I had a great time !!! It was a real pleasure to have George Barkhouse on upright bass, Kevin Perkins on guitar and Jordi Comstock on drums - a great combo !

We enjoyed ourselves (had a blast) with a good audience. Cheryl Edgett was there, so she joined us for a couple of vocals and since Cheryl and I had not met previously, it was a good thing, since she is singing with us at the Economy Shoe Shop, on October 6th - she’s good!

Hope to see a few of you at the Shoe Shop, when I’ll have my usual crew and Cheryl on vocals.

Bye for now,

Clas

Well, we’re now in the “post-Katrein” era.  She has moved permanently to Alberta and I wish her all the best and will, of course miss her talents as a vocalist.

August 13th was also the end of a pretty intensive run of performances - 10 gigs in 13 days - that’s heavy for me anyway.  My next one is tomorrow and then nothing booked for a while.

There is now some time for new things and to work on my music, as well as many home projects that have been waiting for my attention!

I am talking with three vocalists and hopefully will end up with one, or two, who are willing to join me and my guys on various gigs.

The future possibilities are always unlimited.

Bye for now,

Clas  

Hi !!

I should have written some time ago - anyway, we had a great time at the Atlantic Jazz Festival, with a very responsive crowd and I think we did a reasonable job.  If you want to see some photos, look them up on www.jazzeastphotos.com and click on July 15th.

This weekend is pretty busy with a gig on Fri, Sat, Sun and Monday!!

After August 13th, everything slows down and, sadly, Katrein leaves Nova Scotia for good, to live in Red Deer of all places!!

I’m talking with four other vocalists, so the future looks good.

From August 24th to September 7th, I’ve reserved for Nancy and me to have a vacation and who knows where we may travel, but we’ll enjoy ourselves, that’s for sure.

First Day Of Summer !!

I’m very pleased to announce that I’ve been asked to play at the TD Atlantic Jazz Festival, Halifax, N.S., on July 15th, 1 pm, on the main stage and Katrein will join me with her fabulous vocal chords -it sure gives us a focus for some intensive work.

Otherwise, June are both pretty slow from the gig point of view.  I’m not sure if I tokd you that Katrein will move to Red Deer permanently in mid August - our loss, their gain!!

Photography wise, I am seriously considering to stop shooting weddings, due to a general lack of interest.  I’ll decide by yearend, however I still shoot other stuff, such as scenics, events, families, etc, etc.

Time for a bit of chitchat again, let’s face it, even though you’d never know it from the weather, it’s almost summer!!

Gig wise, June and July are going to be fairly quiet, as you can see on my schedule, but then we make up for it in August.

The sad thing for me is that Katrein will be leaving Nova Scotia permanently - her husband, Tim Zeh, landed a job out West and Katrein will be joining him in mid August. She’ll sing with us on all the gigs I’ve advertised with her onboard, so have a look at my schedule and try to make it to one of them. I’ve been talking with a few other vocalists, so hopefully I’ll hook up with one, or two songbirds for future gigs. 

Hang loose and talk to you soon,

Clas

Here we are, almost into May, with it’s promises of good weather, grasscutting and other endless outdoor jobs - plus the jobs that were supposed to be done during winter, but weren’t!!

Anyway, April was a good month ending with a private function in Hfx on 25th and a gig at the Bogan Villa, Bridgewater, on saturday 26th. It was a lot of fun and the first time we have managed to play a public gig in Bridgewater - maybe there’ll be more.

On April 19th, I went outside my comfort box to sit in with  blues singer, Phaedra,  at the Mug and Anchor Pub, in Mahone Bay, N.S.  I was “sitting in” at her request = no money, but the challenge was that I had no idea what her tunes might be, so therefore went on a wing and a prayer.  However she had managed to line up a great rythm section, with George Barkhouse on upright bass and Darren Arsenault on guitar.  I had never played with them before, but they were indeed solid, so we had a night of fun - Phaedra is very unusual!!

May and June are pretty empty of gigs, so far, but August will be busy.  I’m supposed to have a feature added to my blog, so people can leave comments, or messages, but the guy who built my website is being a bit slow, so we’ll see how long it takes. 

Have a great summer!!

YES - IT IS ACTUALLY SPRING NOW !!

As you can see on my schedule, I’ve added a couple of gigs, so the calendar is starting to look good. I am, of course hoping to get a spot on the Atlantic Jazz Festival stage in July, same as last year - it was a blast! However, it may not happen, since Jazzeast have a lot of great local talent to choose from - I’ll keep my fingers crossed!

I got a phonecall the other day from a musician/photographer in Guelph. His name is Josh Gabriel and he’s travelling this way with his trio, so hopefully we’ll touch base when he gets here and maybe have a jam - www.joshgabriel.ca

There’s not much happening here this time of the year except the long wait for warm weather. However, if you live around the Bridgewater area, why not come and listen to some hot and cool music on Saturday April 26th, in the Bogan Villa Hotel !

See you there,

Clas

IT’S ALMOST SPRING !!

As you can see on my schedule, there are three new gigs, one a private function in Halifax on April 25th, one at Bogan Villa in Bridgewater on April 26th and my favorite Economy Shoe Shop on May 12th. Maybe I’ll see one or two of you at some of my gigs?

One not so good piece of information is that Andy Shepherd, who is the guy who started, organizes and runs the Bogan Villa (”This Isn’t Jazz?”) evenings, had an accident. Hopefully he’ll make a quick recovery from surgery and not have to cancel the April 26th night.

I am having a great time practising, when I take breaks from my 2007 income tax work, although, to be frank, it’s usually the other way around - after all, I have until the end of April to submit !!

Enjoy Spring and Easyer this weekend!!

Clas

Yup - It’s been a busy month, February, that is - five gigs. The Shoe Shop gig on Feb 25 was great, with good driving weather and a good enthusiastic crowd (it makes a big difference). On Wednesday morning Adam Fine from Jazzeast called and asked if we could fill a cancellation Thursday night Feb 28th, at Stayner’s Wharf Pub and Grill - you bet we could and did! The crowd thinned out and by our third set we had only 3 tables of people. However, at one of them were some young enthusiastic musicians, one of them a bass player, Matt. He asked to sit in, which he did and played a great solo on Blue Bossa, as well as trading 4th’s with me and Jordi (drummer). We had a good night and Matt certainly spruced up our last set - thanks Matt!

On March 1st we played a gig at Simple Moments Cafe’, in Lunenburg. We were cursed by lousy weather which kept all Lunenburgers at home, so the walk-in crowd didn’t appear. However, we had a good bunch of people who had reserved and they were very enthusiastic and also enjoyed the great buffet. My daughter did some photography, so I have some new images which might appear on this site - who knows?

Our next gig is on March 22 in Lane’s Privateer Inn, Liverpool - see you there?

Bye for now,

Clas

Economy Shoe Shop last night, 25Feb08 - “Monday Jazz Night”. It was a great gig with pretty well a full house and bags of enthusiastic listeners, including some friends. I love to play in the Shoe Shop - it’s got its very own atmosphere and, of course we get exposure to new listeners, which is good for us. Tim and Derek did their usual nice tight comping and Jordi played some great solos and we both had fun trading 4’s. Katrein sang some nice stuff and the two of us had fun with our Imperial and Metric version of Five Foot Two. Our next gig on March 1st is in Simple Moments Cafe’ in Lunenburg, on Saturday, March 1st.

Bye for now!