THIS WEEK'S CONTENTS

THIS WEEK:

JULLY BLACK

Jully Black is a platinum-selling singer, songwriter, performer, international recording artist, multiple Juno Award winner, Gemini Award (now Canadian Screen Awards) recipient, a celebrated television actress and author.

She has collaborated with industry heavyweights such as Destiny's Child and Sean Paul, has shared the stage with superstars such as Celine Dion, Elton John and Etta James, to name a few.

In February 2020 Jully took the musical theatre world by storm and won the highly esteemed Dora Mavor Award and the coveted Toronto Theatre Critics Award for her critically acclaimed, starring role as ‘Caroline’ in ‘Caroline, or Change’ (books and lyrics by Tony Kushner).

Jully is a phenom in Canadian entertainment, lifestyle and public speaking arenas. It is with purpose driven ideals and boundless spiritual fortitude that she continues to refine and reinvent her artistry.

As CEO of Jully Black Entertainment Inc., Jully continues to contribute to the music landscapes that she has helped define throughout her illustrious 20+ year career as Canada’s Queen of RnB/Soul. 

PREMIER DATE: Friday February 19, 2021

PREMIER TIME: 7:30 P.M.

DIGITAL PASS HERE or see www.aeolianhall.ca/phoenix for more information

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Jully Black

Seven Day Fool

Recorded in 2007, Universal Music Canada Inc.

 

FIND THE MUSIC AND WIN

If you are like us, and you've been reading the Aeolian weekly newsletter from top to bottom since we launched the new layout in October... then this contest is for you!

Find the microphone 🎤 hidden in one of the stories below. Email boxoffice@aeolianhall.ca and be the first to tell us exactly where it is and win a one month pass to the Phoenix Sessions... that's 4 concerts in the comfort of your home. You will also receive two signed posters from any of the Phoenix Sessions. Happy reading!

Congratulations to last week's winners!  We will reach out to you by email very soon!

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Aeolian Phoenix Sessions...

FEBRUARY PRODUCTION LINE-UP: SUBSCRIBE NOW

The Phoenix Sessions bring the virtual stage live into your livingroom. Subscribers have front row seats and a virtual backstage pass to a concert and interview. A one month subscription and access to at least four performances is available for $20.

Aeolian’s Phoenix Sessions are proud to produce four outstanding performances in February.  One new show will be released every Friday including: Lewington & Downie (Enter the Haggis), Colin Linden, Jully Black, and Nocturne Romantique featuring Clark Bryan, pianist.

In keeping with Ontario government regulations, out of respect for our friends in the music venue industry, and out of consideration for all of our artists, volunteers and staff, the Aeolian Phoenix Sessions will be independently recorded in home studios during the provincial lockdown. We wish to thank our dedicated musicians for taking on this extra initiative to ensure that the Phoenix Sessions can continue. As always, we look forward to being able to showcase our talent on stage again soon. In February, our performances come to you from London, Toronto, and Nashville. We hope you enjoy this musical journey.

Subscribe once, enjoy live music all month long!

These performances are part of the Aeolian’s Phoenix Sessions. To view, become a recurring monthly member. You will receive an email including a link that you will use each time you wish to view a performance.

Visit www.aeolianhall.ca/events for more information.

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ACTIVATING YOUR MONTHLY PACKAGE

Membership is Automatic; Show Selection is the Viewer's Choice

Every month, your Phoenix Sessions Membership rolls over automatically. Members still need to login and select your show package and any other Member's Only items we have on offer. The process is easy.

IF YOU ARE ALREADY A MEMBER

(ie: you subscribed with automatic renewal and have a Membership Number)

  • Go Here (to select February's programming): FEBRUARY LINK
  • Scroll down to the Membership Form at the bottom of the page.
  • Select I AM A MEMBER
  • Enter your membership number*
  • Select VERIFY
  • This will automatically confirm your membership is active and provide access to the February Pass.
  • Scroll down. Enter your information (name and email).
  • Select SUBMIT
  • Check your email. You will receive your February Pass.** Keep it safe: you will use it for every concert in February.

*Lost Your Membership Number? Select “I FORGOT MY NUMBER” and enter your email address. We will email it to you within a few minutes.

**Lost Your February Pass? Go here: FEBRUARY PASS RECOVERY

REMEMBER: unless you wish to donate or want to give a membership as a gift, leave these sections blank. Partially completed sections will cause an error message when checking out.

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ANNOUNCEMENT:

Change to the February Line-Up

NOCTURNE ROMANTIQUE

Clark Bryan, Pianist

Footsteps on freshly fallen snow. The smell of a wood burning fire. Stars dancing among a frozen sky. A candlelit window breaking the darkness. Quiet contemplation.

Experience an evening of passion and romance as Clark Bryan plays nocturnes; night music for a winters' eve.

Come in from the cold. With Talisker or a smoky wine in hand, step out of reality and into romance. Dreamy and suggestive, piano nocturnes are among the most beautiful and the most melancholy.

