Ian Clarke spotted at Spotted Dick

Celebrated British flautist Ian Clarke gave a concert in Toronto at St. Andrews on Bloor Street. The program was a nice assortment of his own music with some standard repertoire such as a Bach Sonata and the Carmen Fantasy. After the show a bunch of us Diane, Patricia and Cathy Miller from Miyazawa all went to a nearby English pub called the Spotted Dick. In this shot you can see Ian and I caught in the act of air fluting while discussing the differences and similarities between the French flute and various World flutes.

Final Bows at Hugh's Room




(L to R) John Hawken, RK, Larry Crowe, Jim McCarty,
Jann Close,  Jean-Michel Kajdan, George Koller   

 Final bows of the night wrapping up an intense few days. It was a nice way to complete the European touring earlier in the year by playing a few show in Ontario. It was also nice to revist Hugh's Room with this band. Last March we played there with a different line up.

Shapes Of Things

For the last songs of the night Jim played drums and had the yougsters out front. Here Ron and Jann Close rock out to Shapes Of Things. Jann is a musician who is originally from Germany but now lives in the Bronx where he is carving out a living as a solo singer songwriter. Jann joined Jim's tour in Canada as an opening act.

Isadora - British Prog

In this show we played some classic Renaissance material like Madonna Blue and Isadora. It was a great chance for to play authentic progressive rock with two master musicians.

Beyond The Day

Here Jim and Ron are performing a song from the Renaissance Illusion album which was released in 2001. On the CD Ron recorded his flute part at Chiswick Reach Studios. Like many top facilities Chiswick closed many years ago. Beyond the Day has always been a favorite. RK likes the challenge of singing backing vocals and switching to whistle. 

Having a deep conversation with a drummer

On Wednesday we played in Toronto with the Jim McCarty Band. Here Larry and I spend a quiet moment before soundcheck discussing the finer points of rock music.

John Hawken

(LtoR) John Hawken, RK, Larry Crowe, Jim McCarty, Goerge Koller, Jean-Michel Kajdan

As always on Jim's tours with the Yardbirds he likes to spend some down time in his favorite North American city.
Jim recorded his album Sitting On The Top Of Time in Toronto and this past trip it was a chance to play some of the material with a full band as well as invite his friend pianist John Hawken. John played in the Nashville Teens, Renaissance (with Jim) and The Strawbs in the early days of the rock and roll scene in London. It was the first time in 30 odd years Jim and John had played together. In this shot the band is playing at This Ain't Hollywood in Hamilton. Jean -Michel came from Paris to participate in the gigs.

Monty Hall's 90th birthday party

Here is a shot taken at Monty Hall's 90th birthday party at the residence of the Consulate General in Los Angeles. photo  The organizers put me up at The Four Seasons in Beverly Hills. That day I had to get up early and take a propeller prop plane from Eureka to San Francisco and then to LAX. Shortly after I arrived at the hotel I was picked up and taken to the residence to run through the songs with the band.
The whole event was an incredible variety show hosted by Peter Marshall with entertainers like Gloria Loring, Norm Crosby, Nita Whittaker and Jack Jones. Paul Anka and David Foster both gave birthday salutations via video. My whole contribtuion was two songs Cuchulainn and a brand new piece called Cantata.




Monty Hall, his wife Marilyn, R K and Canada's Ambassador in Washington D.C. His Excellency Gary Doer.



Saturday Night at the Flute Festival in Oakhurst

One of the participants was kind enough to take Ron on a tour through the park and seeing the giant Sequoia trees. It is really a thrill to experience such incredible nature.

That night Ron headlined a concert with two other acts at the Sierra Sky Ranch. Halfway through his show he was joined by native musician Randy Granger on the halo drum. For his encore Ron was joined by the two other performers Rona Yellow Robe and Rafael Bejarano. The following morning Ron gave a class on breathing and tone production.


 

Yosemite Flute Festival

Got a ride from Los Angeles to Yosemite Flute Festival with Scott August who is a prominent flutist in the Native Flute genre. His albums are featured in all the American National Parks gift stores. The lovely organizers of the festival Rick and Linda Dunlap provided a beautiful ranch style house for the artist outside of Oakhurst where the festival is held. Really enjoyed hearing the other musicians and what they have created using the Native Flute.

Yardbirds at The Key Club

As a complete coincidence the Yardbirds were in California doing a tour while I was in LA enroute to my activities at the Yosemite Flute Festival. The Yardbirds were playing 20 dates in the States from New York to Hawaii. I took my friends Linda Stella (Bill Evans my keyboard player's wife) and Makoto Tani a life long friend from Japan to see them at the Key Club in West Hollywood. Great show. I would have to say the band is sounding better than it ever has. Linda went to their next gig to do some photography.

