Green Hornet triggers radio memories

If you’re of my generation, you’ll know what a crystal radio receiver is. As a youngster in the 1940’s I received one in kit form as a birthday present. What made the crystal radio unique was that the rudimentary device didn’t need a battery pack because its only power came from radio waves transmitted into the atmosphere from a radio station tower. The radio waves in turn were picked up through an antenna wired to the crystal set. The small receivers got their name from their most important component known as a crystal detector which was made from pieces of a crystalline mineral called galena. In order to hear a radio station broadcast, you listened through a set of earphones wired to a thin metal “cat’s whisker” which had to be delicately touching the crystal.

Photo: Crystal Radio Receiver

I kept my assembled crystal set under my bed so I could listen to radio programs far into the night without my parents knowing. In order to make my little radio operate I had a long shielded copper wire running from my second floor bedroom window, across the shingled roof to a wire-wound clothesline that ran from our laundry room porch out to a Douglas tree in the backyard. Since the crystal radio set also needed to be grounded, a second wire dropped down from my window and attached to a steel water pipe.

I have wonderful memories of the programs I heard on my crystal set. Bringing those memories to the fore was a new movie I saw on Friday at Nanaimo’s Galaxy Theatre called The Green Hornet. The film was based on The Green Hornet radio series, one of the programs I would faithfully listen to on my crystal set in the 1940’s. The radio program was the brainchild of Fran Striker who also created The Lone Ranger series, another program I loved.  

Watching The Green Hornet on a big theatre screen with all its technological wonders of 3-D and Surround Digital Sound was, to put it mildly, an exercise in pure sensory overload. Listening to The Green Hornet as a youngster on a rudimentary crystal set I had to visualize everything in my imagination. On the theatre screen, one’s mind just needed to be passively parked in neutral with a bag of popcorn at hand, your imaginative responsibility having been downloaded to the movie-maker’s magical arsenal.

Exploding visually on screen was the Hornet’s super-powered automobile the Black Beauty invented by his sidekick Kato. Most crime fighting characters and cowboy superheroes had partners. The Lone Ranger had Tonto, Batman - Robin, Tom Mix - Pancho, Roy Rogers - Gabby Hayes, Hopalong Cassidy - Andy Clyde to name a few. Like the Lone Ranger and Batman, the Green Hornet wore a mask to conceal his true identity. He also had a weapon of choice – a gas gun to subdue fugitives. The gun didn’t do permanent harm to the criminals, just making them helpless till they could be arrested. Sort of like the controversial taser guns that some police officers indiscriminately employ these days.

An interesting legend exists concerning the character of the Green Hornet’s sidekick Kato. The story goes that Kato was said to be of Japanese ancestry until the attack on Pearl Harbour and then the radio scriptwriters suddenly changed his heritage to Filipino. Like the Lone Ranger series The Green Hornet had a stirring classical theme song and memorable opening narration. The show would open with Flight of the Bumblebee by Rinsky-Korsakov. Then the announcer would begin in a deep stern timbre with: “The Green Hornet, he hunts the biggest of all game! Public enemies who try to destroy our America! With his faithful valet Kato, Britt Reid, daring young publisher matches wits with the underworld, risking his life so that criminals and racketeers, within the law, may feel its weight by the sting of the Green Hornet”.

The last original Green Hornet radio show aired in 1953. Very little of the original material made it into the new movie. However if you’re up to some electrifying car chases and unfettered violence, then this movie is a must see.

Also opening at the Galaxy Theatre in Nanaimo this weekend is a film I told you about in a previous blog. The King’s Speech starring Colin Firth, Geoffrey Rush and Helena Bonham is a film not to be missed. The movie is the story of King

George VI of Britain, his unwanted ascension to the throne and the speech therapist who helped the shy and stutter-plagued monarch deal with the stress of the public speaking engagements that came with being King. Having seen almost every film released in 2010 I’ll wager the movie has several Academy Awards in store, perhaps even Best Picture if the American Hollywood-based members of the Academy can bring themselves to vote a British film top prize.

