Paul Plimley“The music probably speaks better for me than words, just the video is fine for me.” Henry Kaiser
Henry Kaiser plays, “Requiem for Paul Plimley” on a Verso Cosmo guitar
Previous Recordings with Paul Listed in the video:
2023 At One Time
https://henrykaiser.bandcamp.com/album/at-one-time
Passwords
https://henrykaiser.bandcamp.com/album/passwords
The first 1998 Yo Miles! album
Star Break Splatterlight
March 16th, 2023 — in person and live streamed event.
The Exhibit Hall will open to the public at 2pm PST featuring social spaces and The Paul Plimley Memorial Art Exhibit, consisting of over 30 posters, photos, art works and memory books containing photos and materials documenting Paul's career.
There will be plenty of space for socializing with light refreshments.
The Exhibit Hall will remain open for socializing and remain open after the Event in the Performance Hall is over.
LOCATION: Roundhouse Community Arts & Recreation Centre 181 Roundhouse Mews, Vancouver, BC V6Z 2W3 Corner of Davie & Pacific Parking information below
The Performance Hall Tribute
(Doors at 3:15pm)
Performance Hall Schedule
The Exhibit Hall will remain open
A Celebration of Life for Paul Plimley will be live streamed from the Performance Hall quiet space and documented for future viewing.
The Stream will begin with a selection of Paul’s videos starting at 3pm PDT. NOTE: Vancouver is now on Daylight Saving Time. The Stream will start on local Vancouver time.
Tribute speeches begin at 3:30pm and the stream continues until 6:30pm.
Chat will be monitored and replied to by people present.
Scan the QR code or open the URL below
https://youtube.com/live/RdD9Q1_a-S0
Roundhouse parking is expensive, so transit is advised; The Yaletown Skytrain station is only a short walk.
Street parking is $10. for two hours at meters. You can pay by phone or use the City of Vancouver Parking app.
Underground
There are a couple of less expensive ImPark lots close by
Here is a listing comparing paid underground parking in the area
Parkopedia click here
Many have maximum daily rates.
These two are less expensive than the Roundhouse. The Aquarius is located just across Davie St and the Peninsula is a bit farther. Both are the same price.
Aquarius Parkade – Lot #1301
189 Davie Street,
Vancouver BC V6Z 2X9
$13.50 until 6pm
$18. until midnight
Imperial Parking Canada Corporation
Peninsula Parkade (Impark Lot #1260)
110-136 Davie St
This is for March 16th afternoon price comparison for 2 hours. Link above – photo below.
Roundhouse Parking has no daily maximum but is $4 per hour. There is an evening rate, but I think the two Impark lots in the area are a better deal. Only a short walk.
Denise Plimley chose this song “Select Magical Skyfall”, from Everything in Stages.
I remember Paul Plimley very vividly from us working together with Cecil Taylor on the score for Legba Crossing in Berlin. We were both members of Cecil Taylor’s Workshop Band, rehearsing in 1988 at the Kongresshalle (also an iconic concrete building). Everyone was so focused and attentive to C.T.
The ensemble had mostly German musicians, but there were musicians from other countries too: Peeter Uuskyla, drums from Sweden; Daniel Werts, oboe from the USA, myself Biggi Vinkeloe from France; and Paul Plimley from Canada; and also Trudy Morse, vocals from the USA.
Daniel Werts, the oboe player, also transcribed the Legba Crossing performance, and added an analysis of the material. Lukas Lindenmaier, the drummer, transcribed Cecil Taylor’s instructions.
Berlin 1988, Legba Crossing on FMP posted on BandCamp, as part of the box set of recordings Cecil Taylor in Berlin ’88.
We rehearsed the piece so many times, I still remember the feeling and the excitement of it. Paul’s piano is distinct and clear. The first sax solo on the extract on Bandcamp is me playing. On this recording, cover, pictured below, the credit calls me Brigitte Vinkeloe.
July 15
Cecil Taylor – director, voice
Sabine Kopf – flute
Daniel Werts – oboe
Brigitte Vinkeloe – alto saxophone, soprano saxophone, flute
Joachim Gies – alto saxophone
Ove Volquartz – soprano saxophone, tenor saxophone, bass clarinet
Heinz-Erich Godecke – trombone
Harald Kimmig – violin
Alexander Frangenheim – bass
Uwe Martin – bass
George Wolf – bass
Paul Plimley – piano
H. Lukas Lindenmaier – drums
Peeter Uuskyla – drums
Trudy Morse – voice
At our first day, Cecil Taylor asked everyone to play a short solo piece – a nerve racking experience. I was so impressed by Paul, his fluidity, his sense of harmony and rhythm. Paul asked always a lot of questions, often the ones that others would have liked to ask but did not dare (true for me, at least).
The days with C.T. were intense and long, but also energizing and wonderful. Paul was the perfect pianist for this ensemble. I remember that I admired the fact that he dared to play and develop his ideas so freely. Even while being so free, Paul managed to stay within the given framework, with the master Cecil Taylor listening to everything with big ears and infallibly pointing out if anyone played outside his compositional intentions.