Orchestra Rehearsal

Orchestra rehearsal for a concert at The Queen Elizabeth Theatre. RK is the opening act and also featured playing solo flute for the NY singer Michael Castaldo. The date chosen was an interesting one 9, 10,11. It was fun to play with some Classical musicians that RK went to University of Toronto, Faculty of Music.

Kitchener Waterloo Chamber Society

The following day Anne and Ron performed at the Kitchener Waterloo Chamber Society. The duo perfomed a very eclectic program contrasting major classical works with jazz, blues and world influenced pieces.  One such piece was Winter in Gros Cap written by Anne for bass flute and piano inspired by the beauty of the nature of Northern Ontario.
Other pieces included were:
Prokofiev Flute Sonata in D Major
Franz Liszt: Etude de Concert "un sospiro"
Wladislaw Szpilman: Suite "The Life of the Machines"
Winter at Gros Cap, composed by Anne Louise-Turgeon

Sergei Rachmaninoff: Two Etudes-Tableaux op.39 nos. 1
Rachmaninoff-Kreisler: Liebeslied
A Muse, Dark Eyes, Casco Viejo, La Sirena, Mozart's Wedding, Pasqualiti House, Canata by Ron Korb

Classical music at Q

Here Anne and RK are playing a concert at the Q Music Summertime Music Series in Toronto. They were the only artists to perform Classical music in the series and without any amplification. The beautiful Bechstein grand piano certainly made it a pleasure. The audience was mainly comprised of many local musicians and composers. Afterwards it became kind of an reaquaintence party for many.

Rehearsals with pianist Anne Louise Turgeon

Ron attended U of T with Anne Louise and her husband Ed Turgeon before the couple went to graduate school to get their masters and PhDs in music at Yale University.  Both Anne and her husband are professors of music Florida Atlantic University.  Here Ron and Anne are practicing the Prokofieff Sonata in D and some original pieces.

Hiroshima Lantern Festival

Every year the Toronto's Hiroshima Day Coalition  presents an event on August 6th. This year it was the Commemoration of the 66th anniversary of the 1945 Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombings. The event had a particular resonance this year because of the Fukushima Nuclear disaster.


RK performed at the beginning of the event at the Holy Trinity Church. At the end of the night he played the Japanese ryuteki and walked the crowd Pied Piper style over to the reflecting pool at Nathan Phillips. There the participants set adrift their paper lanterns as a symbol of peace.

"Gambaro Japan"

RK performed at the Tsunami Relief benefit concert called "Gambaro Japan" at the Japanese Canadian Culture Centre last Saturday night. There was a wide array of talent raising money for the Japan relief effort. The devestation in Japan has been very deep. Areas near the nuclear plant will be uninhabitable for many decades.  RK played some selections from his Japanese Mysteries CD. Photo by Sachi Kikuchi.

Munching in Munchen

After Vienna we made our way to Munich for our flight back to Toronto. What trip to Munich (let alone Germany) would be complete without a visit to the world famous Hofbrauhaus. Jumbo pretzels, Wiener sausages, Bavarian salt pork knuckles, apple strudel and ... oh and yes, the beer! We met our German friend and aerospace engineering student Tobias Hauk at the train station and took a quick taxi through the pouring rain to the cavernous beer hall. As far as popular touristy activities it is actually pretty enjoyable.

Vienna - Beethoven's Apartment

Vienna is a gorgeous city and a good blend of modern and traditional culture. The Emperor's palaces are indeed impressive but it seems unfair that most of the people in the history books are either aristocrats or military conquerers. A notable exception is Beethoven. Clearly one of the greatest musical geniuses of all time and one of the most famous people in history. What you probably don't know is that Beethoven moved 60 times while living in Vienna. Roughly once every six months. One such place is the Pasqualatihaus. Beethoven's apartment where he wrote the 4th, 5th, 7th and 8th symphonies. I read on a blog that this place is hard to find. That certainly is true as I walked up and down the street several times and couldn't figure out the street number. Locals I asked had no idea either. Finally, I realized it was up the hill behind a grove of trees.  The blog mentioned he had to bang on the door for about ten minutes before anyone answered. When we went that wasn't true but there were no other vistors while we were there.

Prague Digs

We stayed in the top floor of a heritage building behind the main town square across from Franz Kafka's house. I hit my head on the ceiling of this staircase several times. 4th floor makes you realize how much extra exercise the people got back then.

New World in the Old World

Here RK is posing with Dvorak's statue also along the Vltava River - just to counterbalance Jethro Tull. Antonín Dvořák is one of the Czech's greatest sons. Deeply proud of his heritage he often employed folk tunes from his native Bohemia.

