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| Lana Victoria Lam - Piano - Michael Morimoto Alto Saxophone - 13 February 2025 |
Sometimes I define Vancouver’s cultural scene as sterile. But I reconsider and believe that in many ways our city is avant-garde. That became obvius tonight at the West Point Grey United Church.
How is this discrepancy possible? With the death of our city journalism and the CBC’s stress on bridge traffic, one of the few ways of knowing what is going on in our city is through email subscription to friends in the arts.
An thus I found out about tonight’s concert. I received a communication from my composer and saxophonist friend Colin MacDonald.
It seems that every few years there is a conference in the UBC School of music of prodigious Canadian saxophonists.
Before I delve into the concert, I do want to make clear that not only am I an amateur music critic but in 1958 I played the alto saxophone (and ancient silver coloured Selmer one) at St.Edward’s High School in Austin, Texas. It seems that I was good enough to not only be in the school band but also in the jazz band. After Texas I quit.
Tonight’s concert featured (is this possible?) and arrangement of Claude Debussy’s Rapsodie. It seems that it was commissioned by a female sax player who was deaf by the time, 20 years later when Debussy finished it.
Just on that composition, had my friends of the Turning Point Ensemble know about it, they would have surely been present.
For me what was unusual is that Chinley Hinacay (a Filipino cababayan of mine) played both the soprano and tenor saxophone. He would hold one of them while playing the other.
When the well-dressed Kris Covlin played Charles Stolte's True Confessions solo piece I was into new territory. Colin MacDonald explained that all the different sounds and dissolves were in fact clearly written on the music. There were moments when a sound would come out and then Covlin would allow it to sneak away into oblivion. Since I was on the front row I could hear those sounds.
Holly De Caigny, when she played David Lang's Press Release, I discovered that the composition had nothing to do with newspapers but about the saxophone action of pressing and releasing keys.
Allison Balcetis, wearing a most colourful dress, played a tenor saxophone. I was blown away by sounds she made by just tapping the instrument’s keys. She made sounds by overblowing, that back in my day, would have shot me down by my band teacher Brother Edwin Reggio, C.S.C. Last night simply revealed to me to what extent the music of the saxophone has evolved into this century.
That is something that Colin MacDonald amply proved with his compositions. While others tonight did fabulous arrangements, MacDonald was the only composer. One was even based on an obscure pre-Bach composition.
Finally at the end, after all those dissonant noises (I am used to them as I like Bartók) Michael Morimoto on alto saxophone and Lana Victoria Lam on piano played a long and nicely sweet composition. I was able to drive home without a care in my world
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| Rose Yam - Chinley Hinacay & Matthew Robinson |
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| Kris Covlin |
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| Holly De Caigny |
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| Colin MacDonald |
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| Allison Balcetis |
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| Lana Vitoria Lam & Michael Marimoto |
