Rhythm Changes Podcast

Harmeet Kaur Virdee talks about her upbringing, education, and values as a bass player; her journey as an arts administrator in her early twenties, including work with the VSO School of Music and the Ostara Project; and her music, currently in a band with Ru Ha, Noah Franche-Nolan, & Karl DeJong. Harmeet started a series in May 2023 called Surrey Jazz Nights that features groups of high school students from around Surrey, monthly, at a Blenz Coffee in the Sullivan Heights neighborhood.

My second album Maybe Eventually is out now on CD; buy now at chernoffmusic.com and use the code RCP at checkout for 25% off!

Become a member for free today at rhythmchanges.ca. You'll get the free weekly email with upcoming events from the gig list, plus artists, events, or recordings for you to enjoy and share. Sent every Tuesday morning at 6:00 AM Pacific Time.

Credits: Hosted, produced, edited, and mixed by Will Chernoff. Music: "Lutin" by William Chernoff.

Chris Wong talks about his new book Journeys to the Bandstand: Thirty Jazz Lives in Vancouver. Chris is an author, lifelong music fan, and veteran of music journalism. He wrote about our jazz community for outlets including the Vancouver Courier, the Georgia Straight, and many more, especially during the late 1990s and early 2000s. Learn about and buy the book here.

I wrote the blurb on the back cover of Chris' book, and Chris wrote the liner notes to my second album Maybe Eventually.

Become a member for free today at rhythmchanges.ca. You'll get the free weekly email with upcoming events from the gig list, plus artists, events, or recordings for you to enjoy and share. Sent every Tuesday morning at 6:00 AM Pacific Time.

Credits: Hosted, produced, edited, and mixed by Will Chernoff. Music: "Lutin" by William Chernoff.

Jessica Heaven talks about her multi-disciplinary life as a vocalist (or a singer – she feels a distinction!), dancer going back her entire life, theatre and film actor, and a member of the leadership team with the Women in Jazz Association of BC since that non-profit's inception. Through the association, she has been involved in the Sister Jazz Orchestra and with media around the scene as well. Her recent projects include Descartes for Sheila (2021) with Jake McIntyre-Paul, Closest Living Relative (2020) with Mike WT Allen and Spencer Schoening, and Primal Navigation as the group Ptriodactyl.

Get tickets to the Fraser MacPherson book launch and concert, featuring the Cory Weeds Quartet, at Odd Fellows Hall on April 16th here!

Become a member for free today at rhythmchanges.ca. You'll get the free weekly email with upcoming events from the gig list, plus artists, events, or recordings for you to enjoy and share. Sent every Tuesday morning at 6:00 AM Pacific Time.

Credits: Hosted, produced, edited, and mixed by Will Chernoff. Music: "Lutin" by William Chernoff.

I went live on Monday, Feb. 19, 2024 to post-game Jazz at the Bolt 2024 — hundreds of happy folks, due to the music by dozens of musicians, underwritten by months of hard work from Cory, Tim, and the team.

I enjoyed every minute of the music at the Shadbolt and at Frankie’s, and your company. I feel lucky to have been involved and to have had a window into this unique event.

My personal thanks to: Cory and Tim (all the love and respect I got for you both), all the volunteers I worked with, my friends for hanging with me, and Chris Wong for writing and printing a book for the ages. I also got to meet some Rhythm Changes subscribers whom I hadn’t met in person yet. You know who you are. Your support makes my world go round.

We’re bringing this vibe all year!

Francis Naluz talks about his band PATH, co-led with Paco Ha. Francis is a bassist who plays upright and electric bass as well as guitar. He is an active side-person in his cohort, playing often with Gordy Li, the Couch Jams Collective, and many more. He graduated from Capilano University in 2022.

Francis plays in the next Couch Jams event called I Wish U Roses, at the Annex Theatre, on February 15.

PATH features Paco in a two-saxophone setup with Erika Chow, while Francis completes the rhythm section with his friends including keyboardist Suin Park and drummers Seth Kitamura and Jordy McIntosh. The band's material ranges from R&B covers to original contemporary jazz.