From love to love-lost, and the new to the comfortable, this evening of nocturnes will warm your heart, feed your restless soul, leaving you lost for just a moment among the starry, starry night.

As an award-winning concert pianist, Clark Bryan has performed internationally, recorded 14 CD’s and has been featured on radio and television. As a teacher, Mr Bryan has taught thousands of students, adjudicated more than 60 music festivals coast to coast in Canada, given dozens of workshops and written a book “Gateways to Learning and Memory”.

The founder of The Aeolian Performing Arts Centre, Clark believes that everyone should have universal access to music, art and culture. Because of this belief, he launched El Sistema Aeolian in 2011. This free, intensive music program has offered hundreds of children and youth an opportunity to experience the joy of a rich musical experience. In 2016, Mr. Bryan secured Bishop Cronyn Memorial Place, a second facility to develop an Education Campus. Shortly after securing this facility, he co-founded two new programs. Pride Men’s Chorus London is a choir open to men of all backgrounds and identities. Rebelheart Collective is a conductorless chamber orchestra that offers mentorship to young apprentices and offers free tickets to every concert.

Mr. Bryan is engaged in community activism and speaks regularly at events, on radio and television and has given a TEDx talk about the power and joy of music study.

He has been awarded Musical Personality of the Year (2005), Forest City London Music Award for Community Contribution (2011). In 2017, Mr. Bryan was given the Western Alumni Award of Merit and inducted into the Don Wright Faculty of Music Wall of Fame. In 2018, Clark was recognized with a Canada 150 Award through the House of Commons for his contributions to community and the nation.

PREMIER DATE: Friday February 26, 2021

PREMIER TIME: 7:30 P.M.

DIGITAL PASS HERE or see www.aeolianhall.ca/phoenix for more information

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Ignace Xavier Joseph Leybach

Nocture No. 5

Written in 1862. Recorded 2021 by Clark Bryan, Pianist.

 

AEOLIAN PHOENIX SESSIONS

With special thanks to our sponsors:

Chris Collins & Elana Johnson

2020 Gold Sponsors

 

Aeolian Phoenix Sessions...

MARCH PRODUCTIONS ANNOUNCED

The Phoenix Sessions bring the virtual stage live into your living room. Subscribers have front row seats and a virtual backstage pass to a concert and interview. A one-month membership and access to at least four performances is available for $20.

Aeolian’s Phoenix Sessions are proud to produce four outstanding performances in March. One new show will be released  every Friday including: Marty Kols, Andrew Collins, Luke McMaster, and Fraser Teeple

Subscribe once, enjoy live music all month long! 

These performances are part of the Aeolian’s Phoenix Sessions. To view, become a recurring monthly member. You will receive an email including a link that you will use each time you wish to view a performance.

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Aeolian Phoenix Sessions...

APRIL PRODUCTIONS ANNOUNCED

The Phoenix Sessions bring the Aeolian stage into the comfort of your living room. Subscribers have front row seats and a virtual backstage pass to a concert and interview. A one-month membership and access to at least four performances is available for $20.

Aeolian’s Phoenix Sessions are proud to produce five outstanding performances in April. One new show will be released every Friday including: Heartaches String Band, Fred Hersch...Live from New York, Permesso featuring Jennifer Thorpe, the El Sistema Quartet and April Love featuring Take Three.

Subscribe once, enjoy live music all month long! 

These performances are part of the Aeolian’s Phoenix Sessions. To view, become a recurring monthly member. You will receive an email including a link that you will use each time you wish to view a performance.

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The Elements of Story:
Buffy Sainte-Marie

Renew your New Year’s reading goals and join us for our next iteration of The Elements of Story, this time curated by the legendary Indigenous singer-songwriter, musician, Oscar-winning composer, visual artist, educator, pacifist, and social activist, Buffy Sainte-Marie!

Buffy Sainte-Marie has selected three books around which the event will be framed. Once registered you will receive the book list to read over the course of the coming weeks in preparation for the deep-dive conversation or to let Sainte-Marie’s words inspire your reading and add context to the books for you to enjoy in the future. The not-to-be-missed moderated discussion will touch upon the ways in which the chosen works have impacted Sainte-Marie personally, how they collectively articulate the present moment, and on the importance of storytelling in the search for meaning in difficult times.

LIVE DIGITAL EVENT
DATE: Thursday February 18, TIME: 7:00pm 

SUBSCRIBE

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BLACK HISTORY MONTH:

Canada's Music Landscape 

"The fire this time, the future is now."

Panelists will discuss what they think really needs to happen in Canada’s music industry to support Black music practitioners, creators, and industry workers. Is executing overnight knee jerk token Black hires enough? How do we measure success and expedite equality when it comes to fully eradicating anti-Black racism in the Canadian music industry? Is there anything non-Black allies of Black music industry workers can do on their WOKE-ness journey to (really) help level the playing field? Are there any issues being ignored in this BLM-fueled journey to justice in Canada? 

