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A Canadian band called Helix

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Helix is one of those long lost and forgotten great Canadian acts. They were one of the great big hair bands of the 80’s!

The best song on their first album Breaking Loose, was a classic rockin’/country style called Billie Oxygen, it’s number 5. You’ve got to listen to the guitar/bass/drums solo at 02:07 of the song, tell me what you think of it!

I use to play this one with some guys back in Brantford. It was the first rock band that I played in right after leaving Pylis. Domenic was on drums, Eddie on guitar and Jon (the same guy I’ve talked about before on this and my other blog) on bass!

It took me a while at first to get my musical mojo back, but after playing this tune, I was back in the saddle again! This tune has everything in it to bring a crowd to it’s feet, in my eyes. The harmonizing guitars are fabulous, the bass is just a jumping, the keyboard is nicely accenting in the background with the booming drums kicking up a storm. Oh what a feeling!

I just heard from Domenic while writing this post and he said he does not have the band on tape, but he may have some pictures from that time period. He has in his possession a copy of a talent night that we were playing at, but in different bands! He’s well on his way to sending them to me as I write!

Keep on Jammin’





Daniel Johnston the modern renaissance man

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Daniel Johnston in some circles, is compared to the great music genus Brian Wilson. He is brilliant to some and insane to others (even though there is a fine line dividing both personalities).

My wife and I were relaxing, while watching TV, in our living room on the weekend and came across a musical documentary about Daniel Johnston. The documentary is called “The Devil and Daniel Johnston” and premiered at Sundance Film Festival in January 2005. We both have never heard of him before so we watched with great interest. If you are into indie films, then I highly recommend seeing it.

We saw a child like or even an autistic man who is different to say the least. As all brilliant artists feel that they have difficulties communicating with new audiences or that they feel that they might be slowly losing their mind, he seems to feel quite at home or even embraces it to a lessor degree.

“Everything is art”

(a young Daniel Johnston is heard saying on a cassette tape recorder with fellow art students at Kent State University in 1980.)

Daniel's shirt

Daniel's shirt

As the show moved forward, we were exposed to a brilliant middle aged musical mind that was just screaming to get out. But in the same breath, you would say that he was not interested in commercial pop success. To add to his obvious musical gift, he was a beautiful illustrator/painter. He really became noticed when Kurt Cobain started wearing this one shirt that Daniel made. Daniel also happened to be one of Kurt’s favorite songwriters.

His music is both errie and beautiful. It makes you sit up and pay attention to the words. I am known as a musician who does pay all that much attention to the words of a song, just the overall song structure and progression, but his songs rang an interest in his lyrics.

In this doc., he plays his old, beat up, low end acoustic guitar and when he is writing, his Westbrook 1/2 piano. His guitar playing style is, how can I say this without insulting his genus, simple and sloppy. In the sentence I should have used beautiful. I just can’t put this unique style into words to fully describe this experience. If some of you out there are familiar with his eclectic style, can you help describe it for me?

As my faithful readers know, I try to expose hidden musical artists to my blog. Some maybe questionable to some, but to others … they show the true essence of music.

Keep on Jammin’

Jazz pianist Steve Kovens CD release

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A great East York Jazz pianist is set to release his latest CD. It was held at Papermill Theatre in East York. He sold out the venue, that holds 160, but you can catch him this weekend at Ten Feet Tall on the Danforth, in Toronto. He is a regular at their Sunday Jazz series.

I’ve seen Steve Koven live and he never disappoints me in his delivery. Either his solo material or the electricity with his Trio, he is worth the price of admission. Even though he is a serious jazz fan, he sometimes has a funky side to him.

He is a Toronto boy and started playing around the tender age of seven. He earned a B.F.A. from York University, in the northern part of the city and studied contemporary improvisation at this site. Since graduating in 1987, Koven has pursued his career as a jazz pianist, composer and educator.

The man is nationally and internationally known as a musician and teacher. The man has earned his badge of musical honour, not to mention zillions of air miles!

I just want to expose all of you educated music lovers to the hidden treasures that we have here in my neighbourhood of East York in Toronto, Canada!

This is little long, but I hope that you give Steve, a good old Toronto boy, and his trio a chance! Enjoy.

Keep on Jammin’

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