THE COUPLES REMINISCE ON THEIR SPECIAL SONGS,
Jessica Linnebach, NACO violinist/associate concertmaster, and Yosuke Kawasaki, NACO violinist/ concertmaster
Jessica: This will sound especially cheesy to classical musicians but our “song ” is the 2nd movement from the Concierto de Aranjuez for classical guitar by Joaquin Rodrigo. Shortly after we met, we discovered that we had a mutual love for the Spanish flamenco guitarist, Paco de Lucia. His recording of the Concierto de Aranjuez gives us both goosebumps every time and maybe even some tears. At our wedding in Turks and Caicos, I walked down the aisle to it. This year, and usually every year on Valentine’s Day, we get to play a concert! We usually celebrate on a different day of the week and enjoy dinner at one of our favourite restaurants, Town or Supply and Demand.
Tim Bedner, jazz guitarist, and Elise Letourneau, singer-composer
Two For the Road, Henry Mancini
Elise: Tim and I have played a lot of tunes together, but I’m not sure we ever had one official song, which might sound strange for a pair of musicians. But we’ve been playing this song together for a long time now, and we often close our performances with it. We both love the melody and harmony so much, and the lyrics are so beautiful: “If you’re feeling fancy-free, come wander through the world with me, and any place we chance to be will be our rendezvous...” Just right for people who have been hanging out with each other for 30 or so years.
Julian Armour, artistic/executive director at Music and Beyond, and Guylaine Lemaire, violist
Someone to Watch Over Me, George and Ira Gershwin
Julian: Someone to Watch Over Me has been with us for a long time. What a great, romantic song! We have always enjoyed February and this song has made this month even more special. I’m sure that one of the very first things Guylaine and I ever did together was going skating on Valentine’s Day. In fact, we were married in February and Someone to Watch Over Me was played at our wedding. We moved a nine-foot Steinway up many stairs on a snowy February day into the Supreme Court. John Gilbert travelled from Montreal and treated us to a beautiful version. Many happy memories!
Diane Nalini, jazz singer, and Adrian Cho, bassist/ bandleader
I Didn’t Know About You, Duke Ellington, lyrics by Bob Russell
Nalini: It has a beautiful melody and the lyrics are about someone whose life seemed happy enough but they never knew about love because they didn’t know about the person they now hold so dear. The last line goes: “How could I know about love? I didn’t know about you.” It was one of the songs played at our wedding. I surprised Adrian by singing “I didn’t know about you” to him as a duet with Mike Rud. We’d had to rehearse in secret by Skype because Mike was in Montreal. That was a challenge as Skype doesn’t do two-way audio!
Riishi Von Rex, singer-songwriter, and Michel Delage, drummer
Imagine A Jump, Mighty Mike
Riishi: Michel found it. When we started dating, we had just gotten out of long-term relationships, and it sort of seemed like the worst idea, or a silly idea. The song was like Michel’s mantra. Why we go out on one date? Might as well jump. I said, “Come on, you’re being ridiculous.” (The song mashes up the lyrics of Van Halen’s Jump to the music of John Lennon’s Imagine.) (The couple is getting married Feb. 17.)
Hilda Cowie, NACO double bassist, and Alex Moxon, jazz guitarist
Private Eyes by Hall & Oates
Hilda: We went through a yacht rock phase early in our relationship and Private Eyes was in heavy rotation. For my birthday that year, Alex transcribed Private Eyes and gave me a bass amp so we could play it together. It has everything you need in a pop song: juicy melody, sneaky harmony, rockin’ guitar, sweet music video, conveniently the lyrics are semi-romantic. For those reasons and more, it does the job as our official relationship song. We put our heads together to come up with one word that best describes this song and that word is “rad.”
Lucas Haneman, singer-songwriter-guitarist-bandleader, and Megan Laurence, singer
I Remember You by Dorothy Lamour, performed by Terry Tufts
Lucas: In the summer of 2015, just before Megan and I got married, we went out to the Nepean Sailing club to hear Terry Tufts perform. The evening was incredible, and we were blown away by Terry’s sound as well as overall musicianship. I’d had Terry as a contact on Facebook for some time, but I’d never had the chance to officially meet him. For weeks at this point Megan and I had been trying to think of a first dance song that we could have played at our wedding, but despite all the great tunes that we both know, we just couldn’t come up with a single song that was special to us. Terry finished the gig, and the crowd begged him to go back on for an encore. He picked up his beautiful acoustic guitar built by local luthier Peggy White, and busted into the quietest, most lilting, folksy version of the old jazz standard I Remember You Megan and I had ever heard. Perhaps it was the timing, perhaps it was the feeling of the breeze coming into the marina off the Ottawa River late at night, but Megan and I, along with everyone there, were extremely moved by his performance. All of a sudden, we both looked at each other and said, “That’s the song.” We went over to talk to Terry afterwards and told him we wanted to buy a CD that contained his version of the tune, as we were getting married, and wanted to use it as our first dance at our wedding. Not only did he open a bag and hand us a free CD, but he asked us what the date was, then told us that he’d come and perform the song free of charge at our wedding the next month. Needless to say we were deeply touched beyond words. So, on Sept. 27, 2015, at the Herb Garden in Almonte we danced to Terry performing a live version of I Remember You, and we couldn’t have been happier. Terry, and this version of I Remember You will always hold an extremely special place for the two of us. Now when anniversaries come along we put on the CD that Terry gave us, and dance around our living room to it.
Twin Flames’ singer-songwriters and instrumentalists Jaaji Okpik and Chelsey June
Oak Tree by Twin Flames
“Our song” would be a song we wrote called Oak Tree from our latest album Twin Flames. We wrote it last year leading up to our wedding. It is about love standing the test of time and being strong rooted like an old oak tree, remembering to grow together and as our branches spread out to always remain united. We decided to make a music video of our wedding to share with our fans and it was the song Oak Tree that fit perfectly. Many couples have told us this will be their wedding day song which is so amazing and heart warming.