Join TD Sunfest for the live stream at 7:00pm EDT

With a special performance from Krystle Dos Santos Set time: Approx 8:00pm EDT

Krystle Dos Santos (Vancouver)

Krystle Dos Santos is a 2x Western Canadian Music Award winning soul, jazz and R&B singer based out of Vancouver, Canada. With an extraordinary voice that is commanding, powerful and rich with talent, her music, inspired by classic and neo-soul combined with smooth R&B elements is executed brilliantly; It's simultaneously elegant, bold and sensual similar to modern legends Sharon Jones and Charles Bradley.

"She commands the stage with her elegant statuesque form and her easy banter draws you in making he whole experience naturally intimate. However, it's when Dos Santos grasps the retro microphone she sings into and unfolds that tremendous, earthy, sexy voice you are captured" - Shelley Gummeson, Radio Host, Jazz on the Rocks

WATCH ON FACEBOOK LIVE

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REVENONS A NOS MOUTONS, AVEC DEGUENE

Un segment spécial pour notre ami francophone

Mois de l’histoire des noirs tu as dis?

Février est le mois qui est consacré à l’histoire des noirs en Amérique du Nord et plus particulièrement au Canada. En tant qu’immigrante venant d’un pays africain, je ne comprenais pas pourquoi on doit attendre un mois, une période spécifique pour célébrer une culture, des personnes qui font partie intégrante de la société. Que l’on me comprenne bien, je n’ai rien contre cette célébration qui en tant que telle part d’une bonne volonté de connaître l’autre afin de ne plus avoir peur de lui, ou peut-être de lui donner la part qui est la sienne dans notre communauté. J’ai cependant un problème lorsque l’on veut circonscrire cette célébration à un mois spécifique et ranger tous les enseignements qui en découlent aux oubliettes à la fin de cet unique mois. Que fait-on de l’enseignement? Toutes ces personnalités qui ont joué un rôle historique important au Canada devraient figurer dans les curricula que nous enseignons à l’école. Pensez-vous que nos élèves vont se souvenir de ces personnalités au mois de juin lorsqu’on leur en reparle? J’en doute fort.

Le fait de vouloir célébrer les noirs de cette façon est pour moi une façon de renforcer la domination d’autres cultures sur la culture noire. C’est comme qui dirait : après onze mois ou l’on célèbre la culture et l’histoire ``dominante’’, voici un mois ou l’on vous donne le privilège de briller, d’être en avant. Ceci ne constitue pas selon moi la façon le plus appropriée pour avoir cette franche discussion sur le concept de race et plus largement sur le racisme. Nous permettre de célébrer le mois est comme une façon de nous dire : voici tout ce qui vous revient!

Est-ce aussi une façon de fermer les yeux sur le racisme systémique qui existe partout et à tous les niveaux? Est-ce une façon de se donner bonne conscience? Je vous laisse le soin de répondre à ces questions.

Ce mois ne devrait pas être le seul moment où nous revendiquons notre appartenance, ou nous réclamons ce qui nous revient, notre vrai part dans la société. Non, cela ne devrait pas l’être. Mais avec ce mois de célébration nous acceptons ce cadeau avec bienveillance, sans réfléchir à d’autres moyens de faire référence à notre histoire, notre apport dans la société, sur une base quotidienne.

Pourtant les occasions sont infinies. Combien de personnes noires croisez-vous dans votre vie de tous les jours, que vous ne connaissez pas et qui pourtant pourraient avoir un impact considérable sur votre vie? Ce sont des enseignants, des médecins, des chercheurs, des infirmiers…..et j’en passe. Ont-ils besoin d’être sous les feux de la rampe, un mois sur douze? Je n’en suis pas si sûr.

Si on doit célébrer ce mois, qu’il soit alors le prétexte pour entamer une conversation avec nos enfants sur les races, la diversité et les privilèges et préjugés attachés à certaines races. Nous en avons besoin, nos enfants en ont besoin pour poursuivre et parfaire leur éducation.

J’espère vivement qu’on n’attendra pas le mois de février prochain pour avoir encore cette conversation.

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Connaissez-vous des Afro-Canadiens?

SONAR TFO

Recorded in 2016

 

Aeolian Guitar Shop

A recent gift by longtime friend and former Board Member Dave Southen has brought a whole new level of music to the Hall during these quieter times.  Dave has donated his guitar collection to the Hall for purpose of resale.

Each week we will feature one of the guitars in our collection. If you are interested in this guitar or seeing any in the collection, please email info@aeolianhall.ca.

Guitar of the Week: 

REPUBLIC

Model: Tri-Cone

Condition: Used

Accessories: Hard Shell Case

Price: $2,000.00

GUITARS

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Republic Resonator Guitars

Music Villa

Recorded in 2020 by Gino Kreis featuring Blaise Arsenault

EL SISTEMA AEOLIAN UPDATE

We are back with small in-class lessons in keeping with Province of Ontario regulations. Take a look into our first day seeing each other face-to-face again after more than a month of online learning.

Keep up the amazing work, musicians!

