Paul Plimley – Sam Sullivan’s Public Salon – Feb 8th, 2018
Paul was invited to deliver an Artist Talk and play piano as part of the 30th Public Salon presented by Sam Sullivan at the Playhouse Theatre in Vancouver on Feb 8th, 2018. Mr. Sullivan is a former Mayor of Vancouver, who was in office December 5, 2005 – December 8, 2008.
Paul enjoyed playing solo piano for this enthusiastic audience, who welcomed him after a short introduction by Mr. Sullivan.
Description of the Public Salon Video on You Tube
934 views 23 Feb 2018
Vancouver, BC, Canada’s jazz and improvisational pianist Paul Plimley explains his great love for music. Best solo yet.
For the past 40 years, Paul Plimley has been actively developing his music out of the continuum of American and European music traditions – composition and improvisation. Playing piano, guitar, and vibes/marimba he’s toured with many great internationally acclaimed improvisers and ensembles in North America, Europe, China and Cuba. Plimley has released over 30 recordings and three BRAVO TV music presentations. Paul has won awards in computer multimedia, various music magazines and books (eg: Down Beat, Gramophone, JazzIZ, Jazz Times and the Penguin Guide To Jazz), FACTOR and the Canada Council. His many hundreds of compositions cover all media: orchestra, Big Bands, small groups, solo piano/vibraphone/guitar, CD ROM, and movie soundtracks. As a writer, he has written poetry, comedy sketches, two radio plays and several dozens or so narratives/stories covering dream-like and imaginary actions.
This is Paul Plimley’s presentation at Sam Sullivan’s 30th Public Salon on February 8th, 2018 at the Vancouver Playhouse Theatre in Vancouver, BC.
Paul Plimley was a great musician, pianist, and a kind soul. We had many fun and exciting times making music and touring Canada and the US together in our trio with Lisle Ellis.
Paul was always happy and we had lots of laughter and joking around during our periods of creativity. Our recording, NOIR was one of my first recordings after leaving Cecil Taylor’s band, and it included compositions from Paul, Lisle and me. For a time it was quite a happy collective. Paul was very open minded and highly intelligent, something that contributed greatly to our friendship and our collaborative efforts.
We shared interests in Captain Beefheart, Allan Holdsworth and much guitar-based music. He was also a foodie and we often geeked out on exotic chocolates and the like. Paul was a rare talent and what I refer to as a “rugged individualist.” I will miss him.
“I have a long history with Paul Plimley along with the Vancouver music scene. It goes back to the middle eighties! So many concerts, meetings in Victoriaville and Vancouver… I even slept on the floor, in Paul’s basement… under his piano! Here I made a little joke part true, part fun because that’s as Paul will be remembered, as a great musician, but more importantly, as a great human being, so positive, always smiling and ready to help out and to solve the problems if any. Paul Plimley and Ken Pickering together, what a good time!”
Michel
Ken Pickering and Paul Plimley at the Vancouver International Jazz Festival Photo by Brian Nation
Michel Levasseur
Directeur général et artistique
Productions Plateforme Inc. Tél : 1.819.752.7912 Fax : 819.758.4370
CP 460, 82 Notre-Dame Est, Victoriaville, Québec, Canada, G6P 6T3
I wasn’t able to make it on Thursday to the live streaming event of the Celebration of Life for Paul Plimley. Instead, I celebrated by playing music, high on drip coffee. I’ve always been terrified of goodbyes, and the feeling of great loss, even though there could be so many wonderful memories shared by everyone. I was obligated and found it fitting to communicate to the other side by playing music.
Drawing by Janine Island
When I first got introduced to the world of creative music improvisation, somebody told me that “you can’t just approach those professional and trained improvisors and ask them to play with you.” I was naive at the time, driven by inspiration for some kind of ideal society that I thought could be conceived through improvisation with others. I thought it was a sort of music where all that is required is your presence. By presence, I mean, not just being on the roll call, but to have autonomy, integrity, empathy, and all of those unpretentious ways of being that create real connections between human beings.