Other films I’ve viewed recently were The Fighter (excellent), Season of the Witch with Nicolas Cage (best skipped), Black Swan (weird but pretty good), Country Strong (boring for my musical tastes - however the folks in cowboy hats sitting behind me loved it), True Grit (outstanding), Little Fockers (not as funny as the original), Tron (viewed in 3D the special effects were fabulous), The Tourist (bogged down with a very weak script), Made in Dagenham (an excellent British film about a car plant strike led by female workers) and The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (also viewed in 3D. Based on the classic children fantasy novels by C.S. Lewis. Loaded with special effects of flying dragons, slithering sea serpents and one-footed dwarves. Very well done).

Next week I’m on the Lower Mainland with my wife Pat as she adjudicates piano examinations for the Royal Conservatory of Toronto. If there’s internet in the hotel, another blog is likely.

Father’s Films reveal memories

I keep telling myself I’ve got to do something about the clutter overtaking my garage. The garage is a double-bay and my wife Pat’s car, much to her chagrin, has never been parked inside out of the elements since we moved into the house. Her space is packed to the ceiling with everything from lawnmowers and tools, through to numerous cardboard boxes containing treasured memorabilia we’ve never had the time to sort through. Last fall I did make a feeble attempt to organize the space. However that expedition didn’t last long after being sidetracked upon discovering a tattered box containing over a dozen cans of 16 mm home movie film belonging to my father taken in the late 1930’s.

It was in the early 20th Century that home movie making by amateurs became a realistic possibility. The Kodak Company, founded by George Eastman, became the leading player in early 20th century developments in both still photography and in movie making. The company launched their first 16mm home movie system in 1923. The first films were in Black and White with the first color film (dubbed Kodacolor) appearing in 1928. 

The silent 16 mm film format was initially aimed at the home filmmaker, but by the 1930s it became popular for professional use in the educational market. In 1935 came the option of sound and an improved color process called Kodachrome. During WW2 the format was extensively used resulting in a massive increase of 16 mm professional filmmaking. The clients for these films included schools, government departments, medical institutions and industrial groups. I recall in my elementary school years viewing a steady flow of National Film Board presentations in the classroom. One I’ve never forgotten was a “short” called The Loon's Necklace which told the story of how the loon got the distinctive band around its neck. I recall vividly how the filmmaker used West Coast First Nations ceremonial masks to illustrate the legend. 

From the box which was stored in the carport, I picked out two films which seemed to appear in better shape than the others and carted them off to London Drugs in Nanaimo. I’d recently seen a flyer advertising that the store’s camera department could convert old films into a DVD format to play back on your TV or computer. London Drugs shipped my two films off to a lab in Calgary to be processed. Weeks later, a few days before Christmas the converted film/DVD arrived back and on Boxing Day at our family dinner we all positioned ourselves in front of the TV for a viewing. When the films were taken to London Drugs I had no idea what the contents were. It turned out the first movie focused upon my first two years on the planet (1938/39) with the second featuring family holidays in Penticton (early 1940’s) where my mother’s parents and brother lived plus scenes of my brother Terry and myself riding Shetland ponies in Vancouver’s Stanley Park. 

Especially interesting were the summer scenes taken on Penticton’s sandy beaches which were virtually deserted, this being before the flood of rubber-tire tourism that came with the building of the Hope/Princeton highway in 1949. Up till then the only way to get to the Okanagan Valley was by train or an arduous day’s drive up the narrow and winding Fraser Canyon Highway via Kamloops and south to Vernon and Kelowna. At Kelowna a ferry transported cars across Lake Okanagan to West Bank. From there getting to Penticton involved another hour’s drive south. With wartime gas-rationing few holiday seekers made the trip. 

The tattered box found in the garage still holds a number of 16 mm films. I’m looking forward to other family showings and seeing the films through the eyes of our children and grandchildren as they watch their great great grandparents, great grandparents, grand parents and uncles cavort in front of the camera. The memories they’ll undoubtedly trigger will last a lifetime. 

On Wednesday I hiked aboard a 6:30 am ferry at Departure Bay. From Horseshoe Bay, a crowded city bus transported the walk-ons into downtown Vancouver. Trudging several blocks through a driving rainstorm on Granville Street brought me to Tom Lee Music store to attend a seminar on using the Disklavier Yamaha piano as a teaching tool in the digital age. 

