Canterbury Music



RK, Laila Biali, George Koller and Ben Riley

 Just after coming back from New York I went into Canterbury Music in Toronto to record a few more songs. Lately, I have been both writing and adapting classical music with jazz. One piece in particular which I wrote last year called St. Johann has been particularly problematic especailly coming up with a drum part. Ben Riley in some ways is the perfect player for this music as his mother and uncles are all classical string players and his dad an accomplished jazz musician. Strangly,we have never played in Toronto together but we have toured in China twice, once with erhuist George Gao and another time with Dadawa. Laila and George also perfect in the way they share the sensitivity to both jazz and classical.

The Iridium Club

The Iridium Club is a music venue on Broadway and 51st street in the Times Square entertainment area. The club is well known for presenting Jazz fusion music and for its long association with the legendary Les Paul, “The Father of The Electric Guitar." Of Jim's band only Steve Lucas and Jesse Gress had played this place before. When we went downstairs for the soundcheck there was a huge group of high school kids being serenaded by the waitresses singing pop karaoke like Britney Spears and Katy Perry.  We played two sets one at 8pm and another at 10pm. It was a lot of fun and the audience was filled with many New York area musicians. Annie Haslam from Renaissance was there as well and it was a pleasure to meet her.