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El Sistema Aeolian Update

Recorded in 2021 by John Wiebe featuring the some of the musicians and teachers of El Sistema Aeolian

LIVE FROM CLARK'S STUDIO

This week we bring you two more pieces performed live by our Executive and Artistic Director, Mr. Clark Bryan.

Clark has performed and recorded a piece of music every day since Aeolian closed its doors in March 2000 ensuring that music does not go silent in these unusual and challenging times.

The arts can be seen as a luxury for those who have the time or the money to enjoy them, but our goal has always been to provide universal access to music.

MORE MUSIC BY CLARK

For your enjoyment, here are a few of Clark's more recent performances:

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Modest Mussorgsky

Une Larme

Written in 1880. Recorded 2021 by Clark Bryan, Pianist.

Antonin Dvorak

Andante Op. 98

Written in 1894. Recorded in 2021 by Clark Bryan, Pianist.

Giulio Ricordi

Romance Poudree

Written in 1908. Recorded 2021 by Clark Bryan, Pianist.

Alexander Scriabin

Prelude Opus 11, No. 9

Written in 1888-96. Recorded 2021 by Clark Bryan, Pianist.

Robert Schumann

Melodie Op. 68, No. 1

Written in 1848. Recorded 2021 by Clark Bryan, Pianist.

Theodor Kirchner

Album Leaf Op. 7, No. 1

Written in 1856. Recorded 2021 by Clark Bryan, Pianist.

Chick Corea

Children's Song No. 1

Written in 1971. Recorded 2021 by Clark Bryan, Pianist.

Theodor Kirchner

Album Leaf Op. 80

Written in 1887. Recorded 2021 by Clark Bryan, Pianist.

We must communicate from a place of love. Many of us can recall an experience of listening to a work performed without love. It can be a good performance. Everyone will know and feel that something is missing. The ingredient of love shifts the “good” to “sublime” or “ecstatic”.

- S. Clark Bryan

ON THIS DAY...

...In Music History

1959

Ray Charles recorded 'What'd I Say' (see the video below), in New York City. The song had evolved in concert as a call-and-response between Charles and his female back-up singers. It became Charles' biggest hit to date, reaching No.1 on the R&B and No.6 on the pop charts.

1965

Working at Abbey Road studios in London, The Beatles recorded two new songs: John Lennon's 'You've Got to Hide Your Love Away' and a new Paul McCartney song 'Tell Me What You See' (see the video below).

1990

Freddie Mercury made his final public appearance on stage when he joined the rest of Queen to collect the Brit Award for Outstanding Contribution to Music, held at the Dominion Theatre, London, England (see the video below).

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Chick Corea, Jazz Keyboardist and Innovator, Dies at 79

By Giovanni Russonello, New York Times

Chick Corea, an architect of the jazz-rock fusion boom of the 1970s who spent more than a half century as one of the foremost pianists in jazz, died on Tuesday at his home in Tampa, Fla. He was 79.

The cause was cancer, said Dan Muse, a spokesman for Mr. Corea’s family.

Mr. Corea’s best-known band was Return to Forever, a collective with a rotating membership that nudged the genre of fusion into greater contact with Brazilian, Spanish and other global influences. It also provided Mr. Corea with a palette on which to experiment with a growing arsenal of new technologies.

But throughout his career he never abandoned his first love, the acoustic piano, on which his punctilious touch and crisp sense of harmony made his playing immediately distinctive.

Mr. Corea in 2006 at the Blue Note, where his performances often combined reunions with longtime associates and collaborations with younger accompanists.Credit...Michelle V. Agins/The New York Times

A number of his compositions, including “Spain,” “500 Miles High” and “Tones for Joan’s Bones,” have become jazz standards, marked by his dreamy but brightly illuminated harmonies and ear-grabbing melodies.

By the late 1960s, Mr. Corea, still in his 20s, had already established himself as a force to be reckoned with. He gigged and recorded with some of the leading names in straight-ahead and Latin jazz, including Dizzy Gillespie, Stan Getz, Mongo Santamaria and Sarah Vaughan. His first two albums as a leader, “Tones for Joan’s Bones” (1966) and “Now He Sings, Now He Sobs” (1968), earned rave reviews. Both are now thought of as classics.

But it was playing in Miles Davis’s ensembles that set Mr. Corea on the path that would most define his role in jazz. He played the electric piano on Davis’s “In a Silent Way” (1969) and “Bitches Brew” (1970), the albums that sounded the opening bell for the fusion era.

From left, Dave Holland, Miles Davis and Mr. Corea in 1969. Mr. Corea played electric piano in Davis’s band and on the Davis albums widely considered to have sounded the opening bell for the fusion era.Credit...Tad Hershorn/Hulton Archive, via Getty Images

Soon after leaving Davis’s group, he helped found Return to Forever, and he spent much of the 1970s touring and recording with the band, which became one of the most popular instrumental ensembles of its era.