Paul Plimley was one of those impressionable human beings who could see a lot of things in people and he always had a lightness of being (in the most positive sense), a bubbly exuberance (especially after a coffee) that suggested a kind of mischievous playfulness, that, to me, he embodied that “presence” I mentioned. Because of this, it kind of proved my friend wrong about the pros being unapproachable, which is a good thing, because sometimes if I know too much about someone’s accomplishments before I know them, I become irrationally intimidated or “starstruck” in a way that turns me into a blind mute. Fortunately, there was never the possibility of that happening here, due to Paul’s engaging unpretentiousness and warm friendliness.
I remember that whenever I saw Paul, without fail, he would always remind me about that one time he saw me playing the piano at the roundhouse in Anthony Braxton’s 8-hour-long premier of the Sonic Genome. The funny thing about that is I had played the violin, a bit of melodica for most of the concert, and had really only played the piano for all of about 30 seconds as it was being rolled slowly from one room to another. Yet, the piano playing from that event was always the first thing Paul would bring up when we saw each other, I’d be in the middle of saying “hel-,“ and he’d just start in with “hey Janine, I saw you play the piano at…” as if I was just playing the piano a moment ago.
Well, I told him how, as a child, I dreamed of becoming a concert pianist, but in studying the classical method, I was always terrified whenever it came to an exam recital. I shared with him that playing music had always been a comfort for me or rather something that I needed to do to maintain my happiness and well-being. I mentioned to him that at some point I didn’t have a piano, so took a big piece of cardboard and drew a piano keyboard on it to try to practice scale fingering. Finally after a while of there not being a piano around, I picked up a classical guitar that was there in the music room and started learning that instrument instead. All that to say, that Paul reminding me of that brief moment at the Roundhouse, I realized, was his way of “subtly” (wink wink, nudge, nudge) telling me that I should play piano again. And I did eventually end up buying a weighted Roland keyboard when VCC auctioned off their old midi keyboards and got back into playing the piano.
Drawing by Janine Island
Reading all of the stories about Paul Plimley by his loved ones, friends and colleagues, and I have to admit, I didn’t even know that he had been a founder of the NOW Orchestra, and what a phenomenal force he was on the international and local jazz and creative music scene. I guess I could say that I was often busy with my studies or overwhelmed by being “awoke” by the power of creative music (not sure how else to describe it), that I didn’t do research on folks whom I admired and appreciated as friends… because, wouldn’t that be kind of like stalking? And who knows, if I had done the research, maybe it would have turned me into a deaf mute as I mentioned it tends to happen, I might have become starstruck by Paul’s gargantuan body of work and influence in creative music scene, though I’m sure that he wouldn’t have let that happen.
Paul Plimley really had a way of not talking too much about himself and all his past accomplishments, but rather be listening to others, drawing out the things that made people feel free to express themselves, living in the moment, and always keeping his mind constantly in motion (undoubtedly, all qualities of a good creative music improvisor). When sometimes we had the chance to play music together, I don’t actually have a recollection of seeing him as a pianist for the longest time. He always played the guitar, he would say he loved the guitar and point out that he was a huge Jeff Beck fan, so in the beginning, I really thought he was a guitarist. I am not sure if this was a choice not to intimidate me so as I would play the piano while he’d play guitar.
We connected on so many things, though often it was brief if we met at concerts. Paul was a wealth of knowledge and he made me talk (I’m not usually a talker), Finnegan’s Wake which I’d just read, blues guitarists, music history, Zappa, the idea of music and sound having the potential to heal. At the time I could relate about how creative music really opened me up, that I believed it could help others who experienced trauma or the effects of intergenerational trauma. It’s talking to folks like Paul Plimley inspired me to continue to pursue these kinds of ideas with creative music. I didn’t know that Paul had cancer, but now I remember, he often had a small cough in between sentences. I’m deeply saddened to hear of his passing and the way it went down. This is one soul that found a way to transmit sound through the vastness of time and space with the love and kindness he shared with us all. That’s immortality.
I’m honoured to have known Paul Plimley, and It’s been a while since I’ve had a place to set up my piano, but more recently there’s a constantly recurring sudden urge play, though I don’t have the means, and at these moments, I can honestly say that I’ve been having this Paul Plimley voice saying “hey Janine! Janine! I remember when I saw you playing the piano that one time… well, I think you should play more piano!”
