Here are some highlights from the Summit Jazz series that took place at Cantos this year.  This was in partnership with Carsten Rubeling, a local musician and teacher who I happened to connect with at an art opening.  He had just moved back to Calgary after studying in Germany and after telling him all about Cantos, he got very excited and took the initiative to create a jazz series, open to all ages and based on various eras of jazz.  This year, he produced three concerts: Bebop and Beyond, Latin Rhythms, and Jazz Futures.  The series proved to be very successful, featuring some of Calgary’s finest local jazz.  Now a huge supporter of Cantos and the NMC, Carsten is now on his way to study jazz in New York City, however, due to the success of the series, Rubim de Toledo will continue the series this Fall and Carsten promises to come back to Calgary and bring all that jazz with him.

Cantos is pleased to welcome a new addition to our Music@Noon programming:  Reggae Lunch’n'Learn, a monthly lunch hour presentation sharing the history and evolution of Reggae in partnership with Reggae Fest.  Featured on the first Thursday of every month, the Director of Reggae Fest, Leo Cripps, shares his enthusiastic outpouring of all things Reggae, filling listeners with facts and stories on the history, impact, and influence of Reggae music on culture, society and other musical genres.  The fabulous tastes and aromas of Jamaica are brought to you by Casual Catering by Sylvia, providing a fabulous Jamaican infused dinner for a low price.   Although October marks the last of the Reggae Lunch ‘n’ Learn series, we hope to partner with other festivals in similar presentations throughout the year.

Cantos also had the pleasure of providing an information booth at ReggaeFest and other festivals, sharing stories about our collection, programming and the National Music Centre project.

Okay, this is the last you’ll hear about the Korg M1 for a while…I promise! I just had to post this because I’ve been really into this tune lately, which my friend Jay Stanley sent me. In my previous post about the M1 I half-seriously stated that these M1 sounds might become cool again. Turns out I was right! Indie rock/folk outfit Bon Iver just came out with a self titled album this year which features this track Beth / Rest that has really grown on me. Right from the get-go plain as day you hear the M1 patch “Pad Piano” (which is actually on the expansion ROM card originally paired with the M1) accompanying the warm synth pads and reverb-drenched, auto-tuned vocals. Its a nice reminder that every once and a while someone will use that effect tastefully. The smooth Kenny G saxophone and everything…..by all accounts I should hate this song based on principle alone….but I don’t. The lesson here, I guess, is that the sounds themselves aren’t cliche – just the way that they’re used and abused.

It’s been quite the busy summer so far, hence not a lot of blogging as of late. It’s almost September now so, like everyone else, I’m getting back into work mode. So here goes: a blog post about my recent discovery: Italo Disco. Anyone who’s been in my car knows my musical tastes pretty well. I like lots of different stuff but I have a huge love of 80s music, both for funkier electro-soul and disco-type jams and the square (in a cool way) mechanized new wave / synth-pop. A great source of finding a lot of this music lately has been YouTube. Many intrepid music collectors have graciously ripped and posted their record collections on YouTube (a time consuming process!), which has made searching for new stuff really easy. I’ve literally spent hours hopping from one tune to another through the suggestions links. Once I find something I like, I’ll convert it to an mp3 using one of the many free programs found on the internet to do so. I realize that legally this is a bit of a grey area, since I’m not exactly paying for it, but I see it as to a more high-tech version of taping songs off the radio. (Those were the days weren’t they?) The quality is actually palatable (at least for playing in the car) and if there’s something I really like the next step is to find it on vinyl. (CDs are sooo not cool anymore : ) One genre I’ve been getting into lately it something called “Italo Disco”. When most people think of disco they think of the Bee Gees and Saturday Night Fever. I view Disco in general as more of an early 80s thing which eventually morphed into other stuff: New wave, Italo Disco, and eventually House and Techno. My previous blog post about the Roger Luther Modular Moog featured a link to the Georgio Moroder / Donna Summer classic “I Feel Love” which could possibly be considered early Italo. Italo disco is basically what it sounds like; disco music produced in Italy in the early 80s. Although I have been finding lots of other good Italo-type tracks from Germany, Belgium and even Canada. The Italians definitely had a distinct style, which was a little less commercial sounding and a bit edgier than the stuff from North America. In some ways ahead of its time, Italo disco appeals to me because it often combines the rhythmic aspects of the funkier disco music with the melodramatic chords and synth textures of new wave. I really dig some of the synthesizer sounds on these tunes in particular. (The last one is reminiscent of the hook from Herbie Hancock’s “Rockit”…sort of….or maybe its the other way around….hmmmm) Enjoy!