Reviewing a performance at the Blue Note in New York in 2006, Nate Chinen writing for the New Your Times wrote: the innovative sound that Mr. Corea had honed with Return to Forever three decades before: “His Fender Rhodes piano chimed and chirruped over Latin American rhythms; female vocals commingled with the soothing flutter of a flute. Then the ensemble muscled up and morphed into a hyperactive fusion band, establishing pop-chart presence and a fan base to match. To the extent that there is a Return to Forever legacy, it encompasses both these dynamic extremes, each a facet of Mr. Corea’s personality.”

By the time of that Blue Note show, Mr. Corea’s career was entering a chapter of happy reminiscence, full of reunion concerts and retrospective projects. But he continued to build out from the groundwork he had laid.

In 2013, for instance, he released two albums introducing new bands: “The Vigil,” featuring an electrified quintet of younger musicians, and “Trilogy,” an acoustic-trio album on which he was joined by the bassist Christian McBride and the drummer Brian Blade.

Return to Forever, one of the most popular instrumental ensembles of its era, in 1976. From left: Lenny White, Stanley Clarke, Al Di Meola and Mr. Corea.Credit...Dick Barnatt/Redferns, via Getty Images

He kept up a busy touring schedule well into his late 70s, and his performances at the Blue Note in particular often combined reunions with longtime associates and collaborations with younger accompanists, mixing nostalgia with a will to forge ahead. Those performances often found their way onto albums, including “The Musician” (2017), a three-disc collection drawn from his nearly two-month-long residency at the club in 2011, when he was celebrating his 70th birthday in the company of such fellow luminaries as the pianist Herbie Hancock, the bassist and Return to Forever co-founder Stanley Clarke and the vocalist Bobby McFerrin.

By the end of his career Mr. Corea had recorded close to 90 albums as a bandleader or co-leader and raked in 23 Grammy awards, more than almost any other musician. He also won three Latin Grammys.

In 2006 he was named a National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master, the highest honor available to an American jazz musician.

Though he had become symbolic of the fusion movement, Mr. Corea never put much stock in musical categories. “It’s the media that are so interested in categorizing music,” he told The Times in 1983, “the media and the businessmen, who, after all, have a vested interest in keeping marketing clear cut and separate. If critics would ask musicians their views about what is happening, you would find that there is always a fusion of sorts taking place. All this means is a continual development — a continual merging of different streams.”

Mr. Corea’s first marriage ended in divorce. He met Gayle Moran, who became his second wife, in the 1970s, when he was in Return to Forever and she was a singer and keyboardist with the Mahavishnu Orchestra, another top-flight fusion band.

She survives him, as do a son, Thaddeus Corea; a daughter, Liana Corea; and two grandchildren.

In the early 1970s, Mr. Corea converted to Scientology, and the religion’s teachings informed much of his music from then on, including his work with Return to Forever.

Mr. Corea in 1978. “If critics would ask musicians their views about what is happening,” he once said, “you would find that there is always a fusion of sorts taking place.” Credit...Chuck Fishman

Armando Anthony Corea was born on June 12, 1941, in Chelsea, Mass., near Boston. His father, also named Armando Corea, was a trumpeter and bandleader in Boston, and his mother, Anna (Zaccone) Corea, was a homemaker. He began studying piano when he was 4.

He picked up his nickname from an aunt, who often pinched his big cheeks and called him “cheeky.” The name eventually morphed into the pithier “Chick.”

He moved to New York City to study at Columbia University and Juilliard, but that lasted only a few months. As Miles Davis had a generation before, when he arrived at Julliard from East St. Louis, Ill., Mr. Corea quickly found himself lured out of the classroom and into the clubs. Some of his earliest gigs came in the bands of the famed Latin jazz percussionists Mogo Santamaria and Willie Bobo, as well as with the swing-era vocalist and bandleader Cab Calloway.

In 1968 he assumed the piano chair in Davis’s influential quintet, replacing Mr. Hancock. The band quickly went into the studio to record the final tracks that would round out “Filles de Kilimanjaro,” Davis’s first album to feature an electric piano. It signaled the trumpeter’s growing embrace of rock and funk music, a move encouraged by his second wife, the vocalist Betty Davis. (One of the two tracks featuring Mr. Corea is a tribute to her, the 16 ½-minute "Mademoiselle Mabry").

The group gradually expanded in size as Davis wandered deeper into the murky, wriggling sound world of his early fusion albums. He brought a version of the “Bitches Brew” band to the Isle of Wight festival in 1970, the largest gig of his career, before an audience of 600,000.

Soon after playing that concert, Mr. Corea and the bassist Dave Holland left Davis’s ensemble and joined with the drummer Barry Altschul and the saxophonist Anthony Braxton to found Circle, a short-lived but influential group that embraced an avant-garde approach.

Mr. Corea founded Return to Forever in 1971 with Mr. Clarke, the saxophonist and flutist Joe Farrell, the percussionist Airto Moreira and the vocalist Flora Purim. The following year, the band released its Brazilian-tinged debut album, titled simply “Return to Forever,” on the ECM label.

Also in 1972, Mr. Corea teamed up for the first time with the vibraphonist Gary Burton to record another album for the same label, “Crystal Silence.” The two became longtime friends and collaborators. Taken together, the two ECM albums represented something close to the full breadth of Mr. Corea’s identity as a musician — ranging from the serene and meditative to the zesty and driving.

