Click here to read the August 2014 Danjam Music Newsletter. If you are not already on the mailing list you can sign up here:
August 2014 Newsletter
Danjam Orch Plays Toronto – Aug 2014
Come down to The Rex next week and join the Danjam Orchestra for our annual summer appearance in Toronto! The band will premiere my arrangement of Alex Dean’s “Nice Guys” featuring low notes played by Justin Gray on the bass and Shirantha Beddage on the baritone sax. Other exciting firsts include: Tara Davidson’s take on “Alone Together,” Florian Hoefner’s reimagining of “Song for Anna,” and Alex Goodman’s interpretation of “Phantasm.”
Dates: Tuesday August 12th ’14 (my 28th birthday!),
& Wednesday August 13th ’14
Time: 9:30pm both nights
Location: The Rex Hotel (Toronto)
Facebook Event: Link
MUSICIANS
Reeds: Nick Morgan, Tara Davidson, Jeff King,
Dave Neill, Shirantha Beddage
Trumpets: Jason Logue, Brian O’Kane, Mike Malone, Alex Brown
Trombones: William Carn, Paul Tarussov, Steve McFarlane, Peter Hysen
Guitar: Alex Goodman, Piano: Florian Hoefner
Bass: Justin Gray, Drums: Ethan Ardelli
Video: Ed Kowalczyk & the Noordpool Orkest
You may remember a band from the 90s entitled Live, most famous for the album Throwing Copper, released in 1994. Their lead singer, Ed Kowalczyk, left the band in 2009 to pursue his own career. This past June, he performed at the Pink Pop Festival in the Netherlands backed by the incredible Noordpool Orkest. I arranged two of the songs for this concert, and you can watch them below!
Iris: http://youtu.be/RcjQkXWbqpg?t=17m15s
Pillar of Davidson: http://youtu.be/RcjQkXWbqpg?t=52m45s
Video: “Obelisk on the River Nile”
I had the opportunity to compose a new piece of music for Spectrum Music this past April. It featured pianist Florian Hoefner and the Ton Beau String Quartet. The musicians did a great job bringing the music to life! You can watch the video of the performance below.
Obelisks were constructed by the ancient Egyptians to serve as a spiritual barrier for their temples. These towering stone monuments, reaching heights of almost 100 feet high, symbolized the sun god Ra. Once constructed, these massive single block structures weighing hundreds of tons were loaded on to wooden barges and travelled downstream from the quarries in Upper Egypt to the building sites of pyramids and temples. This piece explores that journey.