Gig Diary - IAJE Toronto 09/01

Well....as we had luckily been hooked up with a British Airways flight a little later than expected, it wasn't too early a start for us. Shaney had his usual hold up with his suspicious looking cymbals at customs and then we were on the plane (along with Badbone and co). It was an 8 hour flight to Toronto in which we all watched films and ate pretty bad plane food, then on arrival we went to straight to our hotel, where we went our seperate ways for the evening to check out the city nightlife.

Other people out there who we hung with included Gwlym Simcock, Tom Cawley, Denys Baptiste, Andrew McCormack, the guys from Air (bethan and co), Helen Mayhew and lots of other guys. After a small amount of jetlagged sleep we performed at the British Showcase hosted by Courtney Pine (after Nathaniel had played with the 'Let Freedom Ring' Project). The gig was well received (I think). We played Shaney Forbes' tune 'Kite' and then Jay Phelps' 'Tyrant's Tale'.

After the performance we celebrated in traditional style (except for Jay - or Yay to his Spanish admirers - who performed with Badbone and co)...A day off ensued in which Kit played with the CUK Big Band and more sightseeing and listening, and then our longer gig. We felt we could stretch out more at this lunchtime performance and felt more comfortable and therefore a little happier with the gig. We played the same set which we won the EBU Competition with - Tyrants Tale, Dark Lady, Palantir and Blessings. It was strange to play at a 'conference' rather than a festival, but an interesting experience none the less.

Our last gig was a small club gig at the 'Academy of Spherical Arts' which ended up as a jam session for listeners and performers at the festival. We enjoyed ourselves immensely and hope to return before long.

Listening material on the trip included Vijay Iyer's 'Panoptic Modes', Keith Jarrett's 'Facing You' and Eric Dolphy's 'Out to Lunch' for our gig at the Con Cellar Bar, 28th Jan, which comprises soley of tunes from that album.