I know it may seem like I’m talking about myself, but it’s mainly because I want to illustrate what a huge impact that people can make when their heart and soul is invested in the music and they transmit it not only through the sound, but with their intention, love and kindness. With that, I’m humbled to have shared creative music with, and to have received friendship and encouragement from the likes of Paul Plimley. And I’m overjoyed that I have still much more to discover about this amazing guitarist 😉
Gerry Fialka and Suzy Williams of Venice Beach, CA. USA
Gerry Fialka and Suzy Williams are highly creative individuals who live in Venice Beach, California. They host a website called Laughtears.com that gives details of their various art happenings; Salons: including readings of Finnegans Wake; and live music, featuring Suzy’s performances singing with her band.
Suzy Williams with Brad Kay, a musician she plays with regularly in her L.A. based band.
Suzy performed with Paul in L.A. playing “PULL MY DAISY” together at a Jack Kerouac tribute many years ago.
Gerry connected with Paul though a shared interest in Finnegans Wake and all things related to James Joyce. They also shared a strong interest in Frank Zappa, Captain Beefheart and Don Van Vliet, as well as the Grateful Dead and other experimental improvising bands.
Living in Venice Beach for more than 40 years, Gerry Fialka and Suzy Williams both make many contributions to liven up the culture in their area.
Venice Living magazine profiles Suzy Williams and Gerry Fialka
On May 31, 1994, Gerry interviewed Paul for the Contemporary Communications Conference and the entire audio recording is available on You Tube.
Gerry Fialka donated this interview to the UCSB Archive as part of Gerry Fialka “PXL THIS” and Fialka Interview Archive (PA Mss 245). Cover photo credit: Jhayne Holmes.
One of the many artistic activities that Gerry and Suzy are involved in is the PXL THIS toy camera film festival, motto: “Lo-fi Hi-Jinx”. Paul Plimley participated by collaborating with Gerry and other actors, in the PXL film, “Muther Mumesons”.
1996 PXL Toy Camera Film by Gerry Fialka, titled “Muther Mumesons”
Curious about this art form? Check out the next PXL THIS Festival.
Sun, Nov 12, 2023 =
PXL THIS 33 Toy Camera Film Festival https://www.facebook. com/events/850945209382236/
PXL THIS 30 https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=n37t6IFU5jQ&t=3811s and
PXL THIS 31 https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=TOnxqgFnMrU&t=5230s
PXL THIS 32 https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=CFcMoSC7idY&t=1325s
The annual toy camera film festival features Pixelvision - Fisher Price PXL200. PXL THIS, one of the oldest film festivals in LA, celebrates visionary moving image artists from seminal experimental filmmakers to 10-years-olds to homeless to professionals. Lo-Fi Hi-Jinx
Fialka donated the PXL THIS archive including festival entries and other materials to UCSB's Performing Arts and Moving Image Archives where they can be preserved and made accessible to researchers.
Fialka donated the PXL THIS archive including festival entries and other materials to UCSB’s Performing Arts and Moving Image Archives [Gerry Fialka “PXL THIS” and Fialka Interview Archive (PA Mss 245)] where they can be preserved and made accessible to researchers. Gerry also donated his archive containing interviews and oral histories he recorded: documenting music, film, art, comedy, media, and politics, including the interview of Paul Plimley (above).
John Oswald is a composer and saxophonist who has created some extrodinary work. He is well known for his ideas about musical reuse and recycling that he calls “Plunderphonics”.
His bandcamp features a recording of Paul Plimley playing a piano concerto, with the CBC Vancouver Orchestra, titled, “Oswald’s 1st piano concerto by Tchaikovsky (as suggested by Michael Snow)”. The entire story of the development of this work is told by Oswald on the bandcamp page, but basically the CBC Vancouver Orchestra played the traditional Tchaikovsky concerto whilst Paul Plimley improvised the piano part.
The development of this compositional idea, also included a trip to Victoriaville to attend the scheduled Cecil Taylor concert during the 2000 Festival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville.
The resulting last minute addition of the duo to the concert program is legendary in the improvising music community and John gives all the details on his bandcamp page. There is also a Wikipedia article about the 3 CD set Complicité created from the concerts.