I also talked recently with Peeter Uuskyla, he and I have been working together since the workshop with Cecil Taylor 1988. He remembers that Paul had attended a workshop for pianists with Cecil Taylor just prior to Legba Crossing. He said that Paul had also attended a workshop with Han Bennink.
These Cecil Taylor recordings are important contributions to music history. Legba Crossing has resurged a few weeks ago, and got a lot of great reviews. I don’t know how often Paul has performed as part of a large ensemble, but this one is really so special. It is the only well documented ensemble conducted by Cecil Taylor himself, and Paul is on the piano.
The Biggi Vinkeloe Trio was invited by Ken Pickering personally after a concert we did in New York City. Peeter Uuskyla, drums and the master bassist Barre Phillips and myself stayed for a couple of weeks in Vancouver, playing several concerts and leading a workshop. Next, we traveled to Victoria, on Vancouver Island for another concert at the Victoria Jazz Festival. This concert was with the Biggi Vinkeloe Trio featuring Barre Phillips. We did our last concert for the jazz festival in Vancouver, recording as a quartet with bassist Ken Filiano.
We attended many concerts, among those a concert featuring Paul Plimley. I really loved his playing, his virtuosity, his great sense of harmony, his storytelling through the piano.
We did not perform on stage together, but Paul invited us to his home. We spent a day with him, playing, talking, also recalling our time in Berlin 11 years earlier. It did not seem that we had not had so much contact throughout all these years. We found common ground immediately – that is the true magic of connecting through music with each other, it always leaves deep intuitive knowledge about each other that you can always relate to even many years later.
Lisle Ellis and Paul Plimley have been so close to each other in music and in life. Lisle and I have known each other since I first traveled to the Bay Area in 1996 and we have been very close ever since. This was also one way of getting always news from Paul, and feel connected this way.
Sometimes, Paul would call me in Sweden, sometimes at impossible hours, due to the time difference – and forgetting about it. We had long interesting talks about music, about how to create new music and how to connect on a deep level with each other through improvisation.
I attended a few concerts with Paul and Lisle playing – what a beautiful intense creative duo! I always thought I would love to play with both of them. I did two recordings with Lisle and many concerts.
Here is one example to watch on YouTube
Lisle and Paul had some concerts in Europe and Lisle wanted to seize the opportunity to come to Sweden – finally! I set up a duo concert at the former sugar plant converted into a new art gallery, Röda Sten in Gothenburg, where they performed amid an exhibition and a fashion show. A quite epic experience, for everyone, as it was not the usual stage – audience experience.
I also set up a few concerts for a quartet, with Paul, Lisle, Don Robinson, drums; and myself on sax and flute, among others we performed at the Gothenburg Art Museum.
We performed at the Gothenburg Museum of Art mid-August in front of a large audience. Actually, it was a double bill, with Sten Löfman and his trio, the REV+ (Don, Robinson, Lisle Ellis, myself plus Paul Plimley). This concert was curated by Eld Records / Michael Thorén.
All the pictures are taken by Michael Thorén, sound engineer and label owner, who still had these in his archives.
The next day was spent at Studio Fabriken, a recording studio and linked to the label Eld Records. An intense day, with music created directly in the studio.
Michael Thorén, who captured these photos, was also the studio owner and sound engineer at Studiofabriken. His label was Eld Records. I was associated to the label. But due to rising costs and difficulties with the distribution of the labels’s production, he had to make the tough decision to dissolve his label.
Sten Löfman who is on the picture above and below, is a wonderful and highly skilled pianist, with whom I like to collaborate. He came to listen to the recording and to connect with Paul, they had a lot to talk about (piano and music talk that is)!
Bonnie Wright came along with Lisle Ellis to Sweden. She enjoyed the music and the hang with the musicians. In San Diego, her home city in California, she has a long history of presenting wonderful concerts.
In 2022, the recording made by REV+ in 2004 at Studiofabriken is not yet released. Now, releasing these recordings has become more difficult as it is on an older format tape. The machines to play back these tapes so they can be mixed and mastered are increasingly rare and expensive. Perhaps funding will be found to digitize the recordings that Paul made during his lifetime that are currently locked away in older formats. Then this music can be released and shared.
By Mark Armanini
I first met Paul Plimley in 1982. We shared a concert program at the UBC Recital Hall. This meeting quickly turned into the founding of the Vancouver Pro Musica, which the first meeting included Paul Plimley, Paul Alexander (Nichols), Janine Oye, and Glenn Burr. From these post student days, Paul grew and developed his improvisational art and allowed me to witness his ever expanding ever maturing artistic vision. If I could summarize his path in two words they would be ‘musically adventurous’.
Paul played every Jazz Festival in Vancouver from its inception and almost as many across Canada. Along the way was a memorable Jazz Festival opening in 1992 at 837 Davie Street (currently the address of the Canadian Music Centre) with Paul and Lisle Ellis, which was captured in the Laurie Gish photos from that day.
