Phil Nimmons speaks

Another quick post that has little to do with procurement. As I mentioned on Tuesday, I was in Toronto for a couple of meetings and to attend a concert at the CBC's Glen Gould Theatre by the Dave McMurdo Jazz Orchestra. The concert was recorded, and will air February 25, 2006 on CBC's "OnStage". The feature of the evening was the Canadian premiere of Phil Nimmon's "Conversations (Aural Communication)", a piece Phil wrote last year as the inaugral "SOCAN/IAJE Phil Nimmons Established Composer Award". Conversations is classic Nimmons, it's all instrumental and showcases several of the great soloists in Dave's band. It's not the most accessible style of Jazz, without a vocalist to guide the audience instrumental jazz tends to require active attention.

Throughout the piece I could hear Phil's desire to have the piece represent the musicans and their instruments talk to each other. I found it was like a really successful party where there are a bunch of interesting people chatting to each other with sometimes one and sometimes several conversation threads happening at once. One of the highlight soloist bits was Alex Dean on sax doing a bit of "free-blowing". I don't know if it was intentional but it sure seemed to be a homage to the way Phil is best known for playing, just this side of out of control, arms, legs, and body practically bouncing off the stage. Elaine and I and a few friends thoroughly enjoyed seeing the band live again, getting 20 people on stage playing live jazz doesn't happen very often in Canada.