Day 5 was a whirlwind day of mixed emotions and it has taken me a bit of time to process the week and all that we did. Day 5 is traditionally a half day so that participants can have some time to explore the city or get to the airport and the instructors can have time to de-brief and prepare for theFuture of Learning conference which starts tomorrow. A few people in my study group are staying for the second conference. I can’t imagine! I am suffering from a bit of brain fry! Anyway, we spent the morning of Day 5 presenting our final projects (a representation of our journey at Project Zero; an exploration of the idea of mapping). I performed my movement map which was nerve wracking, but truly felt like the best way to express how I had felt all week. I suppose it was such a visceral experience for me…Above is a photo of one participant who cut out all the negative space in the map of Harvard Square and used it as a stencil to pour talcum powder over. She then carefully removed the map and all the negative space remained which she blew away. The results were quite beautiful.

John, our kindergarden teacher extrodinaire, created a version of Candy Land which represented his typical school year. He has been teaching at the same school in the same classroom for 26 years and so the year had become quite repetitive. On top he added the cylindrical hat box, covered in coloured words, which represents Project Zero. This is him describing it to us. He was so passionate (we all were) about what we had learned and what we hoped to take back to our jobs. Although the idea of creating a map of our journey and describing it in 5 min seemed daunting and also a bit silly at first, the activity really allowed us an opportunity to reflect and share our individual processes. By the end we were referring to study group as support group!

In the afternoon, I joined Chris and Sara at the Dale Chihuly exhibit at the Museum of Fine Arts , Boston. It was OUTSTANDING!!! We were all walking around it with our mouths hanging open. In one small room, his gorgeous glass forms were mounted behind a plexi-glass ceiling and lit from within. Everyone was standing around craning their necks to look up, but after a week at Project Zero focusing on Artful Thinking etc…etc.., I wasn’t having any of that. So I laid on the gallery floor.

And of course, that was the permission that all the children in the place needed! Soon I had entire families on the floor with me. And this is what we saw:

I spent about 15 minute stalking about the colors and the shapes and why we think the artist made the choice she made and wondering about the ocean floor and all kinds of cool stuff. It was an engaging experience; the coming together of strangers, young and old, over art and a great chance to see the power behind the work we had done all week.  A magical end to a magical 5 days.

Over 10,000 people visited the CCMHF over the 12 days of Stampede and were treated to daily live performances.   Our daily “High Noon” series featured established regional country recording artists including Canadian Country Music Hall of Famer Brian Sklar and the Tex Pistols, Edmonton’s the Traveling Mabels, Calgary’s own Matt Masters, bluegrass sensation Steve Fisher, and rising star T. Buckley to name a few.  Brian Sklar also presented the Canadian Country Music Hall of Fame Collection with another piece of history to add to our Collection: Sklar’s vintage Barcus Berry fiddle, which was originally owned by Don Rich of Buck Owens’ Buckaroos. Also featured  throughout the week were several young Country Star Search Winners selected through Global Country, an organization committed to developing new country talent in Canada.  A contingent of almost 50 volunteers gave close to 600 hours of time to welcome visitors, guide them through the Collection and tell the National Music Centre story.

Yesterday at Project Zero was a little bit melancholy because there was a real sense that we were leaving each other soon. Our group leaders gave us plenty of opportunity to synthesize what we have been doing and to compile shared resources. They have started a blog for us so that we can all communicate outside of Project Zero. One thing that really became apparent for all of us, I think, was that it is impossible to do this kind of work  in a bubble. Professional development is so instrumental and the experience of knowing you are not alone in your passions and frustrations is the key to staying motivated and inspired.

