Portrait of O’Doul’s:
O’Doul’s Restaurant and Bar may be trendy but in many ways it truly represents Vancouver’s West End. The joint features jazz music seven nights a week but O’Doul’s is absolutely rooted as a restaurant that caters to trend, health and commerce.
O'Doul's rose to notoriety as the namesake of Frank “Lefty” O’Doul. Frank spent most of his playing career in Pacific Coast League (PCL) baseball, beginning as a pitcher in 1918. At one point, O’Doul managed the triple-A Vancouver Mounties. “Lefty” became a journeyman major league player in San Francisco (where he remains a legend), Los Angeles, New York, Boston and Philadelphia. O’Doul played in one World Series game (with two RBI) before retiring to help young players in their careers.
In the mid-90s, O’Doul’s in Vancouver was renovated to a New York-styled bistro whose glass housing provides an air of openness. Although many people enjoy ogling Robson Street’s social activity, one is forgiven for staring at the restaurant ceiling.
Early in the Seventeenth century, the exuberant imagery of twin hemispheres injected a fresh dimension to the world map. Although this map appeared under William Blaeu's name, the claim of authorship is somewhat clouded by suspicion. Blaeu died in 1638 but this map bears a dedication dated 1665 (to Jacopo Altovito, papal legate in Venice).
O’Doul’s caters to an affluent West End culture. Its windows look out on a surfeit of quaint storefronts that serve in the trade of novelties. Although the buildings are relatively new, these businesses operate in less than 1000 square feet. One cannot help but feel minimal in such surroundings and O’Doul’s functions as a prosperous example of that power. People often attend O’Doul’s as a public statement. The jazz music surely enriches an overall experience that is defined by setting and social class.
O’Doul’s is housed in the Listel Vancouver Hotel. That is where many guest musicians stay when they play the Vancouver International Jazz Festival.
Wendy Solloway: Where There’s A Will:
Wendy Solloway, bass player for the Vancouver jazz ensemble Mother of Pearl , is a living example of musical purpose. She speaks passionately about what she loves and one senses that Solloway took some difficult roads to that understanding.
The 53-year-old mother works as a music therapist for Vancouver’s St. James’ Cottage Hospice. Wendy was hired on a very short-term ten years ago for a job that she bluntly told her boss that she did not intend to keep for very long. The circumstance was mutually beneficial. Wendy began working in long-term care but soon moved to palliative care where, to this day, she works with people who have no more than a few months to live. Wendy Solloway often plays for audiences of one and they haven’t got long to hear her musical messages. Tough gig.
DVD Review : Joni Mitchell: Woman of Heart and Mind
Solloway confirms that Western Culture badly undervalues its elders. Although many families of her clients participate in helping her treat impending death with song, Wendy says most of her patients suffer from messages unspoken. Either no one is there to hear them, or we are just too busy to listen for long. Although terminal illness often does motivate families to reconcile, there is little time for little else.
Music therapy carries an unexpected human cost. “There are always these people that wheedle their way past these little barriers that you set up – right smack dab into your heart,” says Wendy. “And for those people, it’s always a lot harder to let them go…so it still can be difficult.”
Catharsis defines Wendy’s work at many levels. One listens intently while she tells one story upon another of people who have lived hard and are suffering in ways that make them philosophical about change. Wendy once worked with a young woman who contracted Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) from a life on the street. Her sentence was premature death. The woman penned a lyric that Wendy put to song in which the dying woman remembers how she left her family home in rebellion and longed for a different decision. The lyric was a statement of regret for the past, but hope for a peaceful end to a turbulent life. There is the catharsis, short-lived as it is for terminally ill patients.
Wendy Solloway creates CDs whose stories survive long after their authors. ”I find it really satisfying,” says Wendy, “because it’s creative for me. I get to work on the music. I feel it’s really satisfying to hand this over to another person…it’s a great project.”
Prioritizing keeps Wendy sane. She does not claim to have an answer for the stresses but she does some things that should cause us pause to consider their value: going for long walks, crying if necessary or snapping (as Wendy laughably discusses) at a person who is being unreasonable. “A lot of the things that we think are really important, and that really make us angry or upset…they don’t mean anything, you know?
“If you could look at your life, look at yourself in the position of these people, and look back and say, ‘That guy who cut me off or that lady – is that going to matter to me when I die? Am I even going to remember this?’”
Although she is planning to change careers, one cannot speak with Wendy Solloway without sensing that music therapy has been a reciprocal inspiration. Wendy says music therapy found her, not the other way around. People with so little time have helped Solloway clarify the most resilient values that survive us: people, friends, family, love, adventures (things risked) and accomplishments — immaterial moments of human ascension.
