even at our age, we’re doing something that we can continue to do – something that we love – for as long as people come out to listen. “It’s too late to turn back now,” he laughed.

The Good Brothers perform at the Commercial Tavern Mar. 18 at 3 p.m. Tickets are $20, available at the venue, 1303 Maryhill Rd., or by calling 519-648-3644.

Jazz meets the vibrancy of the Caribbean

It might be St. Patrick’s Day, but the vibe will be decidedly Cuban when Jane Bunnett & Spirits of Havana take to the stage at the Registry Theatre. The show will feature a rare performance with the area’s own Penderecki String Quartet, with whom the Toronto-based soprano saxophonist, flutist, composer and bandleader recorded 2004’s Red Dragonfly. In fact, they’ve not been on stage together since a few promotional appearances for that CD.
Bunnett expects next weekend’s concert to draw heavily on the album, a mix of “folk-type songs” from around the world, with an emphasis on Cuba.

Also featured will be tracks from her recent Cuban Rhapsody,  recorded with Cuban piano master Hilario Durán, who’ll also be on stage next Saturday. That’s particularly fitting given that Bunnett is currently celebrating 30 years of making Cuban-influenced jazz. Bunnett, in fact, just returned this week from her latest trip to the Caribbean island, having stayed in the same hotel she and her husband occupied on their first visit there in 1982. It was a vacation that changed her musical destiny.

Upon arriving in Santiago, she discovered that music was everywhere in Cuba. The hotel she stayed at – then a new enterprise in a still-developing part of the country – had an 18-piece band playing in the lounge, with the musicians three times more numerous than the number of guests – six or seven – staying there.

“It was like being hit by a lightning bolt – the music was so overwhelming,” she said of the experience. “Musicians are such an important part of the culture that it was a hugely welcoming place to be.”
Having fallen in love with the music, she set about incorporating it into the jazz that she’d already started playing. Her love of jazz dated back to the mid-1970s when, on a trip to San Francisco, she saw Charles Mingus’s band. Returning home, she was determined to play jazz. A decade later, Bunnett was making inroads with the Toronto jazz scene.

Today, the accomplished reed player is a multiple Juno Award winner and Grammy Award nominee, holder of an honourary doctorate from Queen’s University, and recipient of the Order of Canada.
Bunnett has combined elements of Cuban roots music with traditional contemporary jazz in recordings such as Radio Guantanamo, Cuban Odyssey, Alma de Santiago, Ritmo + Soul, Chamalongo, Havana Flute Summit, Jane Bunnett and The Cuban Piano Masters. Her first recording in Cuba was the Juno Award-winning Spirits of Havana.

Since that first fateful visit to Cuba, she’s returned many times, both to make music and to support young musicians through the Spirit of Music Foundation, which provides instruments for kids studying in the country’s 25 music conservatories. “Music is so important to the people, but you should see some of the instruments these kids are using – it’s a miracle they get the sounds out of them that they do,” she said, noting that the young musicians are so well versed and spend so much time practicing that they’re practically professionals by the time they reach the age of 15. That, in turn, leads to the musical vibrancy that continues to draw her back to the country two or three times a year.

The influence Cuba has had on her acclaimed music will be on full display next Saturday night. Jane Bunnett & the Spirits of Havana with The Penderecki String Quartet take to the stage Mar. 17 at 8 p.m. at the Registry Theatre, 122 Frederick St., Kitchener. Tickets are $35, available at the Centre in the Square box office by calling 578-1570 or toll free 1-800-265-8977 or online at www.centre-square.com.

Running hot and cool

Miles. Chet. Louis. The names conjure up the sweet, hip sounds that follow the placing of lips against trumpet. Cooler than cool. For Larry Larson, they’re icons of the jazz he loves to listen to and perform. On Mar. 9, he and his band – Larry’s Jazz Guys – will fill the Registry Theatre with their music in a performance dubbed Hot & Cool: The Trumpets of Jazz. The show is aptly named, as it was the coolness factor that drew Larson to the trumpet in the first place. Not that of Miles Davis, Chet Baker or Louis Armstrong, however, but the slightly older cool kid that lived in the Chicago neighbourhood he moved to in the fifth grade.

“He was really cool. He played the trumpet, so I wanted to play the trumpet,” he laughed.  Supported by an encouraging music teacher, Larson stuck with it. “I knew at a pretty early age this was what I wanted to do.”
As a grade school student, however, he really didn’t think about the details of making a living as a jazz musician. He simply kept on playing, eventually studying music at Chicago’s DePaul University. It was there that his jazzy life took a sudden change: exposed for the first time to orchestral music, he became enthralled, shifting into classical music.

After graduation, his search for orchestral work brought him to Canada, first at Orchestra London, followed by a stint with the Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra and then with K-W Symphony, where he’s been the principal trumpeter since 1993.

Over the years, he’s worked with a variety of other orchestras, including performances with the backing orchestras for Diana Krall, Brian Wilson, Jann Arden, Holly Cole, Anne Murray, Dennis DeYoung, Roger Hodgson, and Yes.
In addition to performances of the classical repertoire, Larson has developed nine critically-acclaimed Pops programmes for orchestra with conductor/trombonist David Martin. He is in frequent demand by Toronto recording studios for his work on motion picture soundtracks and commercial jingles.

Larson is happy to be busy, knowing that versatility is what it takes to maintain a professional musical career. It beats the alternative. Dormant, the jazz bug never left him. After an absence of 20 years, he got back into jazz about a decade ago, renewing his love affair for the genre. Out of that sprang Larry’s Jazz Guys, with Larson joined by David Martin (trombone, tuba, vocals), Paul Shilton (piano), Kevin Muir (bass) and David Campion (drums).
Happy to have his fingers in many pies, Larson savours the jazz performances, which are in many ways the exact opposite of his day job with the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony. Where classical music demands strict adherence to a composer’s notes and arrangements, jazz is all about improvisation. Playing jazz adds variety to his life.

“No piece has to be the same every time –  and it shouldn’t,” he said in an interview this week. “Jazz is a side adventure to what I do week in and week out here at the symphony.” Job, of course, is a very subjective term – Larson says none if it really feels like toil.

“I don’t consider it work very often. It’s an absolute kick to do my job, and I enjoy it.

“If I’m not enjoying it, what’s the point?”

Next week’s show will be long on enjoyment, drawing on his trumpeting heroes, including Baker, Armstrong and Davis, as well as New York’s Tom Harrell, who, while not a household name, has been a major influence on many players.

“It will be a mixed bag of tunes that I know the audience will be familiar with, along with some other less-familiar stuff for them to appreciate,” he said, adding he’ll be putting his own take on some of the standards.
That, after all, is what jazz is all about – putting the moment into the music.

Hot & Cool: The Trumpets of Jazz is set for Mar. 9 at 8 p.m. at the Registry Theatre, 122 Frederick St., Kitchener. Tickets are $22, available at the Centre in the Square box office by calling 578-1570 or toll free 1-800-265-8977 or online at www.centre-square.com.