The original Yamaha Disklavier piano made its debut in 1986. The technology involved taking a traditional acoustic grand piano and equipping it with integrated digital electronics for recording and auto playback. Since that time, these computer-age 'player' pianos have evolved into instruments that can reproduce not only 'live' acoustic piano concerts, but ensemble music with instrumental and vocal tracks as well. They allow the player to record and instantly play back their own performance, create complex multi-track arrangements, and connect to the world of musical opportunities offered by MIDI devices, personal computers and the Internet. 

The demonstration of the Disklavier piano was given by Stella Branzburg Sick who received her early music education at the State Conservatory in Novosibirsk, Russia. Upon coming to the United States she went on to earn her Bachelor and Master of Music degrees at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY. The pianist is a pioneer in the field of long-distance piano performance and instruction, teaching students in various parts of the United States from her private and collegiate studios in Minnesota by connecting her Yamaha Disklavier piano to the student’s piano over the Internet, using long distance MIDI connectivity technology in conjunction with video via the computer program Skype.

Later this month Pat will be adjudicating lower mainland piano students for the Toronto Conservatory Examination Department. The piano consultant at Tom Lee Music has invited me to spend some time playing the Disklavier when we’re in Vancouver. Are we contemplating getting one of these remarkable instruments? Buying a piano of such excellence is a little like purchasing an automobile. A lot of haggling is part of the process and much would depend on receiving a substantial trade-in for our present Steinway grand piano. In the meantime I plan to enjoy test-driving the Disklavier pianos in the music store’s expansive showroom.

Overture to another New Year

Christmas Day turned out to be a wet slog over the hump to Port Alberni. At Cameron Lake we came across Santa Claus enjoying his annual post-delivery fishing trip, umbrella unfurled against the raging monsoon. However, enjoying a superb dinner at our son Cory’s home with the grandchildren more than compensated for the depressing weather. On Boxing Day with the ‘Pineapple Express’ still rolling across Vancouver Island, the full Miller clan gathered at our home in Nanaimo for the annual annihilation of the Christmas bird.

On Wednesday Pat and I traveled over to the big city to see the Arts Club Theatre Company’s performance of White Christmas the Musical. Actually we had tickets for last year’s edition of the show but on our way to catch a ferry I discovered our tickets were for an afternoon performance, not the evening performance which we’d timed our travel plans around. Embarrassingly turning tail just short of Departure Bay, we drove home. This year I triple checked curtain time before leaving. However I almost blew it again. Being mid-week, I thought I wouldn’t need to contribute to Commodore Hahn’s annual million-dollar salary by forking out $17.50 for a ferry reservation. Luckily I changed my mind shortly before heading out and coughed up the fee online. Reaching the ferry terminal the traffic display monitors were already flashing “Ferry Full”. With strong winds whipping up the strait the shuddering Queen of Oak Bay was an hour late docking at Horseshoe Bay. Coupled with a gridlocked Lions Gate Bridge we just had time to grab supper before show time.

White Christmas the Musical was inspired by the 1954 movie starring Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, Vera Ellen and Rosemary Clooney. According to Hollywood lore, both Fred Astaire and Donald O’Connor turned down the male shared-lead with Crosby before third-stringer Danny Kaye signed on. I’ve watched the film a zillion times over the years and caught the last half yet again just before Christmas. Since you can’t change scenes as quickly onstage as you can in film, there are a number of differences in the live theatre version. However the best moments are there, including the thread-worn gags and pratfalls. The colourful costumes in the Arts Club offering were absolutely stunning. The tap-dancing production numbers exploded on the live stage like dovetailed strings of firecrackers. Then there were all those wonderful Irving Berlin song hits - Blue Skies, I’ve Got My Love to Keep Me Warm, Sisters, How Deep is the Ocean, Count Your Blessings Instead Of Sheep, Snow and of course White Christmas, the iconic seasonal melody that habitually warms our hearts and for the Berlin estate, adds a few more million dollars in royalties.

