IMOO #98, 99

April 6: #98 – Sobol/Magill/Wellman

• Linsey Wellman – solo saxophone (1st set)
• Rory Magill – drums, percussion
• John Sobol – saxophone

April 27: #99 – Allison Cameron Band

• Allison Cameron – banjo, casio sax, electronics, harmonica, compositions
• Eric Chenaux – acoustic and electric guitars, pedal steel, harmonica
• Stephen Parkinson – electric guitar, harmonica, electronics

Chenaux and Parkinson are both self-taught guitar players coming out of different rock music traditions (70’s British blues and 80/90’s punk) while Cameron is an amateur banjo player. Eric Chenaux has made a name for himself as both player and composer in a variety of Toronto groups ranging from alternative folk, alt. jazz and free improvisation. Parkinson and Cameron are also improvisers and composers.

This trio (based in Toronto, Canada) explores the combined talents and varied musical backgrounds of Eric Chenaux, Stephen Parkinson and Allison Cameron. The group began playing in the winter of 2007 working on Allison Cameron’s compositions based on traditional folk music. Some of the music borrows tablature notation from traditional English folk tunes in a non-conformist manner, using re-tuned guitars and banjo, new rhythm, free rhythm and sometimes no rhythm to re-invent and create new pieces out of the old work. Similar to the definition of a palimpsest: a manuscript on which two or more successive texts have been written, each one being erased to make room for the next with the earlier writing incompletely erased and often legible. The group combines approaches to composition and improvisation often found in rock and jazz bands with that of contemporary music composition. The pieces encompass a variety of instruments using guitars in different tunings, electronics, and harmonicas.