Preview
BOB DAY QUARTET
September 11 to 13
Beatniq
Friday, September 12
Olympic Plaza
C-jazz festival
Talking to Bob Day reminded me of the Ornette Coleman album entitled The Shape of Jazz to Come. The Toronto-born trumpeter wants to push the limits, saying one of his career goals is to create "something really different – new music."
Calgary audiences became familiar with Day through his early association with such local jazz favourites as the Eric Friedenberg Big Band, the Bob Erlendson Quintet and Prime Time. Day’s trumpet style also reflects his training with two major jazz legends, Bob Brookmeyer and Bobby Shew. Brookmeyer (ex of the Stan Getz quintet) is one of the foremost performers and arrangers living in New York. Shew, one of California’s most influential trumpet players, was part of last year’s C-Jazz festival. While Brookmeyer and Shew have been part of a fairly traditional jazz education for Day what isn’t so traditional is that he makes it a point to constantly explore.
"I go to the library," says Day, "and I’ll get a lot of 20th century composers like Schoenberg to kind of open my mind up to think of something that wouldn’t be in my normal stream."
For Day, this exposure to classical music isn’t unusual. His father was a flutist with the CBC and Toronto Symphonies and in recent years Day attended performances by Contemporary American composer George Crumb at Julliard. Crumb is known to classical music fans for his innovative use of amplification and electronic sound effects. His work profoundly affected Day. "(He was) the most amazing composer I’d ever heard of to just expand (your mind)."
Day credits his willingness to explore to legendary trombonist, Brookmeyer. "My writing and improvising changed in one lesson right there and then," says Day. "He just opened my whole mind up." That same openness has led to Day’s recent free improvisation jazz project with Banff musician Garry Sill, in which they experimented with rocks and tree branches as percussion instruments. This latest experiment is in keeping with Day’s devotion to jazz because, he says, it’s always growing and changing. This evolution has given Day the opportunity to work with some of the jazz world’s finest musicians.
Day has taken all of this and brought it to his performances. "I started listening to music when I was born because (my father would) be practicing," says Day. "I’d wake up hearing Bach on the flute as a young child for two hours at seven in the morning." Day claims that anything you hear can influence you and, as a result, that influence comes out when he plays. To him is the one of the best parts about playing jazz
Like many jazz musicians, Day is a prolific composer, but his method of composition is in keeping with his approach to jazz – unconventional.
"Since last September, I’ve come to this coffee shop every morning and I write for about an hour and a half. The music I did at Beatniq (recently) was all written here. Whether they have country and western on or whatever, somehow I can write and get into it and it doesn’t bother me. As a matter of fact, I like the distraction. I hate the office mentality – being at a computer at a desk in your bedroom."
As the leader of the Bob Day Quartet – which features Derek Stoll (piano), Kai Poscente (bass) and Robin Tufts (drums) – Day has found a vehicle for his compositions. "I like having an outlet for what I write. I mean, otherwise it will sit at home and it will pile up."
Day has not been content to simply experiment with his musical direction. He has drastically changed his playing technique, which he describes as being in a rut a few years ago. "I’m 56 now," he says. "My whole breathing technique changed at 54 years old and boy, if you don’t think that’s hard, because I’ve been playing since I was 13."
New technique and new direction. It is clear that in Day’s case, these are the right ingredients for something really different. |
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