T

The Future Is NOW on Local Jazz CDs

hirteen years ago, a
group of adventurous
jazz musicians founded the New Orchestra Workshop to "provide a focus for
the creation of an original
West Coast Canadian mus!-

Lisle Ellis-and to raise
money to send a NOW contingent to New York City's
Knitting Factory club, the
centre of creative music
activities In the known universe, NOW and the CJBS
are presenting two nights of
music by NOW members, at
the Glass Slipper on Friday
and Saturday (September
ALEXVARlY
28 and 29). Garbo's Hat and
cal Idiom". Thirteen years Is Lunar Adventures will pera long time, longer than form on the first night, the
most marriages last, longer Paul Pllmley group and
than the average jail term, Chief Feature on the seclonger than you or I plan to ond.
stay at our jobs, too, no
Of course, there would be
doubt . But for these 13 cause neither to celebrate
years, NOW has endured the nor to send a bunch of Vanhardships of little or no couver musicians to the Big
funding , little or no press, Apple were the music not up
little or no public recogni- to what other, less Pacific
tion .. .and has come out of cities might call "world the tunnel with Its positive class" standards .
attitude intact, with a growIt Is.
ing group of friends and
Of the three NOW CDs, The
associates-including the Future Is NOW Is probably the
principals of the Coastal _ best Introduction to the creJazz and Blues Society, who ative stance that the Workproduce the annual du Mau- shop has taken: It collects six
rier International Jazz Festi- tracks by five NOW units In a
val-and now with a shiny sort of cross-section of curnew set of compact disc rent trends In the Vancouver
recordings Issued through creative music scene.
the Internationally respectThere's not a bad track
ed, Los Angeles- based 9 here, but two pieces are
Winds record label.
especially strong. Paul PllmTo celebrate the appear - ley opens t h e disc with a
ance of the NOW CDs-one heraldic blast of horns on
compilation of works by five his "Pages fr om the Diary of
NOW groups, one by Celtic Dr eams". This composition
jazz explorers Lunar Adven - draws fro m severa l s tyles
t ures, a nd one by the Va n- a n d eras of Jazz-from the
couver /Montreal collab or- muted moods of early Ellingation of Paul Pllmley an d ton to the brassy punch of

Off Beat

Frank Zappa's Jazz period,
with particular nods towards
the albums Gil Evans
arranged for Miles Davis In
the ·sos-and glues them
together with Pllmley's hallmarks of bubbling verve and
subtle humour. The flash
and bustle of Plimley's solo
piano sometimes obscure
the fact that he Is one of
Canada's premiere Jazz
melodlsts: on this carefully
considered, exuberantly produced piece, that side of his
nature emerges full-blown.
Chief Feature's "Tibetan
Tears of Joy and Sadness" Is
a less multidimensional
experience, but Is perhaps
the more profound for that.
Drawing on composer /tenor
saxophonist Bruce Freedman's love of Tibetan culture, religion, and ritual, the
work Is a moving elegy for a
way of life that is Increasingly threatened by Chinese
Imperialism and Western
indifference. Freedman's sax
and Clyde Reed's bass blast
the soul-shaking drone of
Tibetan ritual music, while
Claude Ranger's drums
whirl a dervish dance
around their solid centre
and Bill Clarke's trumpet
sings above, In one of the
more satisfying world
music/free Improvisation
fusions I've heard.
Th e Futu r e I s NOW a lso
Includes fine perfor mances
by Turnaround (the wholly
Improvis ational vehicle for
the husb and-and-wife team

of singer Kate HammettVaughan and guitarist Ron
Samworth). Unity, and
Lunar Adventures.
Lunar Adventures get a
disc to themselves with Alive
In Seattle, and while the
band has already eclipsed
the achievements recorded
here there are still many
moments of Interest In Its 57
minutes. Cultural cross-pollination seems to be somethl ng of a theme among
NOW groups, and on Alive In
Seattle the most successful
track Is Gregg Simpson's
"Celtic Calypso". The title Is
pretty much self-explanatory-a sweet, swinging calypso melody Is put through
some Scottish dance
steps-but It doesn't explain
how the shifting harmonies
of Ron Samworth's guitar
and Coat Cooke's saxophone
refer to Ornette Coleman's
harmolodlc theories, or how
this band manages to put so
much Joy Into their sound.
In Cooke and drummer
Simpson, Lunar Adventures
have two of the most Interesting West Coast jazz composers, and their work Is
well supported by Samworth's occasionally elec tronically altered sounds
and Clyde Reed's strong
presence.
Paul Pllmley and Lisle Ellis
were found ing members of
NOW. way back In th e dark
days when real Improvisation
was practically unheard-if
not quite unheard of-here,

and although Ellis has since
moved to Montreal, where
he's the music curator for
the Oboro gallery. the two
still get together on a regular
basis to continue the ongoing
convers_a tlon that they started so long ago. Both Sides of
the Same Mirror Is an exceptionally apt title for their first
duet recordings: Pllmley and
Ellis share a fire, a buoyancy, and an ability to go for
the dramatic gesture. While
Both Sides Is an Intimate
album-It really does sound
like two friends talking-it Is
also vital and communicative. Ellis treats his bass as if
It were as much of a sound
source as an Instrument frequently seen In the company
of classical musicians , and
his mysterious textures-full
of odd plangtngs, percussive
sounds, and low, guttural
moans-give textural relief to
Pllmley's hyper -articulate
arpeggios and gllssandos .
Sometimes the two musicians seem to share a single
brain-Ellis the unconscious, Pllmley the speaking
mind-so close and so complementary are their Intuitions. In an Ideal world, all
music would be as finely
wrought.
These three CDs show
that, in Vancouver, th e
fu tu re has truly been NOW
for some while. And the society' s upcoming conc erts
should give e videnc e that
NOW will continue for years
more to come. ■