Well, luck is definitely not on my side. For those of you who aren’t in the Yukon, a few weeks ago we had a huge spike in COVID cases and our territory has had to declare a state of emergency. This has resulted in a bunch of restrictions around both public and private gatherings. Unfortunately, and it kills me to say this, my concert this upcoming Wednesday will no longer be open to the public.
I can’t tell you how bummed I am about this. This project has been a year in the making and I’ve spent every waking moment for the last few months preparing to present my new music. The silver lining in this is that the live streaming portion of the show will go on. You can purchase tickets to the stream here. I know that online streaming is nothing compared to a live performance, but if you were at all interested in the concert consider supporting the concert organizer, Jazz Yukon, by purchasing an online streaming ticket. Jazz Yukon has been instrumental in helping get this new project off the ground and I can’t tell you how supportive they’ve been through these difficult times. I’ve never before received so much support and funding from ANY other organization in Canada.
The band is really spectacular and we’ve been working really hard to get this music together. Austin Tufts, from the acclaimed band Braids, will be playing drums and percussion. He helped record the drums for my EP and I’m super excited he’s able to come up here to play. Andy Slade is a great jazz pianist that just moved to Whitehorse from Toronto and he’s been killing it on the keys. He’ll be playing everything from a grand piano, Wurlitzer, and something like 10 different synthesizers. Gord Clements, (my Dad!!!!!!!!!!!) is also coming up for the show to play baritone sax and bass clarinet. He’s from Victoria and has been professionally performing, recording and teaching saxophones and clarinets for over 50 years. Adrian Burill will be joining us on trumpet and flugelhorn. He’s a wicked local trumpet player and leads the funnest local band around, Major Funk. Finally, we’ll have Daniel Janke laying it down on bass. Daniel is a composer and performer and has performed his orchestral works on stages across North America and Europe.
If you’ve read this far, thank you for being interested in this crazy musical endeavour. After I stopped touring 5 years ago, I’ve often felt that the music chapter of my life might be over and I didn’t think something like this would ever happen again. Even though the performance will be in a less than ideal format, I’m really excited to be able to present the music from my upcoming EP, “Dogs For Emma”. I was hoping to sell some CD’s at my concert but instead I’ll be making my EP available for download on November 24th on Bandcamp for PWYC. It won’t be out until January, so make sure you get it while you can!
I hope you enjoy this crazy, weird, genre bashing project!