Yesterday’s session was at the Peabody Museum, which as their website says, is one of the oldest museums in the world devoted to anthropology. We used the gallery of the American Indian (which, of course had a lot of Canadian First Nations content–no musical instruments though) to look at innovative ways to teach the humanities. Prior to Cantos I have worked at both Fort Calgary and the Glenbow Museum so although this approach wasn’t new to me, I learned a few new techniques and was reminded of some bigger concepts that I had let slip into the recesses of my mind. One of those was the notion that inquiry-based / object-based learning rarely involves talking about the content directly. In the case of our session, we spent two hours in the gallery doing such things as mapping our route through the space from memory, making a gesture to represent how we felt when we entered the space and sketching an object having only noticed it for less than 20 seconds. By the end of the two hours, we had worked in groups to create a pantomime about the influence of one culture over another and we used those as an entry point to discussions of stereotyping, colonization and economics! All while never hearing “this is that and this is this, and over here in this case, we have this and that.” Very powerful work. We all left feeling what we hope our students will: personally connected to the museum’s artifacts and even more curious about the American Native culture.

(a Zuni vessel in the shape of the owl)

In the afternoon, we were assigned a final project, to map our journey this week and present it in 5 min or less to our group on the final day. Typical of the philosophy here, the process of how we get there is open. I have decided to do a movement piece, which for me is an enormous departure from what would be comfortable (drawing). But this week has been about taking risks and I was so inspired by Day 3 and working with Mark that I wanted to continue with my “thinking body” work. Also atypical to my process is the fact that I haven’t planned it to death. I have an idea that I want to represent 5 distinct actions for the 5 distinct days of the week and I want a freeze between each action to demonstrate the moments of quiet I have had to take at the end of every day, reflecting on my learning. I also want to move in a linear way towards something because I feel like this process has definitely been a progression (others feel like they have been running around in circles). The Bed & Breakfast I am in is fabulous, but tiny, so I have so far only practiced a bit in the grass at Harvard Yard. Lol! Luckily no one here is judgemental. We have created a safe, “culture of thinking”*, as the department would say.

So to mentally prepare for dancing in front of a group (gulp!),  I went for a run along the gorgeous Charles River ,which reminded me a lot of Calgary at this time of year, and then met up with two new friends, Chris and Sara. They are arts teachers at a public/charter in Bloomington, Indiana; he teaches performing arts and she, visual. We went to the famous and deliciously sustainable, Henrietta’s Table, where Sara and I consumed  sangria and  a lot of fresh made bread and butter, while Chris laughed and took photos. It was so amazing to share a beautiful night on the patio and talk about our love for teaching and the arts.

(This would be Sara holding up a plate of butter–our second plate of butter…)

* I think tommorow I will make a list of all the Project Zero vernacular; they have coined a lot of terms which, unless you have read their research or been here, completely don’t make sense! ha ha!

(This is a third grade, ESL student’s drawing showing how he understands his own process; the process of making a clay pot. It was assigned several months after the art class as a way for the teacher to assess what her students had actually retained and what they understood about their own learning. This is “thinking made visible” at its best!)

Harvard has been transformational. The work is is so hands-on and creative. I am inspired to be a better teacher and supervisor and to become more creative myself. In this course, we do everything in the same way we would ask the learners to do, so I have been very busy: analyzing sculptures, collaging, mind-mapping, journalling, writing and performing monologues through puppets etc..etc.. Really being asked to step out of our comfort zones! We spend at least 50% of the time assessing our own learning and creative process which has been the most amazing part. When do we ever have time to reflect deeply on what we do and try to develop a deeper understanding of it? Rarely. There is especially little time and emphasis as educators on our own learning and thought processes. We are so focused on student engagement that we rarely ask questions of ourselves.

Today’s plenary session, was with Ron Ritchhart (research associate at Project Zero and winner of the Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics Teaching). It was called ”Creating a Culture Where Thinking and Understanding Can Thrive”. His session provided an amazing framework for developing my own model of learning for Cantos and beyond.  It was perfectly timed  because Ian and I have just begun to develop an educational philosophy for NMC and it isn’t easy! One thing Ron asked us to consider was ” How would you teach differently if you couldn’t test your students until a year later?”  Wow.

