Paul Read News

Canadians don’t make much of a fuss over Thanksgiving. Americans I know are surprised at this. But I have an answer. Our real Thanksgiving seems to occur at this time of year. Not back in October when none of us can figure out why Thanksgiving is suddenly upon us. Okay, it’s Thanksgiving, stuff the turkey, see if anyone in the family is available. Watch the Wizard of Oz. Say a prayer of thanks and get back to work. But as the calendar flips (actually as 2005 hits the recycle bin and 2006 comes out of the shrinkwrap) it is suddenly time to reflect and look forward. What better conditions for consideration of all we have thankful for.

My wife, my daughter, my son-in-law, my immediate and in law families, my colleagues, my doctors (especially this year), my friends who I see regularly, those I see hardly ever, those who have become email buds only, those who reach out when you need them and for my father who died in 1984. My life would be drastically different without his influence and his infinite patience with a young man who knew everything and refused to go into the family business. My mother, still living, whose spirit is as strong as steel and takes everyday with the same unwavering attitude, that this could be the last and best day of her life or not, and that when the end comes, she can’t wait to see my dad. I am thankful for the beautiful home we live in and the music in our lives. It is truly the fuel that keeps the engines going in our household, but it comes from somewhere and that place is love. I am thankful to live with love in my life and with people who care about each other.

May you all have the most wonderful year in 2006. May there be peace and understanding among men and women unparallelled in recent years. And may we dream and dream and resolve at New Years to follow those visions and never never never waiver from the good and human paths before us.

Paul

We have shootings on Boxing Day in the centre of Toronto that claim the life of a 15 year old girl who was in the wrong place at the wrong time. And it is just the latest in a long list of senseless, stupid violent behaviour that is now, it appears, inculturated in the lives of a small but significant number of Toronto youth who live with fear, hatred, resentment and misplaced feelings of power and control. They compete at all costs and it is causing us all to take stock of what is a growing and seemingly out of control problem that involves possession of handguns and a lack of moral and ethical fibre.

Our politicians are dukeing it out again. Promising this and that, accusing one another of lying and cheating and misleading the public. This has become laughable. No matter what party wins the next election (and man do I hope it ISN’T Stephen Harper’s Conservative George Bush wannabes — oops I should have called them the Alliance Party), they inherit a different kind of culture. Not the one that is shaking Toronto’s foundations at the moment, but one where political aides and advisors and lobbyists and elected MPs hop on a moving train that requires them to deal with many nearly impossible problems. Whichever party gets in will have to deal with US/Canada trade relations, will have to deal with French/English issues, will have to solve problems with our medicare system and have to figure out how to clean up the political streets which are corrupt and have been corrupted by all parties.

There are well meaning, brilliant people everywhere trying to find solutions to these and other problems facing Canadians and solutions have not been found. And yet good will continues to be one of the most important assets at times like this. We need intelligent people of good will, who care and work together to find ways to mend our fences and our wounds. My prayer is that 2006 is the year we make strides forward in all the important areas. That we find a way to help mankind learn to see the world the way astronauts found so compelling. As a single blue green ball in the black sky above the moon, without borders or any other invention of man that divides its inhabitants. I pray we see an end to the senseless war in Iraq and that countries like the USA start spending their wealth on building better lives for their own people at home. That all countries including Canada start to place more emphasis on education, the arts and other proven means to improve life rather than tear it down. That honesty becomes again the best policy and that a year from now we will all feel a sense of gratitude and be able to take pride in a year of great accomplishment in these lofty endeavours.

In the meantime, and just to lighten the mood here, click on this link and enjoy a funny ad that is entitled 1664, A bad year for composing:

ad

See you soon
Paul

Over the years, Mark Miller has been one of our richest resources in jazz criticism and journalism in Canada. I personally have found his columns at various times irritating, controversial, uplifting, inspiring and highly informative. They have always been written beautifully. Lord, the man can write. Thankfully, the article reveals he will be devoting time to writing books and for this I am grateful. We need you Mark! Here is a link to a story in which will tell more.

Story

Paul

HI
I’m in an entrepreneurial spirit today and so wanted to let you know that if you have any interest in purchasing any of the scores (with parts) for any of the music on the site) please drop me an email and I’ll let you know the price and details. Today I have posted a new recording produced by playing the parts for my 4 horn(with rhythm section) chart on Irving Berlin’s How Deep is the Ocean, into Digital Performer. The sounds come from JABB, the Garritan Jazz and Big Band Library, The alto saxophone still sounds VERY synthy (working on it), but the rest seems to get just a little better with every attempt. Thanks to a new pal, Dan Kury, who I met on the Garritan forum, I have really been developing my DP 4.6 abilities and am having fun playing recording engineer at the end of the process. Performer presents you with a fully automated mixing board with tons of plug-ins (I only use reverb on the jazz and classical stuff normally although on this project I messed around a bit with eqing the bass drum – felt I could do the least damage there). Anyway, hope you enjoy the solos and the arrangement. The trombone solo is by Willie Makeit and the piano solo is by Phil Atwill.The bassist also did a nice job on his solo and his name is Lobo Nobow.
Later
Paul

Needed a break from JABB work so I have just complete a new (fairly) light chamber orchestra piece scored for flute, oboe, english horn, harp and strings. It is a program piece that describes a young girl who wakes in the early morning, and, inspired by the sounds and atmosphere of a perfect day, dances alone, then slowly tires and goes back to sleep. Can’t tell you where this one came from musically, it’s just the sounds I was hearing and… out they came! No attempt to be particularly innovative.

Patricia Jane refers to Trish (her first and middle names), and that was what the title was to start when I thought I would write something to say thank you to her for her superhuman patience, love and unbelievable good humour during the fall of 2005 (see other postings). NOTE: I had a funny remark in here about having been on Arcturis and aliens appearing and so on, but she thought I might be sending the wrong message so it hit the cutting room floor.)

Then, as a music composition will, it took its own direction and became this program piece accompanying this picture I saw in my mind (which was extraordinarily beautiful – as I say, the meds have kicked in big time).

Anyway, I like the piece (kind of sounds English to me) and offer it for your listening pleasure. It, and the score are in the downloads section.

Have a wonderful time shopping, shoveling and writing cards. And don’t let the canned Christmas music in the stores dull your spirits. There is some beautiful Christmas music to hear at this time of year, but don’t go into a shopping mall or an elevator if you want to hear it.

Paul