Brodie West left Nanaimo for Toronto 25 years ago, but later this week the jazz saxophonist is returning to his Island hometown to share new musical ideas and discoveries.
Two weeks ago West released his latest album, Clips, and starting this week West and his quintet – pianist Tania Gill, bassist Josh Cole and drummers Nick Fraser and Evan Cartwright – are bringing those new sounds to Western Canada. On Saturday, Oct. 6, the Brodie West Quintet is holding a workshop and giving a performance at the White Room.
The Saturday afternoon workshop will cover rhythmic concepts West has been working on for the past five years. He said it’s open to musicians of different skill levels and genres.
“I find that exciting to be able to talk about music with people at different levels and find a common language,” he said. “And in this case we’ll be dealing with pretty fundamental rhythm, the way rhythm functions, so that’ll be I think a really fun workshop.”
West said he feels it’s important to share some of the ideas that he’s working on because he’s excited about them and he thinks that they’re not very obvious when listening to his music.
“It might not be easy to figure out what’s going on. There’s a lot of things in the music that have an effect that’s kind of disorienting,” he said.
In the evening he’ll be back at the White Room for a show with his band. He’ll be playing material from his latest release, which he describes as more traditional jazz with prominent saxophone. West said the tour, which takes the quintet across the Island and into the mainland before stops in Alberta, will give the band the chance to “really get the material under our fingers.”
“The album is a bunch of my original compositions and I’m playing with people that I’ve played with for a long time, in most cases some of my oldest colleagues,” he said. “So in a way that album came out of this band being formed a few years ago and us just kind of wanting to stretch out and play more and do some touring and reach a wider audience.”
WHAT’S ON … The Brodie West Quintet is holding a rhythm workshop at the White Room, 4 Church St, on Saturday, Oct. 6 from 2 to 3 p.m. Suggested admission $10. At 7:30 p.m. the quintet performs at the White Room. Admission is $15, available at Fascinating Rhythm.
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