All week, my personal inquiry has been around how will we set up the culture of learning at NMC so that we can help learners, of all ages, develop a deeper understanding about sound and music? What are the stories of learning that we, as educators, are telling? What are the messages about learning that the students are receiving? Are the students asking questions about the learning? Do the students and visitors (and most importantly, do we) understand where the learning resides in the work? For me this was absolutely eye-opening because not only can I use these methods to develop better education programs, but also to develop a stronger team of educators.

(Mark Borchelt, teaching today’s mini-course)

I had an amazing 2 hour session with Mark Borchelt who was the Director of Dance at the Interlochlen Arts Academy before Harvard. The name of his session was “The Thinking Body: How Does Movement Inform the Mind”. We made movement pieces as a group of four. Most people had zero dance/movement experience and the fact that I had some made me no more confident at it than them! Talk about getting out of a comfort zone. The movements were very different than the yoga or ballet that I know well. They were based on the BMC theories of Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen. But the thinking and the process!  It was directly related to my painting practice and also my approach to teaching–I was surprised! The movement pieces we choreographed and performed became metaphors for ways of learning in our students. I made notes such as ” senses are entry points: pathways to perception. The more you engage the senses, the more discernment you have in the world” and “movement teaches the gift of revision, collaboration and working incrimentaly from small to large.”

Of course, mark, as an excellent educator, never told us these things. We discovered them by doing the work and then discussing what we experienced and the process we went through. It was an incredible way of using the body to understand thought processes and generate ideas. I thought especially of the work we do with seniors and also of integrating expression (a major topic of the music curriculum) into our programs more concisely, particularly to understand the artistic process of a composer.

Here is one more photo of our movement pieces in progress. Notice the culture of thinking that Mark set up in the classroom? A free open environment where we could remove our shoes and be how we needed to be in order to fully feel uninhibited to create. Another awesome day at Project Zero…

At the beginning of the institute, our study group leaders warned us that time would fly by in this week and that if we didn’t record our experiences we truly would not remember our thoughts by the next session, never mind the next day. They were so right. Many of the participants return year after year and I can see why! There is so much information to take in and every time you turn around something interesting and inspiring is happening. Project Zero is all about making learning visible and so I thought I would blog a few of the random musings I have recorded to give you a sense of the diversiy of topics and ideas we are exploring:

-Artists are pro-active meaning makers. Teachers can help students think like artists and make meaning of their own worlds.

-Art* is an activity of the mind. It involves problem-solving and problem-finding and is not just emotional or entertainment.

-What is the real product of arts education? An artistic lens and mind NOT an object or performance. The works that kids make are evidence of a developing mind. The real product of arts education is the kids.

-Educational practice often disrupts the real-timeness of learning. What is going on in the room? What is happening at this moment?

-”Think about what you believe and try not to let it get in the way”-Debra Wise

-3 Thinking Dispositions: Metaphorical, Problem-Solving and Exploring and Perspective-Taking

-Why teach through art? Responding to art is about constructing and interpreting meaning. Because art is naturally multi-layered and complex it naturally invites–and rewards–critical and creative thought. When we talk about works of art, we are free to to refer to what we feel, see, think, hear etc…We use this information cognitively–we use information from all our senses to make meanings out of works of art. Responding to art develops an integrative and complex way of thinking, one that includes emotions and perceptions. Forms of thinking that are powerful in the arts are also central in other disciplines.

Ok, that is enough edu-speak for now!  I am off to my 8:30am session! Our group is creating personal artworks around a central inquiry that we will be exploring all week: ourselves as educators and questions surrounding our work. We are working on collages inspired by the prolific, Lynda Barry. An don my way to yesterday’s session? The Harvard Square Farmer’s Market! Yay!

Until tommorow…

*NOTE: When Project Zero talks about Art it is an all-encompassing term for dance, music, visual art etc..etc..