“We made that record in three hours; every song but one was a first take,” Mr. Burton said in an interview, recalling the “Crystal Silence” sessions. They would go on to record seven duet albums, and they continued performing together until Mr. Burton’s recent retirement.

“I kept thinking, ‘Surely it’s going to run out of steam here at some point,’” Mr. Burton said. “And it never did. Even at the end, we would still come offstage excited and thrilled by what we were doing.”

Return to Forever changed personnel frequently, but its most enduring lineup featured Mr. Corea, Mr. Clarke, the guitarist Al Di Meola and the drummer Lenny White. That quartet iteration released a string of popular albums — “Where Have I Known You Before” (1974), “No Mystery” (1975) and “Romantic Warrior” (1976) — that leaned into a blazing, hard-rock-influenced style, and each reached the Top 40 on the Billboard albums chart.

Mr. Corea released a number of other influential fusion albums on his own, including “My Spanish Heart” (1976) and a string of recordings with his Elektric Band and his Akoustic Band. Later in his career he also delved deeply into the Western classical tradition, recording works by canonical composers like Mozart and Chopin, and composing and entire concerto for classical orchestra.

“His versatility is second to none when it comes to the jazz world,” Mr. Burton said. “He played in so many styles and settings and collaborations.”

In 1997, delivering a commencement address at Berklee College of Music, Mr. Corea told the members of the graduating class to insist on blazing their own path. “It’s all right to be yourself,” he said. “In fact, the more yourself you are, the more money you make.”

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ARTFUL DODGERS WINTER 2021 SHOW

Installation by the Artful Dodgers collective featuring the works of Lynne Pinchin, Chip Oud and Judy Stirling in their third showing at Aeolian Hall.

All pieces are available for immediate purchase and pick-up at Aeolian Hall at 795 Dundas Street, London, Ontario.

To purchase, email us (no calls, please) at boxoffice@aeolianhall.ca. In your email, please indicate which pieces (by title and artist) you wish to purchase.

A representative will contact you as soon as possible to arrange payment (Credit Card or eTransfer in advance of the pick-up appointment) and schedule curbside pick-up at Aeolian Hall.

With thanks to the artists, the Aeolian Hall receives 30% of the sale of each work with proceeds going toward our programs like El Sistema Aeolian and the Pride Men’s Chorus London.

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THIS WEEK'S FEATURED WORKS

BECKONING

Chip Oud

Oil, 30x26, $200

WINTER IN THE CITY

Lynne Pinchin

Acrylic,2x30, $1000

PINK IRIS

Judy Stirling

Oil, 20x24 (Framed), $550

Art Shows at the Aeolian

Select the photo to be taken to the entire collection by the Artful Dodgers

SHADY ARTISTS WINTER 2021 SHOW

Installation by the Shady Artists collective featuring the works of Janice Howell, Sandi McCabe and Michele Haley showing at Aeolian Hall.

All pieces are available for immediate purchase and pick-up at Aeolian Hall at 795 Dundas Street, London, Ontario.

To purchase, email us (no calls, please) at boxoffice@aeolianhall.ca. In your email, please indicate which pieces (by title and artist) you wish to purchase.

A representative will contact you as soon as possible to arrange payment (Credit Card or eTransfer in advance of the pick-up appointment) and schedule curbside pick-up at Aeolian Hall.

With thanks to the artists, the Aeolian Hall receives 30% of the sale of each work with proceeds going toward our programs like El Sistema Aeolian and the Pride Men’s Chorus London.

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THIS WEEK'S FEATURED WORKS

PINK TREE IN BLOOM

MIchele Haley

Oil, 20x20, $400

ISLAND IN THE SUN, SPRINGBANK PARK

Sandi McCabe

Acrylic, 30x15, $325

ITALIAN VASE

Janice Howell

Acrylic, 18x18, $320

Art Shows at the Aeolian

Select the photo to be taken to the entire collection by the Shady Artists

Our History: Our Future

COMMUNITY PORTAL

Each week, the Aeolian looks back at our history, and forward to our future in a search for equality for all people. We ask "why," we celebrate successes, and we remember there is still much work to be done. Love and respect or our fellow human beings is the only path that promises peace, equality and human dignity.

We are proud to bring you Aeolian's Community Portal. This is and will continue to be a work in progress where we archive stories important to the voices we have featured here each week in the Our History: Our Future column. We will advocate for the rights of Canada's Indigenous people, the LGBTQ2 community and support the Black Lives Matter movement. Not just a repository of historical information, we will also include coming events, online resources, and stories and videos that shine light on the challenges to and achievements of the movement toward equality.

We cannot do this alone. We want to hear from you and include your stories. If you are represented by this portal and have a story to tell, write us. We welcome submissions and would be happy to interview you or research a topic or event that has not been covered.  The more we know, the more our readers know, the better we can understand each other as humans who are equal, humans who have dignity, and humans that deserve to have their stories honoured.