After the show Pat and I threaded our way down through the departing audience to the orchestra pit to have a visit with Ken Cormier who was the musical director for this performance. Ken was scheduled to play the matinee this day but when we emailed to say we’d be attending the 7:00 pm performance he switched with the alternate conductor/keyboardist Bruce Kellett, to play the evening show. Port Alberni audiences will know Ken Cormier through his many appearances with the Timbre! Choir. Ken will be coming over to the island to accompany Timbre!’s Last Night at the Proms concert on April 9th.

Being a musician I’m always interested in what’s going on in the orchestra pit. These days computers have found a permanent place in show bands, usually handling the sound of a string section. The original score of White Christmas the Musical calls for an orchestra of 23. Using two keyboard players firewired to computers, coupled with acoustic musicians on trumpet, saxophone, trombone and percussion, the seven pit musicians at the Arts Club Theatre managed to credibly cover the instrumental nuances of a much larger orchestra. 

Staying overnight at the Holiday Inn Downtown we spent the following day drooling at all the Boxing Day Week 70%-off-everything bargains. We also caught a matinee screening of a newly released film entitled The King’s Speech starring Colin Firth, Geoffrey Rush and Helena Bonham. The movie is the story of King George VI of Britain, his unwanted ascension to the throne and the speech therapist who helped the shy and stutter-plagued monarch deal with the stress of the public speaking engagements that came with being King. Having seen almost every film released in 2010 I’d wager the film has several Academy Awards in store, perhaps even Best Picture if the American Hollywood-based members of the Academy can bring themselves to vote a British Film top prize.

Enjoying the big city all spiffed up for Christmas and unable to resist the range of bargains presented at every turn, Pat and I decided to stay over an extra night and partake in the Boxing week shopping mania. Taking the Canada Line to Oakridge Centre, Pat was thrilled to find the perfect performance gown for the next Timbre! concert and I was able to pick up a few software additions for my computer at the Apple Store. Returning downtown I finally agreed to the purchase of a new suit, something I’ve resisted for several years. With 50% off the list price it was a no-brainer that the time had come. Unlike Pat, trying on new clothes I find about as exciting as having a root canal. However, I patiently rode out the whole modus operandi, peeling off and on an assortment of jackets, colourful shirts and ties, climaxed by standing on a raised pedestal to be measured by a haggard tailor overwhelmed by the Boxing-week sales storm.

Returning to the island by ferry on New Years Eve, we arrived home in time to catch the New York Philharmonic Orchestra’s live TV performance from Lincoln Centre and welcomed 2011 watching the Space Needle fireworks from Seattle.

Pat and I wish you all a happy and healthy New Year. 

      

Photo: Santa trying his luck in Cameron Lake following his annual Christmas Eve marathon.

Photo: Our Teen Choir Candlelight candle burns brightly on New Year’s Eve before being boxed for another year. After our last Candlelight Concert 12 years ago, some of our choir parents melted down all the candle stubs that had been saved and left over from rehearsal use. The melt was molded into a huge candle which we continue to light each Christmas. 

Christmas began life-long passion for trains

Sunday evening I wrapped up 23 days playing piano in the pit combo for the Yellowpoint Christmas Spectacular. This was my fourth season with the production directed and produced by Katy Bowen-Roberts. The gig is a joy to play and since moving to Nanaimo the show has become my launching pad to the Christmas Season. Driving home from the closing show and with the car radio blasting forth perceivable carol fare, my mind repeatedly wandered to memories of Christmas’s past.

The season’s sentimentality invariably reminds me of a very special gift received in my youth - my first electric train. Tooling around the malls these days all I observe are tons of toys molded from colorful plastics. None bear any resemblance to those marvelous miniatures that depicted the heavy railroad equipment of the pre 1950's era. To find such works of toy art today one must search out the hallowed hobby specialist shop. Here you’ll find mainly people like myself (children seem to be scarce in such establishments) jawing the jargon of railroading to a storeowner who savors and caresses the products he sells like fine pieces of jewelry.