Unfortunately, Vancouver’s character is often defined by what its citizens are not willing to accept. Before 22.1 million people visited Expo 86, chairman Jim Pattison (pictured here) allegedly recommended that British Columbia Premier Bill Bennett cancel the event due to labour strife in the construction sector. Expo continued. When Indy racing was proposed, many residents of the beautiful False Creek area objected to race cars screaming through their neighbourhoods; this, many complained, cramped their ability to walk their dogs by the water. Indy racing continued. However, more recent events (like First Night and The Festival of Light) have been suspended due to civic problems: gridlock transit, unruly crowds and protests. Vancouver has a long and rich history of responding negatively to the first proposal for change.
The current owners of Vancouver’s Sugar Refinery (pictured right), a nightspot that featured all genre of art for over 20 years, have decided to close the doors at 1115 Granville. News spread over Christmas that City Hall has agreed to assist the owners to find a new location somewhere on the downtown eastside.
The mediation occurred with the rhetorical retreat of both parties. Organizer Régis Painchaud (director of Vision Quest Productions) cancelled a scheduled performance by the N.O.W. Orchestra on December 12 as well as a private political party on December 13. “In exchange,” says Painchaud, the City backed off. On December 15, Painchaud met with Bruce Maitland, director for Vancouver City real estate services, to discuss the future of the city-owned building at 1435 Granville Street. Although Painchaud characterizes that meeting as a bit cold, both parties appeared to have warmed to the idea of negotiation.
Other similar stories have had much more dire conclusions. On December 10, a U.S. grand jury indicted three people on involuntary manslaughter charges after a fire killed 100 people in a Rhode Island nightclub. Question: who would have paid (and at what cost) if a fire had broken out at an unlicensed L'Espace Dubreuil? The self-same people who would argue for freedom to live without license would be the first to call 9-1-1 for a highly licensed fire truck. The highly licensed firefighters would be most surprised to find human beings in the flames that would be licking up the walls of a “storage space.” In these situations, someone has to pay and someone else usually does.
This whole issue flared last August when City Hall acted on a law about which policy-makers claimed ignorance (although it has been on the books for 15 years): section 7.1 of the Restaurant Class 1 business license. The liquor bylaw states that live entertainment may not be provided by any more than two unamplified musicians. The same section of the bylaw prohibits dancing.
Over 2000 people signed on to a Save Live Music on Main Street campaign. The 
Music’s greatest potential may be its intrinsic reward. Lifelong players frequently disclose that they were exposed to music at home, on record or around the family dinner table. It was treasured so we grew up to admire those who played well. Many of us wanted to become our musical heroes. Many of us did not, but we still admired those who dared the dream. Clearly, millions of us love music. Exposure to jazz music must be culturally transmitted. That’s the truth. How to do that with the next generation of jazz consumers is another question entirely.
The Canadian government has issued a key ruling in the fight over digital music distribution. On December 12, the Copyright Board of Canada decided to raise levies on MP3 players and other on digital audio devices with non-removable memory. The fees levied on digital music devices include:
Canada’s 2004 National Jazz Awards are broadcast on CBC Radio on Tuesday, February 24 from Toronto’s Winter Garden Theatre.
CBC Radio Two has announced that Andy Sheppard has been selected to host the national jazz radio program “After Hours.” The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation arrived at its decision after months of auditions.
Happy Birthday to Dal Richards, who turned 86 on January 5.
Blame former Vancouverite Seamus Blake for the snow that began to fall in Vancouver on December 27. The now-New York sax player landed for a sold-out afternoon gig (perfect for the day as it turned out) at The Cellar. Obviously, he forgot to leave the East Coast weather in the East – for shame!
Seamus Blake has since released five records, including his latest, Echonomics (Criss Cross), in 2001. Blake is known as much for his work as a sideman and session player. Last April, Blake played sax and guitar on Jeri Brown’s vocal jazz album, Firm Roots (Justin Time).
Cassandra Wilson is coming to sing for Vancouverites at UBC’s Chan Centre for the Performing Arts on Wednesday, March 10 at 8 pm.
Glamoured (Blue Note), Wilson’s new release, hit the shelves in October and is garnering all kinds of attention in the jazz world. Cassandra’s 1995 release, New Moon Daughter, won Wilson her first Grammy Award for Best Jazz Vocal Performance.
David “Fathead” Newman recently brought 50 years of wind playing to The Cellar for a weekend that appeared to inspire local players Tilden Webb on piano, Jodi Proznick on bass and Jesse Cahill on drums. Newman has made a career of alto, soprano and tenor saxophone as well as flute. It is always a pleasure to watch wise old veterans share their playing knowledge with younger musicians on the same stage.
In 1952, 19-year-old David Newman met a young pianist named Ray Charles and that association has become legendary. Newman wound up playing in Charles’ band for a decade. On November 5, 1958, Fathead: Ray Charles Presents David Newman was released on Atlantic Records. The album, Newman’s first record with Charles, includes the now-famous rendition of “Hard Times.” After returning to his adopted hometown of Dallas (briefly), “Fathead” moved to New York where his career took off in many directions.