After a cancelled flight and a 3 hour delay at Montreal airport, I arrive in Boston in just enough time to run across the Harvard campus and slide into my seat at the Askwith lecture hall on the campus of the graduate School of Education.

I am here because of the amazing encouragement of Cantos/NMC who supports professional development in it’s staff and also because of a grant from the Alberta Museums Association. The room has about 300 educators in it from all over the world working in arts education as principals, classroom teachers, community workers and museum educators, like myself. Everyone has come for a week of learning how to use the arts as a gateway for understanding and for a chance to share ideas with each other and the best pedegogy experts in the world. The first lecturer, Howard Gardner! Howard is one of the founders of Project Zero and was there to introduce us to its framework.

I won’t go into detail about it, but let’s just say–it is going to be an intense week! I then met my study group, 12 or so educators who I get to work closely with all week. To give you an idea of our diversity: one man was a kindergarden teacher at the same school for 26 years; another was a woman who developed curriculum for children living in the slums of Bangladore, India.

Our first introduction to each other was over an excersise called “Task” which saw us making and performing and singing and doing and creating and laughing and sharing for an hour. Everyone wrote tasks on post-it notes for each other to do. Things like “walk around the room like there is soap in your eyes” or one that I got “make a bikini and wear it”.

Later, as is the Project Zero way, we deconstructed our experience, assessed and reflected on the learning. The concept behind the institute is that the participants activley engage in the teaching theories as their students would.This meant that later in the day, I used a candlestick as a metaphor for understanding and performed a monolouge with it as a puppet (this was in a mini-workshop with the amazing Debra Wise from the Underground Railway Theatre in Boston). This was my first experience with performance where I felt safe and comfortable,which is incredible to discover, especially as I often ask students to perform despite having the same fears I did. Not saying I plan to go into musical theatre anytime soon, but I am OK with speaking through an inanimate object!

I also worked in a small group to interpret a contemporary poem through sound, while others used movement and visual art. It is joyful to be creating and learning and learning about the learning with like-minded education nerds! Who knows what tommorow has in store, but for tonight, I must try a Boston micr-brew and catch up on some needed sleep!

I can’t stress the importance of community relationships and the positive outcome it can have, especially to charitable organizations like Cantos Music Foundation (Cantos). Recently, Cantos received a generous donation of 14 instruments from Korg Canada, a division of Jam industries.

Korg Canada employees first visited our galleries in 2007, while visiting they politely pointed out the lack of Japanese synthesizer technology represented within our galleries. Cantos electronics technician John Leimseider was leading the tour and suggested they should donate, or at least loan, their collection of vintage synthesizers. John was aware Korg Canada retained a small collection of vintage synthesizers to assist with servicing instruments that were no longer in production. The collection consisted of Korg synthesizers dating from 1978 to the late1990’s.

It was with John’s comment that the relationship ensued. Soon after their tour Korg agreed to loan their instruments, a few months later we exhibited what we referred to as “ the wall of Korg” and four years later I’m happy to say that all 14 instruments are part of our permanent collections.

In keeping with our mandate of exhibiting a “living collection” the instruments will not only exhibited but also used to demonstrate technological advancements and to contextualize popular music hits. In particular, the Korg M1 was hugely successful; it was used by artists like Depeche Mode, The Cure, Rick Wakeman, Patrick Moraz, Pet Shop Boys, the Cranberries and many more. The M1 also created the music for one of my favorite sitcoms of all time!

Thank you again Korg for your generous donation, the instruments will allow musicians and non musicians alike the ability to create new works for years to come.

- Jesse

Welcome to Uncle Sam’s Wood Shed.  Here I will share various restoration projects currently in the works at the Cantos/NMC workshop.  Today I would like to show off some work we have been doing on the National Music Centre busker piano.  The piano is now fully functional and can be seen on Stephen Avenue during the lunch hour on Thursdays, complete with an amazing pianist performing for the public.

Piano Annie was just asked if she likes jazz saxaphone.

A French polished sound board.

Highlighting the fresh French polish with a little one man flex off.  Mr Moffatt doing what he does best, looking ultra crispy and whispering to pianos.

