Family stories spark songs
More people are researching their family history but Amanda Rheaume has taken things a step farther. The Ottawa singer-songwriter has created an album of songs using stories from her own ancestry.
The origins of her recent album Keep A Fire go back to 2009 when she was in a plane flying up to perform for the troops in the Nunavut settlement of Alert. Looking out the window at the Northwest Passage reminded her of her grandfather Thomas Irvine, who had been the navigator on the HMCS Labrador, the first ship to get through the passage and circle North America in one voyage.
“I got this snapshot into his life and I wanted to tell him so badly what I was thinking about. Then I started asking myself what I was singing about in the first place.”
Her writing partner John MacDonald encouraged her to set something down and what started as one song of tribute grew into a bigger project. Certain songs on the album touch on her Métis ancestry, and on her great-great-grandfather who was a founding father of Manitoba. The priority was to keep the stories interesting.
“It depended on the song but typically I would find out as many facts as I could: who were they, what time of year was it and what were they travelling in? Then I sat down, talked and thought about their struggles and tried to speak from their position.”
She was also touring Canada, meeting relatives she barely knew to hear their stories. Today she has a new appreciation for the great stories you can draw from Canadian history.
Rheaume’s interest in songwriting first took off when she found herself backstage at Ottawa’s Lilith Fair in 1999. Meeting up with several performers at the event gave her the push to pursue writing and playing.
Four years later, she did her first demo. A couple of EPs followed and a Christmas album. She released her first full-length CD Light Of Another Day in 2011.
Chloe A lbert opens when Amanda Rheaume plays Blue Chair Café (9624 76th Ave.) 7:30 p.m. Thursday.
PUNK JAZZ PIONEER
At first meeting, you would probably never guess that the unassuming 72-year-old Peter Brotzmann was a progenitor of the punk esthetic in free-jazz back in the late 1960s. But just wait until he gets onstage with his saxophone. Even now, Brotzmann is a ferocious player.
Nearly 50 years later, he is also a living legend, one of the most revered soloist-composers in improvised music, with a long list of connections to great players on both sides of the Atlantic. Even former U.S. president Bill Clinton is a declared fan.
After his first Edmonton date became one of the surprise hits of the 2012 Jazz Fest, Brotzmann is back at the Yardbird Saturday, this time in a duo with Chicago vibraphonist Jason Adasiewicz (here last month in the band Ice Crystal).
To some listeners, their recent live disc Going All Fancy might seem like all-out improvisation but listen hard and you’ll hear certain basic “rules” as Brotzmann explains.
“The first rule is that you’re working with another person so you have to be able to listen to each other. The second rule is, sometimes it’s better to stop than to play. In an evening of improvised music like we play, you have to have it in your guts that there’s a start and an end, and in between you have to create some tension.”
This tour he’s packing an alto and tenor sax, a B-flat clarinet and the Hungarian wind instrument tarogato. Famous for his highly physical playing style, he says performing can be cathartic. Adasiewicz is at least a generation younger but they’ve found common ground.
“My music still confronts people with things they aren’t used to. One goal is to surprise myself and even the hardcore audience I have. I’m always looking for something that I haven’t done yet.”
The Brotzmann-Adasiewicz Duo plays 9 p.m. Saturday at the Yardbird Suite (102nd street at 86th Avenue). Tickets are $20 for members, $24 for guests, from Ticketmaster or at the door.