News, December 2006
This month has been a bit of a logistical roller coaster ride. First of all, Soul Review Board ended up playing only one gig at the Metropolitain, primarily because the restaurant can be, and subsequently was, booked for private parties on Friday nights. Our leader, Horace Roxborough, felt that the closer we got to Christmas, the more likely it would be that the restaurant would be booked on Fridays. However, the Metropolitain does want us back--I imagine we'll start up with them again next month once the Christmas season is over. We do, however, have a booking at the Rainbow Bistro for January 26. It'll be an anniversary gig of sorts--the band played its first gig at the Rainbow on January 26, 2005, three months before I got involved with them.
Secondly, Stone Soul Picnic has yet to begin its string of Thursday night gigs at Le Cabaret, a bar in Gatineau formerly known as Club Kiwi. One of the major logistical hurdles we keep facing in that band is working around the musicians' various schedules. There, too, it appears that the closer we get to Christmas, the more difficult this problem may be to resolve until the new year. Our leader in that band, Vijay Agard, has hinted we might also be playing at the casino again, but no firm dates have been set in stone.
Third, Hot Ice hasn't done any rehearsing since our November 18 gig at the Good Companions Centre. We first got together on November 26, but then only to discuss the aftermath and financial ramifications of the gig. We had to cancel the December 3 rehearsal because our drummer had a family gathering he felt he couldn't miss, and we decided to scrub the December 10 rehearsal because he would be leaving for the Caribbean for a couple of weeks a few days afterward and it didn't seem feasible to get together for just one practice just before our Christmas break. We'll start again in the new year.
And fourth, my Christmas mass schedule has been in a state of flux lately, but it seems to have settled down. Father Richard changed the Christmas Eve mass times at St. Augustine's from 5:30 and 8 PM and midnight to 5, 7 and 9 PM. Normally I would do the music at the middle mass, but Father Richard likes to have choirs on Christmas Eve, and he's assigning the 7 PM mass to a youth choir that has been doing a Sunday evening mass at St. Augustine's for several months now. That finally gave me the freedom in my schedule to play the 8 PM mass at St. Elizabeth's, which the choir I work with there has wanted me to do for four years--but then at first I learned that the choir wouldn't be doing a Christmas Eve mass because the pastor there wanted to assign the two slots to the music ministries at the other two masses. Then we got a possible reprieve to do the 5 PM mass, only to get a last-minute cancellation. However, all is not lost--I later got a call from St. George's to do their 5 PM mass. Naturally, I've had to change my web sites to reflect the changes every time they occurred--otherwise, I'd be all confused as to my schedule.
Nor has my Christmas prep been exactly stress-free. I placed an order for two tuques and a sweater from the merchandising department at Grönland Records in the UK (the label Kira records for), but when they told me they didn't have any more sweaters in extra large, I asked if I could get a couple of T-shirts instead. Unfortunately, the company is running out of stock because they recently changed their merchandise design, so they refunded my money less the cost of the tuques--the last ones they have left. The bottom line is that I've had to stay home for the most part--I want to be home when the package arrives. But in a way, that's okay, because to help keep my Christmas budget down I've been making teddy bears as gifts--it usually takes me about a day to a day and a half to make each one, and I need to stay home for that. I wanted to make five, but I had to stop at three because the last craft store chain in town that sells the 30- and 45mm bear joints I need appears to be going under--I might have to start ordering the joints from a company in Kitchener, Ontario. But with the refund on the sweater now in, I have a bit of financial flexibility. (Update: One of the tuques finally arrived on December 22, which means my nephew won't be disappointed. And I didn't have to pay taxes or duty either!)
With all these changes in my schedule and gigs that never eventuated, I've decided to begin working toward building my solo career as I want to see it. This, however, is going to involve a lot of preparatory work. As I've mentioned on my GoProMusic and MySpace sites, my goal as a solo musician is to promote a greater North American awareness of European, and particularly German, pop music. However, there aren't a lot of MIDI files of that material available, and of the few that are, none are of professional quality--and anyway many of the German artists I listen to are altos and mezzosopranos, whereas I'm a tenor, and so I'd have to rearrange the material in a key better suited to my voice. With fifty tunes to do, that's going to be a lot of work. To that end, I've started with Kira's material, beginning with "Rettungsboot" ("Lifeboat"), a song with reggae overtones that I want to try to get Hot Ice to do.