Some lovely airbrush work of Oscar Peterson and Buffy St. Marie done by the wonderful Landon Scott, great name!

Up goes the plate.

Many hands make light work.

Down she goes…

Almost there….

We are hung up somewhere…

That’s the issue, right there.

Jesse’s fingers are good and stuck at this point in time.

The plate is down and looking like my Grandmother’s toilet in Squamish, BC.

The plate is ready to be bolted.

Moody Blues…Hitch pins with complimentary shades…nice touch Annie!

“Sell, sell, yes, no, now buy!”

Annie bolting down the plate.

The last spike.

A little shop humour to keep the spirits soaring.

The plate and the sound board.  The light coloured grain of wood tucked in there is a spruce shim.  With the change in humidity & temperature over time, the sound board can crack.  A tool is used to enlarge the crack then a sliver of wood is carefully glued in.

Here, Annie is dropping the plate screws in the holes that were thoughtfully mapped out on her plate screw easel.

The beautiful birds eye maple pin block of the Newcombe.

The pin block.

The birds eye had been painted over with silver paint.  So using a scraper I gently removed it to unveil nature’s fine work.

To be continued next time at Uncle Sam’s Wood Shed….

Well it’s summer again, and with it comes festivals, shows and the odd musical celebrity passing through town. Recently writer, singer, producer, artist and noise pioneer Lee Ranaldo toured the collection after giving a really cool guitar clinic in the music room. It was more of a ‘how to make your guitar sound like everything BUT a guitar’ clinic – using generous doses of effects, feedback and even an iPhone placed next to the guitar pickups to get different sounds. If you’ve never heard Sonic Youth before (…if you haven’t where have you been the last 3 decades?) they’re a pretty cool genre bending kind of band. They’re largely credited with bringing more experemental type sounds into rock music, much like Brian Eno and others were doing in the U.K and elsewhere. One could say Ranaldo is the Franz Liszt of feedback ; the Amadeus of amp noises…the…well you get the idea. Check out youtube for a lot of his fun and noisy exploits. As for our tour of the collection, Lee loved it – and I rather enjoyed showing him around as he just happens to be a really nice guy!

June 22nd was a momentous occasion for the troops down here at the Cantos Music Foundation & the National Music Centre.  We held our National Music Centre Design Launch at the Uptown Theatre. We opened the doors to a large group of excited supporters and music lovers and introduced them to Andrew Mosker and Brad Cloepfil, our architect.  It was a great evening full of architecture, music, food, and friends. Thank you to everyone who came out to support the National Music Centre project!  Check out these great photos taken by Art Under Moonlight Photography.

Circa 1971 performs for the wine & cheese crowd

Sandi & Kate take donations and registrations at the door.

Check out our awesome National Music Centre merch!

Candace and I selling our amazing NMC t-shirts & giving away pins!

A packed theatre of music lovers!

So many people excited to learn more about the National Music Centre.

Our Architect Brad and NMC President and CEO Andrew!

Tim, Candace, and Ingrid celebrating the design launch!

Sam, Camie and Bob having a great time at the Uptown.

What do you get when you put a National Historic site together with the National Music Centre, celebrating our National holiday?  You get something that sounds a lot like Canada.  Cantos Music Foundation and the National Music Centre were happy to once again partner with Fort Calgary in celebrating Canada Day on July 1st, 2011.  This annual celebration provides a showcase to emerging and established talent in Canada and an opportunity to represent, share and celebrate in the history of our city, our province and our country.

The site at Fort Calgary provided an opportunity for Calgarians to enjoy a full day of family friendly entertainment free of charge.   Children activities include pony rides, petting zoo, jump houses and carnival games and in true Calgary spirit, a free pancake breakfast for the first 1,500 visitors was served. Emceed by Julie Van Rosendaal, the day began with a Citizenship Ceremony welcoming new citizens into Canada, followed by a energetic performance by young Bhangra Dancers brought to us by Virsa Punjab Da which lead us into the Opening Ceremonies.