Community Resource Portal

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CELEBRATING BLACK HISTORY MONTH: 

Canadian Tradition

Every February, people in Canada are invited to participate in Black History Month festivities and events that honour the legacy of Black Canadians and their communities.

The 2021 theme for Black History Month is: "The Future is Now".

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The Future is Now

Black History Month 2021

Recorded in 2021, Canadian Heritage, Government of Canada

Adinkra symbols and meanings

This year’s Black History Month poster includes Adinkra visual symbols originating in West Africa, that represent concepts which can vary in meaning. These symbols 🎤 can also can be used to communicate a unique expression of African heritage. Below are the literal and symbolic meanings of each symbol found in the poster:

BLACK EXCELLENCE SERIES:

Undine Smith Moore

Meet Undine Smith Moore, a 20th-century composer and prolific music educator.

In 1904 in the state of Virginia, Undine was born to African American parents James William Smith and Hardie Turnbull Smith, whose own parents had been slaves.

The Smiths’ lives were filled with music – whether at home or singing in church. According to Helen Walker-Hill’s From Spirituals to Symphonies: African-American Women Composers and Their Music, Undine once said of her childhood, “above all else, music reigned”.

Undine trained as a classical pianist, but her heart lay in vocal music. As a composer and arranger, she would go on to write numerous choral works, many of them inspired by African spirituals and folk music.

Moore got her music education at Fisk University and Columbia University. In 1924, at the age of 20, she became the first graduate of Fisk to receive a scholarship to New York’s prestigious Juilliard school.

Despite her early successes, Moore tragically never thought herself capable of becoming a composer. She once said: “One of the most evil effects of racism in my time was the limits it placed upon the aspirations of blacks, so that though I have been ‘making up’ and creating music all my life, in my childhood or even in college I would not have thought of calling myself a composer or aspiring to be one.”

After obtaining her graduate degree, Moore joined the music faculty at Virginia State College – now Virginia State University – where she taught piano, organ and music theory for over 40 years.

Moore championed the teaching of African American music on school and university syllabuses. She once said: “Black music is a house of many mansions. Blacks have many musics and some of them relate in an extremely universal way to the human condition.”

Moore, who became known to some as the ‘Dean of Black Women Composers’, believed the term ‘Black music’ should only refer to music written by a Black person.

She co-founded the Black Music Center at Virginia State College, which aimed to educate members about the “contributions of Black people to the music of the United States and the world”. She described it as the proudest moment in her career.

Moore’s musical output consists of over 100 compositions, only 26 of which were published in her lifetime, including her Afro-American Suite (1969) which you can hear in the video below.

Scenes from the Life of a Martyr, her 16-part choral cantata based on the life of Dr Martin Luther King, Jr, premiered at Carnegie Hall in 1981 and was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize.

Moore was celebrated in her lifetime as an “outstanding educator”, an accolade given to her by the National Association of Negro Musicians, an organisation dedicated to the preservation of music by African American composers.

She received honorary doctorates from Indiana University and Virginia State College and a humanitarian award from Fisk University, and was named music laureate of the state of Virginia in 1975.

Undine Smith Moore died in 1989.

Three years ago, she was named one of the Virginia Women in History for 2017.

- From ClassicalFM

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Undine Smith Moore

Black Excellence Series

Recorded in 2020 by JDW Sheet Music

Undine Smith Moore

Afro-American Suite for Flute, Cello & Piano, I. Andante

Recorded in 2006 by Kate Steinbeck (flute), Dewitt Tipton (Piano) and special guest Tim Holley (Cello) for the Keowee Chamber Music Festival. 

Spotlight on Jeanne Augustine 

Founder, Black History Month in Canada

In 1993, Canadian politician Jean Augustine became the first Black woman elected to the Parliament of Canada. An energetic advocate of social justice, she worked as the principal of an elementary school before entering federal politics. Among her accomplishments as an MP was the introduction of a motion, passed unanimously, to have February proclaimed as Black History Month in Canada. The city of Toronto had been celebrating Black History Month, working with organizations such as the Ontario Black History Society, since 1979.

Born in St. George's, Grenada, Jean Augustine was a qualified teacher when she arrived in Canada in 1959, but had to work as a domestic and shoe clerk before earning an Ontario Teacher's Certificate. After completing a Master of Education degree, Ms. Augustine became a school principal and supported many social causes through her involvement in boards such as that of The Hospital for Sick Children. She also served as the National President of the Congress of Black Women of Canada. She holds an honourary doctorate of law from the University of Toronto.

During her years as a federal member of parliament, The Honourable Jean Augustine served as the Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister of Canada, Chair of the National Liberal Women's Caucus, Secretary of State for Multiculturalism and the Status of Women, Chair of the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and Deputy Speaker. In March 2007 she became the first Fairness Commissioner for the province of Ontario. The mother of two daughters, Jean Augustine is the recipient of numerous awards--including the 1994 Canadian Black Achievement Award, the YWCA Woman of Distinction and the Kaye Livingstone Award for support of issues relating to Black women. Ms. Augustine has worked on many intiatives related to youth, noting that "racism is the most significant barrier to the successful integration of newcomer black youths to Canada."