Francis also has a solo project on SoundCloud called Archibald Caribou.

Become a member for free today at rhythmchanges.ca. You'll get the free weekly email with upcoming events from the gig list, plus artists, events, or recordings for you to enjoy and share. Sent every Tuesday morning at 6:00 AM Pacific Time.

Credits: Hosted and produced by Will Chernoff. Edited and mixed by Justin Gorrie. Music: "Lutin" by William Chernoff.

My second album Maybe Eventually is out now on CD; buy now at chernoffmusic.com and use the code RCP at checkout for 25% off!

Need some company? Long travels still ahead of you this winter break? Or do you just want to hear some tea about Rhythm Changes? Vez Chernoff guest-hosts this impromptu chat with their husband Will, going through a bunch of fun (or deep) questions collected from tweets, articles, and podcasts around the end of this year.

Links to things mentioned:

• Surviving my Bernie Legge theatre gig
• How I got my first Vancouver jazz festival show
• David Blake opens up about the Tangent Cafe closing down
• Rhythm Changes year-end letter 2023 (or find it in your podcast feed before this episode)
• Why Maybe Eventually might be my last album
• Favourite podcast episode I listened to this year

Become a member for free today at rhythmchanges.ca. You'll get the free weekly email with upcoming events from the gig list, plus artists, events, or recordings for you to enjoy and share. Sent every Tuesday morning at 6:00 AM Pacific Time.

Want to know how many people are in my audience? What about the number of paying subscribers I have?

This is a shortened version of a video I made for paying subscribers at Rhythm Changes on December 6, 2023. To see the numbers and inside information we shared, become a subscriber and add your support to Rhythm Changes.

I also talk about an insight from growing the website that might help you with your own audience-building, as well as three new features I have planned for 2024.

The video and full version for subscribers, including a transcript, is hosted here.

Daniel Deorksen is a guitarist, singer-songwriter, actor, and venue booker who leads the Seven Tyrants Theatre Society. The society presents music and comedy as Tyrant Studios above the historic Penthouse Night Club on Seymour Street in downtown Vancouver.

Become a member for free today at rhythmchanges.ca. You'll get the free weekly email with upcoming events from the gig list, plus artists, events, or recordings for you to enjoy and share. Sent every Tuesday morning at 6:00 AM Pacific Time.

Róisín Adams talks about playing at Ironworks and at 8EAST as one-third of the group Beatings are in the Body, with Erika Angell on vocals and Peggy Lee on cello. Róisín is a composer, pianist, and improviser who also leads her own trio with James Meger on bass and Dan Gaucher on drums.

Beatings are in the Body played shows on Vancouver Island around the time of this episode at the Vault in Nanaimo, at The Orange Light in Victoria, and the Woodstove Festival in Cumberland. Their performance at Ironworks took place as part of IronFest IV, presented by Coastal Jazz in association with Heart of the City Festival.

Check out my review of Beatings are in the Body for Rhythm Changes.

Note: Coastal Jazz invited me to host IronFest IV from the stage and thereby let me in for free; they did not have any part or influence in the making of this podcast episode. Also, I finished writing the album review before I received that invitation.

Steph Wall talks about her fourth and latest album My Angels, released on September 15, 2023. Steph is a singer-songwriter who has learned her craft by ear with influence from the New Orleans tradition, being affiliated with a sub-community of Vancouver jazz expats there since the days of the Rossi Gang in the early 2010s. My Angels has a diversity of genres across its tracklist and features Stephen Nikleva on guitar, Joe Abbott on saxophone, Wynston Minckler on bass, and Nick James on drums – as well as more contributions from Allie O’Neill, Jeremy Parkin, Noah Franche-Nolan, and Noah Walker.

Steph played release shows in Nanaimo at the Vault, in Victoria at the Layaway, and here in Vancouver at the Anza Club in support of the new album. She also has My Angels T-shirts and cassettes available for sale.

Become a member for free today at rhythmchanges.ca. You'll get the free weekly email with upcoming events from the gig list, plus artists, events, or recordings for you to enjoy and share. Sent every Tuesday morning at 6:00 AM Pacific Time.