The main performance stage showcased the sounds of Canada with a rich variety of music including Tim Hus, Chris Gheran, Karl Schwonik Jazz Quartet, Sarah Vann, and Kirby Sewell.  In between sets, Circa 1971 featured some of the instruments from Cantos’ electronic keyboard collection, jamming out on synthesizers bringing you a beat you can’t help but bob your head to.  Also featured was a special performance from Sarah Troy and Aaron Pollock who paid tribute to Aaron’s grandfather John Ayer who played an important part in securing the site at Fort Calgary.

Be sure to add Canada Day at Fort Calgary to your calendars for next year as we continue to celebrate our musical and cultural heritage through this family friendly, fun filled, fantastically free, foot stompin’, music flowin’ good time!

On Monday June 20, I had the pleasure to participate in a very special presentation given by a very talented pianist and composer, Michael Jones.

Michael opened the afternoon with him playing a beautiful piece on the piano and he is very unique in that he doesn’t play the music off of music sheets but rather he plays from the heart and hands.

Michael has training in leadership education and that is where he focused that afternoon. He spoke about transformational leadership and how we should all take a pause every so often during our day to make time for ourselves. By having him play that wonderful opening piece, the audience was able to step back and take a break from our hectic days to focus and feel his music. Crazy as it may seem, but Michael spoke at a conference and a lady asked to lie underneath the piano while he was playing and he invited us to do the same. There were two takers that did right away but I was too timid to at that time.

When the two participants returned back to their chairs, they said it was amazing and that we should all try it at some point during the afternoon.  (My interest was piqued now that we had two living testimonials of how wonderful it was).

The afternoon continued and Michael announced that he was going to play again and it was going to be one of his last pieces. I mustered enough courage and joined two other new participants to go and lie underneath the piano during one of his last pieces.

Here I am, along with two others (one who happened to be a former co-worker of mine) lying underneath a grand piano. At first, I thought how strange this is, but as Michael played on, I closed my eyes and let his music carry me away from the day. I felt every note and key, every push of the pedal being underneath the piano. The music fully enveloped me. The music not only surrounded you on the outside but I also got to feel it inside my body by being able to lay on the floor and feeling the vibrations from your ears to the inside of your rib cage. It really was a truly a full-on ‘musical hug’.

The afternoon concluded and I left with a truly unique and wonderful musical experience. I bet you can guess, I am a true advocate if you are given the opportunity to lay underneath a piano while it’s being played – take it you won’t be disappointed!

I have a problem.

No, seriously…

There is no reason on earth a 37-year-old woman should be as ga-ga (yeah, I said ga-ga) over a band as I am over the Dandy Warhols.

But there you have it – my confession. I heart the Dandys.

The affair began when I first heard the opening drum riff of Bohemian Like You and has yet to fizzle. After listening to 13 Tales from Urban Bohemia every day for a year in 2001 (I told you I have a problem), I finally took the CD (remember those?) out of my player and replaced it with…you guessed it…welcome to the Monkey House.

Through all of their albums and singles Courtney, Zia, Pete and Fathead have been my musical companions off and on for over a decade. Imagine my excitement when I learned they’d be playing Sled Island Music Festival here in my hometown of Calgary – I squealed …  at a bus stop…I was alone…people stared.

It wasn’t long before the wheels started spinning. I happen to work at a place that has one of the world’s largest collections of keyboard instruments and an awesome vintage synth and electronic instrument collection. The Dandys use synth, right? In fact, they don’t even have a bass player; Zia covers that on her Korg. They’d want to see this place, right?

Right! After corresponding with the Dandy’s manager, Jaclyn, we secured a time for their visit and the waiting began.

Finally June 24 arrived and Zia, Pete and some of their (awesome and very nice) crew came for their after hours tour of the Cantos Music Collection.  I will admit some disappointment that Courtney’s plane had been delayed (have you SEEN this man?) and that Fathead was too tired to come (newborn baby, say no more) I was thrilled that the other two were ready to tackle this amazing collection led by our very own John Leimseider.

During the Tour, we discovered an interesting connection. The Trident A Range console that will be in use in the National Music Centre was used to record at least a couple of tracks of the Dandy’s biggest hit: Bohemian Like You while it was in the Bomb Factory in Los Angeles.