The concert, which occurred on the final night of the festival, was originally planned as a double-bill event with solo sets by Crispell and Taylor. When Taylor’s flight was delayed, last-minute arrangements were made to include Plimley and Oswald, who happened to be in town, in his place. Taylor arrived in time, and the concert organizers decided to present all three sets. Taylor dedicated his portion to Jimmy McDonald.[2]
John Oswald visited Vancouver regularly to present his compositions and he would often hire Paul to play any piano parts. Except for the Disklavier piece that Paul and I heard at the Western Front – it was speeded up so no human could play it. Paul loved a joke and always enjoyed John’s sense of humour and the way he poked fun at the Classical establishment and their “serious music”.
I started lessons with Paul when I was five years old. My mom Ruth would drive my older sister Cara and me to his house where we would all take turns having lessons, my sister, my mom, and I. I remember sitting in his front room waiting for my sister to finish her lesson so that I could start. I asked him once if I could play his piano with my feet and he said yes.
Aidan age 12
I took private music lessons with Paul for approximately 15 years. The first portion of our time together lessons were had at his basement studio on Waterloo. Later on, when my younger brother Eli took up guitar lessons with Paul we arranged for the weekly lesson to be held at our house. The trade was a homemade dinner from my second Mom Cindy, complete with good company and wine, followed by lessons for me and Eli, which Paul graciously offered at a discounted price. Those nights that Paul spent at our house are the best memories. I have a vivid memory of him bouncing on an exercise ball in our kitchen, with a bread basket worn as a hat on his head, while playing the salt and pepper mills like they were shakers. My stomach hurt from laughing that night. We would always share so much joy and laughter together, and then we would make beautiful music, I am so grateful for those precious memories.
The years of learning with Paul were absolutely amazing and integral to my development as a musician and person. Paul was not only an amazing teacher who taught me how to trust my instincts and explore unknown territory, but he was also kind and endlessly supportive. When I started experimenting with singing and songwriting he was absolutely over the moon. He would sit on the couch next to me listening to all my creations beaming from ear to ear while I played. When I would finish he would congratulate me with exuberant fervor and we would discuss the music together. He always gently offered me ideas and perspectives to evolve which enabled me to continuously expand in my own creativity. He never forced me to learn something I didn’t want to learn, only ever gentle nudges in new directions.
Paul’s teaching notes to Aidan
Whenever I would want to learn a certain song I would bring a to him and watch him lift it by ear. I remember watching him do it and felt that I was in the presence of a wizard, who was magically pulling music out of the ethers and putting it onto paper. I was right in thinking so. I remember being full of awe at the mystical skills he possessed to pull sound from distant realms into our present reality, whether lifting, learning, or creating. Years later every time I lift a or write a song, or create any melodies of my own, I think of Paul and the foundation he lay with me so that I could eventually wield some of the magic that he did.
Paul’s Teaching Notes to Aidan
The year I went off to Humber College in Toronto to earn my Bachelor of Music degree specializing in Jazz Voice, we stayed in touch meeting up when I was home visiting to catch up on all the new things happening in life for both of us. He would send me messages and check in on me over my years away from home. I always felt supported by Paul. He always went above and beyond to be there for me as a teacher, friend, and Uncle type figure in my life. He even played in the rhythm section with my Dad Murphy on drums, and family friend Mark Branscombe on guitar, for a school talent show in grade 9. My two friends, Natasha Pheko, Katie Piper, and I created a singing group called “The Glossettes” and we covered Motown tunes. Although we didn’t win the talent show, the performance was obviously, a smashing success.
Aidan’s Humber College (Bmus Voice) audition video “Black Coffee” accompanied by Paul. Paul coached and accompanied Aidan for all her college auditions.
Paul performed an improvised piece on the piano at my mother’s funeral which I honestly can’t really remember. But my Dad told me it sounded just like her. The last piece of silk screen batik piece of art she ever made she gave to Paul, it was a tree of life and he hung it in his house. For a period of time my grandparents, Caroline and Norb MacDonald paid for my music lessons so my grandparents and Paul had a standing monthly dinner for many years. My Grandpa Norb and he got along famously, two of the most joyful people I have ever known. When my Grandmother Caroline passed away when I was sixteen, Paul accompanied me at my grandmother’s funeral. We played the classic jazz standard “I’ll Be Seeing You” which I had performed at my school talent show to the delight of my Grandmother a few years prior. She sent the youtube link out to everyone she knew. When performing the song with Paul at the celebration of life I had to stop partway through, overwhelmed with emotion, Paul waited too, patiently as he always did, until I was ready to keep going. Paul was never one for rushing through life-even the difficult parts. Where ever he went, he was truly there.
