Crickets

Despite the surfeit of excellent music and landmarks like the first anniversary and show #200, September attendance at ST was significantly lower than average; last month's numbers were roughly 60% of the total average since opening and, strikingly, only half of what August's numbers were.

Can anybody say why this is the case? I detected a bias against booking in August that is based on a (false?) assumption that "everybody's away." More influential and indicative of the numbers, I'd guess, is an overwhelming "Holy Moly! It's September!" sentiment -- back to school, work, nice apples, whatnot -- that kept folks away.

October is a nice time to hear live music, though, don't you think?

Speaking of which, Laurel MacDonald's VIDEOVOCE residency began last (dark and stormy) night to a meagre crowd. It's quite different from pretty much anything else that has been booked here. The eight-speaker surround sound work is lovely, and includes segments from A Time to Hear for Here, John Oswald's Royal Ontario Museum sound installation that he executed with Laurel and Phil Strong. Luckily, Laurel and Phil will be presenting the same program throughout the residency, Thursdays in October and November.

More Ink, More Air

See a really nice and quite in-depth interview with me about ST by Maestro Riccardo Marsella in this month's WholeNote Magazine. I was gobsmacked to see Rich's projection in the introductory paragraph that, if ST lasts fifty years and keeps presenting music at the current rate, it will reach 10,000 shows! Fifty years, huh? We'll have to wait and see about that.

Since the magazine failed to do it, I'd like to credit Jim Paterson, who took the photo of the intense-looking trombonist in question that was published with the interview (and here too). It's a slice of cosmic synchronicity that there's a photo of the Sun Ra Arkestra on the opposite page in the WholeNote; if you look at the distorted reflections on the bell of my horn, then maybe you can make out the form of Marshall Allen, with whom (along with John Oswald and Doug Tielli) I was playing at Guelph in 2005 when Jim took the shot. Marshall, of course, will be in town with the Arkestra for the X-Avant Festival at the end of October. As far as I know, the trombonist on the Wholenote cover is not me.

I also got word from a CBC producer that Andrew O'Connor's feature on William Parker and Jeff Schlanger has been aired (though nowhere near when they'd told Andrew that it would get played). Furthermore, it's likely to get re-broadcast on Fresh Air this weekend (Radio One 99.1 6-9am Saturday and Sunday), a delightfully strange context for William's words and music. Andrew put it best in an e-mail message to me: "I'm tickled pink by the thought of people taking their kids to swimming lessons this weekend and listening to William talk about 'the sound of continuous blue skies and continuous clouds.'" Onward public broadcasters! Continuously onward!