tonight

cc3 + EZ performed to a tiny audience (the people themselves were normally-sized, but the total number of people was dismally low) tonight. Much love and thanks goes out to those that attended, but a giant cosmic “huh?” goes out to everyone that has known about the Drum Mondays gigs but just ignored them. Oh well, it was an experiment. To see if a creative space for music could be nurtured by a community of players and audience members. Not in a month, it can’t. My friends over at Leftover Daylight are fighting the good fight, but their rent must be cheaper at the venue, because tonight was the last night for Drum Mondays…

Having said all that, did I have a good time? Yes! Tonight the band sounded awesome (our new name may be “White Heat”), EdZ played better than I’ve ever heard him play. I recorded it to my MiniDisc, so you’ll hear some of it soon online in glorious MONO. I’m already working on our next gig, so stay tuned.

Tomorrow I do my first DrumCafe gig, a corporate-motivating/teambuilding thing where large groups of office-dwellers are given instruction on hand drums to enhance their work efforts back at HQ. Sounds like it just might work. I’ll let you know.

bye Don

The great Don Knotts has died.

Never underestimate the transcendent power of being funny.

some links:

a tribute site (that actually hasn’t been updated since his passing)

obituary in the Washington Post

mixed tape (flowers and plants)

I’m home this afternoon with the tiny person while my wife is out. We were rummaging through some piles of stuff and found a mixed CD I had made for my wife long ago. Apparently it’s all tunes about flowers and plants, and damn if it isn’t a pretty good set of music! I doubt iTunes has all of it, but you can try there before you go P2P.

1. river of orchids – XTC
2. live in a tree – adrian belew
3. tree song (eucalyptus lullabye) – victoria williams
4. gardenia talk – laura nyro (this has some great Bernard Purdie drumming)
5. the hissing of summer lawns – joni mitchell
6. dandelion – ian moore
7. wildflower – the neville brothers
8. the flower song – the meters
9. whispering pines – the band
10. lotus feet – shakti

enjoy!

nyc approaches…

yes, the 3/14 gig date is approaching, but I was actually referring to how I will “approach” NYC itself. I spent the weekend weighing the pros and cons of flying/driving and staying in Manhattan or Brooklyn, and driving/Brooklyn won out. Essentially, I was already driving to Buffalo (2 hours) to catch a plane, so why not drive the extra 5 hours to Brooklyn? Chances are I’d burn up 5 hours in airports in Buffalo and at JFK anyway.

I was going to stay in midtown at the serious/silly Starck designed Paramount (used to be a Schrager hotel, but I think he sold all of his hotels to larger companies…), it was $40 more than I wanted to spend, but I liked it when I stayed there before, and the Best Western down the street for $35 less is a lot crappier. Ultimately, all of this struck me as “vacation planning” as opposed to a business trip, which this is. So, I decided to stay at the Days Inn Brooklyn, where I can park my car (definitely not a viable option in NYC) and won’t have to spend big bucks on cabs to get to and from the gig (which is in Brooklyn). Most likely I will head into Manhattan by train Tuesday afternoon, hook up with Rob Price, and then hit the hotel briefly before the gig to grab my stuff.

This plan itself appears to be one that is economical and a repeatable model for (what I hope are) subsequent trips down to NYC to build this band.

It’s Drum Mondays tonight, with Topher Stott’s Squawking Heads. My dear old friend Attila Baraczka (of hearsay fame is playing bass tonight, I can’t wait to see and hear him.

Otherwise this week I am waiting to find out if the public employees union strikes, which would cancel my day-gig at the Etobicoke School of the Arts, a cc3 hit on Thursday and my return to Pickering School of Ballet on Saturday (I’ve been away for the last two weeks…). I’m also searching for a studio space, 250sqft or less; a zen crash-pad for a man and his cymbal.

whitley

I just bought Chris Whitley’s 2005 album, “Soft Dangerous Shores” off iTunes. Chris died late last year, too young for sure, but I can’t say for sure he was the healthiest guy in terms of habits and lifestyle, so his death may not have been a total surprise to those that knew him. (Put the cigarettes down. OK. It’s a start.)

