Ottawa, Ontario

We met yesterday at my place for an evening with Charlie Haden, Gary Burton, Brad Mehldau, Kenny Garrett, Bill Evans, Earl Klugh, Beth Nielson Chapman, etc. I especially enjoyed playing my latest find, Burnt Bulb on Broadway, a nice Canadian album with songs written by Kevin Breit. I'll have to try to remember to include some classical music in my next programme.

Looking forward to the next meeting.

Another excellent evening at Konrad's place. Despite his ungodly work hours, he treated us to great music and hospitality. The Earl Klugh was particularly exceptional.

looking forward to the next session.

matthew

On Saturday June 17th it was my turn to host and I made it a World Cup Affair. With music by composers and/or artists from the nations represented at the 06 Cup in Germany. There wasn't enough time to cover all 32 nations but I got somethin on from most of the groups. Here is what we heard, more or less

Group A

Germany – Ha Ye Ni (cello) - Mendelsson
Poland – Grzegorz Krawiez (guitar on MA recordings)

Group B

England – Matt Haimovitz - (solo cello) Benjamin Britten
Sweden – Vasen

Group C

Argentina – Astor Piazolla
Netherlands – Stochello Rosenberg

Group D

Mexico – Lila downs
Portugal – Mariza
Angola - Bonga
Iran – Dastan Ensemble

Group E

Czech Republic – Dvorak Cello Concerto - Gregor Piatigorsky
Italy – Enrico Rava
Usa – Erik Freidlander

Group F

Brazil - Badi Assad
Japan – Imo Ita (MA recording), as well as Bob Brozman & Takashi Hirayasu
Korea - Chan E Park
France – Emmanuel Bertrand performing Grief

Group G

Spain – Calamus (ma recording)
Tunisia – anouar brahem

Not exactly soccer music, but it worked. Anyways, I thought it went well and was a fun afternoon. Looking forward to the next meeting.

matthew

Indeed, an excellent theme and a wonderful afternoon. And the Scotch was pretty darn good too.

Thanks Matthew.

I'm in the middle of building a listening room in the basement so for my turn to host, I decided to invite the club out to a live show. We went to "Le Petit Chicago", to watch sax player, Petr Cancura. I think Petr has been getting used to living in New York and he came on a little later than we might have liked. But he put on a strong first set. It was fun to get a chance to talk to everyone before the show started. And I might try something like that in the future. But first, to get the listening room ready and to host an evening some time early in the new year.

all the best

matthew