Monday, May 09, 2005

Drummers Make Bad Boyfriends.

Last Thursday night Scott, my dad, and I went to hear my good friend Vanessa Rodrigues play at The Rex. I met Vanessa nine summers ago at the Fine Arts Centre in Banff, Alberta. We spent 4 weeks as roommates during their International Jazz Workshop. I think we got paired up because we were the youngest people there. Vanessa was just finishing up highschool and she proceeded on to McGill and majored in Jazz. I was moving from Iowa to Toronto to go to U of T. Vanessa is one of those ridiculously talented musicians who just seeps music from her every pore. Getting to hear her play was a lot of fun because I had never heard her play organ before and I also haven't heard her in a few years.
Observations - she plays with balls - friggin' all out, unapologetic, in your face, eat it up and come back for more. It is so cool because here is this physically tiny person playing music like a monster. She was playing with Chris Gale (bari and tenor sax) and Davide DiRenzo (drums). They were clearly having a fabulous time playing with her, and they had the standing room only crowd at the Rex eating out of the palms of their hands.
Vanessa has a cd out - you should buy it (I bought one but she ran out of copies, so she is going to mail me an autographed version). She also has a listing of all of her upcoming shows, so if you ever in Montreal go check her out. I'll make sure I blog about her next Toronto performance in advance.

2 comments:

  1. I take exception to your title! My drummer makes quite an excellent bf!! ;)

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  2. Ah yes, that's right. Yours is likely the exception...Vanessa has dated many a drummer who turned out to be bad bad bad boyfriends.

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