Joe Haydn. Joe Brahms. Joe Canada.
Like The Kids in the Hall, and their friend Dave, these are the Joes that the Joe Trio know.
The Vancouver-based piano trio, made up of violinist Cameron Wilson, cellist Charles Inkman, and pianist Allen Stiles, put the fun in classical by mixing genres and styles to appeal to a wide audience.
The next music act to play for the North Okanagan Community Concert Association (NOCCA), March 21 at the Vernon Performing Arts Centre, Wilson says the Joe Trio’s mandate is to “unstuff Brahms.”
However, the group’s name did not actually come from any of the classical Joes or the I am Canadian Joe (made famous in those Molson Canadian ads), but from a famous cartoon.
“Allen and I are Peanuts fans,” said Wilson. “We loved the ways Charles Schulz always joked about putting Joe as a prefix to everything. Our moniker is that we are not your average piano trio. We’re everybody’s trio. We also didn’t want a fancy name, we wanted something simple to suit our style of presenting this music.”
With the busy schedules of all the musicians, each of whom have numerous side projects, the trio has, in fact, been on a small hiatus. They last toured western Canada in the fall with CBC author and storyteller Stuart McLean and his Vinyl Café. (Wilson has previously worked with McLean and the CBC Radio Orchestra, writing the music for McLean’s History of Canada and I Remember Wayne. Both stories were released as a CD in 2006.)
“It’s fantastic to come back with a fresh perspective. Although we will be playing some of our older material, we have some new material that we are excited about,” said Wilson, who was in Vernon last year with one of his other projects, gypsy swing group Van Django.
Never far from their classical roots, the trio continues to pay ode to “Joe” Brahms and his contemporary Haydn, and the odd non-Joe, whom they lovingly call Uncle Shostakovich, but they also show their love for gypsy jazz à la Quintette du Hot Club du France (Django Reinhardt and Stéphane Grappelli being honorary Joes).
“We arranged a set of three tunes by Django, which we play with orchestras as well. The cello imitates the guitar part. The trio has had to find ways to enhance the rhythm parts. Allen does some improvising but Charles doesn’t as much, so the solos are a mixture,” said Wilson, adding he considers the Joe Trio and Van Django as “the left and right sides of my brain.”
He also counts Reinhardt’s oft. collaborator Grappelli as one of his greatest influences.
“I listened to a lot of Stéphane Grapelli records growing up. I also saw him play when I was 13. I thought his playing suited my playing more than just straight-ahead classical. Gypsy-jazz playing is more about style. Stéphane was classically trained and my dad was an old time fiddler, in a Don Messer style, so I had all these influences.”
Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys, whose Joe connection could be his producer Joe Thomas (OK, we’re stretching here), is another music hero.
“Our newest thing has been listening to a lot of Brian Wilson, particularly Smile and Pet Sounds. Surf’s Up and Good Vibrations (which the trio will play when in Vernon) are two of his classics. Wilson has been writing stuff that is as good as Schubert.”
With their obvious brand of Canadian humour, the Joes count musical satirist P.D.Q. Bach and comedian/composer/pianist Victor Borge as other influences, although what they do is not parody.
That can be heard in the song that Wilson counts as an “oldie, but goodie,” his arrangement A Broad History of Western Music, which has the tagline “with apologies to Henry Mancini.”
Then there is the trio’s arrangements of The Sad Story of Little Joe who played the Violin, and Joe Canada, which Wilson describes as a mash-up of the national anthem and Rossini.
“It’s more like the William Tell Overture with Hockey Night in Canada,” he laughed.
“We bring our influences, and sense of humour is a big part of it… There’s a balance in the program of funny stuff and classical. To make an effective concert, you have to find the right balance.”
For its next three concerts, starting with the Joe Trio, the NOCCA is spotlighting local young talent, performing on stage, rather than in the foyer, 10 minutes before the headlining act. On March 21, a trio of Neil Fraser’s guitar students, Shane Ranger, Emily Ross and Will Friesen, will perform before the Joe Trio takes the stage.
The concert starts at 7:30 p.m. and those who do not have a NOCCA membership can purchase individual tickets for the show at $35 for an adult or $17.50 for a student at the Ticket Seller box office, or call (250) 549-7469 or order online at www.ticketseller.ca.