The Jean Augustine Scholarship Fund, established in honour of Ms. Augustine, provides help to single mothers studying at George Brown College in Toronto.

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Celebrating Black History Month with Hon. Jeanne Augustine

TREPFUEL: Empowering & Entrepreneurs

Recorded in 2017.

CELEBRATING LOUIS RIEL DAY

Riel's achievements celebrated annually on February 15

Like Family Day, the life of Louis Riel is celebrated in Manitoba annually, marking his extraordinary influence on the fabric of Canada's Indigenous and Metis people.

Louis Riel was a leader of the Métis people of the Canadian prairies. These are an Aboriginal people with their own culture, language and heritage. The area, which was their ancestral homeland, is now in the Canadian provinces of Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia and the Northwest Territories and parts of the north-west of the United States. Louis Riel was also a founder of the Manitoba province and a Canadian politician. However, during his lifetime, he was a controversial figure and lived in exile in the United States for a number of years. He was involved in a number of uprisings and, after a controversial trial, he was executed for treason in 1885.

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Riel (film)

Recorded in 1979 for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation

Did You Know.... The History of Louis Riel

Recorded in 2014 bv the Canadian Public Affairs Channel (CPAC)

 

BLACK & PROUD: Marsha P. Johnson in Her Words

Marsha P. Johnson stood at the center of New York City’s gay liberation movement for nearly 25 years. But LGBTQ rights weren’t her only cause.

She was on the front lines of protests against oppressive policing. She helped found one of the country’s first safe spaces for transgender and homeless youth. And she advocated tirelessly on behalf of sex workers, prisoners and people with HIV/AIDS.

All while draped in dashing outfits and flower headpieces and armed, people who knew her say, with a vibrant smile.

The “nobody, from Nowheresville” – as she described herself in a 1992 interview – moved to New York City from her hometown of Elizabeth, New Jersey, with nothing but $15 in her pocket.

That’s when she adopted the name Marsha P. Johnson. The “P,” she told people, stood “Pay it no mind.”

“Marsha would talk to me all the time and tell me, ‘Don’t let anybody tell you what to do, be who you want to be,’” her nephew, Al Michaels, recalled.

READ MORE

Frameline Voices - Pay it No Mind: The Life and Times of Marsha P. Johnson

Recorded in 2012, Frameline. Michae Kasino, Director.

This feature-length documentary focuses on revolutionary trans-activist, Marsha "Pay it No Mind" Johnson who was a Stonewall instigator, Andy Warhol model, drag queen, sex worker, starving actress, and Saint. With her final interview from 1992, director Michael Kasino captures the legendary gay/human rights activist as she recounts her life at the forefront of The Stonewall Riots in the 1960s, the creation of S.T.A.R. (Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries) with Sylvia Rivera in the '70s, and a New York City activist throughout the '80s and early '90s. Through her own words, as well as in-depth interviews with gay activist Randy Wicker, former Cockettes performer Agosto Machado, Author Michael Musto, Hot Peaches founder/performer, Jimmy Camicia, and Stonewall Activists Bob Kohler, Danny Garvin, Tommy Lanigan-Schmidt, and Martin Boyce, Marsha's tale lives on.

AEOLIAN'S STATEMENT ON RACE AND RACISM

The Aeolian Hall was built on a foundation that respects, cultivates and promotes diversity. Discrimination and racism are at odds with our mission and our values.

We stand with the Black Community: in London, in Canada and abroad in calling for an end to anti-Black, anti-racial and anti-Indigenous racism.

Violence and systemic barriers against these communities are destructive to our societies moral and ethical fabric.

The Aeolian Hall calls on our friends, supporters and the larger community to resist and call-out racism.

It is not enough to tolerate and accept each other.

Love for our fellow human beings is the only path that promises peace, equality and human dignity.

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SUPPORT AEOLIAN HALL
 

Thank you for supporting the Aeolian Hall Musical Arts Association. For some, participation in the arts is just a dream. El Sistema Aeolian, our free afternoon music education program for children and youth who otherwise do not have access is just one of the programs offered by The Aeolian.

We believe that individuals should have universal access to music and music education: whether it be at one of the hundreds of productions we bring to the stage each year, or to a child holding their violin for the first time: music is a gift. Your contributions support the gift of music, the gift of community.

To give, go to www.aeolianhall.ca/donate or to learn more, see the Aeolian Hall Documentary below.

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The Aeolian: A Documentary

Recorded in 2017 by the Aeolian Hall with Campus Creative

THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS & FRIENDS

THANK YOU TO OUR INDIVIDUAL DONORS WHO SUPPORT US ANNUALLY, MONTHLY, OR WHEN THEY CAN. EVERY GIFT COUNTS.

AEOLIAN HALL MUSICAL ARTS ASSOCATION

795 Dundas Street

London Ontario N5W 2Z6

boxoffice@aeolianhall.ca

(519) 709-1656