Many holiday seasons have passed since my first electric train magically appeared under the Christmas tree. The layout, set up by my father late on Christmas Eve, consisted of a 4X8 sheet of plywood painted green with an oval of “027" gauge railroad track tacked firmly to its surface. My father being a Medical Doctor had even constructed a miniature pedestrian overpass out of wooden tongue depressors. I still have the locomotive and most of the track from that first model train set. That simple layout expanded over the years into a major model railway operation only to be torn down when my parents moved to a smaller home after I graduated from high school.

Getting married in the 60's didn’t suppress the boy within as I undertook the construction of a model railway layout in the spare bedroom of our first apartment. Whenever we had visitors stay overnight, they got the master bedroom and my wife Pat and I slept on a foamy beneath the sheets of plywood supporting the railroad. Pat mentioned to me in later years just what she was thinking as she lay there looking up at the various trestles criss-crossing above her - “this must be true love because not many wives would put up with this.”

Today my train collection has been boxed away. However, at this time of year I’ll invariably get a box or two out of storage, have a quick look at a few pieces and reflect how that single gift on a December 25^th morning in the early 1940’s 

sparked in me a life-long love of trains. 

Photo: My brother Terry (on the left) and I sit admiring the train layout that appeared one Christmas morning in the early 1940’s. I appear to be four or five years old.

Photo: At Christmas time I’ll invariably dig out from storage a few pieces of my train collection.

Thursday evening Pat and I hydroplaned our way over the hump through a torrential rainstorm to perform with Timbre! at the Harbour Quay Farmer’s Market. Not exactly a concert hall setting as you can see by the photos. My only concern was the power cords laying amongst the puddles leading to my electric piano and amplifier. I didn’t exactly want to light up like a Christmas Tree. However, the new roofing at the Quay managed to keep most of the rain off the performers.

It’s Christmas Eve day morning as I write this blog and I’m about to venture forth to the supermarket crush to purchase our Christmas turkey for our annual Boxing Day family dinner. Tomorrow morning after opening presents Pat and I will light our Christmas candle. When we presented our last Candlelight Concert 12 years ago some of our choir parents melted down all the candle stubs that had been saved and left over from rehearsal use. The melt was molded into a handsome candle which we light each Christmas Day. The candle is so large it reminds me of the visionary image of the Wyoming mountain known as Devil’s Tower that Richard Dreyfuss created in his livingroom in the movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind. When we light our own mountain of wax it tends to burn somewhat like a volcanic display, heating up the whole living room in the process but most importantly enveloping us with brilliant memories of our years with the Teen Choir.    

Pat and I wish you all the very best this holiday season. Merry Christmas!

Photo: Timbre! singing Christmas Carols in a rain storm at Harbour Quay in Port Alberni

Photo: Cutting the fingers from a pair of wool gloves, I managed to keep my finger muscles flexible.

Good Grief!- only 8 sleeps till Christmas

Driving home last weekend after playing piano at the Yellowpoint Christmas Spectacular I had the car radio tuned to the CBC. Broadcasting was a program called Inside the Music hosted by Patti Schmidt. Featured was a documentary entitled Good Grief It’s Serendipity, Vince Guaraldi.

Although it would be hard to fathom, there is the possibility that a reader or two of this blog may have never heard of, or viewed a 45-year old TV show called A Charlie Brown Christmas. The show, which airs annually at this time of year, is one of those traditional mileposts that confirms that Christmas has arrived. However, for me it’s not the animated cartoon itself that represents the film’s focal point but the TV show’s jazz based soundtrack.

Fifty years ago an unknown San Francisco pianist named Vince Guaraldi was struggling to make it in the jazz world. Performing around the Bay Area with a trio, Guaraldi (who always described himself as "a reformed boogie-woogie piano player") continually dreamed of writing tunes that would have lasting value as defined in the music business as becoming “a standard.” After two years on the road with the Woody Herman Band in the early 1960’s, Guaraldi finally scored a huge hit on the pop charts with a tune called Cast Your Fate to the Wind. He had included the tune on an album made with his trio, based on the award winning film Black Orpheus.  Winning a Grammy for the tune led to Guaraldi being asked to write the music for a TV pilot based on the comic strip Peanuts.

