Concert Reviews
By John Swartz
Thank you for joining this overdue bunch of reviews. I’m going to work backwards from the most recent concert. The Orillia Vocal Ensemble had a concert at St. Paul’s Centre May 21. Their guest was David Jefferies who sang solos in Living In The Moment by Nancy Telfer. Telfer, who has composed many pieces of music for choir, was also a member of the Cellar Singers.
As usual OVE concerts are fundraisers and this one benefited Big Brothers Big Sisters Of Orillia And Area to the tune of $1,600.
Youth Centre Scores Again
The Orillia Youth Centre had yet another fund-raising concert May 14 at Creative Nomad Studios. I didn’t have anything in my column about the show previously because the tickets went on sale the day I was writing that column on they sold out in 14 minutes, so I figured there wasn’t much point in saying anything about it. The headliner was Frank Turner and Nixon Boyd opened.
Nixon has a bunch of good tunes reflective of things in his life. He has a son who’s at the age when you have to put all those plastic things in electrical outlets, so some of the songs were about being a father. Nixon was in the band Hollerado, you know, one of those loud rock ‘n roll bands, so these solo acoustic gigs are a bit different. Which by the way, Nixon said the band is getting back together for some gigs in the fall, including three nights at The Horseshoe in Toronto.
Since I decided not to mention this concert, if Kevin Gangloff had not mentioned it the previous weekend I would’ve completely forgotten about it. I didn’t have a chance to do some advance listening and I had never heard of Frank before, but I can tell you the hundred or so people in attendance sure heard him before. He was on a short leg of 6 Canadian cities from a tour of North America – bigger cities and venues, but Kevin snagged him to come here.
About halfway through his first tune the entire audience started singing along with him. They knew the words. And this happened several times throughout his show. I think many of Frank’s songs are of a defiant social commentary nature and this audience was definitely on board with joining in on the (paraphrasing), “I’m not going to do that,” lines and verses and choruses. It really was a musical night I’m glad I witnessed.
From Gord to Gord
There were two concerts May 3 and both of them had music written by Gordon Lightfoot being performed. I went to the first half of the Orillia Concert Band’s at St. Paul’s and the second half of Classic Lightfoot Live at the Opera House.
The OCB did a program of all Canadian music. Previously, when speaking with conductor Randy Hoover I happened to mention how surprised I was OCB concerts tend to start with pretty difficult pieces of music while I, on the other hand, would put a couple of easier pieces up front so the band could warm up to the hard stuff. Randy said he likes to get the hard stuff out of the way first so the band can relax.
Well, David Foster’s Winter Games, is one of those difficult pieces and the band handled that one very nicely. They brought out their guest performers Autumn Debassige who sang, and Brad Emmons, who played guitar for a rendition of Gord’s Old Dan’s Records. This is unusual in that normally guests are brought out closer to intermission rather than near the top of the program. The two would return near the end of the night to perform If You Could Read My Mind.
The band also played a nice arrangement of Land Of The Midnight Sun and something that tends to end up on many programs featuring Canadian music Morley Calvert’s Suite On Canadian Folk Songs.
Stan Passfield was in the audience. He started the Orillia Concert Band and he got to hear them play Passfield’s Parade written by the late Suds Sutherland. You can catch all of the concert on the band’s Youtube channel, or live June 22 at the Aqua Theatre
I got over to the Opera House just before intermission and heard Classic Lightfoot Live do Sundown and Canadian Railroad Trilogy from the back of the room.
For a change I had a seat in the front row of the balcony and I normally only sit in the balcony for orchestras and groups which don’t use amplification. The first half of the second set sounded off to me and it wasn’t a case of bass guitar and drums overpowering everything but I still had little issue with the balance of sound from the keyboards and the guitars. Interestingly, John Stinson’s vocals were fine.
A little more than halfway through the second half they brought out Steve McEown to sing I Used To Be A Country Singer, which he wrote and Gord recorded. Somehow the sound improved quite a bit at that point, just in time for the band to play my favourites Beautiful and Song for a Winter’s Night, and then everybody else’s favourite Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald. What else are you going to do to end the night, before the encore?
And what else of Gord’s tunes would you do for an encore than Alberta Bound. Everybody knows the words to the chorus and of course everybody joined in.
I think most readers know I’m not a huge fan of what I call clone bands. You know, the kind of band that has to dress like, act like, pose like, and basically try to imitate more well known musicians. I make exceptions when I know members of the bands who I know to be good musicians first and play the music because they like the music without posturing and trying to do their best Rich Little impressions. Lance Anderson, Brass Transit, one or two others, and Classic Lightfoot Live are all bands that hit the stage with no pretentious antics and just play the music, faithfully.
