The Present Tense

The obligatory beginning: “Wow, its been a while since I’ve posted anything!” Now that that’s out of the way…. It seems that I last posted back in 2009, so a lot has happened since I’ve been away from blog-land, and 2011 continues to be a year of many and varied changes. In the immediate sense, I’m [...]

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Cycles

Its funny how so many things flow in cycles. Up, down; busy, not so busy. This summer was largely what you’d call the “ not-so-busy” part of the cycle.  Things were pretty quiet musically, with the time split between goofing off and logging hours in the practice room (always a good thing), learning new tunes and listening a [...]

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Dulcimerhead & Spiritfest – Newmarket, ON

A few months ago I met this really cool artist & mountain dulcimer player, David Rankine, at the Owen Sound Celtic Festival. We were sitting next to each other in a “Tunesmithing” workshop where, you guessed it, we shared our tunes and talked about how we write them. We both liked each others stuff and [...]

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Personal Insight: “The Concept” (a la Harold Mabern)

(…) My time in Philadelphia also saw interests in other areas developing, areas that at first seemed far removed from the music I was pursuing, but which later came to be intrinsically connected with my approach to it. Studies in spirituality, religion and mythology, psychology, aesthetics, the creative process, sociology / anthropology…all had a hand [...]

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Art & Living

“The real essence of art turned out to be not something high up and far off. It was right inside my ordinary daily self….If a musician wants to become a fine artist, [s/he] must first become a finer person….A work of art is the expression of a [person's] whole personality, sensibility and ability.” – Shinichi [...]

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A Poetic Perspective From Grey Larsen

I recently picked up a copy of Grey Larsen’s omnibus on the Irish Flute, The Essential Guide to the Irish Flute & Tin Whistle and came across the following idea in his work: The flute is ultimately a tool of transformation. The flute makes possible a unique musical voice and language, one that is beyond [...]

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Miles Davis Remembered

I discovered Mark Isham’s Miles Remembered: The Silent Way Project recording today…listening to the opening track, “In a Silent Way – Milestones.” I can’t get over how strongly Isham recalls Miles’ playing and spirit on this track. For the first time since his death in the late 80′s, I again feel like I’m missing Miles; his [...]

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