THURSDAY,APRIL 16, 2009

THEPR0VINCE.COM,

E-WEEE D I 87

TheNOWorchestra
does.it again
NEWen: Boutique label offers the sixth release by the 15-member ensemble
es from the label.
These are vocal/piano/wind/bass
space track crew Ion Zoo's "Set Free
NOW Orchestra Animal
At The Cellar;" vocal/tronica duo
Tales CD release
Viviane Houle and Stefan
Where: Western Front, 303 E.
Smulovitz's "La Belle Et La Bete;"
8th Ave.
reedsman
Bruce Freedman's African
When: Sunday, 7:30 p.m.
Groove Band Live At The Cellar, gui• Tickets: $10 at the door
tarist JeffYounger's Sandbox's "The
Nudger" and the NOW Orchestra's
BY STUARTDERDEYN latest.
MUSIC REPORTER
"The idea behind the Cellar series
created by Raymon Torchinsky and
Two decades on and still going myself was to provide a showcase
strong, Vancouver's NOW Orches- for the fantastic creative musicians
tra enters a new era this weekend. in the scene," says NOW Society
Aftersuch internationally acclaimed artistic director Coat Cooke. "It ran
releases as "Study/WitchGongGame its course, but all these great sesIl/10" and "Pola", the 15-member sions came out of it because it's
avant-garde big band sees its sixth such as great live room for recordCD, Animal Tales, coming out on ing."
the new NOW Orchestra Records
"Afterconsidering the options of
imprint (noworchestra.com).
how best to make use of these, and
This is the first of five new discs in consultation with Cory Weeds at
out on the stylishly designed bou- Cellar Live, it became clear that
tique label overseen by the 32 year- starting a label would be the best,
old New Orchestra Workshop Soci- most financially viable way, to get
ety.
the music out there."
Both the artists involved and the
Mixed and mastered by pianist
Cellar Live jazz imprint are part- Chris Gestrin at a nice price and
nered in the venture. Many of the with a templated graphic design
recordings were made during the courtesy of Vanilla Five, the label
NOW on Monday Nights concert came togetl}er with the help of
series that ran at the Cellar funding from the province, the B.C.
(www.cellarjazz.com)over the past Arts Council, the City of Vancouver
few years.
and the musician's dedication to
Most of these combos are offshoot the cause.
groups from the membership. An
The reality of producing a CD
impressive 40 members of Van- being what it is, you can do more
couver's improvised music scene for less and the catalogue was born.
appear on the varied initial releas"For the first mai-out to press and

In concert

Coat Cookesaysthe Cellar seriesprovideda showcasefor the fine musicianson the scene. - SUBMITTEDPHOTO

promoters, we went to a dollar store
and bought these five CD holder
booklets, then had a session of cutting liner booklets and so labels to
fit and sent them out. It actually
worked out to be a better deal for
each individual group than doing
it on their own."
The NOW Orchestra disc includes

music performed by three different
incarnations of the ensemble. The
list of players is a who's who of the
local scene tackling compositions
by Diane Labrosse, Pierre Tanguay
and Cooke.
The CD release will be played by
a chamber ensemble version of the
NOWfeaturing Cook (sax),JPCarter

(trumpet), Brad Muirhead (trombone), Chad MacQuarrie (guitar),
Tommy Babin (bass) and drummer
Kenton Loewen.
(Look for reviews of the NOW
Orchestra Records releases online
next Tuesday).
sderdeyn@theprovince.com