Posts by Month

Hey folks! February 3 finds me freshly up at my favourite creative oasis, The Banff Centre for the Arts… I’ll be drinking lots of coffee, daydreaming under the snowy mountaintops, and practicing/writing my face off in my little hut in the woods. I’ll also be collaborating with Brazilian new music pianist Luciane Cardassi on some duo playing, and getting a regular and hearty sweat on in the gym. Good, fruitful times ahead!! The best part is I’m here for 6 weeks, plenty of time to dig in and find a nice work groove, and also crack open a couple of books – I brought Ultramarathon Man, A Guide to Trail Running, and Eiger Dreams. Nice! Also going to work on my French for a potential summer touring adventure in Montreal… more on that as things take shape. I’ll send some thoughts when I’ve settled in and the creative ooze has begun! Cheers and thanks, JEff

Hey everyone! Well, I kinda vanished again into the heart of December and a glance at the calendar tells me it’s now 20TWELVE! Wow, what a brilliant year 2011 was, sooooo much amazing stuff went down in the musical land of yours truly. Come to think of it, 2010 was like that too, and 2009 wasn’t so shabby itself, so fingers crossed that we’ll keep getting up to all kinds of fantastically awesome musical no good in the new year. I’m still working on the Donald Sales commission which will be wrapped up in the next few weeks, and starting to get ready to split town for 2 months… I’m going to spend 6 weeks back up at my favourite musical oasis in the Rocky Mountains, The Banff Centre for the Arts, practicing, starting the composition of a full length work for my good friend and amazing vocalist Viviane Houle and a 9-piece ensemble, collaborating with Brazilian new music pianist Luciane Cardassi, and just relaxing into a super productive state of snowy zen. I might do some Devil Loops touring on the end of the residency, so I should be getting back into Vancouver at the very end of March. Really, really looking forward to the adventure, but before I head off…

Had a really nice gig last Friday at The Western Front, playing with Alicia Hansen’s band and with the duo of Peggy Lee and Julie McGeer. Just one of those warm, lovely nights of music making with great players and deep people. UP NEXT (check the GIGS page for more info): two shows with my favourite funk brothers, David Marion and Ali Siadat (Jan 12 and 17) and the first appearance in waaaaay toooo long for The Unsupervised on Jan 20. There’s rumours of a Devil Loops show happening at the end of the month too, but I don’t know if I’ll have time to make it happen…

Here’s wishing everyone a truly brilliant and overflowing year. All the best ya’ll, and hope to see you before I hit the road!!! JEff

Hey Folks! Whew… knew it would be a big push to get through November and the first bit of December… little did I know how big! Haven’t slept much for the last couple of months, but I somehow managed to write a really nice Devil Loops touring grant during the final writing/score prep phase for the Donald Sales Commission , and I’m pretty stoked about how the through-written material for the piece turned out. Peggy, Jesse, Becky and Reg did a fantastic job on the session – they’re one hell of a string quartet and a really great and interesting crew of people – and we got some great improv captured as well. I’ll be doing one more session with Peggy tomorrow to get some extra sounds I can build with, and I’ll start editing and assembling the entire piece, section by section, over the next few weeks. I’m really interested to see how it ends up!! Been turning down gigs so I’ll have time to work on the piece, but STUMPMAS will be returning on Dec. 20, so we’ll be having some ridiculous fun to welcome back Santa and emerge from composer mode… Cheers and thanks to all!!! JEff

Hey folks! Working hard on the Donald Sales commission and really happy with how the music is coming. Good thing, because we record in about 3 weeks, then a bunch of fun editing and blammo, piece delivered. But, I’ve got a couple of fun gigs before I vanish for the final composition push: Wed Nov 16, I’m playing with Alicia Hansen for Jeff Younger Presents @ The Railway Club. We’re on at 10:30 and share the bill with Gavin Youngash’s new rock trio and Jesse Griffith. Then on Sat Nov 19, I’m back at Guilt & Co. with bassist JC Thompson and drummer Michael Simpsonelli for 3 sets of grooving improv, 9-12:30. Good times all ’round!!!

Cheers and thanks, JEff

Hey Folks! I’m deep into the composition of the piece for choreographer Donald Sales and am pretty stoked on what’s been bubbling forth so far… double string quartet w/ found sounds, featuring some fantastic string players when we record – Peggy Lee, Jesse Zubot, Rebecca Whitling and Reg Quiring. Been turning down gigs (sigh…) so there’s not as much on the calendar so I can spend my nights at the piano abusing my clicky-pencils, but hey, we’re gonna get a really interesting piece out of it and it’s really fun to sink my teeth into a composition project this meaty! We record Dec 4, then I’ll start adding the found sounds and do a bunch of editing, Donald gets back to town in January, so we’ll do our last round of edits and wait for news on the premiere. There’s still some cool gigs comin up, though, so check out the gigs page for adventures upcoming.

Rockout!!!

JEff

Hey All! Had an absolutely Beautiful gig w/ Peggy Lee, Jesse Zubot and Kristian Naso last Friday @ 1067. The music was fierce and sublime… Peggy and Jesse are 2/4 of the string quartet that will be playing the piece I’m writing for choreographer Donald Sales, a piece that I will be hi-diving into in the next couple of days. BUT, before then, I have to belatedly celebrate my birthday THIS FRIDAY while playing w/ The Deep End at The Backstage Lounge. Will be preposterous fun, I’m sure. We’re playing 3 uber funky sets between 10pm and 2am and cover is $10, so come on down if you feel like boogy-ing and celebrating. While I’m deep in string composition mode, I’ll be popping out for shows Oct 13 w/ Sawhead Trio @ Guilt and Company, and Oct 19 for JYP vol. 53 @ The Railway Club. I’ll be playing that one with David Marion on bass and K-OS’s Ray Garraway on drums. It should be totally funky and totally KILLER. Hope all is well in your worlds!!!!! JEff

Hey folks! THE UNSUPERVISED is at Goldie’s Pizza, 605 Pender @ Seymour, on Wed, Sept 14. 2 sets, 9-11, no cover. Come on down for some slice and new tunes! Then I’m at Guilt and Co. on Sat, Sept 17 w/ 2 mystery improvisers, Wed Sept 21 playing duo w/ the amazing JESS HILL @ The Railway Club for JYP vol. 52, and at 1067 w/ Peggy Lee and Jesse Zubot on Sept 30. Nice gigs! And I’m digging into the new piece for choreographer Donald Sales, so things are starting to get interesting… hope to see you at a show! JEff