WORLD TRAVELLER
Sax player blows into town
Keith O’Rourke was born in Edmonton and raised in Calgary. But his music suggests the tenor saxophonist is at home around the world.
You can get a sense of that Saturday when O’Rourke brings his band to mark the release of his debut album, Sketches From The Road. It’s brimming with a warm, curious spirit, exploratory melodies and some introspective moments, drawing from a wide source of inspirations.
“I like to try and tell a story in music,” he said, “and I have an active imagination. Sometimes I was just reflecting on my time in these places and people I met there.”
O’Rourke’s experiences prompted numbers like Bayswater (where he lived in a hostel in London), Port Nola (docking in New Orleans), Drifting (on the Caribbean Sea), and Sketch In Green (feeling homesick in Ireland), all tunes that wound up on Sketches From The Road. Another piece, Solitary Traveler, takes on an imagined trek into the desert.
This set of fine contemporary jazz features pianist Jon Day, trumpeter Andre Wickenheiser, bassist Kodi Hutchinson and drummer Tyler Hornby, top players from the Calgary scene who will reprise their roles in live performance.
O’Rourke was already enrolled in classical training at the University of Calgary when he gained his introduction to jazz and soon found himself playing in a big band on the side, enticed by “the freedom that jazz offers.” Following graduation in 1997 he was eager to see the world.
He wound up in London, England, working in an Irish pub and using his off hours to take in festival concerts and workshops with artists like Jack DeJohnette and Joe Lovano. Concerts or recordings by reed giants like Sonny Rollins, Stan Getz and John Coltrane helped light the way. He even moved to Dublin for a while before his return and then he left on a seven-year stint playing on cruise ships.
“For me it was ideal. There are two types of players on ships, the guys who make it a job to live out the rest of their lives there, or musicians who go there to get better and use that schedule to get better. I was the second type.”
Working on the ships took him to dozens of port cities where he often had time to go sightseeing and absorb impressions, stoking his creative spirits, honing his talent by playing every night. Since his return to Calgary in 2009 he has found his way into a variety of other projects and collaborations.
Keith O’Rourke’s quintet plays the Yardbird Suite (86 Avenue at Gateway Boulevard) at 8 p.m. Saturday. Tickets are $20 for members, $24 for guests, in advance from Tix On The Square or at the door.
AUSTRALIAN CHAMPAGNE
Growing up along the relatively isolated coast of New South Wales, Australia has made Daniel Champagne something of a nomad as he takes his music to the rest of the world. Canada was one of the earliest stops for the Melbourne native after he finished high school at 18.
He plays here for the Northern Lights Folk Club Saturday before Cape Breton folk stars Coig.
The troubadour has been based in Nashville about four years now but it’s typical to find him on the road most times. His current Canadian jaunt packs 32 shows in 32 nights, and he has now played some 30 countries around the world.
“That’s how I like it. I’m here to play music so while I’m out I want to play as much as I can.”
Listening to Champagne’s recent album, Fault Lines, it’s easy to be moved by the man’s heartfelt vocals and expert fingerpicking melodies. But he admits the “guitar acrobatics” are a little less obvious this time around to serve the larger whole, the tunes and sonic backdrops including some strings.
His live solo performances offer another, intimate angle and that amazing guitar work. Either way, the man’s marvellous sense for song hooks has won him wider popularity at home and abroad. He writes about relationships but you can also find tunes tied to his travels, the people he’s met and stories he’s heard.
Champagne’s father made music as a regular sideline to his main career.
“My earliest memories are watching my dad practise in the backyard in Melbourne. There’s were always a lot of guitars around the house, records being played, musicians dropping in and me staying up past my bedtime to check out what was going on.”
Impressed early on by Julian Bream, John Williams and others, child prodigy Champagne got classical training on guitar from age nine. Seeing Tommy Emmanuel live really set his ambitions afire and, since he moved beyond playing covers in his teens, it’s always been about the song, as you can hear on a handful of previous E.P.s and several full-length albums. He’s credits his parents’ love of Bob Dylan and more recent artists like Ben Harper and Australia’s Jon Butler as influences.
Daniel Champagne and Cape Breton’s Coig perform at 8 p.m. Saturday for Northern Lights Folk Club at Parkview Community Hall (9135-146 St.). Tickets are $22 in advance from Tix On The Square, Acoustic Music, or Myhre’s Music, $27 at the door.
P.J. PERRY MEETS THE ESO
For fans of jazz and classical, this weekend offers a special homegrown crossover event when saxophone master P.J. Perry performs a new concerto called Dreaming Of The Masters written for him by playercomposer Allan Gilliland, to be performed with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra.
Chris Andrew will also perform on piano. Anyone familiar with the reedman’s previous collaborations with the ESO has an idea of the performance chemistry they can find together.
There are three performances, Friday and Saturday night and a Sunday matinee at the Winspear Centre.
For full details go to winspearcentre.com.