****January 2012 Focus - Focus Magazine

HARVEST
by Ken Cameron
January 25
VCM PRESENTS—JANUARY JAZZ
Alix Goolden Performance Hall
THE JANUARY BLUES WILL BE SENT PACKING WITH AN
upcoming concert featuring jazz maven Brad Turner together with
Gordon Clements and Conservatory of Music colleagues.
Gordon Clements, head of the Jazz Studies Department at the Victoria
Conservatory of Music, has always straddled two musical worlds. His
formal training is in classical music and
the clarinet. But from his teenage years,
he has maintained a high standard of
performing the entire saxophone family
of instruments in numerous Jazz bands.
Playing saxophone for the house band
at the Strathcona Hotel six nights a week
actually helped to finance his Classical
clarinet studies at UVic. “It was kind of
a schizophrenic personality that I had,”
says Clements of those years: “Kind of
Classical by day and Jazz by night. I’ve
always loved that.”
Gordon Clements While many agree that music is a
universal language, Clements knows it
to be a fact, especially in the case of Jazz.
During a trip to Cuba, he introduced
himself to the house band at a Jazz club
he was visiting, and they let him sit in
and play with them. The experience was
exhilarating. As he explains, “We couldn’t
even converse. They didn’t speak any
English at all. I didn’t speak any Spanish,
but we managed to figure out some song
titles, and right away it was a huge success.”
He has since repeated that experience in
a number of different countries and cities.
Brad Turner
There is a special thrill and excitement
to a concert of Jazz music that is not really
found in performances of any other musical genre. This derives in part
from the importance of improvisation in Jazz. It is a chance to be
part of a one-off event; to watch musicians create on the spot. Clements
confirms, “If it’s done right, the improvisation not only reflects the
music and the other musicians on stage, but it also involves the
audience…and the people that I work with and play with would all
agree that bringing our audience to us, to the music, is absolutely fundamental
to what we do.”
Internationally renowned Jazz trumpeter and recording artist
Brad Turner is the guest performer for the event. Clements enthusiastically
concedes that, besides Turner’s virtuosic command of the
trumpet, “he can sit down on drums and piano and make that sound
like his first instrument as well!”
All of the performers taking part in this event are also composers,
so the program will feature many original compositions. It will be
rounded out by other works from The Great American Songbook and
Duke Ellington’s oeuvre. The afternoon of the event, students will have
a chance to participate in a masterclass with Brad Turner.
January Jazz is at 7:30-9:30pm. Adults $25; seniors/students $15. 907
Pandora Ave. 250-386-5311, www.vcm.bc.ca. —Lisa Szeker-Madden
www.focusonline.ca • January 2012
CELEBRATING 20 SEASONS!
ALL SHOOK UP
featuring the songs
of Elvis Presley ® , book
by Joe DiPietro
NOISES OFF
by Michael Frayn
(contains strong language)
JOSEPH AND
THE AMAZING
TECHNICOLOR ®
DREAMCOAT
lyrics by Tim Rice, music
by Andrew Lloyd Webber
CHICKENS
by Lucia Frangione, music by
Royal Sproule, Lewis Frere, Mark
Lewandowski and Jason Bertsch
WINGFIELD’S FOLLY
by Dan Needles, starring
Rod Beattie (Bonus Show!)
THE GIFTS OF
THE MAGI
from O. Henry stories, book &
lyrics by Mark St. Germain, music
& lyrics by Randy Courts
SEASON TICKETS ON SALE NOW
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2012
Colin Sheen SeaShine Design David Cooper Photography