Paul was a part of our family, in all its many iterations. He came to my Dad (Murphy Farrell) and second Mom’s (Cindy Schreyer) wedding in 2019. The last time I saw him was at my backyard graduation ceremony when I graduated with my Master of Arts from York University specializing in music composition. I graduated in the early days of COVID and therefore had no convocation ceremony or a big party in Toronto where I had graduated. To make up for the lackluster end to a greatly challenging three years we threw a backyard graduation ceremony where I had the honour of thanking all my guests personally, for all the ways they had helped me arrive at this great achievement. I got to tell Paul all the ways he had taught and inspired me. I truly don’t know what would have happened without Paul or where I would be now. He accompanied me in all my college auditions, both live and recorded. He was there every step of the way. Helping me and supporting me, in ways I couldn’t even fully appreciate at the time. Here is an excerpt of the thank you speech I shared with him on that day.
“Thank you all for coming out tonight to celebrate my Master’sGraduation convocation and celebration. It’s been a long road and I am so happy to be able to see you all here tonight and to be able to celebrate with you.
I want to start out with some thank yous.
Firstly, I would like to thank my good friend and teacher for 20 years… Paul Plimely. Paul thank you for being here tonight. Thank you for encouraging my creativity from day one. Thank you for always providing a space where I could explore music in a free and uninhibited way. Thank you for encouraging me to improvise and for celebrating my free-form compositions, the wilder the better…Paul’s teaching method for any of you who don’t know, for me, went a little like this: I would play a free improvisation, and he would give me a big star in my notebook alongside a comment, often with quite vivid imagery, describing what he thought of the piece. The comment I remember most clearly was that one of my compositions “sounded like a box with straws sticking out of it and jello oozing out of the straws.”
Thank you Paul for nurturing creativity and composition with me in our lessons. I cherish everything that you taught me to this day. When it comes to composing, I do not feel that I am completely responsible for what is written, rather I feel that I channel the infinite creative energy that moves through and around us at all times. I thank you Paul for teaching me to engage with this creative energy, and for showing me how to bring it into physical reality.
Most importantly, thank you for letting me play your beautiful grand piano with my feet when I was 6. Your teachings will be with me forever and were the beginning of a long journey of music learning which has resulted to this day. Thank you for everything you have given me.“
Portrait of Paul by Aidan at age 9.
Paul was unafraid of that which could not be measured. Of that which could not be defined. He celebrated a dimension where all things known cease to act the way they should, where rules start falling away, and things start dissolving into something much greater than they first appear. He leaped joyously into the swirling mystery of the unknown, the void of all things, and the birthplace of all things. In a world where so many of us cling feverishly and frantically to what we think we understand, this trust in uncertainty is a rare thing. Paul is a rare soul. Anyone who heard his music or played with him knew this. Anyone who was ever taught by him knew this. Anyone who ever had a conversation with him or shared a meal or a joke with him knew this too. I’ve truly never met anyone like him, and I know I never will.
Paul laid a pathway for me, brick by brick, to walk home to myself through the glorious act of making music without borders. He offered me a warm and humorous invitation to explore a world of total freedom. As I age I see more and more the treasure in his teachings and the gifts that he gave me. In the deeper exploration of my own practice as well as becoming a teacher myself, I see now how deeply we as adults struggle to create free of self-judgment. How with time and age, we turn our backs on the child within us and forget how to truly play. There are times when a stark blank page or a crisp white canvas can truly seem like the most terrifying thing in the world. Nothing but a harrowing mirror staring back at us asking us to show ourselves. What I didn’t realize at the time, during all those years of lessons with Paul, was that I was being taught how to trust myself. And there is truly no greater gift one can have than to trust in your own self. The echoes of this teaching gifted to me by Paul reverberate through my life, awakening the mundane into a miraculous celebration filled with rainbow light and beautiful music.
Aidan playing at the piano, age 7 (2002)Paul’s teaching notes to AidanPaul’s Teaching Notes to Aidan