Salzburg and Mozartkugel

View from the Salzach River of Salzburg's city centre.

playing umbrella in Mozart's birthplace Museum

Leipzig can learn a lot from Salzburg in terms of marketing. Whereas Leipzig has Bach and many other composers and generally a deep musical history, Salzburg has turned Mozart and The Sound of Music into an absolute tourist bonanza. There are as many souvenirs of Mozart as there are of Mickey Mouse. Mozart, pens, t-shirts, chocolate, candy, hats, you name it - there is something with Mozart's name on it. 

Jethro in Praha

Finding a flute friend in Prague. As we were waling along the river I spotted this poster to ham it up with. Prague is one of those few untouched cities left in Europe where you really can feel you are stepping into the past. The Czech director Milos Forman said Prague was the perfect location to film Amadeus because it still looks 18th century because of the incompetence of the Communists. Meaning there wasn't much commercial development during their reign.

Leipzig and J.S. Bach

On our way to Prague we stopped off in Leipzig. A few people discouraged us from visiting it, but actually it was a high point for me. It is not only the city from which Mendelssohn, Mahler and Schumann are closely associated but also the father of Harmony himself - Johann Sebastian Bach. It is also the city my own father was born. I had only been there once as a child and I must say it has improved since reunification. First stop was the Bach Archive which was very moving for me to see some of J.S's original parchments. Across the square was St. Thomas Church where Bach had composed and choir directed for more than 25 years of his career.  We actually watched a service which contained quite a bit of music. Amazing to realize that many of the most beautiful pieces of music were written and premiered in that space.

Downtown Blues Bar - Hospitality

This venue has lots of Rock&Roll memorablia like these early Beatles photos.

Our bandleader Jim McCarty told us that the owner of the Downtown Blues Club always provides incredible hospitality. He certainly was right about that! When we arrived for sound check he greeted us with glasses of Champagne, which he said was really just medicine for the heart. After getting the sound together he invited us out to the patio for an amazing five course meal. As we were coming off the stage after the encores, he was pouring more Champagne. Then after some beer, he said how about some coffees and ice cream cake.

Braunschweig

The next day, Barry our driver took us to the town of Braunschweig where we were to play Barnaby's Blues Bar that night.
Before sound check Jim and I went to do an interview at the local radio station Radio Okerwelle 104,6 by a very well prepared host Florian Damm.
In Braunschweig there was a peculiar building that looks like something from Dr. Seus. Very creative.

Travel Day to Hamburg

Jean- Michel Kajdan, Jean Christophe, RK, Uncle Jim, and Donald Quan 

Flew from Paris CDG to Hamburg with the band. Had an interesting conversation on the plane about the dwindling resources and future food shortages with a raw industrial alcohol dealer.
Hamburg is a nice city and apparently one of the most eco in Europe. After dinner Donald, Jade and I took a night walk around the, surprizingly empty, area near the Rathaus (city hall). Beautiful area.

City Of Light

Ah yes, "The City Of Light".  As beautiful as Paris is during the day it takes on a different character at night. I particularly like it around the banks of the Seine around the Louvre. Although I have been to Paris probably about 6 or 7 times I had never made it up the Effiel Tower until today. We took the last elevator of the day. As touristy things go it was something well worth doing.

Saint-Germain

Going down to Café de Flore, in the Saint-Germain area to sample the coffee and chocolate treated by our generous band leader. Imagining all the countless hours many of the greatest minds have spent in this café when they could have been painting or writing.

Unlike of course, the serious business of  experimenting with apps from the Iphone.

Paris

(L to R) Ron, Donald Quan, and Jim McCarty 

Great to meet and work with the French musicians, Jean-Michel Kajdan on guitar, Jean-Christophe on drums and Laurent on bass at the rehearsal near Bastille.

France

In typical RK behaviour, I rarely write in this blog and then suddenly I get inspired and start filling in the last 6 months all at once. This is one such occurrence and I will start back in May with my trip to Europe.


Arrived in CDG Airport in Paris in the rain and proceeded to travel down to Provence to visit our friends living in a picturesque town surrounded by fields that immediately remind us of Van Gogh’s paintings.

Ron Korb playing Little Jade Live in the historic Shanghai Concert Hall

Faraway - Chien Li Zhu Wai

Ron Korb singing Chien Li Zhu Wai at a Chinese New Year Television broadcast.

Happy Year Of The Rabbit 2011

This is a video of the beautiful fireworks ringing in the New Year down by the river Thames in London last night. It has already been a year since I started this blog. I does feel like a complete revolution around the Sun. A lot of great things have happened this past year and I am very grateful. Thank you all for your support and I hope that the Year of the Rabbit will bring joy, abundance and love to everyone.