So the bottom line is: I'm swamped, but I'm hanging in there.
Secondly, Stone Soul Picnic has yet to begin its string of Thursday night gigs at Le Cabaret, a bar in Gatineau formerly known as Club Kiwi. One of the major logistical hurdles we keep facing in that band is working around the musicians' various schedules. There, too, it appears that the closer we get to Christmas, the more difficult this problem may be to resolve until the new year. Our leader in that band, Vijay Agard, has hinted we might also be playing at the casino again, but no firm dates have been set in stone.
Third, Hot Ice hasn't done any rehearsing since our November 18 gig at the Good Companions Centre. We first got together on November 26, but then only to discuss the aftermath and financial ramifications of the gig. We had to cancel the December 3 rehearsal because our drummer had a family gathering he felt he couldn't miss, and we decided to scrub the December 10 rehearsal because he would be leaving for the Caribbean for a couple of weeks a few days afterward and it didn't seem feasible to get together for just one practice just before our Christmas break. We'll start again in the new year.
And fourth, my Christmas mass schedule has been in a state of flux lately, but it seems to have settled down. Father Richard changed the Christmas Eve mass times at St. Augustine's from 5:30 and 8 PM and midnight to 5, 7 and 9 PM. Normally I would do the music at the middle mass, but Father Richard likes to have choirs on Christmas Eve, and he's assigning the 7 PM mass to a youth choir that has been doing a Sunday evening mass at St. Augustine's for several months now. That finally gave me the freedom in my schedule to play the 8 PM mass at St. Elizabeth's, which the choir I work with there has wanted me to do for four years--but then at first I learned that the choir wouldn't be doing a Christmas Eve mass because the pastor there wanted to assign the two slots to the music ministries at the other two masses. Then we got a possible reprieve to do the 5 PM mass, only to get a last-minute cancellation. However, all is not lost--I later got a call from St. George's to do their 5 PM mass. Naturally, I've had to change my web sites to reflect the changes every time they occurred--otherwise, I'd be all confused as to my schedule.
Nor has my Christmas prep been exactly stress-free. I placed an order for two tuques and a sweater from the merchandising department at Grönland Records in the UK (the label Kira records for), but when they told me they didn't have any more sweaters in extra large, I asked if I could get a couple of T-shirts instead. Unfortunately, the company is running out of stock because they recently changed their merchandise design, so they refunded my money less the cost of the tuques--the last ones they have left. The bottom line is that I've had to stay home for the most part--I want to be home when the package arrives. But in a way, that's okay, because to help keep my Christmas budget down I've been making teddy bears as gifts--it usually takes me about a day to a day and a half to make each one, and I need to stay home for that. I wanted to make five, but I had to stop at three because the last craft store chain in town that sells the 30- and 45mm bear joints I need appears to be going under--I might have to start ordering the joints from a company in Kitchener, Ontario. But with the refund on the sweater now in, I have a bit of financial flexibility. (Update: One of the tuques finally arrived on December 22, which means my nephew won't be disappointed. And I didn't have to pay taxes or duty either!)
With all these changes in my schedule and gigs that never eventuated, I've decided to begin working toward building my solo career as I want to see it. This, however, is going to involve a lot of preparatory work. As I've mentioned on my GoProMusic and MySpace sites, my goal as a solo musician is to promote a greater North American awareness of European, and particularly German, pop music. However, there aren't a lot of MIDI files of that material available, and of the few that are, none are of professional quality--and anyway many of the German artists I listen to are altos and mezzosopranos, whereas I'm a tenor, and so I'd have to rearrange the material in a key better suited to my voice. With fifty tunes to do, that's going to be a lot of work. To that end, I've started with Kira's material, beginning with "Rettungsboot" ("Lifeboat"), a song with reggae overtones that I want to try to get Hot Ice to do.
So the bottom line is: I'm swamped, but I'm hanging in there.
posted by Jamie at 5:56 p.m.
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