However, with an irony that seems appropriate for a show about Charlie Brown, the producers were never able to sell the pilot show to a TV network and to this day the original production has never aired. Fortunately for the producers, some underground showbiz hype surrounding the venture led to the Coca-Cola company becoming intrigued with the notion of a Peanuts Christmas TV special.  The rest as they say is history. When A Charlie Brown Christmas debuted in December 1965, Guaraldi joined a rarified guild of jazz musicians - those enjoying a steady paycheck with royalties to boot. Time magazine also did an article about the show, giving jazz and Guaradi’s trio some important exposure against the Tsunami of Rock & Roll.

The CBC’s Inside the Music show last Sunday had as a guest the Halifax-based musician Jerry Granelli who was the drummer on A Charlie Brown Christmas TV special back in 1965. His insights into the making of the special and stories about the jazz musicians involved were so entertaining I re-listened to the show by Podcast the following day and downloaded the original Vince Guaraldi recording of the soundtrack to my computer. I could have dug through dozens of cardboard boxes containing my vast vinyl record collection for the original 12-inch LP. However, by the time I found it I reasoned Christmas would have been long over.

Last Saturday at 6am I drove to Port Alberni to help our son Cory set up the stage microphone stands and cables for a 10am Timbre! dress rehearsal at ADSS. The rehearsal was my only chance to hear the choir sing through this year’s offering of Christmas music as their concert on Sunday conflicted with my two-week gig with the Yellowpoint Christmas Spectacular. I thought the selected material stunning and the choir in top form. The accompanying pianist, UBC Piano Department Head Dr. Terrence Dawson, did a supurb job, having learned the entire program in one week when the original contracted pianist unexpectedly had to cancel. Giving the music director (my wife Pat) a quick kiss at 12:30 pm, I scurried back over “the hump” to play a matinee performance of the Yellowpoint show. I have no doubt that those blog readers attending Timbre!’s Sunday performance enjoyed the Christmas program as much as I enjoyed the dress rehearsal. If you did, send me an email.

Monday was a day off from the Yellowpoint show. As it happened the Toronto Chamber Jazz Septet was playing the Port Theatre in Nanaimo with an evening concert entitled a Jazzy Nutcracker. Six of Canada’s finest jazz musicians are members of the seasonally assembled touring ensemble – reedmen PJ Perry (flute/soprano sax), Campbell Ryga  (sax/alto flute), Phil Dwyer (tenor sax/clarinet), Perry White (baritone sax/bass clarinet) with a stellar rhythm consisting of Terry Clarke (drums) and Neil Swainson (bass). American pianist Bill Mays who assembles similar groups in the States leads the septet and also writes the arrangements.

Photo: American pianist Bill Mays leads the Toronto Chamber Jazz Septet.

From Louis Armstrong to Count Basie, from Oscar Peterson to Bill Evans, just about any jazzman of any consequence has produced an album of Christmas music at some point in their career. Many interpretations I adore, some I abhor. The Toronto group’s Christmas offering Monday night fell into positive territory. The concert was a tasteful blend of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (Nutcracker Suite), Claude Debussy (Clair De Lune), Richard Rodgers (My Favorite Things), Mel Torme (what else! - The Christmas Song) and perhaps a bit of a stretch, a selection by the eccentric pianist Thelonious Monk called Stuffy Turkey. The evening was definitely one would categorize as light jazz. However, the brilliant improvised soloing by these gifted players never let the program sink into the morass marketed to the masses these days as “smooth jazz”. There was something for the jazz aficionado and the uninitiated jazz listener alike.

Tuesday and Wednesday were road days for the Yellowpoint Christmas Spectacular with performances at the Old Church Theatre in Courtenay. Tuesday afternoon was spent re-blocking the show for a narrower stage. Last week an E5 key broke on my digital piano and I’ve had to play all the shows to date on a music store loaner. Qualicum-based musical instrument repairman extraordinaire Claudio Fantinato immediately ordered a new key for me. Unfortunately the shipping department at Yamaha Canada in Toronto failed to send the part by overnight courier as requested. The piano key finally showed up on Wednesday. Claudio had the key installed just in time for me to switch pianos for the 7:00 pm performance in Courtenay. What a relief getting back to my own keyboard and not having to readjust my arm weight and touch on almost every chord. Tonight felt like I was driving a Ferrari rather than a Tata Nano.

