Lisa Brawn

Earlier this spring, Calgary musician Dan Meichel passed away. An explorer of music, sound, noise and visual expression through musical projects, performance art and theatre activities, Meichel was a free thinker and improviser in every respect. Along with his family and friends, his main instrument, the saxophone, was his life.

While listening to one of the last recordings of Meichel playing in Japan with newfound improvisers Cal Lyall, Jason Funk and Akira Yamamichi, his ability to communicate floods my memory. His musical voice was his entire being, heart and soul, poured into his expressions.

On a number of occasions, Meichel and I had conversations about the conscious and unconscious directions explorations took. There were times after sessions when we would look at each other, speechless, wondering what had just happened. What journey had we just come back from? These were the places Meichel wanted to go — it excited him and fed his energies, and many players felt this working with him.

In hearing Meichel in the Japan recording, you hear the history of his instrument, the directions music and sound have taken throughout the centuries and the strong presence of Meichel stretching his creative boundaries in a phenomenal way. This was a super session, demonstrating a top notch collaboration of fine players.

For over 10 years, Meichel pursued his passion collaborating with like-minded creative people, from the Street of Crocodiles free jazz project to Kris Demeanor’s Crack Band, the One Yellow Rabbit theatre troupe and the old Trout Puppet Workshop. No ordinary sax player, he was very much aware of and inspired by the greats that came before him and during his lifetime — players such as John Coltrane, Peter Brötzmann, Evan Parker, Eric Dolphy, John Zorn, Napoleon Murphy Brock and Ken Vandermark.

The music of those he listened to extensively enabled his own individual journey. It is important to mention the above names, because they are the legendary groundbreakers we know well (this is the short list), but it was not always about the names for Meichel — his friends and colleagues were also important to him to expand creatively. Meichel touched and worked with literally hundreds of amazing musicians over the years. With a strong academic background, he gave himself permission and freedom to follow his interests in the free improvisation and experimental music scene.

Over the decades, Calgary’s most innovative and creative people and projects were drawn to Meichel for his profound abilities and extraordinarily approach. He found solace within the Calgary arts community and was inspired to be a part of this unique, thriving environment, including visits to both Bug Incision and Discord series.

Meichel pursued his passion humbly. While success and recognition were gained along the way, they are not what drove him — being with people, sharing and communicating were paramount. Whether it was playing mainstream with pop bands, laying down tracks for someone’s recordings, hanging and jamming out with both new and longtime friends, pushing and expanding sound and music, playing in his many noise and free-improvisation groups or working within theatre productions, Meichel played with equal conviction.

Just as important were the solo projects, mainly Jazz Snob: Eat Shit, which led him to pursue his trip to Japan aided by a grant from the Alberta Creative Development Initiative. As with any skilled and productive player in our community, leaving his home base to connect and discover the outside world was important. Meichel did this on numerous occasions, visiting St. John’s, Tucson and finally Tokyo, where he passed away this April.

It’s people like Dan Meichel who truly are the lifeblood of our exciting, creative city. If you did not encounter him in his lifetime, seek him out in the many recordings and projects he was involved in. He will live on and be an influence for a long time to come.

The Japan recording can be found at: soundispatch.com/music_uploads/klangfeld_meichel.mp3