It helps Classic Lightfoot Live is made up of accomplished musicians. They’ve also added since their last appearance in Orillia Alex Andrews on violin, and Bob Doidge on guitar. Bob one of Canada’s top recording studios and produced a number of albums for some very well known bands and musicians, including Gordon Lightfoot.
If your disappointment for not being able to catch them here is great you can see them in Midland June 8 or Bracebridge June 22
Count Duke
Speaking of Lance Anderson, he had a concert the next day at the Opera House for the last Orillia Concert Association gig of their 24/25 season. He performed a program of music by Duke Ellington and Count Basie, and he did it with the help of Russ Boswell on bass and John Johnson on saxophone.
I’ve often thought that if I could be any good at another instrument the saxophone would be my choice. I think it’s the most expressive instrument. John’s playing reaffirmed my thinking. He made that thing sound lush like sound from the heavens or bark like traffic in downtown Toronto at rush hour. He made it sing and he made it shout. I’m quite sure he’s been here since COVID playing in someone else’s band, but I’m glad I didn’t miss this time around.
Of course Lance’s playing is beyond compare. It’s remarkable how he can front a Rock band, and R&B band, a Blues band, or a Jazz band and play so idiomatically correct. He also has the stories that aren’t so commonly known to set up each tune he plays.
Of course Russ has been here many times, usually playing with Lance, covering all those genres, and while a properly mixed bass doesn’t usually get noticed by many, it’s another story when the performance is not correct and I think his contribution to making the afternoon a success cannot be understated.
They played all the familiar tunes, and some tunes people may have wondered about, not connecting song titles with the songs until they are played and the brain goes, ‘oh yeah, that one.’ Hearing the music of those two giants of 20th century music in one program played by only three musicians using their creative chops to render the music in a satisfactory way (Basie and Ellington worked primarily with big bands) illustrates how great music can transcend generations of both the musicians and the listeners.
Congrats to the Orillia Concert Association for putting this on their schedule, and to the trio for making it happen.
Roots North
Finally we get to the Roots North Music Festival, which happened the weekend of April 25/26. St. Paul’s Centre served as the venue for main stage shows. The festival could not have picked a better opener for the weekend then Nicolina Bozzo. She can really belt out a song and no one will ever be able to say, “I really don’t remember what her performance was like.”
James Gray was next. It’s been a long time since I had a chance to see him perform and I thought his performance and songs was really good. Royal Wood closed the night out and it’s been a couple of years at least since last saw him and he definitely has that headliner confidence of performance and quality of music.
The relative newcomer, Gracie Ella, opened Saturday’s show. She’s a natural for the stage; good music, good musicianship (she was the best guitarist to this point), and built a great rapport with the audience. She seemed a bit bashful in a, “I’m going to do some songs, I hope you like them,” kind of way, but with a great voice she just kept reeling them in through the rest of her show.
Up to this point, counting the previous night too, the sound was probably the best of any show I’ve seen at St. Paul’s (not counting stuff like the Concert Band, the Silver Band, and other non-amplified shows). I remember thinking how nice it was to hear the vocals so clearly and well balanced against the guitars without having to struggle making sense of either.
Then there was Jully Black’s show. She’s a big star you know. Big lighting, big costuming, and big sound – too big. She brought her own mixing board and operator, which in my opinion was a wasted expense. There were five musicians on stage, counting her, but I only heard three of them – you can guess two of them, when it’s bad it’s always the same two – and while I certainly could hear her I couldn’t make out a single word of what she’s sang.
There were about 300 in the audience and by the time the first tune was done I expected about half of them to leave. There’s nothing wrong with being loud. Heck, I’ve been going to rock concerts for 50 years and I’ve had the luxury of usually being front and center close to the stage and loud means nothing when all the instruments and voices are balanced and properly EQ’d. The latter is the big factor and when it’s not done right, boy does this sound sure suck, and it can be painful.
But this audience was obviously familiar with her music. I am not. She did have the audience with her for as much of her set as I saw. It’s funny how when you know the lyrics to a song, your brain will fill in the missing details, like unintelligible singing, when you hear it live (or even recorded music; excuse me while I kiss this guy). That may be what happened here. They knew the bass patterns, which gave clues to the missing melody and the words she sang and the spectacle of it all was something to behold. For me, this first experience was a disappointment.
I think that catches us up with everything.
(Photos by Swartz – SUNonline/Orillia and Images Supplied) Main: 2025 Roots North main stage artists clockwise from center, Royal Wood, Jully Black, Gracie Ella, James Gray, Nicolina.
