November 14 ~ 20, 1997 Terminal City 7

IIW celebrates 21 years 1fflyine1i1ne
By �lish
THE NEW ORCHBTRA WORKSHOP [NOW] Ii

celebrating its 20th Anniversary ...
20 years of offering and developing
the West Coast Creative music scene.
Coat Cooke, founder of the NOW
Orchestra, took the time to fill me in
on what it is that NOW is celebrating
with this weekend's Time Flies 10th
Annual Festival of Jazz and Impro­
vised Music at the Roundhouse, and
their unique vision for Vancouver
and the West Coast.
Coat: New Orchestra Workshops'
mandate from '77 has been to estab­
lish the West Coast musical idiom,
you know really develop the people
that are here and encouraging folks to
do original work that features impro­
visation ... and doing workshops and
educating the people to pass along
the music. Because it's not taught in
schools, this kind of music is taught
through oral tradition.
SHsh: Is the mandate working?
C: Oh ya! Absolutely! That's one
thing that's been real consistent over
the years is that we've been presenting
local composers and encouraging
people to develop themselves as writ­
ers, and then to use the communiry
and develop the community by doing
workshops and education.Teach this
information to each generation of
players that have come along since
then.
S: Are you attempting to educate your
listening audience?
C: We have workshops that are for
musicians of all levels and for listen­
ers ... for anybody who wants to
come ... so we really encourage that
and we do that for free. The presenta­
tion of original music and the presen­
tation of workshops ... those are two
of our two strong cores that we've
really built everything on to develop
a West Coast sound ... and there is a

West Coast sound.
I've tried describ­
ingthat but it's very
difficult to describe
because how do
you
describe
sound? It's the pro
and con of being
isolated out here
that you really do
develop your own
work, in spite ofthe
fact that we're all
influenced by the
media and stuff.
But it's the actual
getting together
and playing about
three times a week
for years ... and if
you're rehearsing
that much and you're really develop­
ing your writing and you're touring ...
you really do develop something. And
there is something that is panicular to
the West Coast.
Some of the finest creative and jazz
musiciam in the world live here... right
under our noses... creating and per­
forming with little or no acknowledg­
ment from the cultural community at
large.Musiciam like pianistPaulPlimley
and clarinetist Franfois Houle, whose
International reputatiom have helped to
forge the way for NOW around the
globe.
S: What does the international creative
music community think ofwhat's going
on here on the West Coast? You have a
great reputation among musiciam in
town...
C: Our reputation outside of town is
better. We're one of the few groups in
the whole world that does what we're
doing. The ensemble is really thought
very highly of, we did a recording with
Barry Guy from Britain. You know
he's a great player and he came and it

Larry Svirchev photo

was pan of getting our reputation more
international ... and then we have
people in the band like Paul Plirnley
and Francois and various other ones in
the group at large who've had CDs
and international reviews ... it's been a
gradual building over time.We've been
doing the work ... we're doing it for
the music, we're not doing it for the
money. We really love the work and
we're all dedicated ... I'm dedicated to
this work.
S: A huge component for me and obvi­
ouslyfor the musiciam is that spontane­
ous creation. . . that spontaneous com­
munication between musiciam.
C: Well, that's where the magic gets
created ... that's where you can get in
touch with things in your psyche and
your spirit and remind you of things ...
and you can go to different places you
know.
S: How doyoufoster that in the rehearsal
process, or is.that up to each musician?
C: Well, I think people just have to
trust that everybody is developing at
their own pace ... we all have very
different experiences and different
developments and we allow people to

bring what they can bring.
S: In going out to jazz gigs lately one
thing that I'vefound difficult to under­
stand is that there are only two or three
other musiciam in the audience... it's
bad enough that the local audiences aren t
picking up on it. . . but other musiciam
don't seem to befostering and supporting
at the same time.
C: That was the thing at the [Glass]
Slipper, out of seven nights of the
week there would be five people in the
audience, and none of those five would
be musicians ... it's not like in New
York where clubs can have any music
they want and if they've got jazz in the
players take responsibility for making
sure that the audience is full because if
they don't the club owners will go,
Oh, I guess jazz isn't working here ...
I guess we'll move on to something
else. People are not taking that respon­
sibility here as players.There's no sense
of responsibility to the scene. It's very
fractionalized, there's the classical
musicians and there's the rock musi­
cians and the country guys and the
inside jazz guys and the outside jazz
guys and all the different factions and
nobody realizes that we're all in this
together and that if you can stand
together. .. that's how the Orchestra
workshops work ... a bunch of dispar­
ate musicians have more power when
th ey come together as a collective in
terms of lobbying government or as a
voice. But it's a lot more work too, you
have to have some people that are
doing all the work or the organizing or
the envisioning.
The NOW Orchestra 20-year celebra­
tion takes place overfour days and nights
at The Roundhouse Community Centre
starting Thursday November 13. Thirty
musiciam playing new compositiom
along with umtructuredimprovisational
collaboratiom.
C: Thursday night we've got Brass
Roots opening ... and there's the 10:30

show which is three small groups im­
provising... just improvising... no
music. Friday and Saturday are both
the Orchestra with different programs
each night... the first night it's me,
Paul Cram andGeorge [Lewis}.Satur­
day, it's Ron [Samwonh], Vinny
[Golia] andanother ofGeorge's pieces,
so it's completely different each set.
Each of those nights there's three small
groups each.Sunday we have the Wild
Card sessions which is from 1-5pm
where all the musicians from the whole
series are to come hang out the whole
afrernoon and people just play to­
gether as they feel like it.So we might
have a solo piano or a two-clarinet duo
or we just might have 30 people play­
ing at once, we just don't know what
might happen.I'm sure the unexpected
will happen so I think it will be really
fun.
Time Ries: Hear it NOi Festival of Jazz
and Improvised lluslc happens this week­
end attbe Roundhouse CGmmuntty Centre.
Workshops on Nov 13-15 at noon are FIEE.
Brass loots on Nov 13, 7:30 I& $15/$12
students, seniors, Jazz friends; NOW Or­
chestra on Nov U-15, 7:30pm Is $15/$12
students, seniors, jazz friends. late Night
lmprov Nov 13-15, 10-.JOpm and WIid card
lmprov Nov 18, 1pm Is $8/$5 students,
seniors, Jazz friends. Big Time Pass for all
concerts and lmprov sessions $35. Tix @
Coastal Jazz & Blues Society: 882-G706.