Thursday evening the Yellowpoint show was back at the Cedar venue to begin its final run of seven shows. Sorry folks – if you snooze you lose. All seven shows are completely sold out.

Need a musical instrument repaired? Check out Claudio Fantinato’s website at www.highnotemusicalservices.com

Past postings of my blog can be accessed on the internet at http://barrysblog7.blogspot.com

Apple - One More Bite

The first computer my wife Pat and I ever purchased was an Apple 11e. Back then, buying a computer wasn’t easy as it entailed traveling to the mainland and visiting a store specializing in the product. In this day of $400 lap tops it’s hard to believe that we paid over $3500 for a little green-eyed screen encased in an apricot-coloured plastic shell which could only process three or four type written pages at a time. However, like a growing number of parents at the time, I blindly believed the prevailing hype that owning a computer guaranteed a child’s educational success. 

It wasn’t long before school districts, backed by a truckload of targeted funding from the Ministry of Education began moving “big time” into the world of computers. Any teacher who could figure out a way to integrate a unit into their classroom was automatically earmarked the recipient of the cascading cash.  

As a high school band director, each year I submitted a budget for musical instruments. Some years I’d receive funding for a needed instrument while other years, fair being fair, money would go to another department. Computers however changed the budgetary landscape. 

Suddenly there was a new kid on the block, a capital item that ate up a budget like there was no tomorrow.

Having had my request for the purchase of an oboe and a bassoon turned down one year, I decided I needed to figure out a way to tap into the school district’s technology account which was being force-fed annually by the department of education. I joined the herd after the “new money” and placed myself firmly aboard the computer bandwagon. 

So into the new world of the microchip I plunged, programming an entire Broadway score into an Atari computer to use alongside conventional instruments, as supplementary accompaniment for the school’s fall musical. I hadn’t received the funds for my wished for oboe and bassoon but did have a machine that could produce the sounds of those instruments, albeit rather thinly. However the exercise did keep funding flowing and teaching colleagues acknowledged I was on the “cutting edge” of the technological tidal wave. Happily in the end common sense prevailed and budgetary balance did return, enabling the purchase of needed acoustical musical instruments for my program.  

However, computers did make a huge impact in the music program and continue to do so in my personal musical life. I no longer lay pen or pencil to paper to write a music score, using instead software called Sibelius that instantly plays back my arrangements with sampled sounds that rival real acoustic instruments and neatly prints out the sheet music band members need to play from. I pack my own digital piano and synthesizer to gigs, never having to rely on a house piano that hasn’t been tuned for eons. 

Recently after decades using PC’s built by the likes of Samsung, eMachine, Hewlett-Packard and Toshiba, I’ve returned to my roots, an Apple computer. Both our sons Cory and Brock have Macs as does my brother Terry. They were constantly praising the merits of the new Apple products so I decided recently to purchase a MacBook Pro Laptop. To say I’m hooked would be an understatement.  I absolutely love it. Hours of jazz recordings are stored aboard plus movies and entire TV series. It also inspired me to get into writing a blog.

It’s been a bit of a learning curve to absorb the new platform. Last week’s blog is a case in point. As part of the blog I had included a dozen photos taken at rehearsals leading up to the opening night of the Yellowpoint Christmas Spectacular. Unfortunately I failed to do something I’d automatically done when working on my PC – reduce the resolution size of the photos. The result was some readers experienced excessive download time. I apologize to them for not getting into the photo section of my 4-inch thick Apple laptop manual in advance of clicking the send button. However, I’ve now mastered the process with a little help from one of my blog readers in the Canary Islands, and I’m confident future mailings won’t plug up anyone’s mailbox. 

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Timbre! in Port Alberni - A Valley Christmas (L to R Michelle Weckesser, Wendy Nixon-Stothert, Dale Graham and Jennifer Forsland). The vocal quartet Swing Set from Courtenay will be special guests at the Timbre! choir's Christmas concert on Sunday at 2:30 pm in the ADSS Auditorium. Tickets available at regular outlets in the Alberni Valley and at the door.