Over the next decade my interest in Paul’s artistry blossomed with greater insight into his depth, intensity, musical adventurism and technical freedom. Annual performances at the Jazz Festival continued to develop and point the way. His fearless accuracy, classical touch and full physical involvement were phenomenal, only to be fully appreciated in live performance.
I remember the instant positive reaction from Paul when I suggested we work on Fingertips to Freedom an improvised piano concerto. This is a work that pushed boundaries, challenging both Paul and the CBC Orchestra. Supported by the 2000 Jazz Festival, the Canada Council for the Arts, Producer Jon Siddall of the CBC, Artistic Director Ken Pickering and Financial Officer Robert Kerr, Fingertips to Freedom was premiered July 2, 2000 with John Zoltek conductor.
One of the big audience supporters was surprizingly David Lemon, the former Magic Flute proprietor. Mr. Lemon compared the work to the premiere of the Beethoven 2nd piano concerto where the composer played the solo part from a sparsely scratched piano part, ie. largely improvised. This is my vision of Paul’s unique and world class artistry. Able to focus, listen and react spontaneously.
Together we were able to invent a paradoxical work : a totally scored orchestra part and totally improvised solo part where the soloist is following the orchestra (usually the orchestra follows the soloist).
Designed for maximum freedom to improvise, the work is able to change from performance to performance and to employ different solo instrument(s). The orchestral material from the first movement is contributed by myself and the second movement from Paul, enabling him to take the solo part into the stratosphere. The solo part in our recording is fully integrated into the orchestral framework.
After a 10 year wrestle and kufuffle in Canada after our Canada Council Recording grant was awarded, we were unable to lure any orchestra or the CBC to record the work. In 2015 we travelled to Prague, Czech Republic where the equally adventuresome Prague Modern ensemble recorded the work at Sono Recording Studio, which I believe is one of the highlights of Paul’s and my career.
Other notable adventures: Paul and I shared a 2007 tour to mainland China. An outstanding memory was a concert at the Nanjing Science and Technology University with Han Mei, zheng; Randy Raine-Reusch, multiple instruments; myself on bass, and Paul on piano.
With a young student audience, woefully deprived of any chance know what to expect or to listen to in abstract expressionist improvisation, they went wild for Paul. I remember clearly Paul being mobbed on stage after the performance by scores of young students in a natural spontaneous reaction to his freedom loving style.
A direct and powerful communication style.
Over the past 40 years there have been many, many lovely times with Paul quietly playing guitar and bass together, travelling to Montana (land of the Dental Floss Tycoon) to visit John Zoltek and, I even painted Paul’s house on Waterloo Street.
Paul was one of the most widely listened and stylistically flexible musician I have known, from attending a live performance of Nikhil Banerjee, sitar at the UBC Recital Hall ( leading to his CD with Trinchy Sankaran) to the Beatles box set of Sgt Pepper, Frank Zappa’s Montana Dental Floss Tycoon, to the box set of the complete recorded works of Artur Rubenstein and the many recordings of Duke Ellington.
Paul took advantage of the recorded riches available today, riches that found his way into his playing in a natural and very contemporary way.
I see his unique artistic legacy be a reminder of his passion and uncompromising approach to loving life and art, to personal freedom, integrity and respect for life in all its forms, and armed with knowledge of the past yet unburdened and unbound by tradition.
Mark Armanini, December 2022
By Owen Underhill
Paul Plimley was that rare kind of individual that always lit up a room as he bounded in. I encountered him first when I came to join the Simon Fraser University Centre for the Arts Music program as a young faculty member in the early eighties. Paul was an ideal example of the mature, talented SFU student, a recent escapee from UBC with piercing blue eyes and endless inventiveness. He was overflowing with energy, open to everything, but also very advanced and sophisticated in his musical personality and thinking. He was fun to be around, and seemed to be enjoying the freedom of working in an interdisciplinary arts school with a contemporary focus. I worked with him as a composition teacher in that period, and it was delightful and animated, more like a friendly and spirited debate. There was always a lot of detailed back and forth in that dialogue and I can remember Paul telling me I had a weakness against octaves on the piano, as I tried to get him to consider to not use so many – we would laugh together about that!
One of Paul’s close student colleagues back then was Kenneth Newby, and together they shared an interest in global music (including gamelan), dance, and innovative projects of all kinds. Paul was always a brilliant musician, with a refreshing and prolific mind that was ideally suited to improvisation and creation of all kinds. His music was many things including grace, athleticism, humour, joy, thoughtfulness, generosity to others, and playful connection to the world around him.
Of course, I had the pleasure to encounter Paul in all kinds of situations and admire and experience his work in many musical contexts over the years. It was always like no time had elapsed when we ran into each other. He was remarkable in having a lovely one-to-one connection between the way he lived in the world, and his music. Perhaps that was in part because of his honesty and unpretentiousness. Paul has made an extraordinary and rich musical contribution that is very distinctive and meaningful. He will be missed by many!
Owen Underhill
Professor | School for the Contemporary Arts
Simon Fraser University |
149 W Hastings St.,
Vancouver, BC,
V6B 1H4
Owen Underhill Official Website Owen Underhill Wikipedia Page