..___ _ _ _
C_LU_B_S
_ _ _- - " ' \ ~ ~

Making
some
sound
progress
Whoever said familiarity
breeds contempt had no connection with the music industry
where nostalgia for the sixties,
even from those for whom the
Summer of Love was the summer of conception, has given top
ratings to oldies stations and
standing-room-only to clubs
where bands perform songs someone else performed better 20
years ago.
Despite originality being
thrown over for familiarity by a
large segment of the population,
alternative bands playing their
own material and creating their
own audiences manage to maintain a healthy, if limited existence
on the fringe.

For most, the word alternative
conjures up visions of the kind of
rock oriented bands that play the
Railway Club or the Town
Pump, but local jazz has its own
alternative scene which like alternative rock suffers from a lack of
venues and club-owner support.
Lunar Adventures is one of the
few Vancouver bands to play all
original material. Subsequently
their appearances are far less frequent than those who are adept
at rehashing jazz standards.
"It's one of the great frustrations and it makes it so difficult
to do your own thing;' says
Lunar Adventures' saxophonist
Coat Cooke.
Cooke says the only other
place consistently willing to
showcase original jazz is the
Grunt Gallery and as a result the
band's press kit is filled with
raves from out-of-town papers
while local interest and coverage
remains minimal.
Cooke compares the current
situation to the emergence of bebop in the fifties, when " moldy
figs" refused to support the new
jazz and remained loyal to the
established dixieland. "Bebop is

Folk'$ rogue
He emerged on the folk scene with punk credentials and an attitude and was awarded Most
Promising Artist in a 1987 Folk Roots readers' poll. Touring to promote his acclaimed second
album One Big Joke, England's Pete Morton plays the W.J.S.E. Club with The Nyetz March 11.

the dixieland now,' says Cooke.
As a reaction to venues' safebooking policies, Cooke, along
with some fellow musicians and
composers started the New Orchestra Workshop Society
(NOW) in 1978, creating their
own venues and producing their
own concerts. NOW continues to
stage shows around town.
Lunar Adventures are the sixth
band in The Coastal Jazz and
Blues Society's Jazz ls series at
Isadora's, a series Bob Kerr of
the Society says was created as a
reaction to the lack of venues for
original jazz.
Aside from local players, the
Jazz ls series will feature players
from outside the city. These include ECM recording artists the
Denny Goodhew Trio, March 17
and 18 and the Jay Clayton
Quartet, March 24 and 25. This

week (March 10 and II) Brass
Roots play, and Lunar Adventures wraps up the series March
31 and April I.

The music begins at 9 p.m. and
there is a $5 cover. For reservations phone 681-8816.
-C/odagh O'Connell