Nanaimo Concert Band

Blog reader François Bouchard emailed to ask if I’d mention a concert taking place this weekend with the Nanaimo Concert Band. François is one of the band’s two musical directors. The Hub City ensemble is recognized as the oldest continuous community band in Canada having been established in 1872. An interesting fact - the band has played every Remembrance Day Ceremony since World War One, without fail. The concert takes place on Dec. 12 at 2:30 in the Beban Park Auditorium. Admission is by Non-perishable Food Donation to the Salvation Army.

Yellowpoint Christmas Spectacular Opens

After an intensive 10-day rehearsal period, the Yellowpoint Christmas Spectacular opened last night to a full house and was an instant hit. This is my 4th season playing piano in the orchestra and although I don’t get to see the show visually out front, I can tell you the extravaganza of music and dance will kick your Christmas season into high gear. 

With a professional cast of 14, the show takes place in the Cedar Community Hall south of Nanaimo which has been transformed into a Christmas wonderland with thousands of lights and decorations. This year the big production numbers include a scene from Andrew Lloyd Webber’s The Phantom of the Opera and a tribute to Motown. Even Frank Sinatra makes an appearance. I could be prejudiced but I sensed a crowd favorite last night was an orchestra number called Csardas which featured our musical director James Mark on violin and Susan Bullock on clarinet. Wow is it fast.  It goes without saying, the show is loaded with Christmas favorites. 

With 16 more performances still to go (including two nights in Courtenay), I encourage you to drive to Cedar and take in one of the afternoon or evening performances. Tickets can be reserved by phoning the Port Theatre Ticket Centre in Nanaimo at 250.754.8550. Tickets can also be ordered on the internet at www.porttheatre.com 

PAT IN PORT

I’M IN CEDAR

This month my wife Pat and I perform on both sides of “the hump.” Pat is into her final rehearsals with Port Alberni’s Timbre! choir who will present A Valley Christmas - Festive Music of the Season on Sunday December 12 at 2:30 pm in the ADSS Auditorium. Meanwhile I’m in Cedar south of Nanaimo rehearsing for the Yellowpoint Christmas Spectacular which opens on December 8th running through to December 19.

Accompanying Timbre! will be Vancouver pianist Terence Dawson. A versatile artist, Dr. Dawson leads an active career as a soloist, chamber musician, orchestral pianist and teacher. He has collaborated with numerous artists and ensembles including concerto performances with the Vancouver Symphony and National Arts Centre Orchestras and the CBC Curio Ensemble.  He has concertized across Canada, the United States, England and Asia, recorded for CBC Radio, and on disc for EMI Virgin Classics, Bravura, and Skylark labels. Terence is a dedicated teacher with invitations from coast to coast to conduct master classes. He has also served as a competition jury member for the Canadian Music Competition, the Canadian Federation of Music Teacher’s National Convention, and has adjudicated numerous music festivals.

In the summer months, he teaches and performs at Strings and Keys in Alberta – a program for young musicians – and for the Vancouver International Song Institute. Dr. Dawson is on faculty at The University of British Columbia School of Music, where he is the school’s Keyboard Division Coordinator and teaches piano and chamber music.

Special guests will be the vocal quartet Swing Set from Courtenay with Michelle Weckesser, Nixon Stofhert, Dale Graham and Jennifer Forsland.

The concert will include traditional selections from Handel’s Messiah as well as seasonal favorites like White Christmas and the music of English composer John Rutter. The popular Timbre! soloist  Elizabeth Grenon will be featured in two selections.

Timbre!’s annual Christmas concert is one of the choir’s most popular so if you don’t have a season ticket already, single tickets can be purchased at Rollin Art Centre, Echo Centre, Somass Drugs and Salmonberry’s. Tickets will also be sold at the door one hour before show time. Timbre! is sponsored by the Port Alberni Orchestra and Chorus Society.

PHOTO: Vancouver pianist Dr. Terence Dawson will accompany Timbre!’s A Valley Christmas on December 12, 2:30 at ADSS.