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May music madness

Something of a late April/May bonanza for shows - now that spring is here (mostly - in between the rainy days) there seem to be events galore!

First up, an interesting and unusual evening. M and I received complimentary tickets to see Chamber Music of Healey Willan from Chamber Players of Canada, 23rd April. Neither of us were familiar with his works, but there's a first time for everything. I particularly liked the evening's premiere, which was a Willan piece for cello and piano completed by Matthew Larkin. Very very interesting, but sadly far too short! The trio in B minor was pretty good too. The first half programme (Fugue in G minor, Introduction/Allegro, Romance for Violin & Piano, Sanata in E minor for Violin & Piano), didn't engage us quite as much, though. The Chamber Players series also includes Angela Hewitt on May 7th.



From one festival to another. The Prairie Scene (co-promoted by the National Arts Centre) is a showcase of music, visual arts/media, theatre, dance and more, showcasing talented artists from Manitoba and Saskatchewan. Sadly we only made one event (too hectic a schedule), which was Royal Canoe/The Liptonians/Maybe Smith at Mavericks on 28th April. I was interested in going to this show after reading an album review for The Liptonians' Let's All March Back Into The Sea in the Globe and Mail a while ago. Pretty interesting set, and it seems that Royal Canoe and The Liptonians share members. As far as stage manner goes, the first guy, Maybe Smith, was very entertaining - the following 2 bands didn't quite have the banter/manner to keep the audience engaged (even if there were only 30 people). We weren't familiar with either band to any great extent, but my over-riding memory is that Royal Canoe's set (with more upbeat music - kinda folk/dance/indie mixed!) was the better one.



A few days break, in which I went to a few Writers Festival events - including an evening of ghazals and Persian music featuring the M E L M'RABET Trio - and we were back downtown to see another band of the moment, Rural Alberta Advantage, supported by Hooded Fang at Ritual. Hooded Fang were new to us, pretty OK, seen better, seen worse. Notably, the RAA crowd was much bigger than for the Prairie Scene event. Pretty full, and gig-goers dancing and singing along! Their tour (which closed with Ottawa show prior to a European tour) was in support of new album Departing, in which the band give Arcade Fire a bit of stiff competition! To quote the Globe and Mail (who had reviewed RAA and The Liptonians' respective releases at the same time), the songs 'convey...deep, complicated emotions with grace, clarity and passion'. A stripped-down cover of 'Eye of the Tiger' for an encore went down well, too. Neither of us have yet heard their previous album Hometowns, but I think it's a case of just getting round to finding it...



Next? As mentioned above, we will be attending Angela Hewitt's chamber concert on 7th May, which may be the end of May madness.... until June, when we have tickets to see Robert Plant and Elvis Costello at the Ottawa Jazz Festival.

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