Allan Walsh - Blog #1

Published on July 7, 2011 Allan Walsh

Well hello again. It’s finally summer in Sudbury and we are gearing up for our 3rd annual Jazz Sudbury Festival after an amazingly successful second festival last September. This year’s artist roster boasts some really fine performers including saxophonists Jane Bunnett and Richard Underhill who have played here a number of times.  Crooner Matt Dusk will also be headlining and fans will no doubt be pleased to see such an accomplished international artist on our festival stage.

I had the great pleasure to meet Jane Bunnett on a number of occasions when she performed for our concert series at Laurentian University. She is a very friendly and down to earth person and her interaction with our students was exemplary. Jane is not only an extremely good saxophonist but also plays the flute and is truly a virtuoso performer on both instruments. As a musician who plays sax, clarinet and flute I understand how difficult this is and can really appreciate the amount of study and practice involved.

 The second time Bunnett came to Sudbury she brought a number of Cuban musicians with her including saxophonist Yosvany Terry who was a particularly engaging performer.  During a workshop I remember him explaining the necessity of ‘feeling rhythm through and with your body’. He had us sing one rhythm, dance another with our feet and clap yet another. It was very hard at first but once you got into it you began to understand the importance of his point.

A few years ago The International Jazz Educators annual conference was held in Toronto and I attended with a number of colleagues from Sudbury. Jane and her husband led a great concert with her group, former Sudburian Reg Schwager, multi-instrumentalist Don Thompson and other great international performers including the great jazz vocalist John Hendricks. The concert was a spot on example of how jazz musicians come together and perform ‘in the moment’ as nothing was rehearsed. I listened as they discussed what to play next. They launched into a great rendition of ‘Four’ by Miles Davis which of course Hendricks had written words to and is now a very famous standard vocalese tune. Hendricks had even written words to Miles’ trumpet solo and considering the breakneck speed of the tempo he was amazing to stay on top of the phrasing and trade fours with the other instrumentalists on stage. Quite remarkable when one considers the man is over eighty years old.

I hope you enjoyed some of my personal insights into Jane Bunnett and her artistic leadership and musicianship. Come back again to read my blog and those of our other bloggers. Please don’t hesitate to comment on anything you read.

Regards;

Allan J. Walsh

Jazz Sudbury

Steven Boothe on Thu 7th Jul, 2011 at 10:53:

Great blog as always Allan!

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