The Fix

 
Here is What Is Trailer 

One day last September before things kicked into high gear, I snuck into an afternoon screening at the Toronto International Film Festival. It was partly out of duty that went to see the music documentary Here is What Is, thinking that I  should get to know more about Canadian musician and producer Daniel Lanois. 

From the stunning opening shot of Garth Hudson’s hands drifting across the piano keyboard, and the lyricism of his meandering solo, I was far more enthralled than I’d expected to be. The film is a rhapsodic look at Lanois’s life in music, ambling in and out of the studio and the private lives of Lanois and the musicians he works with as he records his latest album, Here Is what Is. 

Often the music is allowed to speak for itself, with full songs to play out in some cases, supported by thoughtful conversation. The visual style is equally creative, including dance sequences, shifts between black-and-white and psychedelic colour, lush framings (such as Lanois in the centre of the red spot, above), handheld and lo-fi video. We see Lanois visit with other musicians, including Brian Blade, Eno, U2, Willie Nelson, Emmylou Harris, Aaron Neville, Billy Bob Thornton and Sinead O’Connor. They muse on why they play music, and what is important to them, but some also show a refreshingly down-to-earth attitude. Brian Eno discusses his own lack of romanticism in a way which is somehow inspiring; pausing in the midst of his own project in Morocco, he says, 

“things come out of nothing… the tiniest seed in the right situation turns into the most beautiful forest… If you walk around with the idea that there are some people who are so gifted, they have these wonderful things in their head but you’re not one of them, you’re just sort of a a normal person… then, you live a different kind of life. You could have another kind of life where you say, well I know that things come from nothing very much, and start from unpromising beginnings.. and I’m an unpromising beginning, and I could start something. ”

Lanois seems committed both to allowing things to take their natural path, and to shaping them into something better. At times the film turns almost evangelical as the musicians reflect on the blurring of lines between sacred and secular, with Lanois himself calling his guitar his “church in a suitcase. ” In these moments it comes as close to depicting the ecstasy of musical experience as any documentary I’ve ever seen.

Today I got my hands on the Here is What is CD, out on Red Floor records. Order the Here is what Is CD and DVD.   Link to the trailer, top of page.

The other day I had to remind myself again that there’s no such thing as Music Police– So I should just relax!

Back in the days of Puirt a Baroque, Terry Mackenna and I used to have to tell ourselves this as we tore apart and then recontructed the sacred cows of Gaelic song, and baroque instrumental music. Maybe we could go ahead and do as we liked, and no Music Police would decend on us and charge us with a musical felony.

Over lunch recently we realized that, hey, we don’t even have to remind ourselves of that anymore because we’re living it. What a relief!

 
Eleni Mandell playing that little vintage Martin which I covet,
opening for Justin Rutledge at the Mod Club in Toronto

Although I’ve been listening to Eleni Mandell for years, I still find it difficult to describe her music to others, perhaps because it doesn’t fit easily into any category. It’s nostalgic yet modern, innocent yet tough. It’s jazzy at times, and rocks out in others.  Imagine if you will a kind of female Tom Waits, with a touch of Patsy Cline thrown in.  She’s the cool, smart, sexy girl next door, who’s maybe been around the block a few times.  You can imagine it now, right?

Since my description is so inadequate, perhaps you should just visit her website, where you can stream clips. Or better still, buy her older CDs “Wishbone”, Thrill” or “Dreamboat”.

Listen: 
Pauline from “Wishbone”
The Makeout King from ”Miracle of Five” (2007)

I’m back from a week with La Chapelle de Quebec/ Les Violons du Roy, conducted by Bernard Labadie. I’d forgotten what a genius Handel was. The  work predates his more famous work, “Messiah,” by a few years, but has all the drama and hummable tunes of Messiah, as well as movements which fans of his other works might find familiar.

Best thing about Israel in Egypt, to a chorister? It’s all about us, baby. The choir barely shuts up for the 80-or minutes it takes to perform the work. And what a range of styles — it’s like a little compendium of all of Handel’s choral techniques , as well as seeming prescient of work which will come much later (the pulsing, fragmented line and wind solos of the opening movement   are similar to Mozart’s “Requiem”, and later orchestra moments almost suggest Brahms).

Our performance: CBC Radio, Choral Concert, April 15, 8 - 10 AM in any Canadian timezones (or you can time shift by listening online)