Song Experiment ft. Wally Brooker 4tet

Name: Song Experiment ft. Wally Brooker 4tet
Start: 2024-11-02T17:00:00-04:00
Location: Tranzac Club

Schedule

Sat Nov 02 2024 at 05:00 pm

UTC-04:00

Location

Tranzac Club | Toronto, ON

Song Experiment is a monthly song lab hosted by Cassie Norton (singer-songwriter/violinist/improviser) welcoming unconventional approaches to Song Writing and Song Sharing.
Each month, a different artist and approach is featured welcoming surprise and collaboration.
Drawing/colouring supplies and big banner paper will be provided for all doodlers, so you can collaborate too!
This month we are featuring never before played songs from the Wally Brooker 4tet. This one deserve a little bit of story...
Wally Brooker is a saxophonist, vocalist, multi-instrumentalist active for many years in the Toronto jazz, blues, & folk music scenes, and is a life-time member, Toronto Musicians Association (AFM Local 149). He has performed for decades in support of a wide variety of progressive local, national and international causes.
During the pandemic, Wally often spent Sunday mornings playing jazz standards in Dovercourt Park with bassist and long-time friend Paul O’Connell. Drummer, David Benitez, who lives near the park heard them playing and one day offered to join. Wally and Paul welcomed him in, and the three began playing as a trio. Violinist, Cassie Norton, joined shortly after. Wally, David, and Cassie continued rehearsing indoors but Paul eventually moved on, focusing more on his other passion as a luthier.
Every so often during a session of mostly standards Wally would pull out an original tune, each melody and chord progression opening up a unique world. It was surprising to Cassie and David that these tune worlds had not been explored by other musicians or shared with an audience. And so the two made a commitment to help Wally bring these songs to life. They continued shedding Wally's tunes while looking for a bass player to fill out the sound.
Cassie found bassist Yoshi Wall at the University of Toronto Encampment for Palestinian Liberation late spring of this year. She was pretty sure he was the right bassist for the project when she overheard him spontaneously accompany a sousaphonist on La Vie en Rose in an impromptu many drums and basses jam after a ceremonial performance for Shabbat. It seemed like just the right combination of absurd and beautiful within a context of much needed resistance. The four of us have spent the last couple of months exploring Wally's worlds, and we are so looking forward to inviting you in on November 2nd.