I’ve been an avid fan of CW’s since his first record “Living With The Law”, produced by the great Malcolm Burn. He jumped from label to label so I didn’t always get his records as soon as they came out, but I’ve never been let down by any release of his. I saw him in concert 2 or 3 times, even met Dan Lanois at one of the shows (Dan was surprised that I, at the time, knew he had recorded with Willie Nelson for the “teatro” record, which was yet to be released… DL seemed like a helluva guy, very down to earth).

Chris Whitley’s music was a natural extension of the blues and roots tradition, like my friend Derek Trucks, but in a completely different direction. What I mean is that both these gentlemen are firmly rooted in the American tradition yet feel no need to express it so obviously as many other “bluesmen” do. CW’s raw music is at once intimate/individual and worldly at the same time; he’s not afraid to incorporate synths, beats, etc. in his essentially dobro-based music. The resultant combinations are never contrived and always soulful, and many times, chilling and haunting in their honesty and descriptive power.

Check him out. Get “Living With The Law”, “Rocket House” and “Perfect Day” and then fill your collection in from there. Unfortunately iTunes doesn’t have any of these (go figure), but eBay might….

where’ve I been?

well, you know, there’s more than one blog these days, what with drumLAB and M4M, so sometimes I post there, and then run out of things to say.

Anyway, tonight is cc3 with Dave Patterson on guitar, which is always a treat. I’m busy running the Drum Mondays concerts and am looking forward to bring cc3 w Ed Zankowski in there for the final concert on Feb27. I was hoping for this to be a weekly series, with support from the drumming community in Toronto and the environs, but that just hasn’t happened. It seems that I get lots of emails from drummers who want to PLAY a gig, but none of them want to come and LISTEN to a gig. This defeats the purpose of the community-building I am trying to do. So, rather than be hurt or angry, I will just focus my attentions elsewhere, back into my own music exclusively.

Speaking of my own music, paid-downloads of mp3s are now a reality at my site (go here to check it out) and if I can get some time today might even post up some free stuff of the recent cc+mo gig on the LISTEN page at the site.

Happy downloading!

where’ve I been?

well, you know, there’s more than one blog these days, what with drumLAB and M4M, so sometimes I post there, and then run out of things to say.

Anyway, tonight is cc3 with Dave Patterson on guitar, which is always a treat. I’m busy running the Drum Mondays concerts and am looking forward to bring cc3 w Ed Zankowski in there for the final concert on Feb27. I was hoping for this to be a weekly series, with support from the drumming community in Toronto and the environs, but that just hasn’t happened. It seems that I get lots of emails from drummers who want to PLAY a gig, but none of them want to come and LISTEN to a gig. This defeats the purpose of the community-building I am trying to do. So, rather than be hurt or angry, I will just focus my attentions elsewhere, back into my own music exclusively.

Speaking of my own music, paid-downloads of mp3s are now a reality at my site (go here to check it out) and if I can get some time today might even post up some free stuff of the recent cc+mo gig on the LISTEN page at the site.

Happy downloading!

tonight

I’m home from the first Drum Mondays gig. Winter decided to officially show up in Toronto tonight, so most of the audience did not. (Of course, a HUGE thank you to my loyal peeps that did show up).

I’m listening to the MiniDisc recording right now and so far so good. It was great to play with MO again, as he put it (dryly) “it’s been a big year for R&B”. So, it was refreshing and soothing to get to make some skronk and roll for an hour.

I brought along my laptop and a keyboard controller and triggered some loops, fiddled with some modulation knobs, played some bass lines, etc. We played a solid hour, with the shortest of pauses, and managed to improvise mostly, with readings of my “Hope Song” and the Beatles “If I Fell” and I think MO may have played a bit of “Green Dolphin Street” as well.

Fellow drummer and future Drum Monday star Christopher Stott was there and he took some photos, so check the drumLAB blog site for photos soon.

I’ll be uploading highlights from tonight’s show as mp3s later this week at chriscawthray.com.

downloads are up!

chriscawthray.com is pleased to announce that we now offer mp3 downloads of complete albums for purchase.

Go here to check it out.

NYC debut

Rob Price and I will be debuting our new band at Freddy’s in Brooklyn, NY on Tuesday March 14. We’ll be performing as a trio with a sax player TBA. We’re going to do a mix of my material and Rob’s (have you heard his record “At Sunset” yet? go get it at iTunes or order it straight from him).

More details to come…