The next day, I finally saw my very best beloved band live at Olympic Plaza and was not disappointed. They did some of my favourites and treated the crowd to a couple of songs from their new album – a release I’m very much looking forward to after hearing the preview.

Don’t know the Dandys? I urge you to have a listen. Here are my picks:

Dandy’s Rule Ok

• The Dandy Warhols TV Theme Song

The Dandy Warhols Come Down

• Not if you were the last Junkie on Earth
• Green
• Good Morning

13 Tales From Urban Bohemia (this album is a true work of art from beginning to end)

• Godless
• Sleep
• Big Indian
• Get Off

Welcome to the Monkey House

• The Last High
• We Used to Be Friends
• Plan A

The Odditorium

• All the Money or the Simple Life Honey

Earth to the Dandy Warhols

• And then I Dreamed of Yes
• Mis Amigos
• Now You Love Me
• Talk Radio

So there’s this little fair taking over the city of Calgary that goes by the name of the Stampede. I remember when I was kid, dressing up in my cowboy boots and tassels, watching the parade, eating pancakes doused in syrup every day for breakfast (lunch and dinner) and petting the horses that towered above me. There was a certain sweetness and charm about it. However, it seems that over the years, this quaint little family fair has either taken a turn for the worse, or perhaps more likely, my adult eyes have allowed for me to see it as the 10 days (or more) of drunken fueled yahoos that it has become. That said, the Stampede does indeed bring some good things along with it and by things, I mean music.

First off, I have to plug our fantastic line up at the Canadian Country Music Hall of Fame Collection located on the Stampede grounds. Admission is free and concerts take place every day at High Noon. Matt Masters, T. Buckley, The Traveling Mabels, and Cowpuncher are just a few of the artists that will be featured. A great place to get out of the sun or the rain, see some cool artifacts and hear some great music. Oh, and did I mention it was free?

While you’re on the grounds, the Coca-Cola stage usually has a couple of bands worth checking out and this year I’ve got the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band high on my list. Calgary’s hometown band The Dudes are also always great to see and Tokyo Police Club is worth a listen as well. As for Kevin Costner, well, I’m not sure I know what to say – perhaps look out Gwenyth Paltrow?

There are also a lot of great shows taking place around town and one that I’m really excited about and is completely non-bolo-tie friendly is DJ Shadow at Flames Central Tuesday July 12th. One of the most prominent figures in experimental instrumental hip-hop made most famous by his record Endtroducing. No cowboy hat required. http://djshadow.com

June 24th – a very busy, crazy day. I have a tour scheduled for members of the Brian Wilson Band. It was originally going to be Darian Sahanaja, the musical director, but several other band members also wanted to come by… So, at 2 PM there are 8 guests. A very interested, interesting, and talented bunch. They tried many different instruments, unfortunately not including our broken Hammond Novachord.  However, there were a lot of hits. How can you not love a Moog Modular or an ARP 2500?

The show Saturday at the Jubilee was amazing! There were 15 on stage, including 5 local string players. There were 9 part harmonies! Who says you can’t pull off Beach Boys tracks live and have enough vocal parts? Great players, super singers, and all really nice people to give a tour to… They even gave Cantos and me a Thank You from the stage on Saturday.

Right after they left, I swapped another power amp into the Novachord, because at 8 o’clock the Dandy Warhols were coming by for a tour! Unfortunately, both bands were playing on Saturday, so I had to make a choice of which show to go to. The DW’s were another bunch of really cool people, also very enthusiastic about the collection. It was really fun to show off our collection to two such different bands in one day. I’m looking forward to seeing both groups again, hopefully when they have a little more time to use the collection!

- John Leimseider

After a jam-packed week of music (Sled Island & other concerts) here is who you should be adding to your playlists:

Meaghan Smith (Halifax, NS)

Red Cedar  (Vancouver, BC)

Grey Kingdom  (Welland, ON)

Dead Ghosts (Vancouver, BC)

Ramblin’ Ambassadors (Calgary, AB)