Preview
PAT BELLIVEAU
Saturday, February 8
Rozsa Centre
Pat Belliveau teaches jazz at the University of Calgary and Bishop Carroll High School, but he’ll tell you he learned his best jazz outside the classroom.
Belliveau plays tenor and baritone saxophone and has toured with many of the biggest names in the jazz world, from Jimmy Dorsey’s orchestra to Mel Torme’s band. Belliveau has learned a lot from those veterans and he’s quick to acknowledge that there is no academic equivalent to that experience. Nothing duplicates the value of just talking with seasoned musicians immediately after a performance, or the chance to watch them while you’re playing with them.
"You know, this is the shit you will never ever learn in any book," says Belliveau. "You will never find this in a book in any library at any school. You won’t. It was wonderful."
Belliveau continues to learn from experience – many of his collaborations have taken him a long way from conventional jazz circles, spanning work with Randy Brecker, Lighthouse and the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra. He’s also played as a sideman in the recent House of Love performance at the Auburn Saloon, and has backed up David Thiaw, Decidedly Jazz Danceworks and many others. Through it all, jazz has been the constant – its off-the-cuff improvisational demands have prepared him for all kinds of music.
"It’s some of the most difficult stuff I’ve ever done," he says of jazz. "Sometimes it’s made my hair stand up on end the highest and, wow, and it’s some of the most beautiful stuff I’ve ever done. It’s also been some of the most out-there weirdest wackiest shit I’ve ever done."
That same jazz background can be restrictive, Belliveau says, but he has no patience with people who dismiss other forms of music.
"There are so many good styles of music out there," he observes. "Even Duke Ellington said there are two types of music – good and bad – and I believe that through all different genres and all different styles.
"I don’t want to come across as being a jazz snob – I refuse to be that way. I know that jazz has prepared me to do the things that I can. It is the music that has prepared me for so much, but it doesn’t mean I’m gonna blow everything else off and say it’s not valid. That’s not right."
Belliveau’s open mind shows in his newest recording, La Zona Blanca, a CD that spans bop, funk, fusion and Latin. The musicians on the disk include many of the best in jazz circles – Belliveau’s compositions and arrangements combine with powerful performances by Bobby Shew, Paul Wertico, Kirk McDonald, Calgary’s Willie Joosen and a host of others to make this a strong recording.
Perhaps what’s most obvious in Belliveau’s career and on La Zona Blanca is his willingness to take musical risks and to learn from experience. Fitting then that his performance at the Rozsa Centre is a tribute to two of the most open and innovative jazz musicians of all time – Charlie Parker and John Coltrane. It started when U of C’s Victor Coelho asked Belliveau to play a Coltrane tribute at the Rozsa Centre. Coltrane is one of the biggest names in jazz, but Belliveau wasn’t satisfied with one jazz giant, so he decided to include Parker, who was a huge influence on Belliveau during his high school days.
"I remember playing the Charlie Parker omni book and trying to play over his stuff and scuffling and stepping all over it," says Belliveau, who has always been willing to explore new music. His career has been built on first-hand experience with some of the most established jazz players, and his rare talent continues to make him one of the most sought-after musicians in Calgary’s music scene. |
