My local Saturday morning farmer's market is where I get most of our veggies. And there's nothing like dropping in at McGrath's farm and picking up a fresh, live head of Lalo Rosso, taking it home, and chowing down with a home made dressing.

It seems I'm developing a taste for a parallel experience in music. Sunday night I dropped by my friend  Bob Murphy's elegant, tiny home, a loft overlooking Vancouver's Second Narrows bay. The occasion was a house concert, featuring his friend, Mike Allen, playing tenor sax, and Bob on his 9 foot Yamaha Grand piano. You must believe me, the immediacy, the physical, non -amplified sound was overwhelming in its beauty.
Mike Allen's subtone opening notes to the first ballad drew tears. A history of Stan Getz, Michael Brecker, Sonny Rollins, Ben Webster filled my memory, yet Mike's 'voice' was purely his own sound, a warm, rich recipe of all those great players.  Bob Murphy is a Giant at the piano. From the sweet upper figures, like finch conversations, to the thundering lower register funk passages, no key of his piano goes un-played. Unlike so many virtuoso jazz players he uses silence as punctuation, leaving out notes, particularly in the rhyhmic bass passages, where the "fee fi fo fum" is evident! The effect hits me right in the gut. The thundering giant is in the room!The peices they played were a fine mix of the familiar and less known, and included three originals. "SHADOW MAN" (Murphy),  "RISE  A TONE", and "WAYS OF LOVE" (Allen).  The standards; "EAST OF THE SUN", EVERY TIME WE SAY GOODBYE", "SPRING CAN REALLY HANG YOU UP", and the rare " YOU MUST BELIEVE IN SPRING" (Legrand). The Jazz pieces; "INFANT EYES" (W. Shorter),  "ST. THOMAS" (Rollins),  and "BLUES ALMIGHTY" (J. Hodges).To hear music played up close and personal, is about as good as it gets, particularly with talent of this caliber. Truly as organic and unadulterated, no artificial ingredeints, freshly picked, downright delicious as any meal,  -and healthful for your soul !!I suspect that the air in the northwest has something to do with my experience and viewpoint. Or maybe it's Canada's musical environment.  There's this "something" about Canada and it's musicians.  I had this reaction when The Hi-Lo's went to Toronto in '78, to record with Rob McConnel . The musicianship was just incredibly superior. It was like watching a movie in high definition, after seeing it on your old tv set! The band was brimming with Toronto's best, and Rob was very generous with the solos, each player brought a clearer, more precise version of what we were hearing from our stellar L.A. guys.   In any case, it seems to be still true, all these years later. House concerts are a fabulous way to hear your music, whatever your brand. -Keeping it on my shopping list! Hugs from Vancouver,

                                                  Visit this page again, I'll try to update it from time to time.