NOW Orchestra Podcast
The NOW Orchestra podcast features interviews, music samples and anything else we can think of. We welcome suggestions for the podcast. If you have anything you want to see, let us know. Subscribe to our podcast and keep up to date on the latest audio from NOW Orchestra.
Interview With Ron Samworth - Part 1
Who: Ron Samworth
Interviewer: Tommy Babin
Vancouver-based guitarist/composer Ron Samworth is known on the Canadian improvised/contemporary music scene as an inventive textural improviser and a strong fluid melodicist informed and inspired by a variety of music traditions including jazz, rock, new music and folk music of many cultures. He leads the acclaimed Vancouver-based quartet Talking Pictures and co-leads the NOW Orchestra and is a member of Francois Houle’s electro-acoustic quartet and the Hard Rubber Orchestra.
He has appeared at all the major Jazz Festivals across Canada, the Festival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville, at New York’s Knitting Factory, and the New York Improvisation Festival, New Music America, Vienna’s "Let’s Cool One" Chamber Jazz Festival, Chicago and Berlin jazz festivals and other leading venues in Europe.
Interview With Lisa Miller - Part 1
Who: Lisa Miller
Interviewer: Tommy Babin
“If the new improvisational movement means to convey the spirit of jazz without reiterating its stylistic clichés, then Vancouver-based pianist Lisa Miller deserves to be considered one of its leading lights.” J.D. Considine, The Globe and Mail
Miller’s performance style combines her interest in varied disciplines - modern classical composition, jazz and free improvisation - in vibrant and challenging pieces, using the improvisatory talents of the members of her ensembles and her knowledge of contemporary practices. Her CD, The music of lisa miller Q, featuring Peggy Lee, Dylan van der Schyff and Steve Smith, is available in Canada through Festival Distribution and in Europe through No Man’s Land. The recording has received rave reviews in Downbeat, The Paris Transatlantic Magazine, The Globe and Mail, Montreal Gazette (voted 13 of top 20 jazz albums of the year) and Signal to Noise. Her piano trio has recorded for CBC broadcast on Hot Air and Jazz Beat. She performs with the NOW Orchestra, ion zoo, stop time and in her ensembles Q, lm trio, edgeffect, and green ideas.
Lisa Miller’s compositions have been premiered by The Berkeley Symphony Orchestra, Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, The Left Coast Ensemble and Ear play in San Francisco, Standing Wave, The Turning Point Ensemble, The Vancouver Chinese Instrumental Music Society, Q and Edgeffect (with Ron Samworth, Jeremy Berkman and Jesse Zubot) in Vancouver. Miller completed a Doctorate in music composition at the University of British Columbia. She studied composition at San Francisco State University, McGill University and the University of Calgary and jazz piano in New York City.
Interview with Francois Houle - Part 2
Who: François Houle
Interviewer: Tommy Babin
François Houle talks about his musical influences and background.
Clarinetist François Houle has established himself as one of Canada’s finest musicians. His performances and recordings transcend the stylistic borders associated with his instrument in all of the diverse musical spheres he embraces: classical, jazz, new music, improvised music, and world music.
Interview With Kate Hammett Vaughn - Part 2
Who: Kate Hammett-Vaughan
Interviewer: Tommy Babin
Kate Hammett-Vaughan (voice) is an adventurous, assured and hip vocalist who has earned acclaim as one of Canada's most distinctive jazz artists. She is equally recognized for her interpretations of jazz standards (notably with her outstanding quintet and in duo with bassist André Lachance) and for her improvising work with the NOW Orchestra and Cheep and T’Audrey, her duo with guitarist composer Ron Samworth. Hammett-Vaughan has received three JUNO nominations (1994, 2000, 2005) as well as recent nods from the Canadian Independent Music Awards and the National Jazz Awards.
A performing and recording artist for more than two decades, her diverse musical projects include work on independent film scores, guest hosting of CBC television and radio shows, collaborations with modern dance artists, and a fulfilling career as a teacher.
